Patients with advanced thyroid cancer, including advanced papillary thyroid cancer and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), have low survival rates because of the lack of efficient therapies available that can combat their aggressiveness. A total of 90% of thyroid cancers have identifiable driver mutations, which often are components of the MAPK pathway, including , , and -fusions. In addition, Src is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that is overexpressed and activated in thyroid cancer, which we and others have shown is a clinically relevant target.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeterozygous, missense mutations in both α- and β-tubulin genes have been linked to an array of neurodevelopment disorders, commonly referred to as "tubulinopathies." To date, tubulinopathy mutations have been identified in three β-tubulin isotypes and one α-tubulin isotype. These mutations occur throughout the different genetic domains and protein structures of these tubulin isotypes, and the field is working to address how this molecular-level diversity results in different cellular and tissue-level pathologies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeterozygous, missense mutations in α- or β-tubulin genes are associated with a wide range of human brain malformations, known as tubulinopathies. We seek to understand whether a mutation's impact at the molecular and cellular levels scale with the severity of brain malformation. Here, we focus on two mutations at the valine 409 residue of TUBA1A, V409I, and V409A, identified in patients with pachygyria or lissencephaly, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeveloping neurons undergo dramatic morphological changes to appropriately migrate and extend axons to make synaptic connections. The microtubule cytoskeleton, made of α/β-tubulin dimers, drives neurite outgrowth, promotes neuronal growth cone responses, and facilitates intracellular transport of critical cargoes during neurodevelopment. constitutes the majority of α-tubulin in the developing brain and mutations to in humans cause severe brain malformations accompanied by varying neurological defects, collectively termed tubulinopathies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMutations in the family of genes encoding the tubulin subunits of microtubules are associated with a spectrum of human brain malformations known as tubulinopathies. How these mutations impact tubulin activity to give rise to distinct developmental consequences is poorly understood. Here we report two patients exhibiting brain malformations characteristic of tubulinopathies and heterozygous T178M missense mutations in different β-tubulin genes, or .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmunotherapies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis are now a mainstay in the clinical management of multiple cancer types, however, many tumors still fail to respond. CCL2 is highly expressed in various cancer types and has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis. Inhibition or blockade of the CCL2/CCR2 signaling axis has thus been an area of interest for cancer therapy.
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