Inverted apicobasal polarity in health and disease.

Apicobasal epithelial polarity controls the functional properties of most organs. Thus, there has been extensive research on the molecular intricacies governing the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity. Whereas loss of apicobasal polarity is a well-documented phenomenon associated with multiple diseases, less is known regarding another type of apicobasal polarity alteration - the inversion of polarity.

Defined extracellular matrix compositions support stiffness-insensitive cell spreading and adhesion signaling.

Integrin-dependent adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM) mediates mechanosensing and signaling in response to altered microenvironmental conditions. In order to provide tissue- and organ-specific cues, the ECM is composed of many different proteins that temper the mechanical properties and provide the necessary structural diversity. Despite most human tissues being soft, the prevailing view from predominantly in vitro studies is that increased stiffness triggers effective cell spreading and activation of mechanosensitive signaling pathways.

Cell-Penetrating CEBPB and CEBPD Leucine Zipper Decoys as Broadly Acting Anti-Cancer Agents.

Transcription factors are key players underlying cancer formation, growth, survival, metastasis and treatment resistance, yet few drugs exist to directly target them. Here, we characterized the in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer efficacy of novel synthetic cell-penetrating peptides (Bpep and Dpep) designed to interfere with the formation of active leucine-zipper-based dimers by CEBPB and CEBPD, transcription factors implicated in multiple malignancies. Both peptides similarly promoted apoptosis of multiple tumor lines of varying origins, without such effects on non-transformed cells.

GenMiner: mining non-redundant association rules from integrated gene expression data and annotations.

Unlabelled: GenMiner is an implementation of association rule discovery dedicated to the analysis of genomic data. It allows the analysis of datasets integrating multiple sources of biological data represented as both discrete values, such as gene annotations, and continuous values, such as gene expression measures. GenMiner implements the new NorDi (normal discretization) algorithm for normalizing and discretizing continuous values and takes advantage of the Close algorithm to efficiently generate minimal non-redundant association rules.

Amphiphilic branched polymers as antimicrobial agents.

Cationic amphiphilic polymers were prepared from PEI and functional ethylene carbonates bearing cationic, hydrophobic or amphiphilic groups. The polymers are designed to exhibit antimicrobial properties. In a one-step addition, different functional ethylene carbonates were added to react with the primary amine groups of PEI.

From multifunctionalized poly(ethylene imine)s toward antimicrobial coatings.

Primary amine groups of branched poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) were functionalized with quaternary ammonium groups, alkyl chains of different length, allylic and benzylic groups in a one-step reaction, using a carbonate coupler. The structure of the obtained amphiphilic polymers was determined by means of 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Depending on their hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance, the obtained polymers can be used as water-soluble disinfectants and for antimicrobial coating materials.