An induced population of epimastigotes more resistant to complement lysis promotes a phenotype with greater differentiation, invasiveness, and release of extracellular vesicles.

Introduction: Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by , which uses blood-feeding triatomine bugs as a vector to finally infect mammalian hosts. Upon entering the host, the parasite needs to effectively evade the attack of the complement system and quickly invade cells to guarantee an infection. In order to accomplish this, expresses different molecules on its surface and releases extracellular vesicles (EVs).

DGAT2 Inhibition Potentiates Lipid Droplet Formation To Reduce Cytotoxicity in APOL1 Kidney Risk Variants.

Background: Two variants in the gene encoding apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) that are highly associated with African ancestry are major contributors to the large racial disparity in rates of human kidney disease. We previously demonstrated that recruitment of APOL1 risk variants G1 and G2 from the endoplasmic reticulum to lipid droplets leads to reduced APOL1-mediated cytotoxicity in human podocytes.

Methods: We used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of induced pluripotent stem cells to develop human-derived APOL1 and APOL1 kidney organoids on an isogenic background, and performed bulk RNA sequencing of organoids before and after treatment with IFN-.

Na/K-ATPase-Targeted Cytotoxicity of (+)-Digoxin and Several Semisynthetic Derivatives.

(+)-Digoxin () is a well-known cardiac glycoside long used to treat congestive heart failure and found more recently to show anticancer activity. Several known cardenolides (-) and two new analogues, (+)-8(9)-β-anhydrodigoxigenin () and (+)-17--20,22-dihydro-21α-hydroxydigoxin (), were synthesized from and evaluated for their cytotoxicity toward a small panel of human cancer cell lines. A preliminary structure-activity relationship investigation conducted indicated that the C-12 and C-14 hydroxy groups and the C-17 unsaturated lactone unit are important for to mediate its cytotoxicity toward human cancer cells, but the C-3 glycosyl residue seems to be less critical for such an effect.

A Facile Preparation of a New Water-Soluble Acridine Derivative and Application as a Turn-off Fluorescence Chemosensor for Selective Detection of Hg.

A new acridine-based chemosensor was prepared, characterized and investigated for quantitative detection of Hg ions in aqueous solutions. DFT and TD-DFT calculations showed that formation of a coordination bond between Hg and the thiolate-sensor accounts for the fluorescence quenching, forming [HgLCl] as the most stable species. Limit of detection and limit of quantification were as low as 4.

The alternatively spliced RECK transcript variant 3 is a predictor of poor survival for melanoma patients being upregulated in aggressive cell lines and modulating MMP gene expression in vitro.

The reversion-inducing cysteine-rich protein with kazal motifs (RECK) gene was described as a tumor suppressor gene two decades ago. Recently, novel alternatively spliced products of this gene have been identified. Of these, the transcript variant 3 (RECKVar3) was shown to display tumor-facilitating effects in astrocytoma cells in vitro, with a higher RECKVar3/canonical RECK expression ratio being correlated with lower survival rates of patients.