Publications by authors named "D Sheer"
We describe a subset of glioblastoma, the most prevalent malignant adult brain tumour, harbouring a bias towards hypomethylation at defined differentially methylated regions. This epigenetic signature correlates with an enrichment for an astrocytic gene signature, which together with the identification of enriched predicted binding sites of transcription factors known to cause demethylation and to be involved in astrocytic/glial lineage specification, point to a shared ontogeny between these glioblastomas and astroglial progenitors. At functional level, increased invasiveness, at least in part mediated by SRPX2, and macrophage infiltration characterise this subset of glioblastoma.
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- Scientists are studying how some special processes in brain cell development, called epigenetics, are linked to changes in a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma (GBM).
- They developed a way to compare cells from glioblastoma with special brain stem cells from patients to find important differences.
- This research helps identify new ways to treat GBM by finding specific genes that can be targeted with drugs based on each patient's unique cancer.
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- The study investigates how the plasma proteome—specifically circulating protein aggregates—reflects an organism's inflammatory and metabolic states and serves as a predictor for various organ-specific diseases, especially amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- Using advanced proteomic techniques, researchers compared the protein composition of circulating aggregates from ALS patients and healthy individuals, focusing on the presence of neurofilament proteins associated with brain issues.
- Findings revealed that ALS patient protein aggregates contain proteins related to the proteasome system and exhibit unique aggregation properties, while healthy individuals' proteins are more involved in metabolic functions, highlighting distinct differences in health status and proteostasis.
Article Synopsis
- * Many of these proteins do not have traditional RNA-binding domains, but specific nucleic acid structures, especially pyrimidine-rich regions, are key to maintaining their solubility.
- * Interestingly, protein aggregates from ALS patients can be returned to a soluble state using RNA or synthetic oligonucleotides, suggesting new approaches to tackle protein aggregation issues.
Article Synopsis
- Tumour-associated microglia/macrophages (TAM) are the most common types of cells found in brain tumors called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
- A pathway called mTOR, which helps control how cells survive and grow, is more active in these tumors, and researchers are studying how it affects TAM.
- Their findings suggest that mTOR makes microglia less helpful in fighting the tumor, allowing it to grow and escape the immune system, and they believe targeting mTOR in microglia could be more effective than focusing only on tumor cells.