The fly brain lands in Tokyo: A report on the 3rd Asia Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference.

The third Asia Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference (APDNC3) was held in the Wako Campus of RIKEN in Tokyo, Japan, from February 27th to March 1st, 2024. While APDNC2 was held in Taiwan in 2019, the global coronavirus pandemic enforced a long hiatus. Hence, APDNC3 was a much-anticipated meeting that attracted ~218 scientists from 18 different countries and regions, 154 from outside Japan.

Nup358 restricts ER-mitochondria connectivity by modulating mTORC2/Akt/GSK3β signalling.

ER-mitochondria contact sites (ERMCSs) regulate processes, including calcium homoeostasis, energy metabolism and autophagy. Previously, it was shown that during growth factor signalling, mTORC2/Akt gets recruited to and stabilizes ERMCSs. Independent studies showed that GSK3β, a well-known Akt substrate, reduces ER-mitochondria connectivity by disrupting the VAPB-PTPIP51 tethering complex.

Probing the influence of strontium doping and annealing temperature on the structure and biocompatibility of hydroxyapatite nanorods.

Among numerous biologically important metal cations, strontium (Sr) has received much attention in bone tissue regeneration because of its osteoinductive properties combined with its ability to inhibit osteoclast activity. In this study, strontium-doped hydroxyapatite (Sr-HAp) nanorods with varying molar ratios of Ca : Sr (10 : 0, 9 : 1, 5 : 5, 3 : 7 and 0 : 10) were synthesized using the chemical precipitation technique. The synthesized Sr-HAp nanostructures were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies to understand their structural and morphological features, and composition.

Peptide Utility (PU) search server: A new tool for peptide sequence search from multiple databases.

Proteins are essential building blocks in humans that have garnered huge attention from researchers worldwide due to their numerous therapeutic applications. To date, different computational tools have been developed to extract pre-existing information on these biological molecules, but most of these tools suffer from limitations such as non-user friendly interface, redundancy of data, etc. To overcome these limitations, a user-friendly interface, the Peptide Utility (PU) webserver (https://chain-searching.

Role of Tau in Various Tauopathies, Treatment Approaches, and Emerging Role of Nanotechnology in Neurodegenerative Disorders.

A few protein kinases and phosphatases regulate tau protein phosphorylation and an imbalance in their enzyme activity results in tau hyper-phosphorylation. Aberrant tau phosphorylation causes tau to dissociate from the microtubules and clump together in the cytosol to form neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which lead to the progression of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies. Hence, targeting hyperphosphorylated tau protein is a restorative approach for treating neurodegenerative tauopathies.

The Cross-Talk between Epigenetic Gene Regulation and Signaling Pathways Regulates Cancer Pathogenesis.

Cancer begins due to uncontrolled cell division. Cancer cells are insensitive to the signals that control normal cell proliferation. This uncontrolled cell division is due to the accumulation of abnormalities in different factors associated with the cell division, including different cyclins, cell cycle checkpoint inhibitors, and cellular signaling.

Elucidating the Anti-Tumorigenic Efficacy of Oltipraz, a Dithiolethione, in Glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive primary brain tumor, displays a highly infiltrative growth pattern and remains refractory to chemotherapy. Phytochemicals carrying specificity and low cytotoxicity may serve as potent and safer alternatives to conventional chemotherapy for treating GBM. We have evaluated the anticancer effects of Oltipraz (Olt), a synthetic dithiolethione found in many vegetables, including crucifers.

Protective role of host complement system in infection.

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening fungal infection for immunocompromised hosts. It is, therefore, necessary to understand the immune pathways that control this infection. Although the primary infection site is the lungs, aspergillosis can disseminate to other organs through unknown mechanisms.

Enhanced olfactory memory detection in trap-design Y-mazes allows the study of imperceptible memory traces in .

The neural basis of behavior is identified by systematically manipulating the activity of specific neurons and screening for loss or gain of phenotype. Therefore, robust, high-scoring behavioral assays are necessary for determining the neural circuits of novel behaviors. We report a simple Y-maze design for olfactory learning and memory assay.

A concise review on implications of silver nanoparticles in bone tissue engineering.

Skeletal disorders represent a variety of degenerative diseases that affect bone and cartilage homeostasis. The regenerative capacity of bone is affected in osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures, congenital defects, and bone cancers. There is no viable, non-invasive treatment option and bone regeneration requires surgical intervention with the implantation of bone grafts.

Cyclodextrin Derivative Enhances the Ophthalmic Delivery of Poorly Soluble Azithromycin.

Azithromycin (AZM), a macrolide antibiotic used for the treatment of chlamydial conjunctivitis, is less effective for the treatment of this disease due to its poor bioavailability (38%). Various alternatives have been developed for improving the physicochemical properties (i.e.

RanGTPase links nucleo-cytoplasmic transport to the recruitment of cargoes into small extracellular vesicles.

Small extracellular vesicle (sEV)-mediated intercellular communication regulates multiple aspects of growth and development in multicellular organisms. However, the mechanism underlying cargo recruitment into sEVs is currently unclear. We show that the key nucleo-cytoplasmic transport (NCT) protein-RanGTPase, in its GTP-bound form (RanGTP), is enriched in sEVs secreted by mammalian cells.

Workshop on RanBP2/Nup358 and acute necrotizing encephalopathy.

