Therapeutic and Diagnostic Potential of Folic Acid Receptors and Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) Transamidase in Prostate Cancer.

Due to the proliferation-induced high demand of cancer cells for folic acid (FA), significant overexpression of folate receptors 1 (FR1) is detected in most cancers. To our knowledge, a detailed characterization of FR1 expression and regulation regarding therapeutic and diagnostic feasibilities in prostate cancer (PCa) has not been described. In the present study, cell cultures, as well as tissue sections, were analyzed using Western blot, qRT-PCR and immunofluorescence.

The role of vasculature and angiogenesis in respiratory diseases.

In European countries, nearly 10% of all hospital admissions are related to respiratory diseases, mainly chronic life-threatening diseases such as COPD, pulmonary hypertension, IPF or lung cancer. The contribution of blood vessels and angiogenesis to lung regeneration, remodeling and disease progression has been increasingly appreciated. The vascular supply of the lung shows the peculiarity of dual perfusion of the pulmonary circulation (vasa publica), which maintains a functional blood-gas barrier, and the bronchial circulation (vasa privata), which reveals a profiled capacity for angiogenesis (namely intussusceptive and sprouting angiogenesis) and alveolar-vascular remodeling by the recruitment of endothelial precursor cells.

Dual role of GRHL3 in bladder carcinogenesis depending on histological subtypes.

The effect of grainyhead-like transcription factor 3 (GRHL3) on cancer development depends on the cancer subtypes as shown in tumor entities such as colorectal or oral squamous cell carcinomas. Here, we analyzed the subtype-specific role of GRHL3 in bladder carcinogenesis, comparing common urothelial carcinoma (UC) with squamous bladder cancer (sq-BLCA). We examined GRHL3 mRNA and protein expression in cohorts of patient samples, its prognostic role and its functional impact on tumorigeneses in different molecular and histopathological subtypes of bladder cancer.