Publications by authors named "Aswini Poyyakkara"

Background: Cellular resistance to cisplatin has been one of the major obstacles in the success of combination therapy for many types of cancers. Emerging evidences suggest that exosomes released by drug resistant tumour cells play significant role in conferring resistance to drug sensitive cells by means of horizontal transfer of genetic materials such as miRNAs. Though exosomal miRNAs have been reported to confer drug resistance, the exact underlying mechanisms are still unclear.

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Background: The process of transdifferentiating epithelial cells to mesenchymal-like cells (EMT) involves cells gradually taking on an invasive and migratory phenotype. Many cell adhesion molecules are crucial for the management of EMT, integrin β4 (ITGB4) being one among them. Although signaling downstream of ITGB4 has been reported to cause changes in the expression of several miRNAs, little is known about the role of such miRNAs in the process of EMT.

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Acquisition of resistance to cisplatin is a major impediment to the success of cisplatin-based combination therapies for cancer. Recent studies indicate that exosomal miRNAs derived from drug-resistant tumour cells can confer resistance properties to recipient cells by a horizontal transfer mechanism. Although the role of horizontal transfer of a few miRNAs has been described, little is known about the concerted action of horizontal transfer of miRNAs in conferring cisplatin resistance.

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Generally, changes in the metabolic status of cells under conditions like hypoxia and accumulation of lactate can be sensed by various sensing mechanisms, leading to modulation of a number of signal transduction pathways and transcription factors. Several of the proangiogenic cytokines like VEGF, FGF, PDGF, TGF-β, Ang-2, ILs, etc. are secreted by cancer cells, under hypoxic microenvironment.

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Due to its excellent properties, 2D-MoS finds potential applications in the fields of electronics, optoelectronics, energy storage and conversion, biomedicine, etc. This work deals with the incorporation of ZnO into 2D-MoS, its structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic studies and its application as an efficient cancer therapeutic agent. The MoS-ZnO nanocomposite exhibits remarkable excitation wavelength dependent down-conversion and up-conversion photoluminescence.

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Cancer cells exhibit increased dependency on aerobic glycolysis, a phenomenon referred as the "Warburg effect" and therefore, blocking glycolysis by using non-metabolizable analogues of glucose, like 2-Deoxy glucose (2-DG), has been proposed to be of huge therapeutic importance. One of the major drawbacks of using 2-DG as a chemotherapeutic agent is that it can induce ER stress. ER stress is a hall mark in many solid tumors and the unfolded protein response (UPR) associated with it initiates many survival mechanisms in cancer cells.

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Neo vessel formation by angiogenesis is an important event during many pathological conditions including cancer, where it is indispensable for tumor growth and survival. Although, various pro-angiogenic cytokines and soluble factors, secreted by tumor cells, have been reported to promote angiogenesis, recent studies have shown regulatory role of exosomes, secreted by tumor cells in the process of angiogenesis. These exosomes are capable of carrying nucleic acids, proteins, etc.

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Reprogramming of energy metabolism particularly switching over of cells to aerobic glycolysis leading to accumulation of lactate is a hallmark of cancer. Lactate can induce angiogenesis, an important process underlying tumor growth and metastasis. VEGF is one of the most important cytokines which regulate this process and the present study was designed to examine if blocking glycolytic pathway in tumor cells can affect its angiogenic potency with respect to VEGF.

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