Cholinergic Neuronal Activity Promotes Diffuse Midline Glioma Growth through Muscarinic Signaling.

Neuronal activity promotes the proliferation of healthy oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC) and their malignant counterparts, gliomas. Many gliomas arise from and closely resemble oligodendroglial lineage precursors, including diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a cancer affecting midline structures such as the thalamus, brainstem and spinal cord. In DMG, glutamatergic and GABAergic neuronal activity promotes progression through both paracrine signaling and through bona-fide neuron-to-glioma synapses.

From pseudo to real-time dynamics of T cell thymic differentiation.

Numerous methods have recently emerged for ordering single cells along developmental trajectories. However, accurate depiction of developmental dynamics can only be achieved after rescaling the trajectory according to the relative time spent at each developmental point. We formulate a model which estimates local cell densities and fluxes, and incorporates cell division and apoptosis rates, to infer the real-time dimension of the developmental trajectory.

Liposome-based targeting of dopamine to the brain: a novel approach for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Delivery of drugs into the brain is poor due to the blood brain barrier (BBB). This study describes the development of a novel liposome-based brain-targeting drug delivery system. The liposomes incorporate a diacylglycerol moiety coupled through a linker to a peptide of 5 amino acids selected from amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is recognized by specific transporter(s)/receptor(s) in the BBB.

Cigarette smoke, saliva, the translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), and oral cancer.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) incidence is induced primarily by cigarette smoke (CS). The 5-year survival rate for advanced OSCC stands at only 20%. Studies exploring underlying mechanisms of OSCC development have suggested free radicals such as reactive oxygen species generated by CS as contributing to OSCC, with effects enhanced by transition metal ions iron and copper contained in the saliva.

Early commitment and robust differentiation in colonic crypts.

Tissue stem cells produce a constant flux of differentiated cells with distinct proportions. Here, we show that stem cells in colonic crypts differentiate early to form precisely 1:3 ratio of secretory to absorptive cells. This precision is surprising, as there are only eight stem cells making irreversible fate decisions, and so large stochastic effects of this small pool should have yielded much larger noise in cell proportions.

Two populations of TSPO binding sites in oral cancer SCC-15 cells.

Oral cancer mortality and morbidity rates remain high. The main inducer of oral cancer is cigarette smoke (CS). Translocator protein 18kDa (TSPO) was shown to play a role in carcinogenesis.

Tumor Growth and Cell Proliferation Rate in Human Oral Cancer.

Background And Aims: Oral squamous cell cancer (SCC) has a high rate of morbidity and an overall 5-year survival rate for patients of 50%, statistics that have not changed in the last half century. A better understanding of the biological nature of this aggressive disease is mandatory. The two most studied human oral cancer cell lines-SCC-15 and SCC-25-share some biological characteristics but differ in others and may serve as a platform for further oral SCC analysis.

A two-step patterning process increases the robustness of periodic patterning in the fly eye.

Complex periodic patterns can self-organize through dynamic interactions between diffusible activators and inhibitors. In the biological context, self-organized patterning is challenged by spatial heterogeneities ('noise') inherent to biological systems. How spatial variability impacts the periodic patterning mechanism and how it can be buffered to ensure precise patterning is not well understood.

Periodic patterning of the Drosophila eye is stabilized by the diffusible activator Scabrous.

Generation of periodic patterns is fundamental to the differentiation of multiple tissues during development. How such patterns form robustly is still unclear. The Drosophila eye comprises ∼750 units, whose crystalline order is set during differentiation of the eye imaginal disc: an activation wave sweeping across the disc is coupled to lateral inhibition, sequentially selecting pro-neural cells.