Intestinal Epithelial Deletion of Sphk1 Prevents Colitis-Associated Cancer Development by Inhibition of Epithelial STAT3 Activation.

Background And Aims: Colitis-associated cancer (CAC) is one of the most serious complications in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Sphingosine kinase 1 (Sphk1) is a key enzyme in the sphingolipid pathway and has oncogene potential for inducing both initiation and progression of tumors. The aim of this work is to characterize the role of epithelial Sphk1 in mouse colitis and CAC models.

Functional identification of a protein inhibitor of neuronal nitric oxide synthase of Taenia solium metacestode.

The protein inhibitor of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (PIN) performs critical functions in several biological processes including inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) activity, intracellular trafficking of proteins and cellular maturation. In this study, we isolated a gene that putatively encoded a PIN homologue in the Taenia solium metacestode (TsM), a causative agent for neurocysticercosis (NC). A full-length cDNA of 452-bp in length, designated TsMPIN, was found to encode an open reading frame (ORF) of 103 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 11.