Material Design for Optimal Postbuckling Behaviour of Composite Shells.

Lightweight thin-walled structures are crucial for many engineering applications. Advanced manufacturing methods are enabling the realization of composite materials with spatially varying material properties. Variable angle tow fibre composites are a representative example, but also nanocomposites are opening new interesting possibilities.

Effects of atrazine on estrogen receptor α- and G protein-coupled receptor 30-mediated signaling and proliferation in cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts.

Background: The pesticide atrazine does not bind to or activate the classical estrogen receptor (ER), but it up-regulates the aromatase activity in estrogen-sensitive tumor cells. The G protein estrogen receptor (GPR30/GPER) has been reported to be involved in certain biological responses to endogenous estrogens and environmental compounds exerting estrogen-like activity.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the potential of atrazine to trigger GPER-mediated signaling in cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).

Rhenium(IV) compounds inducing apoptosis in cancer cells.

The anticancer properties of a series of mononuclear Re(IV) compounds of formula ReCl(4)L (where L is bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine; bpym = 2,2'-bipyrimidine; dmbpy = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine; phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) were investigated for the first time. All compounds displayed potent in vitro antiproliferative activity against selected cancer cells.

Epigenetic regulation in myelodysplastic syndromes: implications for therapy.

Introduction: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis and dysplasia in one or more lineages, produce life-threatening cytopenias and progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Growing evidence suggests that targeting epigenetic mechanisms improves MDS/AML pathophysiology.

Areas Covered: This review provides an understanding of studies investigating novel agents published up to January 2011 aimed at normalizing and monitoring the epigenetic profile of the MDS cancer cell.

Lenalidomide in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Introduction: insights into the role of the tumor microenvironment and of immune dysfunction in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have opened the way for further augmenting the therapeutic armamentarium for CLL patients. In this respect, lenalidomide represents an exciting drug since it is able to eliminate CLL cells without immunosuppression.

Areas Covered: mechanism of action and clinical trials of lenalidomide in CLL, and suggestions for its future utilization are reviewed.

Janus kinase 2 inhibitors in myeloproliferative disorders.

Importance Of The Field: JAK2 is an obligatory kinase for the proliferation and differentiation of erythroid cells and megakaryocytes thus representing a relevant therapeutic target for agents that specifically inhibit its activity particularly in myeloproliferative disorders (MPD) harboring JAK2(V617F) mutations.

Areas Covered In This Review: We discuss the physiopathology of the JAK2 signaling pathway and review clinical trials of JAK2 inhibitors for the treatment of MPD using papers and meeting abstracts published up to September 2010.

What The Reader Will Gain: This review helps in understanding the potential role of JAK2 inhibitors in MPD clinical trials and provides a comprehensive review regarding their efficacy and safety in these disorders.

Nuclear alternate estrogen receptor GPR30 mediates 17beta-estradiol-induced gene expression and migration in breast cancer-associated fibroblasts.

Fibroblasts are the principal cellular component of connective tissue and are associated with cancer cells at all stages of tumor progression. Structural and functional contributions of fibroblasts to the growth, survival, and invasive capacity of cancer cells are beginning to emerge. In breast carcinoma, approximately 80% of stromal fibroblasts termed cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) are thought to manifest an activated phenotype that promotes cancer cell proliferation tumor growth at metastatic sites similar to the primary tumor.

Structure-activity relationships of resveratrol and derivatives in breast cancer cells.

Resveratrol (RSV) is classified as a phytoestrogen due to its ability to interact with estrogen receptors (ERs). We assessed structure-activity relationships of RSV and the analogs 4,4'-dihydroxystilbene (4,4'-DHS), 3,5-dihydroxystilbene (3,5-DHS), 3,4'-dihydroxystilbene (3,4'-DHS), 4-hydroxystilbene (4-HS) using as model systems the ERalpha-positive and negative MCF7 and SkBr3 breast cancer cells, respectively. In binding assays and transfection experiments RSV and the analogs showed the following order of agonism for ERalpha: 3,4'-DHS > 4,4'-DHS > 4-HS > RSV, while 3,5-DHS did not elicit any ligand properties.

