KAI DANG, HAFIZ MUHAMMAD UMER FAROOQ, YUAN GAO, XIAONI DENG, AIRONG QIAN^*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.2, pp. 269-281, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.023766 - 18 November 2022

Abstract As a key coordinator of metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is vitally involved in skeletal muscle maintenance. AMPK exerts its cellular effects through its function as a serine/threonine protein kinase by regulating many downstream targets and plays important roles in the development and growth of skeletal muscle. AMPK is activated by phosphorylation and exerts its function as a kinase in many processes, including synthesis and degradation of proteins, mitochondrial biogenesis, glucose uptake, and fatty acid and cholesterol metabolism. Skeletal muscle atrophy is a result of various diseases or disorders and is characterized by a decrease More >

Christopher J. Papayannakos^1,*, Daniel Zhu^1,*, Bongseok Jung², Ali A. Rana², James A. DeVoti^2,3, Allan L. Abramson⁴, Vincent R. Bonagura^2,3, Bettie M. Steinberg^2,5

European Cytokine Network, Vol.33, No.2, pp. 19-29, 2022, DOI:10.1684/ecn.2022.0479

Abstract IL-36γ, a pro-inflammatory member of the IL-1 cytokine superfamily, can be induced and secreted by normal human foreskin keratinocytes (HFKs) in response to pathogenic stimuli, however, the mechanisms underlying the secretion are unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that stimulation with the TLR3 agonist, poly (I:C), led to a delayed secretion of IL-36γ compared to stimulation with the TLR5 agonist, flagellin, despite equal levels of the cytokine (p = 0.006). IL-36γ was shown to be released from HFKs in its inactive, uncleaved form, based on western blotting. Moreover, recombinant IL-36γ in its activated, cleaved form… More >

NA HU^1,2,#, SHIQING ZHANG^2,3,#, AQUAN JIN², LIANYING GUO², ZHENYUN QU², JUN WANG^2,*

Oncology Research, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 89-97, 2022, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.027058 - 05 January 2023

Abstract We aimed to explore the molecular mechanism that were involved in SPINK1-induced proliferation and clonogenic survival of human colorectal carcinoma (CRC) HT29 cells. Initially, we generated HT29 cells either permanently silencing or overexpressing SPINK1 protein. The results showed that SPINK1 overexpression (OE) significantly stimulated the proliferation and clonal formation of HT29 cells at the varied time points. Secondly, we found SPINK1 OE enhanced the ratio of LC3II/LC3I and the level of autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5), whereas SPINK1 knockdown (Kd) reversed the above outcome under normal culturing and/or fasting condition in the cells, indicating its role… More >

AHMED M. ELSHAZLY^1,2, TUONG VI V. NGUYEN¹, DAVID A. GEWIRTZ^1,*

Oncology Research, Vol.30, No.1, pp. 1-12, 2022, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.026459 - 06 December 2022

Abstract PARP inhibitors have proven to be effective in conjunction with conventional therapeutics in the treatment of various solid as well as hematologic malignancies, particularly when the tumors are deficient in DNA repair pathways. However, as the case with other chemotherapeutic agents, their effectiveness is often compromised by the development of resistance. PARP inhibitors have consistently been reported to promote autophagy, a process that maintains cellular homeostasis and acts as an energy source by the degradation and reutilization of damaged subcellular organelles and proteins. Autophagy can exhibit different functional properties, the most prominent being cytoprotective. In More >

DONGMEI GAO^1,#, JIAOE CHEN^2,#, HONGZHANG LI^2,*, JUN ZHAO^3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.10, pp. 2275-2280, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.021008 - 13 June 2022

Abstract Introduction: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is reported to be involved in the occurrence of many human diseases. To further investigate the biological changes of HCMV, we analyzed the relevant factors that affect the autophagy caused by HCMV infection. Methods: Firstly, we cultured human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HELF) cells with HCMV infection, and evaluated the effects of HELF cells infected with different viruses through Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), Real-time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR), Acridine orange (AO) staining and Western blotting (WB) experiments. Results: Through the above experiments, we found that the combined treatment of HCMV infection and carbamazepine, More >

