Publications by authors named "Analia M Abuelafia"

Background: Systems biology leveraging multi-OMICs technologies, is rapidly advancing development of precision therapies and matching patients to targeted therapies, leading to improved responses. A new pillar of precision oncology lies in the power of chemogenomics to discover drugs that sensitizes malignant cells to other therapies. Here, we test a chemogenomic approach using epigenomic inhibitors (epidrugs) to reset patterns of gene expression driving the malignant behavior of pancreatic tumors.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), has recently been found to be a heterogeneous disease, although the extension of its diversity remains to be fully understood. Here, we harmonize transcriptomic profiles derived from both PDAC epithelial and microenvironment cells to develop a Master Regulators (MR)-Gradient model that allows important inferences on transcriptional networks, epigenomic states, and metabolomics pathways that underlies this disease heterogeneity. This gradient model was generated by applying a blind source separation based on independent components analysis and robust principal component analyses (RPCA), following regulatory network inference.

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Article Synopsis
  • The interaction between tumor cells and their surrounding microenvironment is crucial for the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and presents potential therapeutic targets.
  • REG3β, a factor produced by the tumor's far microenvironment, promotes PDAC growth, and targeting it with specific antibodies can limit tumor expansion in mice models.
  • The study further reveals that REG3β activates CTGF, and inhibiting REG3β reduces CTGF levels, indicating that REG3β's effect on PDAC progression is mediated by CTGF over-activation, suggesting REG3β as a promising target for PDAC treatment.
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Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a dismal disease with a survival rate of less than 7%, mainly due to the hepatic metastatic spread. Despite the importance of understanding PDAC metastases, central questions remain concerning their biology and chemosensitivity. Moreover, the transcriptomic divergence between primary tumor (PT) and hepatic metastases (HM) has been poorly studied and without a clear dissection of the confounding tumoral-surrounding tissue.

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TUFT cells have been described as strong modulators of inflammatory cells in several tissues including pancreas. TUFT cells, also known as DCLK1 cells, are dependent of the transcriptional factor POU2F3. Several works report DCLK1 cells in early stages of PDAC development suggesting an important role of TUFT cells in PDAC development.

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Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal cancer with a survival rate less than 5%. Multiple chemotherapeutic drugs have been tested to improve patient prognosis; however, the clinical efficacy of these treatments is low. One of the most controversial family of drugs are the proteasome inhibitors, which have displayed promising effects in preclinical studies, but low clinical performance.

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In mammals, hormonal regulation during gestation is crucial for embryo implantation and pregnancy success. This regulation is controlled through the level of progesterone (P4) that blocks the activity of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-gonadal (HHG) axis. Previous studies in the pregnant South American plains vizcacha, Lagostomus maximus, have shown that the HHG axis activates around mid-gestation, promoting pre-ovulatory follicle formation.

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