Ammonia, traditionally recognized as a toxic nitrogen waste product, has recently emerged as a significant player in diverse physiological processes and implicated in cancer biology. This review article provides an overview of the multifaceted impact of ammonia on cellular signaling pathways, energy metabolism, and tumor microenvironment dynamics, in particular its novel roles in neurotransmission, metabolic homeostasis, cancer cell proliferation, and immune modulation. Notably, ammonia accumulates within the tumor microenvironment, promoting non-essential amino acid synthesis, stimulating mTORC1 activation, promoting lipid synthesis, and impairing various immune cell functions, thereby promoting tumor progression. Furthermore, the potential dual role of ammonia as tumorigenic factor and cancer therapeutic target are discussed, shedding light on its complex regulatory mechanisms and clinical implications. This timely review aims to deepen our understanding of the emerging physiological and pathological roles of ammonia, offering valuable insights into its significance as a potential target for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in cancer and beyond.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjaf007 | DOI Listing |
Mol Genet Genomic Med
March 2025
Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Background: While recently identified heterozygous PRPF8 variants have been linked to various human diseases, their role in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) remains ambiguous. This study investigates the potential association between homozygous PRPF8 variants and NDDs. Most PRPF8 variants are primarily associated with retinal diseases; however, we analyze a family with multiple members diagnosed with NDDs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCirc Heart Fail
March 2025
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla. (K.F., P.D., J.B., M.C., E.E., Y. Chan, Y.G., V.A.D., V.M., N.D.D., A.D., M.K., K.L.P., F.S., Y. Cho, S.L.).
Background: Muscle proteins of the obscurin protein family play important roles in sarcomere organization and sarcoplasmic reticulum and T-tubule architecture and function. However, their precise molecular functions and redundancies between protein family members as well as their involvement in cardiac diseases remain to be fully understood.
Methods: To investigate the functional roles of Obsc (obscurin) and its close homolog Obsl1 (obscurin-like 1) in the heart, we generated and analyzed knockout mice for , , as well as double knockouts.
Autophagy
March 2025
Department of Critical Care Medicine and Emergency, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Cardiac dysfunction is a serious complication of sepsis-induced multiorgan failure in intensive care units and is characterized by an uncontrolled immune response to overwhelming infection. Type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), as a part of the innate immune system, play a crucial role in the inflammatory process of heterogeneous cardiac disorders. However, the role of ILC2 in regulating sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction and its underlying mechanism remain unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Mater
March 2025
National Engineering Research Center for Colloidal Materials, Key Laboratory of Special Functional Aggregated Materials (Shandong University), Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250100, China.
Obtaining controllable active layer morphology plays a significant role in boosting the device performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, a quaternary strategy, which incorporates polymer donor D18-Cl and small molecule acceptor AITC into the host D18:N3, is employed to precisely modulate crystallization kinetics for favorable morphology evolution within the active layer. In situ spectroscopic measurements during film-formation demonstrate that while D18-Cl works as a nucleator to promote aggregation of D18 and foster donor/acceptor intermixing, AITC has exactly the opposite impact on aggregation of N3 and intermixing kinetics of donor and acceptor, working as a plasticizer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Immunol
March 2025
Department of Endodontics, Southern Medical University Stomatological Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
Periodontitis is a significant global public health issue associated with the onset and progression of various systemic diseases, thereby requiring additional research and clinical attention. Although ferroptosis and cuproptosis have emerged as significant areas of research in the medical field, their precise roles in the pathogenesis of periodontitis remain unclear. We aim to systematically summarize the current research on ferroptosis and cuproptosis in periodontal disease and investigate the roles of glutathione pathway and autophagy pathway in connecting ferroptosis and cuproptosis during periodontitis.
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