YAPING WANG^1,2,#,*; XIAOHONG XUE^2,#; ZHEN ZHAO^1,#; XIAOLIN LI²; ZHIYONG ZHU¹

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.7, pp. 1651-1659, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018559 - 17 March 2022

Abstract The pathogenesis of high altitude-related gastric mucosal injury remains poorly understood, this study aimed to investigate the role of autophagy in hypoxia-induced apoptosis of rat gastric mucosal cells. Rats were randomized into four groups which were maintained at an altitude of 400 m (P) or received no treatment (H), autophagy inducer rapamycin (H+AI) or autophagy inhibitor 3-MA (H+AB) at an altitude of 4,300 m for 1, 7, 14 and 21 days, respectively, and the morphology, ultrastructure, autophagy, and apoptosis of gastric mucosal tissues were examined. Gastric mucosal epithelial cells CC-R039 were cultured under conditions of… More >

JIAN XU^1,#, HAILONG GE^1,#, CHEN CHAO¹, FENG MO¹, YU WANG¹, DENGKUI ZHANG¹, XIAOXIAO ZHENG², LI ZHENG², XUEMEI LU², WEI CHEN², QUN XU^1,*, WEIXIN YU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.6, pp. 1493-1503, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016962 - 07 February 2022

Abstract Although sorafenib has been found to prolong the survival time of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), sorafenib resistance remains an important challenge. Increasing studies have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) contribute to drug resistance in a wide number of cancers. Human periodontal ligament stem cell (PDLSC) osteogenesis impairment-related lncRNA (POIR) is a recently defined lncRNA for which little is known regarding its function. Our study aimed to reveal the role of POIR in the development of HCC cell sorafenib resistance. The level of POIR expression in patients and tumor cells was examined by Reverse… More >

XIAOXU LI, YUN WANG, JUAN FANG, ZHI WANG, XIAOAN TAO, JUAN XIA, BIN CHENG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.2, pp. 441-451, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014844 - 20 October 2021

Abstract Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most common tumor worldwide, and half of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients are with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). 300,000 new cases of OSCC were reported annually. Even with multi-modality treatment, the prognosis of OSCC remains unsatisfactory. Thus, it is urgent to discover novel therapeutic targets for OSCC. Some microarray studies have revealed that Keratin 4 (KRT4) is downregulated in OSCC, whereas its role in OSCC development remains unknown. The present study revealed that KRT4 suppressed OSCC progression by inducing cell apoptosis and inhibiting More >

MENGQIU CHENG^1,2, WEI CAO², GUODONG CAO¹, XIN XU^1,2,*, BO CHEN^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 97-109, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015608 - 29 September 2021

Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancer worldwide. Although emerging evidence indicates that autophagy-related long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in the progression of GC, the prognosis of GC based on autophagy is still deficient. The Cancer Genome of Atlas stomach adenocarcinoma (TCGA-STAD) dataset was downloaded and separated into a training set and a testing set randomly. Then, 24 autophagy-related lncRNAs were found strongly associated with the survival of the TCGA-STAD dataset. 11 lncRNAs were selected to build the risk score model through the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator… More >

JIANRONG YANG^1,#, WAN CHEN^2,#, XING ZHOU^3,#, YAOXUAN LI^4,#, ZHIHUANG NONG⁵, LIYUAN ZHOU⁴, XUAN WEI⁴, XIAORONG PAN⁶, CHUNXIA CHEN⁷, WENSHENG LU³

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 137-148, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.016807 - 28 September 2021

Abstract In this study, we investigated the protective effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on PC12 and H9C2 cell damage caused by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion and its possible mechanism. PC12 and H9C2 cell oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion model were established. Cells were divided into a control group, model group, hyperbaric air (HBA) group and HBO group. The cell viability was detected by the CCK8 assay. Hoechst 33342 and PI staining assays and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) assays were used to detect cell apoptosis. The ultrastructure of cells, including autophagosomes, lysosomes, and apoptosis, were examined using a transmission electron microscope. The… More >