Lysozyme 1 Inflamed CCR2 Macrophages Promote Obesity-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction.

Background: Macrophages are key players in obesity-associated cardiovascular diseases, which are marked by inflammatory and immune alterations. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying macrophage's role in obesity-induced cardiac inflammation are incompletely understood. Our study aimed to identify the key macrophage population involved in obesity-induced cardiac dysfunction and investigate the molecular mechanism that contributes to the inflammatory response.

Blocking smoothened cholesterylation: A strategy for overcoming drug resistance in cancer.

In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Liu et al. report the identification of Q29, a synthetic diterpenoid that blocks covalent cholesterol modification of smoothened (SMO) and inhibits hedgehog signaling. Q29 is capable of suppressing tumor cell growth, both in vitro and in vivo, and overcoming resistance to SMO inhibitors.

Increasing Sufu gene dosage reveals its unorthodox role in promoting polydactyly and medulloblastoma tumorigenesis.

Suppressor of fused (SUFU) is widely regarded as a key negative regulator of the sonic hedgehog (SHH) morphogenic pathway and a known tumor suppressor of medulloblastoma (MB). However, we report here that SUFU expression was markedly increased in 75% of specimens compiled in a tissue array comprising 49 unstratified MBs. The SUFU and GLI1 expression levels in this MB array showed strong positive correlation, which was also identified in a large public data set containing 736 MBs.

Peptidomic changes in human serous colorectal cancer patients.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. Peptidomics, considered a novel branch of proteomics, has an increasing range of applications in the screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and even monitoring of cancer. However, there is little information for peptidomics analysis in CRC.

Hedgehog signal activates AMPK via Smoothened to promote autophagy and lipid degradation in hepatocytes.

Studies in the past decade have shown that lipid droplets stored in liver cells under starvation are encapsulated by autophagosomes and fused to lysosomes via the endocytic system. Autophagy responds to a variety of environmental factors inside and outside the cell, so it has a complex signal regulation network. To this end, we first explored the role of Hedgehog (Hh) in autophagy and lipid metabolism.

AMPK attenuates SHH subgroup medulloblastoma growth and metastasis by inhibiting NF-κB activation.

Background: Medulloblastoma (MB) is one of the most common malignant pediatric brain tumors. Metastasis and relapse are the leading causes of death in MB patients. The initiation of the SHH subgroup of MB (SHH-MB) is due to the aberrant activation of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling.

Macroautophagy supports Sonic Hedgehog signaling by promoting Patched1 degradation.

Autophagy is a highly conservative self-digestion process to maintain intracellular homeostasis and to ensure the survival of cells under stress. Activation of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling depends on the normal endocytic degradation of pathway receptor Patched1 (Ptch1). It is unclear whether autophagy participates in the receptor endocytosis and modulates Shh signaling transduction.

Sufu negatively regulates both initiations of centrosome duplication and DNA replication.

Centrosome duplication and DNA replication are two pivotal events that higher eukaryotic cells use to initiate proliferation. While DNA replication is initiated through origin licensing, centrosome duplication starts with cartwheel assembly and is partly controlled by CP110. However, the upstream coordinator for both events has been, until now, a mystery.

SPOP-PTEN-SUFU axis promotes progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma via activating SHH and WNT pathway.

Although E3 ligase Speckle type BTB/POZ protein (SPOP) promotes tumorigenesis by acting as a key regulatory hub in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the detailed molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that a well-known tumor suppressor, Suppressor of Fused (SUFU), is downregulated by SPOP. Interestingly, this downregulation depends on cullin-3(Cul3)-SPOP E3 ligase, but SUFU is not a direct substrate of SPOP.

Deletion at an 1q24 locus reveals a critical role of long noncoding RNA DNM3OS in skeletal development.

Background: Skeletal development and maintenance are complex processes known to be coordinated by multiple genetic and epigenetic signaling pathways. However, the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a class of crucial epigenetic regulatory molecules, has been under explored in skeletal biology.

Results: Here we report a young patient with short stature, hypothalamic dysfunction and mild macrocephaly, who carries a maternally inherited 690 kb deletion at Chr.

Identification of a potent antagonist of smoothened in hedgehog signaling.

Background: Hedgehog signaling is essential to the regulation of embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and stem cell self-renewal, making it a prime target for developing cancer therapeutics. Given the close link between aberrant Hedgehog signaling and cancers, many small molecular compounds have been developed to inhibit Smoothened, a key signal transducer of this pathway, for treating cancer and several such compounds have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (GDC-0449 and LDE-225). However, acquired drug resistance has emerged as an important obstacle to the effective use of these first generation Hedgehog pathway blockers.

Identification of four novel prognosis biomarkers and potential therapeutic drugs for human colorectal cancer by bioinformatics analysis.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most deadly cancers in the world with few reliable biomarkers that have been selected into clinical guidelines for prognosis of CRC patients. In this study, mRNA microarray datasets GSE113513, GSE21510, GSE44076, and GSE32323 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and analyzed with bioinformatics to identify hub genes in CRC development. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed using the GEO2R tool.

Protein phosphatase 4 promotes Hedgehog signaling through dephosphorylation of Suppressor of fused.

Reversible phosphorylation of Suppressor of fused (Sufu) is essential for Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signal transduction. Sufu is stabilized under dual phosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β). Its phosphorylation is reduced with the activation of Shh signaling.

