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Sci Signal 2021 Apr 20;14(679). Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

Chloride intracellular channels 1 (CLIC1) and 4 (CLIC4) are expressed in endothelial cells and regulate angiogenic behaviors in vitro, and the expression of is important for vascular development and function in mice. Here, we found that CLIC1 and CLIC4 in endothelial cells regulate critical G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) pathways associated with vascular development and disease. In cultured endothelial cells, we found that CLIC1 and CLIC4 transiently translocated to the plasma membrane in response to sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). Read More

Front Oncol 2021 18;11:609918. Epub 2021 Mar 18.

Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, United States.

Breast tumors contain both transformed epithelial cells and non-transformed stroma cells producing secreted factors that can promote metastasis. Previously, we demonstrated that the kinase MEKK1 regulates cell migration and gene expression, and that transgene-induced breast tumor metastasis is markedly inhibited in MEKK1-deficient mice. In this report, we examined the role of MEKK1 in stroma cell gene expression and the consequent effect on breast tumor cell function. Read More

Appl Environ Microbiol 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas and College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, 712100, China.

The genetic regulation of (Glomerella) sexual reproduction does not strictly adhere to the Ascomycota paradigm and remains poorly understood. Morphologically different but sexually compatible strain types termed 'plus' and 'minus' have been recognized but the biological and molecular distinctions between these strain types remain elusive. In this study, we characterized the sexual behaviors of a pair of plus and minus strains of with the aid of live cell nuclear-localized fluorescent protein labeling, gene expression and gene mutation analyses. Read More

J Ethnopharmacol 2021 Apr 13:114119. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China. Electronic address:

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: WeiChang'An Pill (WCAP) is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to clinically treat diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D); however, the underlying pharmacological mechanisms are unclear to date.

Aim Of The Study: To explore the mechanism underlying the therapeutic action of WCAP in IBS-D using a network pharmacology approach and in vivo experiments.

Materials And Methods: The active compounds of WCAP were selected from the TCM Systems Pharmacology Database and TCM Integrated Database, and the potential targets were identified using the Swiss Target Prediction and Similarity Ensemble Approach (SEA) databases. Read More

J Med Chem 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Cerevance Ltd, 418 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge, U.K.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder with the urgent unmet need for efficient symptomatic therapies with fewer side effects. GPR6 is an orphan G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) with highly restricted expression in dopamine receptor D2-type medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the indirect pathway, a striatal brain circuit which shows aberrant hyperactivity in PD patients. Potent and selective GPR6 inverse agonists (IAG) were developed starting from a low-potency screening hit (EC = 43 μM). Read More