Publications by authors named "Agirre X"

The treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients has significantly improved with recent therapeutic strategies; however, many patients still do not benefit from them. As a result, new treatment approaches are urgently needed. In this study, we evaluated the antitumor efficacy of co-targeting G9a and DNMT1 enzymes and its potential as a cancer drug sensitizer.

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  • The text discusses the creation of gmctool, an online tool designed to predict metabolic weaknesses in cancer cells, which is important for systems biology research.
  • This tool utilizes a concept called genetic Minimal Cut Sets (gMCSs) to analyze genome-scale metabolic networks and includes a database of synthetic lethals derived from the latest metabolic map of human cells.
  • Notably, gmctool has shown improved performance over earlier algorithms and has been applied to multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, providing experimental evidence for the critical roles of specific enzymes in certain patient groups.
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Hematological cancers encompass a diverse group of malignancies affecting the blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen. These disorders present unique challenges due to their complex etiology and varied clinical manifestations. Despite significant advancements in understanding and treating hematological malignancies, innovative therapeutic approaches are continually sought to enhance patient outcomes.

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  • Non-syndromic orofacial cleft (OFC) is a prevalent facial developmental defect, influenced by a mix of genetic and environmental factors, making it a complex issue globally.
  • A study investigating specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a Polish population found no significant associations for most SNPs tested but identified the rs1533767 variant with a notable increased risk for OFC.
  • The research highlights that the rs1533767 polymorphism in the WNT gene is a crucial risk marker for developing OFC among the Polish individuals studied.
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Despite the development of novel therapies for acute myeloid leukemia, outcomes remain poor for most patients, and therapeutic improvements are an urgent unmet need. Although treatment regimens promoting differentiation have succeeded in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia, their role in other acute myeloid leukemia subtypes needs to be explored. Here we identify and characterize two lysine deacetylase inhibitors, CM-444 and CM-1758, exhibiting the capacity to promote myeloid differentiation in all acute myeloid leukemia subtypes at low non-cytotoxic doses, unlike other commercial histone deacetylase inhibitors.

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  • Rotator cuff injuries can cause serious damage to muscles and tendons, making it hard for them to heal properly.
  • Scientists tested a drug called vorinostat to see if it could help prevent muscle damage and encourage muscle repair in mice with rotator cuff injuries.
  • The results showed that vorinostat helped stop harmful changes in muscle cells and protected the muscle from getting worse after an injury.
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  • Palatine tonsils act as primary defenders in our immune system against diseases we inhale or ingest, and researchers created a detailed map of the human tonsil, analyzing over 556,000 cells using various techniques.
  • They discovered 121 distinct cell types, traced their development, and outlined how different immune functions are organized within the tonsils.
  • The study's findings included identifying specific cell subtypes and regulatory factors, validating their results with age-related changes, and connecting the findings to understanding certain lymphomas, enhancing our knowledge of immune responses.
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Alterations in the epigenetic machinery in both tumor and immune cells contribute to bladder cancer (BC) development, constituting a promising target as an alternative therapeutic option. Here, we have explored the effects of a novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor CM-1758, alone or in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in BC. We determined the antitumor effects of CM-1758 in various BC cell lines together with the induction of broad transcriptional changes, with focus on the epigenetic regulation of PD-L1.

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RNA-based therapies, and siRNAs in particular, have attractive therapeutic potential for cancer treatment due to their ability to silence genes that are imperative for tumor progression. To be effective and solve issues related to their poor half-life and poor pharmacokinetic properties, siRNAs require adequate drug delivery systems that protect them from degradation and allow intracellular delivery. Among the various delivery vehicles available, lipid nanoparticles have emerged as the leading choice.

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The historical lack of preclinical models reflecting the genetic heterogeneity of multiple myeloma (MM) hampers the advance of therapeutic discoveries. To circumvent this limitation, we screened mice engineered to carry eight MM lesions (NF-κB, KRAS, MYC, TP53, BCL2, cyclin D1, MMSET/NSD2 and c-MAF) combinatorially activated in B lymphocytes following T cell-driven immunization. Fifteen genetically diverse models developed bone marrow (BM) tumors fulfilling MM pathogenesis.

