Publications by authors named "Akiko Abiru"
Article Synopsis
- Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are crucial for tumor growth and immune suppression, with their behavior varying significantly between 2D and 3D culture conditions.
- In 2D cultures, CAFs adopt a myofibroblast subtype, while in 3D spheroid models, they become more inflammatory and support cancer cell growth, leading to protective effects against natural killer (NK) cell attacks.
- This study highlights the importance of 3D models for understanding CAF functionality and suggests that these models can improve drug discovery efforts by mimicking the more clinically relevant tumor microenvironment.
Since impaired mitochondrial ATP production in cardiomyocytes is thought to lead to heart failure, a drug that protects mitochondria and improves ATP production under disease conditions would be an attractive treatment option. In this study, we identified small-molecule drugs, including the anti-parasitic agent, ivermectin, that maintain mitochondrial ATP levels under hypoxia in cardiomyocytes. Mechanistically, transcriptomic analysis and gene silencing experiments revealed that ivermectin increased mitochondrial ATP production by inducing Cox6a2, a subunit of the mitochondrial respiratory chain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFasiglifam (TAK-875) is a free fatty acid receptor 1 (FFAR1)/G-protein-coupled receptor 40 (GPR40) agonist that improves glycemic control in type 2 diabetes with minimum risk of hypoglycemia. Fasiglifam potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) from pancreatic β-cells glucose dependently, although the precise mechanism underlying the glucose dependency still remains unknown. Here, we investigated key cross-talk between the GSIS pathway and FFAR1 signaling, and Ca(2+) dynamics using mouse insulinoma MIN6 cells.
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