Tibetan Medicated Bathing Therapy for Patients With Post-stroke Limb Spasticity: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.

Objective: To determine the short- (4 weeks) and long-term (6 month) effectiveness of Tibetan medicated bathing therapy in patients with post-stroke limb spasticity.

Design: Prospective, blinded, randomized controlled trial.

Subjects: Post-stroke patients with limb spasticity were recruited between December 2013 and February 2017 and randomly assigned 1:1 to a control group that received conventional rehabilitation (n = 222) or an experimental group that received Tibetan medicated bathing therapy in combination with conventional rehabilitation (n = 222).

Dual Regulatory Functions of SUFU and Targetome of GLI2 in SHH Subgroup Medulloblastoma.

SUFU alterations are common in human Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) subgroup medulloblastoma (MB). However, its tumorigenic mechanisms have remained elusive. Here, we report that loss of Sufu alone is unable to induce MB formation in mice, due to insufficient Gli2 activation.

Extra-mitochondrial prosurvival BCL-2 proteins regulate gene transcription by inhibiting the SUFU tumour suppressor.

Direct interactions between pro- and anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family members form the basis of cell death decision-making at the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). Here we report that three anti-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins (MCL-1, BCL-2 and BCL-XL) found untethered from the OMM function as transcriptional regulators of a prosurvival and growth program. Anti-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins engage a BCL-2 homology (BH) domain sequence found in SUFU (suppressor of fused), a tumour suppressor and antagonist of the GLI DNA-binding proteins.

DGKδ triggers endoplasmic reticulum release of IFT88-containing vesicles destined for the assembly of primary cilia.

The morphogenic factor Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signals through the primary cilium, which relies on intraflagellar transport to maintain its structural integrity and function. However, the process by which protein and lipid cargos are delivered to the primary cilium from their sites of synthesis still remains poorly characterized. Here, we report that diacylglycerol kinase δ (DGKδ), a residential lipid kinase in the endoplasmic reticulum, triggers the release of IFT88-containing vesicles from the ER exit sites (ERES), thereby setting forth their movement to the primary cilium.

DeSUMOylation of Gli1 by SENP1 Attenuates Sonic Hedgehog Signaling.

The transcriptional output of the Sonic Hedgehog morphogenic pathway is orchestrated by three Krüppel family transcription factors, Gli1 to -3, which undergo extensive posttranslational modifications, including ubiquitination and SUMOylation. Here, we report that the sentrin-specific peptidase SENP1 is the specific deSUMOylation enzyme for Gli1. We show that SUMOylation stabilizes Gli1 by competing with ubiquitination at conserved lysine residues and that SUMOylated Gli1 is enriched in the nucleus, suggesting that SUMOylation is a nuclear localization signal for Gli1.

DAZ-interacting Protein 1 (Dzip1) Phosphorylation by Polo-like Kinase 1 (Plk1) Regulates the Centriolar Satellite Localization of the BBSome Protein during the Cell Cycle.

The function of the primary cilia, which is assembled in most vertebrate cells, is achieved by transport in and out of kinds of signaling receptors. The BBSome protein complex could recognize and target membrane proteins to the cilia, but how the BBSome itself is transported into the cilia is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the centrosome protein Dzip1 mediates the assembly of the BBSome-Dzip1-PCM1 complex in the centriolar satellites (CS) at the G phase for ciliary translocation of the BBSome.

Suppressor of Fused Chaperones Gli Proteins To Generate Transcriptional Responses to Sonic Hedgehog Signaling.

Cellular responses to the graded Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) morphogenic signal are orchestrated by three Gli genes that give rise to both transcription activators and repressors. An essential downstream regulator of the pathway, encoded by the tumor suppressor gene Suppressor of fused (Sufu), plays critical roles in the production, trafficking, and function of Gli proteins, but the mechanism remains controversial. Here, we show that Sufu is upregulated in active Shh responding tissues and accompanies Gli activators translocating into and Gli repressors out of the nucleus.

Set7 mediated Gli3 methylation plays a positive role in the activation of Sonic Hedgehog pathway in mammals.

Hedgehog signaling plays very important roles in development and cancers. Vertebrates have three transcriptional factors, Gli1, Gli2 and Gli3. Among them, Gli3 is a very special transcriptional factor which closely resembles Cubitus interruptus (Ci, in Drosophila) structurally and functionally as a 'double agent' for Shh target gene expression.

Up-regulation of the Hippo pathway effector TAZ renders lung adenocarcinoma cells harboring EGFR-T790M mutation resistant to gefitinib.

Background: The T790M mutation of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a major cause of the acquired resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKIs) treatment for lung cancer patients. The Hippo pathway effector, TAZ, has emerged as a key player in organ growth and tumorigenesis, including lung cancer.

Results: In this study, we have discovered high TAZ expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells harboring dual mutation and TAZ depletion sensitized their response to EGFR-TKIs.

MicroRNA-31 suppresses medulloblastoma cell growth by inhibiting DNA replication through minichromosome maintenance 2.

Medulloblastoma is an aggressive childhood brain tumor with poor prognosis. Recent studies indicate that dys-regulation of microRNA expression plays important roles in tumorigenesis. By comparing microRNA levels between mouse medulloblastoma and normal cerebellar tissues, we identified a set of down-regulated microRNAs including miR-31.