World J Microbiol Biotechnol
January 2025
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is a biodegradable polymer that belongs to a group of polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHB can be synthesized from renewable resources, making it a promising alternative to petroleum-derived plastics. It is also considered non-toxic, biodegradable, and biocompatible, which makes it suitable for various applications in the medicine and biomedicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClathrin proteins, key elements of the vesicle coat, play a crucial role in various cellular processes, including neural function, signal transduction, and endocytosis. Disruptions in clathrin protein functions have been associated with a wide range of diseases, such as Alzheimer's, neurodegeneration, viral infection, and cancer. Therefore, correctly identifying clathrin protein functions is critical to unravel the mechanism of these fatal diseases and designing drug targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe U4 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) forms a duplex with the U6 snRNA and, together with U5 and ∼30 proteins, is part of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP complex, located at the core of the major spliceosome. Recently, recurrent variants in the U4 RNA, transcribed from the gene, and in at least two other genes were discovered to cause neurodevelopmental disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough various colorectal cancer (CRC)-targeted nanoparticles have been developed to selectively deliver anticancer agents to tumor tissues, severe off-target side effects still persist due to unwanted systemic nanoparticle distribution, limiting the therapeutic outcome. Here, by elucidating a tumor-selective nanoparticle delivery mechanism occurring at the colorectal lumen-tumor interface, an alternative CRC-targeted delivery route is proposed, which enables highly tumor-selective delivery without systemic distribution, through direct drug delivery from the outside of the body (colorectal lumen) to tumors in the colorectum. Owing to the presence of accessible tumor-specific receptors such as CD44 at the colorectal lumen-tumor interface, but not at the colorectal lumen-normal tissue interface, colorectal luminal surface (CLS)-targeting ligand-functionalized nanoparticles selectively accumulate in CRC tissues without systemic distribution, resulting in successful local CRC therapy.
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