Binding of mazindol and analogs to the human serotonin and dopamine transporters.

Mazindol has been explored as a possible agent in cocaine addiction pharmacotherapy. The tetracyclic compound inhibits both the dopamine transporter and the serotonin transporter, and simple chemical modifications considerably alter target selectivity. Mazindol, therefore, is an attractive scaffold for both understanding the molecular determinants of serotonin/dopamine transporter selectivity and for the development of novel drug abuse treatments.

Dysfunctional oxidative phosphorylation makes malignant melanoma cells addicted to glycolysis driven by the (V600E)BRAF oncogene.

Oncogene addiction describes how cancer cells exhibit dependence on single oncogenes to escape apoptosis and senescence. While oncogene addiction constitutes the basis for new cancer treatment strategies targeting individual kinases and pathways activated by oncogenic mutations, the biochemical basis for this addiction is largely unknown. Here we provide evidence for a metabolic rationale behind the addiction to (V600E)BRAF in two malignant melanoma cell lines.

Oncogenic events associated with endometrial and ovarian cancers are rare in endometriosis.

Endometriosis displays some features that resemble malignant processes, including invasive growth, resistance to apoptosis and distant implantation. The objective of this study was to investigate whether gene alterations that are frequent in endometrial and/or ovarian cancers contribute to the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Biopsies were obtained from ectopic endometriosis lesions from 23 patients with revised American Fertility Score stage 1 (n= 1), 2 (n= 10), 3 (n= 11) or 4 (n= 1) endometriosis.

Mechanism for activation of the growth factor-activated AGC kinases by turn motif phosphorylation.

The growth factor/insulin-stimulated AGC kinases share an activation mechanism based on three phosphorylation sites. Of these, only the role of the activation loop phosphate in the kinase domain and the hydrophobic motif (HM) phosphate in a C-terminal tail region are well characterized. We investigated the role of the third, so-called turn motif phosphate, also located in the tail, in the AGC kinases PKB, S6K, RSK, MSK, PRK and PKC.