Dominant missense mutations in RanBP2/Nup358 cause Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy (ANE), a pediatric disease where seemingly healthy individuals develop a cytokine storm that is restricted to the central nervous system in response to viral infection. Untreated, this condition leads to seizures, coma, long-term neurological damage and a high rate of mortality. The exact mechanism by which RanBP2 mutations contribute to the development of ANE remains elusive.

Highlighting the Potential Role of Exosomes as the Targeted Nanotherapeutic Carrier in Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer, being the second most common type of cancer, is a leading cause of death in the female population. Of all the available treatments existing for breast cancer, exosomes appear as an important medium for the site targeted delivery of the drugs. Exosomes, unlike all the other extracellular vesicles, play a vital role in the transport of numerous biomolecules throughout the body and can easily be detected because of the presence of specific biomarkers.

CRISPR based therapeutics: a new paradigm in cancer precision medicine.

Background: Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) systems are the latest addition to the plethora of gene-editing tools. These systems have been repurposed from their natural counterparts by means of both guide RNA and Cas nuclease engineering. These RNA-guided systems offer greater programmability and multiplexing capacity than previous generation gene editing tools based on zinc finger nucleases and transcription activator like effector nucleases.

SUMOylation modulates the function of DDX19 in mRNA export.

Nuclear export of mRNAs is a critical regulatory step in eukaryotic gene expression. The mRNA transcript undergoes extensive processing, and is loaded with a set of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) to form export-competent messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs) in the nucleus. During the transit of mRNPs through the nuclear pore complex (NPC), the DEAD-box ATPase - DDX19 (herein referring to DDX19A and DDX19B) - remodels mRNPs at the cytoplasmic side of the NPC, by removing a subset of RNA-binding proteins to terminate mRNP export.

Supporting Equity and Inclusion of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals in Professional Organizations.

Disability is an important and often overlooked component of diversity. Individuals with disabilities bring a rare perspective to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) because of their unique experiences approaching complex issues related to health and disability, navigating the healthcare system, creatively solving problems unfamiliar to many individuals without disabilities, managing time and resources that are limited by physical or mental constraints, and advocating for themselves and others in the disabled community. Yet, individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in STEMM.

Architectural and functional details of CF IA proteins involved in yeast 3'-end pre-mRNA processing and its significance for eukaryotes: A concise review.

In eukaryotes, maturation of pre-mRNA relies on its precise 3'-end processing. This processing involves co-transcriptional steps regulated by sequence elements and other proteins. Although, it holds tremendous importance, defect in the processing machinery will result in erroneous pre-mRNA maturation leading to defective translation.

Tissue-Restricted Stem Cells as Starting Cell Source for Efficient Generation of Pluripotent Stem Cells: An Overview.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have vast biomedical potential concerning disease modeling, drug screening and discovery, cell therapy, tissue engineering, and understanding organismal development. In the year 2006, a groundbreaking study reported the generation of iPSCs from mouse embryonic fibroblasts by viral transduction of four transcription factors, namely, Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. Subsequently, human iPSCs were generated by reprogramming fibroblasts as a starting cell source using two reprogramming factor cocktails [(i) OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC, and (ii) OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and LIN28].

Chromatin remodeling protein SMAR1 regulates adipogenesis by modulating the expression of PPARγ.

Adipogenesis is described as the process of conversion of pre-adipocytes into differentiated lipid-laden adipocytes. Adipogenesis is known to be regulated by a myriad of transcription factors and co-regulators. However, there is a dearth of information regarding the mechanisms that regulate these transcription factors and hence control adipogenesis.

AMPK: a key regulator of energy stress and calcium-induced autophagy.

Autophagy is a well-known cell-survival strategy orchestrated by a conserved set of proteins. It equips the cells with mechanisms to attain homeostasis during unfavorable conditions such as stress by breaking down the cellular components and reusing them for energy as well as for building new components required for survival. A basal level of autophagy is required for achieving homeostasis under normal conditions through regular turnover of macromolecules and organelles.

Structure-sequence features based prediction of phosphosites of serine/threonine protein kinases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Elucidation of signaling events in a pathogen is potentially important to tackle the infection caused by it. Such events mediated by protein phosphorylation play important roles in infection, and therefore, to predict the phosphosites and substrates of the serine/threonine protein kinases, we have developed a Machine learning-based approach for Mycobacterium tuberculosis serine/threonine protein kinases using kinase-peptide structure-sequence data. This approach utilizes features derived from kinase three-dimensional-structure environment and known phosphosite sequences to generate support vector machine (SVM)-based kinase-specific predictions of phosphosites of serine/threonine protein kinases (STPKs) with no or scarce data of their substrates.

Differential expression of complement receptors CR1/2 and CR4 by murine M1 and M2 macrophages.

Macrophages polarize into functionally divergent phenotypes - M1 and M2 - which express distinct receptors. These cells are known to express complement receptors, including CR1, CR3, and CR4. However, whether these complement receptors are differentially expressed on M1 and M2 macrophages is not yet known.

IL-3 inhibits rat osteoclast differentiation induced by TNF-α and other pro-osteoclastogenic cytokines.

IL-3, a haematopoiesis regulatory factor, has previously been shown to inhibit both mouse and human osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. Here, the role of rat IL-3 on rat osteoclast differentiation was evaluated to address whether the inhibitory action of IL-3 on osteoclastogenesis is conserved in various species. It was observed that IL-3 inhibited rat osteoclast differentiation induced by both TNF-α and receptor activator of NF-ĸB ligand (RANKL).