Publications by authors named "Sakari Kauppinen"

Article Synopsis
  • * Current treatments mainly provide symptom relief, and effective therapies to modify the disease and protect neurons are limited.
  • * The nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) plays a key role in defending cells from damage, making it a promising target for new treatments aimed at addressing neurodegeneration's root causes.
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Circular RNAs are a novel class of RNA transcripts, which regulate important cellular functions in health and disease. Herein, we report on the functional relevance of the transcript in acute leukemias. In screening experiments, we found that depletion strongly inhibited the proliferative capacity of leukemic cells with translocations.

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  • Drug discovery for epilepsy started with potassium bromide in 1857 and evolved through phenotypic screening tests, but current antiseizure medications still struggle with drug resistance and lack disease-modifying treatments.
  • RNA-based drugs have emerged as a promising new approach to address these issues, targeting both noncoding RNAs and messenger RNAs to potentially modify diseases and overcome drug resistance.
  • The paper discusses various therapeutic strategies using RNA therapeutics for different types of epilepsy, including sporadic cases, drug-resistant forms, and childhood monogenic epilepsies.
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Obesity is a growing public health problem associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cancer. Here, we identify microRNA-22 (miR-22) as an essential rheostat involved in the control of lipid and energy homeostasis as well as the onset and maintenance of obesity. We demonstrate through knockout and transgenic mouse models that miR-22 loss-of-function protects against obesity and hepatic steatosis, while its overexpression promotes both phenotypes even when mice are fed a regular chow diet.

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microRNA-22 (miR-22) is an oncogenic miRNA whose up-regulation promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), tumor invasion, and metastasis in hormone-responsive breast cancer. Here we show that miR-22 plays a key role in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) by promoting EMT and aggressiveness in 2D and 3D cell models and a mouse xenograft model of human TNBC, respectively. Furthermore, we report that miR-22 inhibition using an LNA-modified antimiR-22 compound is effective in reducing EMT both in vitro and in vivo.

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microRNA-22 (miR-22) is a key regulator of lipid and energy homeostasis and represents a promising therapeutic target for NAFLD and obesity. We have previously identified a locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified antisense oligonucleotide compound complementary to miR-22, designated as RES-010 that mediated robust inhibition of miR-22 function in cultured cells and . In this study we investigated the immune potential of RES-010 in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

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Within the scope of the FANTOM6 consortium, we perform a large-scale knockdown of 200 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and systematically characterize their roles in self-renewal and pluripotency. We find 36 lncRNAs (18%) exhibiting cell growth inhibition. From the knockdown of 123 lncRNAs with transcriptome profiling, 36 lncRNAs (29.

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Circular RNAs (circRNAs) constitute an abundant class of covalently closed noncoding RNA molecules that are formed by backsplicing from eukaryotic protein-coding genes. Recent studies have shown that circRNAs can act as microRNA or protein decoys, as well as transcriptional regulators. However, the functions of most circRNAs are still poorly understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious type of liver cancer that's becoming more common, mostly because people don't notice it early on.
  • Many patients can't have surgery when they find out they have cancer, so doctors are looking for new treatments.
  • Researchers discovered a specific RNA called PURPL that is linked to HCC and found that targeting it can help make cancer cells more sensitive to a common cancer drug called doxorubicin.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is exacting an increasing toll worldwide, with new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerging that exhibit higher infectivity rates and that may partially evade vaccine and antibody immunity. Rapid deployment of non-invasive therapeutic avenues capable of preventing infection by all SARS-CoV-2 variants could complement current vaccination efforts and help turn the tide on the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we describe a novel therapeutic strategy targeting the SARS-CoV-2 RNA using locked nucleic acid antisense oligonucleotides (LNA ASOs).

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The largest solid organ in humans, the liver, performs a variety of functions to sustain life. When damaged, cells in the liver can regenerate themselves to maintain normal liver physiology. However, some damage is beyond repair, which necessitates liver transplantation.

