Publications by authors named "Benny Zhitomirsky"

Article Synopsis
  • Anticancer therapies are often hindered by mutations that lead to treatment resistance, similar to how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics through the SOS response.
  • In lung cancer patients treated with EGFR inhibitors, the upregulation of GAS6 and its receptor AXL was linked to the survival of drug-tolerant persister cells, indicating a mechanism of resistance.
  • Targeting the AXL pathway in combination therapies showed potential in overcoming resistance, suggesting new strategies for treating EGFR-mutant lung cancers.
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  • Smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) is an early stage of multiple myeloma (MM) that varies widely in how fast it progresses to active disease.* -
  • Researchers analyzed genetic data from 214 SMM patients and discovered six unique genetic subtypes using advanced clustering techniques.* -
  • Three of these subtypes correlate with a higher risk of developing active MM, suggesting they could improve current methods for assessing patient risk levels in clinical settings.*
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Development of novel therapeutic strategies to eradicate malignant tumors is of paramount importance in cancer research. In a recent study, we have introduced a facile protocol for the preparation of corrole-protein nanoparticles (NPs). These NPs consist of a corrole-core coated with protein.

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Article Synopsis
  • Smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) is a precursor to multiple myeloma (MM) with a significant risk of progression, indicating a need for better risk assessment tools beyond just clinical metrics.
  • Researchers utilized next-generation sequencing on 214 SMM patients and discovered that key genetic alterations linked to progression to MM are usually already present at SMM diagnosis.
  • The study identified specific genetic changes, particularly in certain pathways, as independent risk factors for progression, which were validated in an external cohort, suggesting potential for improved precision in predicting disease evolution from SMM to MM.
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Transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master transcriptional regulator playing a key role in lysosomal biogenesis, autophagy and lysosomal exocytosis. TFEB activity is inhibited following its phosphorylation by mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) on the surface of the lysosome. Phosphorylated TFEB is bound by 14-3-3 proteins, resulting in its cytoplasmic retention in an inactive state.

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LysoTracker and MitoTracker Red are fluorescent probes widely used for viable cell staining of lysosomes and mitochondria, respectively. They are utilized to study organelle localization and their resident proteins, assess organelle functionality and quantification of organelle numbers. The ATP-driven efflux transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is expressed in normal and malignant tissues and extrudes structurally distinct endogenous and exogenous cytotoxic compounds.

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We have recently shown that hydrophobic weak base anticancer drugs are highly sequestered in acidic lysosomes, inducing TFEB-mediated lysosomal biogenesis and markedly increased lysosome numbers per cell. This enhanced lysosomal sequestration of chemotherapeutics, away from their intracellular targets, provoked cancer multidrug resistance. However, little is known regarding the fate of lysosome-sequestered drugs.

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Drug resistance remains a leading cause of chemotherapeutic treatment failure and cancer-related mortality. While some mechanisms of anticancer drug resistance have been well characterized, multiple mechanisms remain elusive. In this respect, passive ion trapping-based lysosomal sequestration of multiple hydrophobic weak-base chemotherapeutic agents was found to reduce the accessibility of these drugs to their target sites, resulting in a markedly reduced cytotoxic effect and drug resistance.

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Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a primary hindrance to curative cancer chemotherapy. In this respect, lysosomes were suggested to play a role in intrinsic MDR by sequestering protonated hydrophobic weak base chemotherapeutics away from their intracellular target sites. Here we show that intrinsic resistance to sunitinib, a hydrophobic weak base tyrosine kinase inhibitor known to accumulate in lysosomes, tightly correlates with the number of lysosomes accumulating high levels of sunitinib in multiple human carcinoma cells.

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Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that copies a short template within its integral telomerase RNA moiety (TER) onto eukaryotic chromosome ends, thus compensating for incomplete replication and degradation. The highly divergent yeast TER is structured in three long arms, with a catalytic core at its center. A binding site for the protein Ku80 is conserved within the 5' arm of TER in Saccharomyces but not in Kluyveromyces budding yeast species.

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