Publications by authors named "J Nunes Pombo"

Inhibition of S6 kinase 1 (S6K1) extends lifespan and improves healthspan in mice, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Cellular senescence is a stable growth arrest accompanied by an inflammatory senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Cellular senescence and SASP-mediated chronic inflammation contribute to age-related pathology, but the specific role of S6K1 has not been determined.

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Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signalling integrates biological processes that sense and respond to environmental, dietary, and metabolic challenges to ensure tissue homeostasis. AHR is a transcription factor that is inactive in the cytosol but upon encounter with ligand translocates to the nucleus and drives the expression of AHR targets, including genes of the cytochrome P4501 family of enzymes such as Cyp1a1. To dynamically visualise AHR activity in vivo, we generated reporter mice in which firefly luciferase (Fluc) was non-disruptively targeted into the endogenous Cyp1a1 locus.

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Cellular senescence is a stress response with broad pathophysiological implications. Senotherapies can induce senescence to treat cancer or eliminate senescent cells to ameliorate ageing and age-related pathologies. However, the success of senotherapies is limited by the lack of reliable ways to identify senescence.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drugs that target and kill senescent cells, known as senolytics, can potentially improve conditions like cancer, fibrosis, and age-related diseases.* -
  • Researchers discovered that inhibiting a specific cellular component called COPI affects the survival of senescent cells, leading to cell dysfunction and death.* -
  • Although traditional drugs for targeting COPI have limitations, N-myristoyltransferase inhibitors (NMTi) show promise as effective senolytics by selectively eliminating senescent cells and improving health outcomes in various disease models.*
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, the etiological agent of cholera, is a facultative intestinal pathogen which can also survive in aquatic ecosystems in the form of biofilms, surface-associated microbial aggregates embedded in an extracellular matrix, which protects them from predators and hostile environmental factors. Biofilm-derived bacteria and biofilm aggregates are considered a likely source for cholera infections, underscoring the importance of biofilm research not just to better understand bacterial ecology, but also cholera pathogenesis in the human host. While several studies focused on factors induced during biofilm formation, genes repressed during this persistence stage have been fairly neglected.

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