Pudgy (pu) homozygous mice exhibit clear patterning defects at the earliest stages of somitogenesis, resulting in adult mice with severe vertebral and rib deformities. By positional cloning and complementation, we have determined that the pu phenotype is caused by a mutation in the delta-like 3 gene (Dll3), which is homologous to the Notch-ligand Delta in Drosophila. Histological and molecular marker analyses show that the pu mutation disrupts the proper formation of morphological borders in early somite formation and of rostral-caudal compartment boundaries within somites. Viability analysis also indicates an important role in early development. The results point to a key role for a Notch-signalling pathway in the initiation of patterning of vertebrate paraxial mesoderm.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/961 | DOI Listing |
Transl Cancer Res
December 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
Background: The persistently high mortality and morbidity rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain a global concern. Notably, the disruptions in mitochondrial cholesterol metabolism (MCM) play a pivotal role in the progression and development of HCC, underscoring the significance of this metabolic pathway in the disease's etiology. The purpose of this research was to investigate genes associated with MCM and develop a model for predicting the prognostic features of patients with HCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Nephrol
January 2025
Department of Nephrology, Wuhan Children's Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Center), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
Background: Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) is insensitive to steroid therapy and overwhelmingly progresses to kidney failure (KF), the known pathogenic genes of which include key subunits of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), a less-recognized contributor to glomerular podocyte injury.
Methods: After analyzing their clinical characterizations and obtaining parental consent, whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on patients with SRNS. Several nucleoporin (NUP) biallelic pathogenic variants were identified and further analyzed by cDNA-PCR sequencing from white cells of peripheral blood, minigene assay, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, and electron microscopy (EM) ultrastructure observation of kidney biopsy, as well as multiple in silico prediction tools, including 3D protein modeling.
J Med Chem
January 2025
Xi'an Key Laboratory for Antiviral and Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria Therapeutics Research, Xi'an 710021, China.
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria pose a global health threat, underscoring the need for new antibiotics. Lefamulin, the first novel-mechanism antibiotic approved by the FDA in decades, showcases pleuromutilins' promise due to low mutation frequency. However, their clinical use is limited by poor pharmacokinetics and organ toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Transl Med
January 2025
Hypothalamic Research Center, Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas TX, 75390, USA.
Disruption of hypothalamic melanocortin 4 receptors (MC4Rs) causes obesity in mice and humans. Here, we investigated the transcriptional regulation of in the hypothalamus. In mice, we show that the homeodomain transcription factor Orthopedia (OTP) is enriched in MC4R neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus and directly regulates transcription.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase (GGPPS), a key enzyme in protein prenylation, plays a critical role in cellular signal transduction and is a promising target for cancer therapy. However, the enzyme's native hexameric quaternary structure presents challenges for crystallographic studies. The primary objective of this study was to engineer dimeric forms of human GGPPS to facilitate high-resolution crystallographic analysis of its ligand binding interactions.
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