Fluorescent Peptide Biosensor for Probing CDK6 Kinase Activity in Lung Cancer Cell Extracts.

CDK6 kinase regulates cell-cycle progression in G1, together with CDK4, but has cell-, tissue- and developmentally distinct functions associated with transcription, angiogenesis and metabolism. Although CDK6 makes an attractive cancer biomarker and target, there are no means of assessing its activity in a complex environment. In this study, we describe the design, engineering and characterisation of a fluorescent peptide biosensor derived from 6-phosphofructokinase that reports on CDK6 kinase activity through sensitive changes in fluorescence intensity.

Two Novel Cases of Resistance to Thyroid Hormone Due to Mutation.

Resistance to thyroid hormone alpha (RTHα) is a rare and under-recognized genetic disease caused by mutations of , the gene encoding thyroid hormone receptor α1 (TRα1). We report here two novel missense mutations (M259T, T273A) in patients with RTHα. We combined biochemical and cellular assays with modeling to assess the capacity of mutant TRα1 to bind triiodothyronine (T3), to heterodimerize with RXR, to interact with transcriptional coregulators, and to transduce a T3 transcriptional response.