Publications by authors named "Zhu Wei-guo"

Numerous diseases have been connected to protein arginine methylations mediated by protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5). Clinical investigations of the PRMT5-specific inhibitor GSK3326595 are currently being conducted, and the results are promising for preventing cancers. However, the detailed mechanism of PRMT5 promoting colorectal cancer (CRC) malignant progression remains unclear.

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Background: Lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) is a ubiquitous finding in low back pain. Many different etiology factors may explain the LDD process, such as bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), DNA methylation, and gut microbiota. Until recently the mechanisms underlying the LDD process have been elusive.

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Repair of double strand breaks (DSBs) by RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is vital for ensuring genome integrity. DSB repair is accompanied by local transcriptional repression in the vicinity of transcriptionally active genes, but the mechanism by which RBPs regulate transcriptional regulation is unclear. Here, we demonstrated that RBP hnRNPA2B1 functions as a RNA polymerase-associated factor that stabilizes the transcription complex under physiological conditions.

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Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6), a member of the SIRT family, plays essential roles in the regulation of metabolism, inflammation, aging, DNA repair, and cancer development, making it a promising anticancer drug target. Herein, we present our use of proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology to formulate a series of highly potent and selective SIRT6 degraders. One of the degraders, , induced the near-complete degradation of SIRT6 in both SK-HEP-1 and Huh-7 cell lines and more potently inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation than the parental inhibitors.

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Basal-like breast cancer may originate from luminal epithelial or cancerous cells. Inadequately repaired DNA damage impairs luminal differentiation and promotes aberrant luminal to basal trans-differentiation in mammary epithelial cells (MECs). Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 11 (USP11), a deubiquitinase, plays a critical role in DNA damage repair.

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Cochlear hair cells (HCs) sense sound waves and allow us to hear. Loss of HCs will cause irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. It is well known that DNA damage repair plays a critical role in protecting cells in many organs.

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Breast Cancer Type 1 Susceptibility Protein (BRCA1) is a tumor-suppressor protein that regulates various cellular pathways, including those that are essential for preserving genome stability. One essential mechanism involves a BRCA1-A complex that is recruited to double-strand breaks (DSBs) by RAP80 before initiating DNA damage repair (DDR). How RAP80 itself is recruited to DNA damage sites, however, is unclear.

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The fundamental role of cells in safeguarding the genome's integrity against DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is crucial for maintaining chromatin homeostasis and the overall genomic stability. Aberrant responses to DNA damage, known as DNA damage responses (DDRs), can result in genomic instability and contribute significantly to tumorigenesis. Unraveling the intricate mechanisms underlying DDRs following severe damage holds the key to identify therapeutic targets for cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • Monoclonal antibodies are often used in treating gastrointestinal cancers, but their effectiveness can be limited due to changes in the tumor microenvironment (TME) that suppress the immune response.
  • A novel strategy was developed that involves delivering siPD-L1 and pOX40L sequentially, using specially designed carbon nanotubes to enhance the immune response against the tumor.
  • This approach significantly increased the maturation of dendritic cells and infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the tumor, improving local antitumor responses and reversing immune suppression, leading to better overall treatment outcomes.
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Gliomas are the most common malignant tumors of the central nervous system, accounting for approximately 80% of all malignant brain tumors. Accumulating evidence suggest that pyroptosis plays an essential role in the progression of cancer. Unfortunately, the effect of the pyroptosis-related factor caspase-4 (CASP4) on immunotherapy and drug therapy for tumors has not been comprehensively investigated.

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The NAD-dependent deacetylase SIRT7 is a pivotal regulator of DNA damage response (DDR) and a promising drug target for developing cancer therapeutics. However, limited progress has been made in SIRT7 modulator discovery. Here, we applied peptide-based deacetylase platforms for SIRT7 enzymatic evaluation and successfully identified a potent SIRT7 inhibitor .

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Macroautophagy/autophagy is essential for the degradation and recycling of cytoplasmic materials. The initiation of this process is determined by phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PtdIns3K) complex, which is regulated by factor BECN1 (beclin 1). UFMylation is a novel ubiquitin-like modification that has been demonstrated to modulate several cellular activities.