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  • * The text highlights strategies for delivering these RNA-based drugs to the central nervous system (CNS) and discusses recent clinical advancements specifically for neurological and neuromuscular disorders.
  • * Key abbreviations related to the topic include ALS for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, AD for Alzheimer's Disease, and CNS for Central Nervous System, indicating the range of conditions addressed by these innovative therapies.
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Most long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are expressed at lower levels than protein-coding genes and their expression is often restricted to specific cell types, certain time points during development, and various stress and disease conditions, respectively. To revisit this long-held concept, we focused on fibroblasts, a common cell type in various organs and tissues. Using fibroblasts and changes in their expression profiles during fibrosis as a model system, we show that the overall expression level of lncRNA genes is significantly lower than that of protein-coding genes.

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BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) selectively target oncogenic BRAF and are effective in 80% of advanced cutaneous malignant melanoma cases carrying the V600 mutation. However, the development of drug resistance limits their clinical efficacy. Better characterization of the underlying molecular processes is needed to further improve treatments.

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Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based therapeutics holds the promise to treat a wide range of human diseases that are currently incurable using conventional therapies. Most siRNA therapeutic efforts to date have focused on the treatment of liver diseases due to major breakthroughs in the development of efficient strategies for delivering siRNA drugs to the liver. Indeed, the development of lipid nanoparticle-formulated and GalNAc-conjugated siRNA therapeutics has resulted in recent FDA approvals of the first siRNA-based drugs, patisiran for the treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis and givosiran for the treatment of acute hepatic porphyria, respectively.

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Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoid malignancy in adults. Although significant progress has been made in recent years to treat DLBCL patients, 30%-40% of the patients eventually relapse or are refractory to first line treatment, calling for better therapeutic strategies for DLBCL. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as a highly diverse group of non-protein coding transcripts with intriguing molecular functions in human disease, including cancer.

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Positive selection in Europeans at the 2q21.3 locus harboring the lactase gene has been attributed to selection for the ability of adults to digest milk to survive famine in ancient times. However, the 2q21.

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This review aims to highlight the recent findings of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in liver disease. In particular, we focus on the functions of lncRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We summarize the current research trend in lncRNAs and their potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of HCC and NASH.

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Article Synopsis
  • Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) make up most of transcripts in mammalian genomes, but their functions are still not well understood.
  • The FANTOM6 project systematically knocked down 285 lncRNAs in human dermal fibroblasts and analyzed changes in cell growth, shape, and gene expression using CAGE techniques.
  • This study provides a comprehensive lncRNA knockdown data set (over 1000 CAGE sequencing libraries) and reveals important findings about their roles and impact on various cellular pathways.
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Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding RNA molecules that display a perturbed arrangement of exons, called backsplicing. To examine the prognostic and biologic significance of circRNA expression in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML), we conducted whole-transcriptome profiling in 365 younger adults (age 18-60 years) with CN-AML. We applied a novel pipeline, called Massive Scan for circRNA, to identify and quantify circRNA expression.

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  • - An amendment related to the paper has been published.
  • - The amendment can be accessed through a link provided at the top of the original paper.
  • - Readers interested in the updates should check the link for more information.
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Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important regulatory molecules that are implicated in cellular physiology and pathology. In this work, we dissect the functional role of the HOXB-AS3 lncRNA in patients with NPM1-mutated (NPM1mut) acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We show that HOXB-AS3 regulates the proliferative capacity of NPM1mut AML blasts in vitro and in vivo.

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circRNAs arise from back splicing events during mRNA processing, and when deregulated can play an active role in cancer. Here we characterize a new circRNA (circPOK) encoded by the Zbtb7a gene (also kown as POKEMON, LRF) in the context of mesenchymal tumor progression. circPOK functions as a non-coding proto-oncogenic RNA independently and antithetically to its linear transcript counterpart, which acts as a tumor suppressor by encoding the Pokemon transcription factor.

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