Clinical utility of thiopurine metabolite monitoring in inflammatory bowel disease and its impact on healthcare utilization in Singapore.

Background And Aim: Thiopurines are recommended for maintenance of steroid-free remission (SFR) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Thiopurine metabolite monitoring (MM) is increasingly used in the West but remains novel in Singapore, with limited information on its therapeutic and economic benefits. Hence, this study aims to investigate MM's clinical utility and its impact on healthcare resource utilization in Singaporean IBD patients.

A phase 1b study of OXIRI in pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients and its immunomodulatory effects.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal and debilitating disease with limited therapeutic options. The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of a novel regimen comprised of metronomic oxaliplatin (O), chronomodulated capecitabine (X) and UGT1A1 genotype-guided dosing of irinotecan (IRI) [OXIRI] as well as its immunomodulatory effects. Thirty-six patients were enrolled into either dose-escalation or expansion cohorts.

Predictive role of NUDT15 variants on thiopurine-induced myelotoxicity in Asian inflammatory bowel disease patients.

Background: Genetic variants of TPMT and NUDT15 have been reported to predict the inter-patient variability in response and toxicity profiles of patients receiving thiopurine therapy. However, the clinical utility of TPMT genotyping in guiding thiopurine doses has been questionable, in part due to underlying differences in the prevalence of TPMT variants in both Caucasian and Asian populations. Several NUDT15 variants have been associated with thiopurine-induced leukopenia, particularly in Asian cohorts.

Pharmacologic Calcitriol Inhibits Osteoclast Lineage Commitment via the BMP-Smad1 and IκB-NF-κB Pathways.

Vitamin D is involved in a range of physiological processes and its active form and analogs have been used to treat diseases such as osteoporosis. Yet how vitamin D executes its function remains unsolved. Here we show that the active form of vitamin D calcitriol increases the peak bone mass in mice by inhibiting osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption.

c-Abl promotes osteoblast expansion by differentially regulating canonical and non-canonical BMP pathways and p16INK4a expression.

Defects in stem cell renewal or progenitor cell expansion underlie ageing-related diseases such as osteoporosis. Yet much remains unclear about the mechanisms regulating progenitor expansion. Here we show that the tyrosine kinase c-Abl plays an important role in osteoprogenitor expansion.

A crucial role for bone morphogenetic protein-Smad1 signalling in the DNA damage response.

DNA damage and the elicited cellular response underlie the etiology of tumorigenesis and ageing. Yet, how this response integrates inputs from cells' environmental cues remains underexplored. Here we report that the BMP-Smad1 pathway, which is essential for embryonic development and tissue homeostasis, has an important role in the DNA damage response and oncogenesis.

Bisphosphonates, specific inhibitors of osteoclast function and a class of drugs for osteoporosis therapy.

Osteoporosis is a result of the disruption of bone homeostasis that is carried out by bone-forming osteoblasts and bone-degrading osteoclasts. The most common treatment of osteoporosis is N-containing bisphosphonates, a class of non-hydrolyzable pyrophosphate analogs. They have strong affinity to Ca(2+) of hydroxyapatite with high specificity and can only be liberated from the bone in an acidic environment.

S6K1 is a multifaceted regulator of Mdm2 that connects nutrient status and DNA damage response.

p53 mediates DNA damage-induced cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis, or senescence, and it is controlled by Mdm2, which mainly ubiquitinates p53 in the nucleus and promotes p53 nuclear export and degradation. By searching for the kinases responsible for Mdm2 S163 phosphorylation under genotoxic stress, we identified S6K1 as a multifaceted regulator of Mdm2. DNA damage activates mTOR-S6K1 through p38alpha MAPK.

p53 Deficiency leads to compensatory up-regulation of p16INK4a.

p53-p21-cyclin-dependent kinase and p16(INK4a)-cyclin-dependent kinase pathways have parallel functions in preventing tumorigenesis. In cancer patients, tumor suppressor p53 is frequently inactivated through mutations, whereas p16(INK4a) is silenced through promoter methylation. However, the interaction between these two pathways is less well understood.

Protein palmitoylation regulates osteoblast differentiation through BMP-induced osterix expression.

Osteoporosis is one of the most common diseases and can be treated by either anti-resorption drugs, anabolic drugs, or both. To search for anabolic drug targets for osteoporosis therapy, it is crucial to understand the biology of bone forming cells, osteoblasts, in terms of their proliferation, differentiation, and function. Here we found that protein palmitoylation participates in signaling pathways that control osterix expression and osteoblast differentiation.

Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of rhabdomyosarcoma cells reveal differential cellular gene expression in response to enterovirus 71 infection.

Insights into the host antiviral strategies as well as viral disease manifestations can be achieved through the elucidation of host- and virus-mediated transcriptional responses. An oligo-based microarray was employed to analyse mRNAs from rhabdomyosarcoma cells infected with the MS/7423/87 strain of enterovirus 71 (EV71) at 20 h post infection. Using Acuity software and LOWESS normalization, 152 genes were found to be downregulated while 39 were upregulated by greater than twofold.