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  • Scientists found new types of cells in lab-grown human stem cells that are similar to early human embryo cells.
  • The main type of cell they studied looks like what is called an epiblast, but they also found cells that are similar to the 8-cell stage of an embryo and others that resemble trophectoderm cells, which are important for the embryo's development.
  • This research helps us learn more about the first steps of how human embryos develop, from the early cell stages to when they start to attach to the mother.
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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the elderly remains a clinical challenge, with a five-year overall survival rate below 10%. The current ELN 2017 genetic risk classification considers cytogenetic and mutational characteristics to stratify fit AML patients into different prognostic groups. However, this classification is not validated for elderly patients treated with a non-intensive approach, and its performance may be suboptimal in this context.

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Multiple Myeloma (MM) remains an incurable disease due to high relapse rates and fast development of drug resistances. The introduction of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) has caused a paradigm shift in MM treatment, paving the way for targeted approaches with increased efficacy and reduced toxicities. Nevertheless, antibody-based therapies face several difficulties such as high immunogenicity, high production costs and limited conjugation capacity, which we believe could be overcome by the introduction of nucleic acid aptamers.

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Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has greatly improved our ability to detect the genomic aberrations occurring in multiple myeloma (MM); however, its transfer to routine clinical labs and its validation in clinical trials remains to be established. We designed a capture-based NGS targeted panel to identify, in a single assay, known genetic alterations for the prognostic stratification of MM. The NGS panel was designed for the simultaneous study of single nucleotide and copy number variations, insertions and deletions, chromosomal translocations and V(D)J rearrangements.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) can unveil novel personalized treatments based on drug screening and whole-exome sequencing experiments (WES). However, the concept of "black box" in AI limits the potential of this approach to be translated into the clinical practice. In contrast, explainable AI (XAI) focuses on making AI results understandable to humans.

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Recent functional genomic screens—such as CRISPR-Cas9 or RNAi screening—have fostered a new wave of targeted treatments based on the concept of synthetic lethality. These approaches identified LEthal Dependencies (LEDs) by estimating the effect of genetic events on cell viability. The multiple-hypothesis problem is related to a large number of gene knockouts limiting the statistical power of these studies.

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With the frenetic growth of high-dimensional datasets in different biomedical domains, there is an urgent need to develop predictive methods able to deal with this complexity. Feature selection is a relevant strategy in machine learning to address this challenge. We introduce a novel feature selection algorithm for linear regression called BOSO (Bilevel Optimization Selector Operator).

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  • Immunotherapy has shown promise for treating melanoma, but response rates are still low, suggesting the need for combination therapies.
  • The study investigated the effects of a dual inhibitor targeting histone methyltransferase G9a and DNA methyltransferases on tumor growth, finding it promoted tumor cell cycle arrest and an immune response.
  • Results indicated that this drug enhances immune cell infiltration and boosts the effectiveness of T-cell and dendritic cell vaccinations, highlighting its potential as a strategy for improving melanoma treatment outcomes.
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Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is an incurable form of prostate cancer (PCa), with DNMT1 and G9a being reported as overexpressed, rendering them highly attractive targets for precision medicine. CM-272 is a dual inhibitor of both methyltransferases' activity. Herein, we assessed the response of different PCa cell lines to CM-272, in both 2D and 3D models, and explored the molecular mechanisms underlying CM-272 inhibitory effects.

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Synthetic Lethality (SL) is currently defined as a type of genetic interaction in which the loss of function of either of two genes individually has limited effect in cell viability but inactivation of both genes simultaneously leads to cell death. Given the profound genomic aberrations acquired by tumor cells, which can be systematically identified with -omics data, SL is a promising concept in cancer research. In particular, SL has received much attention in the area of cancer metabolism, due to the fact that relevant functional alterations concentrate on key metabolic pathways that promote cellular proliferation.

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Background: Non-syndromic cleft lip with/without cleft palate (NSCL/P) is a common congenital condition with a complex aetiology reflecting multiple genetic and environmental factors. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in have been associated with NSCL/P in several studies, although there are some inconsistent results. This study aimed to evaluate whether two SNPs in , namely rs4147811 and rs560426, are associated with NSCL/P occurrence in the Polish population.

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