Publications by authors named "L Botezatu"
Article Synopsis
- The SB transposon system is valuable for genetic applications like gene therapy, and a new hyperactive variant of the SB100X transposase, known as SB200X, was discovered with a specific amino acid change that increases its activity by about 2-fold.
- This hyperactivity is linked to an amino acid at position 124, located in the transposase's structural region, suggesting it can partially resist a regulatory mechanism called overproduction inhibition.
- Additionally, the Q124C variant not only boosts the efficiency of another variant (K248R) but also helps maintain a safer profile for genome-wide integration, making SB200X a promising tool for genome engineering in research and clinical settings.
Article Synopsis
- NK cells are powerful immune cells with proven effectiveness in cancer therapy, especially when enhanced by CAR technology, allowing them to target cancer cells more specifically.
- The study introduces a novel non-viral method using the Sleeping Beauty transposon system and minicircles to engineer CAR NK cells, resulting in stable CAR expression and improved genetic integration compared to traditional methods.
- These engineered CAR NK cells showed greater effectiveness against leukemia cells in lab models, suggesting a promising avenue for developing cost-effective and safe cancer immunotherapies.
Respiratory tract infections are among the deadliest communicable diseases worldwide. Severe cases of viral lung infections are often associated with a cytokine storm and alternating platelet numbers. We report that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) sense a non-systemic influenza A virus (IAV) infection via inflammatory cytokines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman T lymphocytes that transgenically express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) have proven efficacy and safety in gene- and cell-based immunotherapy of certain hematological cancers. Appropriate gene vectors and methods of genetic engineering are required for therapeutic cell products to be biologically potent and their manufacturing to be economically viable. Transposon-based gene transfer satisfies these needs, and is currently being evaluated in clinical trials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Metastasis, a complex, multistep process, is responsible for the overwhelming majority of cancer-related deaths. Despite its devastating consequences, it is not possible to effectively treat cancer that has spread to vital organs, the mechanisms leading to metastasis are still poorly understood, and the catalog of metastasis promoting genes is still incomprehensive. To identify new driver genes of metastasis development, we performed an in vitro Sleeping Beauty transposon-based forward genetic screen in nonmetastatic SKBR3 human breast cancer cells.
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