The Many Faces of Astrocytes in Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and is the most common cause of dementia in an aging population. The majority of research effort has focused on the role of neurons in neurodegeneration and current therapies have limited ability to slow disease progression. Recently more attention has been given to the role of astrocytes in the process of neurodegeneration.

Angiogenic gene networks are dysregulated in opioid use disorder: evidence from multi-omics and imaging of postmortem human brain.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a public health crisis in the U.S. that causes over 50 thousand deaths annually due to overdose.

pH, Lactate, and Hypoxia: Reciprocity in Regulating High-Affinity Monocarboxylate Transporter Expression in Glioblastoma.

Highly malignant brain tumors harbor the aberrant propensity for aerobic glycolysis, the excessive conversion of glucose to lactic acid even in the presence of ample tissue oxygen. Lactic acid is rapidly effluxed to the tumor microenvironment via a group of plasma-membrane transporters denoted monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) to prevent "self-poisoning." One isoform, MCT2, has the highest affinity for lactate and thus should have the ability to respond to microenvironment conditions such as hypoxia, lactate, and pH to help maintain high glycolytic flux in the tumor.

Increased metastasis with loss of E2F2 in Myc-driven tumors.

In human breast cancer, mortality is associated with metastasis to distant sites. Therefore, it is critical to elucidate the biological mechanisms that underlie tumor progression and metastasis. Using signaling pathway signatures we previously predicted a role for E2F transcription factors in Myc induced tumors.

Low-cost media formulation for culture of brain tumor spheroids (neurospheres).

Recent studies have found that the biological features of primary tumors are faithfully recapitulated when a patient's tumor is processed and then maintained as a 3-D spheroid in specialized cell culture media. However, a major drawback for maintenance and routine passage of primary tumors as spheroids has been the high cost of custom-formulated media compared to regular serum-supplemented media. Here we report the formulation of a cost-effective, serum-free medium in which high-grade primary brain tumor (glioblastoma) explants can be established and maintained as spheroids.

Metabolic targeting of lactate efflux by malignant glioma inhibits invasiveness and induces necrosis: an in vivo study.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are the most malignant among brain tumors. They are frequently refractory to chemotherapy and radiotherapy with mean patient survival of approximately 6 months, despite surgical intervention. The highly glycolytic nature of glioblastomas describes their propensity to metabolize glucose to lactic acid at an elevated rate.