Pathogen and human NDPK-proteins promote AML cell survival via monocyte NLRP3-inflammasome activation.

A history of infection has been linked with increased risk of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and related myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Furthermore, AML and MDS patients suffer frequent infections because of disease-related impaired immunity. However, the role of infections in the development and progression of AML and MDS remains poorly understood.

Coordinated alterations in RNA splicing and epigenetic regulation drive leukaemogenesis.

Transcription and pre-mRNA splicing are key steps in the control of gene expression and mutations in genes regulating each of these processes are common in leukaemia. Despite the frequent overlap of mutations affecting epigenetic regulation and splicing in leukaemia, how these processes influence one another to promote leukaemogenesis is not understood and, to our knowledge, there is no functional evidence that mutations in RNA splicing factors initiate leukaemia. Here, through analyses of transcriptomes from 982 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia, we identified frequent overlap of mutations in IDH2 and SRSF2 that together promote leukaemogenesis through coordinated effects on the epigenome and RNA splicing.

S. pombe CLASP needs dynein, not EB1 or CLIP170, to induce microtubule instability and slows polymerization rates at cell tips in a dynein-dependent manner.

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe CLIP170-associated protein (CLASP) Peg1 was identified in a screen for mutants with spindle formation defects and a screen for molecules that antagonized EB1 function. The conditional peg1.1 mutant enabled us to identify key features of Peg1 function.

Activation of cyclin D1-kinase in murine fibroblasts lacking both p21(Cip1) and p27(Kip1).

Deregulation of D-type cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK4 and 6) is widely observed in various human cancers, illustrating their importance in cell cycle control. Like other cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), assembly with cyclins is the most critical step for activation of CDK4/6. As previously reported elsewhere, we observed that the level of cyclinD1-CDK4 complex and its associated kinase activity were significantly low in asynchronously proliferating mouse embryo fibroblasts lacking both p21(Cip1) and p27(Kip1) (p21/p27-null MEFs).