Publications by authors named "N Serkova"
MYC-driven medulloblastoma (MB) is a highly aggressive cancer type with poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Through CRISPR-Cas9 screening of MB cell lines, we identified the Mediator-associated kinase CDK8 as a critical regulator of MYC-driven MB. Loss of CDK8 substantially reduces MYC expression, induces pronounced transcriptional changes, suppresses monosome assembly, and decreases ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis, consequently inhibiting MB growth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrobubbles (MBs) combined with focused ultrasound (FUS) has emerged as a promising noninvasive technique to permeabilize the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for drug delivery into the brain. However, the safety and biological consequences of BBB opening (BBBO) remain incompletely understood. This study aims to investigate the effects of two parameters mediating BBBO: microbubble volume dose (MVD) and mechanical index (MI).
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- Gene expression helps cells adapt to stress, and a specific protein called P-TEFb plays a big role in how cells respond to heat and other stressors.
- Researchers found that when pediatric brain cancer cells are treated with radiation, P-TEFb helps the cells quickly reorganize their DNA to repair damage and keep living.
- Blocking P-TEFb while giving radiation treatment weakened the cells’ ability to adapt, making them more likely to die and improving survival time in experiments.
In recent years, steady progress has been made in synthesizing and characterizing engineered nanoparticles, resulting in several approved drugs and multiple promising candidates in clinical trials. Regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency released important guidance documents facilitating nanoparticle-based drug product development, particularly in the context of liposomes and lipid-based carriers. Even with the progress achieved, it is clear that many barriers must still be overcome to accelerate translation into the clinic.
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- - The study investigated the safety and effectiveness of combining alisertib and sapanisertib in patients with difficult-to-treat solid tumors, focusing on pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
- - A total of 31 patients were treated, and while similar side effects to previous studies were noted, only one patient with breast cancer showed a significant improvement, and pancreatic cancer patients had modest treatment responses.
- - The findings suggest that targeting proteins involved in cell cycle regulation (Aurora A kinase) and tumor growth (mTOR) had limited overall clinical impact, but responses varied based on tumor characteristics and patient treatment history.