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Article Synopsis
  • Double-strand breaks (DSBs) represent a critical form of DNA damage, requiring both transcriptional activity and repression for effective repair.
  • The GATAD2B-NuRD complex is essential for regulating the chromatin structure at DSBs by promoting histone deacetylation and creating a boundary between open and condensed chromatin.
  • Without the GATAD2B-NuRD complex, chromatin becomes overly relaxed, leading to improper DNA end processing and failures in homologous recombination repair.
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Background: Inadequate DNA damage repair promotes aberrant differentiation of mammary epithelial cells. Mammary luminal cell fate is mainly determined by a few transcription factors including GATA3. We previously reported that GATA3 functions downstream of BRCA1 to suppress aberrant differentiation in breast cancer.

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R-loops are three-stranded structures that can pose threats to genome stability. RNase H1 precisely recognizes R-loops to drive their resolution within the genome, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Here, we report that ARID1A recognizes R-loops with high affinity in an ATM-dependent manner.

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Bidirectional signal transduction between tumor epithelial cells and tumor microenvironment (TME) is important for tumor development. Here we show that Lin28b/let-7 pathway is indispensable for modulating the expression of Wnt5a in tumor epithelium, which could be secreted and then up-regulates Lin28b in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Moreover, we demonstrate that Lin28b in CAFs promoted growth of PDAC by inducing cytokine PCSK9's production.

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Chromatin relaxation is a prerequisite for the DNA repair machinery to access double-strand breaks (DSBs). Local histones around the DSBs then undergo prompt changes in acetylation status, but how the large demands of acetyl-CoA are met is unclear. Here, we report that pyruvate dehydrogenase 1α (PDHE1α) catalyzes pyruvate metabolism to rapidly provide acetyl-CoA in response to DNA damage.

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Article Synopsis
  • Adding a third component to a binary system in organic solar cells (OSCs) can significantly improve power conversion efficiency (PCE), a technique referred to as a ternary strategy.
  • Researchers developed a new small-molecule acceptor called DFTQA-2FIC, which enhances the performance of typical PM6:Y6 blends by improving charge mobility and reducing charge recombination.
  • The optimized ternary OSC using DFTQA-2FIC achieved a PCE of 17.29%, marking a 7.46% increase compared to the previous binary system, underscoring the effectiveness of this approach in boosting solar cell performance.
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Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) mediates DNA damage signaling by regulating the mismatch repair and nucleotide excision repair pathways. Whether HDAC6 also mediates DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair is unclear. Here, we report that HDAC6 negatively regulates DSB repair in an enzyme activity-independent manner.

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Keratin 17 (K17) is a cytoskeletal protein that is part of the intermediate filaments in epidermal keratinocytes. In K17 mice, ionizing radiation induced more severe hair follicle damage, whereas the epidermal inflammatory response was attenuated compared with that in wild-type mice. Both p53 and K17 have a major impact on global gene expression because over 70% of the differentially expressed genes in the skin of wild-type mice showed no expression change in p53 or K17 skin after ionizing radiation.

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Article Synopsis
  • Basal-like breast cancers (BLBCs) are highly aggressive due to the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their association with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is influenced by the loss of GATA3, a gene that helps maintain luminal cell identity.
  • The study reveals that when Gata3 is deleted in mice, it leads to an increase in Fra1, a protein promoting mesenchymal traits, and a decrease in c-Fos, which helps maintain epithelial characteristics, ultimately initiating tumorigenesis and metastasis.
  • Findings also indicate that GATA3 directly regulates the expression of FRA1 and c-FOS, with low levels of GATA3 being linked to unfavorable profiles in human breast
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DNA damage repair (DDR) is a double-edged sword with different roles in cancer susceptibility and drug resistance. Recent studies suggest that DDR inhibitors affect immune surveillance. However, this phenomenon is poorly understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • SIRT6 is a histone deacetylase that modifies proteins but has low activity in lab settings.
  • The study presents a method to track how SIRT6 deacetylates a specific protein, long-chain acyl-CoA synthase 5, when palmitic acid is present.
  • The protocol includes steps for purifying SIRT6 and its substrate, as well as a deacetylation assay that can be applied to various research scenarios involving SIRT6.
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Objective: To generate a compensatory classification to evaluate sagittal spinal malalignment with lumbar degeneration.

Methods: We included 162 patients with low back pain who underwent full-length spinal radiography in our hospital from August 2019 to October 2021. Using full-length spine X-rays, we measured pelvic tilt (PT), sacral slope (SS), pelvic incidence (PI), thoracic kyphosis (TK), lumbar lordosis (LL), C7 slope (C7S), thoracolumbar kyphosis (TLK), and C7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA).

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