| 1. |
- Carta, Giada, et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptional landscape of mitochondrial electron transport chain inhibition in renal cells
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cell Biology and Toxicology. - 0742-2091 .- 1573-6822. ; 39, s. 3031-3059
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analysis of the transcriptomic alterations upon chemical challenge, provides in depth mechanistic information on the compound’s toxic mode of action, by revealing specific pathway activation and other transcriptional modulations. Mapping changes in cellular behaviour to chemical insult, facilitates the characterisation of chemical hazard. In this study, we assessed the transcriptional landscape of mitochondrial impairment through the inhibition of the electron transport chain (ETC) in a human renal proximal tubular cell line (RPTEC/TERT1). We identified the unfolded protein response pathway (UPR), particularly the PERK/ATF4 branch as a common cellular response across ETC I, II and III inhibitions. This finding and the specific genes elaborated may aid the identification of mitochondrial liabilities of chemicals in both legacy data and prospective transcriptomic studies.
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| 2. |
- Cherian, RM, et al.
(författare)
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Fluorescent hiPSC-derived MYH6-mScarlet cardiomyocytes for real-time tracking, imaging, and cardiotoxicity assays
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cell biology and toxicology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-6822 .- 0742-2091. ; 39:1, s. 145-163
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) hold great potential in the cardiovascular field for human disease modeling, drug development, and regenerative medicine. However, multiple hurdles still exist for the effective utilization of hiPSC-CMs as a human-based experimental platform that can be an alternative to the current animal models. To further expand their potential as a research tool and bridge the translational gap, we have generated a cardiac-specific hiPSC reporter line that differentiates into fluorescent CMs using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology. The CMs illuminated with the mScarlet fluorescence enable their non-invasive continuous tracking and functional cellular phenotyping, offering a real-time 2D/3D imaging platform. Utilizing the reporter CMs, we developed an imaging-based cardiotoxicity screening system that can monitor distinct drug-induced structural toxicity and CM viability in real time. The reporter fluorescence enabled visualization of sarcomeric disarray and displayed a drug dose–dependent decrease in its fluorescence. The study also has demonstrated the reporter CMs as a biomaterial cytocompatibility analysis tool that can monitor dynamic cell behavior and maturity of hiPSC-CMs cultured in various biomaterial scaffolds. This versatile cardiac imaging tool that enables real time tracking and high-resolution imaging of CMs has significant potential in disease modeling, drug screening, and toxicology testing.Graphical abstract
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| 3. |
- Lungu-Mitea, Sebastian, et al.
(författare)
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Development, scrutiny, and modulation of transient reporter gene assays of the xenobiotic metabolism pathway in zebrafish hepatocytes
- 2023
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Ingår i: Cell Biology and Toxicology. - : Springer Nature. - 0742-2091 .- 1573-6822. ; 39, s. 991-1013
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The "toxicology in the twenty-first century" paradigm shift demands the development of alternative in vitro test systems. Especially in the field of ecotoxicology, coverage of aquatic species-specific assays is relatively scarce. Transient reporter gene assays could be a quick, economical, and reliable bridging technology. However, the user should be aware of potential pitfalls that are influenced by reporter vector geometry. Here, we report the development of an AhR-responsive transient reporter-gene assay in the permanent zebrafish hepatocytes cell line (ZFL). Additionally, we disclose how viral, constitutive promoters within reporter-gene assay cassettes induce squelching of the primary signal. To counter this, we designed a novel normalization vector, bearing an endogenous zebrafish-derived genomic promoter (zfEF1aPro), which rescues the squelching-delimited system, thus, giving new insights into the modulation of transient reporter systems under xenobiotic stress. Finally, we uncovered how the ubiquitously used ligand BNF promiscuously activates multiple toxicity pathways of the xenobiotic metabolism and cellular stress response in an orchestral manner, presumably leading to a concentration-related inhibition of the AhR/ARNT/XRE-toxicity pathway and non-monotonous concentration-response curves. We named such a multi-level inhibitory mechanism that might mask effects as "maisonette squelching."
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| 4. |
- Sanchez, Aniel, et al.
(författare)
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Novel functional proteins coded by the human genome discovered in metastases of melanoma patients
- 2020
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Ingår i: Cell Biology and Toxicology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0742-2091 .- 1573-6822. ; 36:3, s. 261-272
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the advanced stages, malignant melanoma (MM) has a very poor prognosis. Due to tremendous efforts in cancer research over the last 10 years, and the introduction of novel therapies such as targeted therapies and immunomodulators, the rather dark horizon of the median survival has dramatically changed from under 1 year to several years. With the advent of proteomics, deep-mining studies can reach low-abundant expression levels. The complexity of the proteome, however, still surpasses the dynamic range capabilities of current analytical techniques. Consequently, many predicted protein products with potential biological functions have not yet been verified in experimental proteomic data. This category of ‘missing proteins’ (MP) is comprised of all proteins that have been predicted but are currently unverified. As part of the initiative launched in 2016 in the USA, the European Cancer Moonshot Center has performed numerous deep proteomics analyses on samples from MM patients. In this study, nine MPs were clearly identified by mass spectrometry in MM metastases. Some MPs significantly correlated with proteins that possess identical PFAM structural domains; and other MPs were significantly associated with cancer-related proteins. This is the first study to our knowledge, where unknown and novel proteins have been annotated in metastatic melanoma tumour tissue.
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