Design and Characterization of a Cell-Penetrating Peptide Derived from the SOX2 Transcription Factor.

SOX2 is an oncogenic transcription factor overexpressed in nearly half of the basal-like triple-negative breast cancers associated with very poor outcomes. Targeting and inhibiting SOX2 is clinically relevant as high SOX2 mRNA levels are positively correlated with decreased overall survival and progression-free survival in patients affected with breast cancer. Given its key role as a master regulator of cell proliferation, SOX2 represents an important scaffold for the engineering of dominant-negative synthetic DNA-binding domains (DBDs) that act by blocking or interfering with the oncogenic activity of the endogenous transcription factor in cancer cells.

Melatonin Induces Melanogenesis in Human SK-MEL-1 Melanoma Cells Involving Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 and Reactive Oxygen Species.

Melatonin is present in all living organisms where it displays a diversity of physiological functions. Attenuation of melanogenesis by melatonin has been reported in some mammals and also in rodent melanoma cells. However, melatonin may also stimulate melanogenesis in human melanoma cells through mechanisms that have not yet been revealed.

Assessing the personal impact of epilepsy in a population-based cohort of Veterans.

Purpose: Epilepsy impacts patient lives in multidimensional ways. Although previous work has investigated epilepsy impact on health status, little is known about the overall quantified impact of epilepsy in Veterans. Our goal was to describe the impact of epilepsy on Veterans' lives using the Personal Impact of Epilepsy Scale (PIES) and determine the patient and clinical characteristics most strongly correlated with epilepsy impact.

Establishment of an Immortalized Mouse Bmp2 Knockout Dental Papilla Mesenchymal Cell Line.

Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (Bmp2) is essential for dentin formation. Bmp2 cKO mice exhibited similar phenotype to dentinogenesis imperfecta (DGI), showing dental pulp exposure, hypomineralized dentin, and delayed odontoblast differentiation. As it is relatively difficult to obtain primary Bmp2 cKO dental papilla mesenchymal cells and to maintain a long-term culture of these primary cells, availability of immortalized deleted Bmp2 dental papilla mesenchymal cells is critical for studying the underlying mechanism of Bmp2 signal in odontogenesis.

Melatonin enhances hyperthermia-induced apoptotic cell death in human leukemia cells.

Melatonin is an endogenous indoleamine with a wide range of biological functions. In addition to modulating circadian rhythms, it plays important roles in the health as an antioxidant. Melatonin has also the ability to induce apoptosis in cancer cells and to enhance the antitumoral activity of chemotherapeutic agents.