Estrogenic GPR30 signalling induces proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells through CTGF.

The steroid hormone oestrogen can signal through several receptors and pathways. Although the transcriptional responses mediated by the nuclear oestrogen receptors (ER) have been extensively characterized, the changes in gene expression elicited by signalling through the membrane-associated ER GPR30 have not been studied. We show here for ER-negative human breast cancer cells that the activation of GPR30 signalling by oestrogen or by hydroxytamoxifen (OHT), an ER antagonist but GPR30 agonist, induces a transcription factor network, which resembles that induced by serum in fibroblasts.

G-protein-coupled receptor 30 and estrogen receptor-alpha are involved in the proliferative effects induced by atrazine in ovarian cancer cells.

Background: Atrazine, one of the most common pesticide contaminants, has been shown to up-regulate aromatase activity in certain estrogen-sensitive tumors without binding or activating the estrogen receptor (ER). Recent investigations have demonstrated that the orphan G-protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30), which is structurally unrelated to the ER, mediates rapid actions of 17beta-estradiol and environmental estrogens.

Objectives: Given the ability of atrazine to exert estrogen-like activity in cancer cells, we evaluated the potential of atrazine to signal through GPR30 in stimulating biological responses in cancer cells.

Epidermal growth factor induces G protein-coupled receptor 30 expression in estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer cells.

Different cellular receptors mediate the biological effects induced by estrogens. In addition to the classical nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs)-alpha and -beta, estrogen also signals through the seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled receptor (GPR)-30. Using as a model system SkBr3 and BT20 breast cancer cells lacking the classical ER, the regulation of GPR30 expression by 17beta-estradiol, the selective GPR30 ligand G-1, IGF-I, and epidermal growth factor (EGF) was evaluated.

A sexually dimorphic distribution pattern of the novel estrogen receptor G-protein-coupled receptor 30 in some brain areas of the hamster.

The isolation of the G-protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30), an orphan membrane receptor unrelated to nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs), has become a key factor towards the unraveling of rapid estrogen action. This membrane receptor together with cellular signaling intermediaries, i.e.

Negative charged threonine 95 of c-Jun is essential for c-Jun N-terminal kinase-dependent phosphorylation of threonine 91/93 and stress-induced c-Jun biological activity.

Activation of c-Jun, a major component of the AP-1 transcription factor, represents a paradigm for transcriptional response to stress. Transactivation of c-Jun is regulated by Jun-N-terminal kinases (JNKs) through phosphorylation at serine 63 and 73 (S63/S73), as well as at threonine 91 and 93 (T91/T93). How these two groups of phosphoacceptor sites respond to different grades of genotoxic stress and whether DNA-damage pathways influence the extent of their JNK-dependent phosphorylations remain to be elucidated.

G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) mediates gene expression changes and growth response to 17beta-estradiol and selective GPR30 ligand G-1 in ovarian cancer cells.

Estrogens play a crucial role in the development of ovarian tumors; however, the signal transduction pathways involved in hormone action are still poorly defined. The orphan G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) mediates the nongenomic signaling of 17beta-estradiol (E2) in a variety of estrogen-sensitive cancer cells through activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway. Whether estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) also contributes to GPR30/EGFR signaling is less understood.

17beta-estradiol, genistein, and 4-hydroxytamoxifen induce the proliferation of thyroid cancer cells through the g protein-coupled receptor GPR30.

The higher incidence of thyroid carcinoma (TC) in women during reproductive years compared with men and the increased risk associated with the therapeutic use of estrogens have suggested a pathogenetic role exerted by these steroids in the development of TC. In the present study, we evaluated the potential of 17beta-estradiol (E2), genistein (G), and 4-hydroxyta-moxifen (OHT) to regulate the expression of diverse estrogen target genes and the proliferation of human WRO, FRO, and ARO thyroid carcinoma cells, which were used as a model system. We have ascertained that ARO cells are devoid of estrogen receptors (ERs), whereas both WRO and FRO cells express a single variant of ERalpha that was neither transactivated, modulated, nor translocated into the nucleus upon treatment with ligands.