RHOJ, a small GTPase, could hold the key to the survival of tumor cells during cancer treatments. When epithelial cells transformed into mesenchymal cells, the Rho-related GTP-binding protein RhoJ regulated their resistance to chemotherapy. The scientists observed this mechanism in mouse models of skin squamous cell carcinoma, but their results could go beyond just one type of cancer. When the team started its experiments, which were published March 23, 2023, in Nature, “I had never heard about RHOJ before,” the lead author Cédric Blanpain told BioWorld. Blanpain is the director of the Laboratory of Stem Cells and Cancer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
The role that mitochondrial inner membrane protein (IMMT) has in regards to clinicopathology and tumor microenvironment in breast cancer in unclear. IMMT is part of the mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) and its function is to maintain mitochondrial integrity.
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine presented data from postnatal testing with the aim of providing molecular diagnosis for a patient with prenatally diagnosed heterotaxy syndrome.
Genome sequencing is a successful approach for simultaneously detecting both copy number variants and sequence variants in genes involved in autosomal recessive diseases.
Researchers from the University of Utah applied RNASeq analysis for an undiagnosed case of a critically ill newborn with a complex phenotype, with the aim of providing better diagnosis and improving treatment outcomes.
Investigators from the Thomas Jefferson University have presented a case report of a 27-year-old pregnant patient in whom cystic hygroma, extensive anasarca, bilateral pleural effusions, ascites, abnormally curved sacrum and hydrocephalus with parenchymal volume loss, among others were detected by prenatal imaging during pregnancy (onset was at about 21 weeks of gestation).
Acid sphingomyelinase deficiency (ASMD) is a progressive lysosomal storage disease caused by autosomal recessive pathogenic variants in the SMPD1 gene encoding acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). In a recent study, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine aimed to assess the levels of plasma lyso-sphingomyelin, a deacylated form of sphingomyelin, in patients with ASMD pre- and post-treatment with olipudase alfa (recombinant-human acid sphingomyelinase).
Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare disease of ribosome biogenesis affecting multiple systems, with predominant manifestations being exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, bone marrow failure and leukemia predisposition, among others.