The first embryo, the origin of cancer and animal phylogeny. III. The totipotency as revealed by morphogenesis and the neoplasia controlled by cellular differentiation.

We have extensively described that the neoplastic process (NP) has deep evolutionary roots and we have made specific predictions about the connection between cancer and the formation of the first embryo, which allowed for the evolutionary radiation of metazoans. My main hypothesis is that the NP is at the heart of cellular mechanisms responsible for animal morphogenesis, and given its embryological basis, also at the center of cell differentiation-one of the most interesting and relevant aspects of embryogenesis. In this article, I take forward the idea of the role of physics in the modeling of the neoplastic functional module (NFM) and its contribution to morphogenesis to reveal the totipotency of the zygote.

The first embryo, the origin of cancer and animal phylogeny. II. The neoplastic process as an evolutionary engine.

In this article, I put forward the idea that the neoplastic process (NP) has deep evolutionary roots and makes specific predictions about the connection between cancer and the formation of the first embryo, which allowed for the evolutionary radiation of metazoans. My main hypothesis is that NP is at the heart of cellular mechanisms responsible for animal morphogenesis and, given its embryological basis, also at the center of animal evolution. It is thus understood that NP-associated mechanisms are deeply rooted in evolutionary history and tied to the formation of the first animal embryo.

The first embryo, the origin of cancer and animal phylogeny. I. A presentation of the neoplastic process and its connection with cell fusion and germline formation.

The decisive role of Embryology in understanding the evolution of animal forms is founded and deeply rooted in the history of science. It is recognized that the emergence of multicellularity would not have been possible without the formation of the first embryo. We speculate that biophysical phenomena and the surrounding environment of the Ediacaran ocean were instrumental in co-opting a neoplastic functional module (NFM) within the nucleus of the first zygote.

Cancer as an Embryological Phenomenon and Its Developmental Pathways: A Hypothesis regarding the Contribution of the Noncanonical Wnt Pathway.

For gastrulation to occur in human embryos, a mechanism that simultaneously regulates many different processes, such as cell differentiation, proliferation, migration, and invasion, is required to consistently and effectively create a human being during embryonic morphogenesis. The striking similarities in the processes of cancer and gastrulation have prompted speculation regarding the developmental pathways involved in their regulation. One of the fundamental requirements for the developmental pathways in gastrulation and cancer is the ability to respond to environmental stimuli, and it has been proposed that the Kaiso and noncanonical Wnt pathways participate in the mechanisms regulating these developmental pathways.

Cancer Is to Embryology as Mutation Is to Genetics: Hypothesis of the Cancer as Embryological Phenomenon.

Despite numerous advances in cell biology, genetics, and developmental biology, cancer origin has been attributed to genetic mechanisms primarily involving mutations. Embryologists have expressed timidly cancer embryological origin with little success in leveraging the discussion that cancer could involve a set of conventional cellular processes used to build the embryo during morphogenesis. Thus, this "cancer process" allows the harmonious and coherent construction of the embryo structural base, and its implementation as the embryonic process involves joint regulation of differentiation, proliferation, cell invasion, and migration, enabling the human being recreation of every generation.

Insight on the interaction of an agmatinase-like protein with Mn(2+) activator ions.

Agmatinase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of agmatine, a compound that is associated with numerous functions in the brain of mammalian organisms such as neurotransmitter, anticonvulsant, antinociceptive, anxiolytic and antidepressant-like actions. To date the only characterized agmatinases with significant enzymatic activity were extracted from bacterial organisms. These agmatinases are closely related to another ureahydrolase, arginase; both have binuclear Mn(2+) centers in their active sites.

Further insight into the inhibitory action of a LIM/double zinc-finger motif of an agmatinase-like protein.

Agmatine is a precursor for polyamine biosynthesis also associated to neurotransmitter, anticonvulsant, antineurotoxic and antidepressant actions in the brain. It results from decarboxylation of l-arginine by arginine decarboxylase and it is hydrolyzed to urea and putrescine by agmatinase. Recently, we have described a new protein which also hydrolyzes agmatine although its sequence greatly differs from all known agmatinases.

Knock-down of Kaiso induces proliferation and blocks granulocytic differentiation in blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Background: Kaiso protein has been identified as a new member of the POZ-ZF subfamily of transcription factors that are involved in development and cancer. There is consistent evidence of the role of Kaiso and its involvement in human tumorigenesis but there is no evidence about its role in hematopoietic differentiation or establishment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We used, normal K562 cell line, established from a CML patient in blast crisis, and imatinib-resistant K562 cell line, to investigate the specific distribution of Kaiso and their contribution to the cell differentiation status of the blast crisis of CML (CML-BP).

The inhibitory activity of Lactobacillus spp. isolated from breast milk on gastrointestinal pathogenic bacteria of nosocomial origin.

Milk acts as a mean for transporting many essential substances from the mother to the child. In human beings, milk includes several predominant bacteria, such as staphylococci, streptococci, micrococci, lactobacilli, enterococci, lactococci and bifidobacteria. Besides, its intake favors the predominance of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the child's intestinal microbiota.

SUZ12 is a candidate target of the non-canonical WNT pathway in the progression of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Polycomb proteins form multiprotein complexes that repress target genes by chromatin remodeling. In this work, we report that the SUZ12 polycomb gene is over-expressed in bone marrow samples of patients at the blastic phase of chronic myeloid leukemia. We also found a direct interaction between polycomb group genes and the WNT signaling pathway in chronic myeloid leukemia transformation.