Impact of Tele-Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) Clinics on the Respiratory Outcomes of Newborns.

Objectives: To assess the respiratory outcomes of newborns receiving Kangaroo mother care (KMC) in remote units of Chhattisgarh, India by providing telementoring to medical staff and parents.

Methods: In 2022, this comparative study was carried out at one SNCU in Chhattisgarh, India. The study consisted of gathering data before intervention and utilizing video call technology for remote mentoring to encourage KMC among both staff and parents.

Extracellular Vesicles From Mesenchymal Umbilical Cord Cells Exert Protection Against Oxidative Stress and Fibrosis in a Rat Model of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia.

Oxidative stress and fibrosis are important stress responses that characterize bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a disease for which only a therapy but not a cure has been developed. In this work, we investigated the effects of mesenchymal stromal cells-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) on lung and brain compartment in an animal model of hyperoxia-induced BPD. Rat pups were intratracheally injected with MSC-EVs produced by human umbilical cord-derived MSC, following the Good Manufacturing Practice-grade (GMP-grade).

LSA-50 paper: An alternative to P81 phosphocellulose paper for radiometric protein kinase assays.

Radiometric assays have widely been used for measuring protein kinase activity for decades. In addition, several non-radiometric kinase assay formats have been developed over the years, including luciferase-based and fluorescence-based assays. However, radiometric assays are still considered as the "gold standard" for protein kinase assays, because of their direct readout, high sensitivity, reproducibility, reliability, and very low background signals.

Syntenin-knock out reduces exosome turnover and viral transduction.

Exosomal transfers represent an important mode of intercellular communication. Syntenin is a small scaffold protein that, when binding ALIX, can direct endocytosed syndecans and syndecan cargo to budding endosomal membranes, supporting the formation of intraluminal vesicles that compose the source of a major class of exosomes. Syntenin, however, can also support the recycling of these same components to the cell surface.

The Scribble family in cancer: twentieth anniversary.

Among the more than 160 PDZ containing proteins described in humans, the cytoplasmic scaffold Scribble stands out because of its essential role in many steps of cancer development and dissemination. Its fame has somehow blurred the importance of homologous proteins, Erbin and Lano, all belonging to the LRR and PDZ (LAP) protein family first described twenty years ago. In this review, we will retrace the history of LAP family protein research and draw attention to their contribution in cancer by detailing the features of its members at the structural and functional levels, and highlighting their shared-but also different-implication in the tumoral process.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-based protein kinase D inhibitors.

The multiple roles of protein kinase D (PKD) in various cancer hallmarks have been repeatedly reported. Therefore, the search for novel PKD inhibitors and their evaluation as antitumor agents has gained considerable attention. In this work, novel pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine based pan-PKD inhibitors with structural variety at position 1 were synthesized and evaluated for biological activity.

Syntenin: Key player in cancer exosome biogenesis and uptake?

Cancer exosomes are gaining considerable amount of attention in basic and applied clinical research for their established role in the modulation of the tumor niche, and their broad-range contribution to tumor-host cross-talk. Supporting evidence to their role in tumorigenesis comes from the observation that exosome secretion, composition and functional effects are all altered as tumors become more aggressive. At the molecular level, the mechanisms underlying exosome biogenesis and uptake are far from being understood.

Frizzled 7 and PIP2 binding by syntenin PDZ2 domain supports Frizzled 7 trafficking and signalling.

PDZ domain-containing proteins work as intracellular scaffolds to control spatio-temporal aspects of cell signalling. This function is supported by the ability of their PDZ domains to bind other proteins such as receptors, but also phosphoinositide lipids important for membrane trafficking. Here we report a crystal structure of the syntenin PDZ tandem in complex with the carboxy-terminal fragment of Frizzled 7 and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2).

Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibition (2P2I)-Oriented Chemical Library Accelerates Hit Discovery.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) represent an enormous source of opportunity for therapeutic intervention. We and others have recently pinpointed key rules that will help in identifying the next generation of innovative drugs to tackle this challenging class of targets within the next decade. We used these rules to design an oriented chemical library corresponding to a set of diverse "PPI-like" modulators with cores identified as privileged structures in therapeutics.

Syntenin controls migration, growth, proliferation, and cell cycle progression in cancer cells.

The scaffold protein syntenin abounds during fetal life where it is important for developmental movements. In human adulthood, syntenin gain-of-function is increasingly associated with various cancers and poor prognosis. Depending on the cancer model analyzed, syntenin affects various signaling pathways.

Cellular organelles facilitate dimerization of a newly identified Arf from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

GTPases of the Ras superfamily regulate a wide variety of cellular processes including vesicular transport and various secretory pathways of the cell. ADP - ribosylation factor (ARF) belongs to one of the five major families of the Ras superfamily and serves as an important component of vesicle formation and transport machinery of the cells. The binding of GTP to these Arfs and its subsequent hydrolysis, induces conformational changes in these proteins leading to their enzymatic activities.

Phosphoinositides and PDZ domain scaffolds.

The discovery that PSD-95/Discs large/ZO-1 (PDZ) domains can function as lipid-binding modules, in particular interacting with phosphoinositides (PIs), was made more than 10 years ago (Mol Cell 9(6): 1215-1225, 2002). Confirmatory studies and a series of functional follow-ups established PDZ domains as dual specificity modules displaying both peptide and lipid binding, and prompted a rethinking of the mode of action of PDZ domains in the control of cell signaling. In this chapter, after introducing PDZ domains, PIs and methods for studying protein-lipid interactions, we focus on (i) the prevalence and the specificity of PDZ-PIs interactions, (ii) the molecular determinants of PDZ-PIs interactions, (iii) the integration of lipid and peptide binding by PDZ domains, (iv) the common features of PIs interacting PDZ domains and (v) the regulation and functional significance of PDZ-PIs interactions.

Prevalence, specificity and determinants of lipid-interacting PDZ domains from an in-cell screen and in vitro binding experiments.

Background: PDZ domains are highly abundant protein-protein interaction modules involved in the wiring of protein networks. Emerging evidence indicates that some PDZ domains also interact with phosphoinositides (PtdInsPs), important regulators of cell polarization and signaling. Yet our knowledge on the prevalence, specificity, affinity, and molecular determinants of PDZ-PtdInsPs interactions and on their impact on PDZ-protein interactions is very limited.