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- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(author)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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In: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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- Cao, Christopher, et al.
(author)
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Prospective Registry On Mesothelioma Peritonei Treatment (PROMPT) : study design and rationale
- 2012
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In: Tumori (Milano). - 0300-8916 .- 2038-2529. ; 98:1, s. 166-171
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM) is an aggressive and rare form of cancer arising from the mesothelial lining of the peritoneum. Due to the latency period between asbestos exposure and disease progression, the peak in incidence of DMPM is likely to occur in the coming decade for many industrialized nations, with a multitude of industrial, medico-legal and health-related implications(1,2). Traditional therapeutic modalities such as systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy have not been proven to be effective in the treatment of DMPM, and patients diagnosed with the disease have a life expectancy of less than 12 months(3-5). Combined treatment involving cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has been utilized in several specialized centers around the world and has been found to be a feasible procedure with encouraging survival outcomes(6-8).
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3. |
- Jacobs, Kevin B, et al.
(author)
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Detectable clonal mosaicism and its relationship to aging and cancer.
- 2012
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In: Nature Genetics. - New York : Nature Publishing Group. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 44:6, s. 651-658
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In an analysis of 31,717 cancer cases and 26,136 cancer-free controls from 13 genome-wide association studies, we observed large chromosomal abnormalities in a subset of clones in DNA obtained from blood or buccal samples. We observed mosaic abnormalities, either aneuploidy or copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity, of >2 Mb in size in autosomes of 517 individuals (0.89%), with abnormal cell proportions of between 7% and 95%. In cancer-free individuals, frequency increased with age, from 0.23% under 50 years to 1.91% between 75 and 79 years (P = 4.8 × 10(-8)). Mosaic abnormalities were more frequent in individuals with solid tumors (0.97% versus 0.74% in cancer-free individuals; odds ratio (OR) = 1.25; P = 0.016), with stronger association with cases who had DNA collected before diagnosis or treatment (OR = 1.45; P = 0.0005). Detectable mosaicism was also more common in individuals for whom DNA was collected at least 1 year before diagnosis with leukemia compared to cancer-free individuals (OR = 35.4; P = 3.8 × 10(-11)). These findings underscore the time-dependent nature of somatic events in the etiology of cancer and potentially other late-onset diseases.
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4. |
- Kessler, Richard, et al.
(author)
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Results from the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge
- 2010
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In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. - : IOP Publishing. - 0004-6280 .- 1538-3873. ; 122:898, s. 1415-1431
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report results from the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge (SNPhotCC), a publicly released mix of simulated supernovae (SNe), with types (Ia, Ibc, and II) selected in proportion to their expected rates. The simulation was realized in the griz filters of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with realistic observing conditions (sky noise, point-spread function, and atmospheric transparency) based on years of recorded conditions at the DES site. Simulations of non-Ia-type SNe are based on spectroscopically confirmed light curves that include unpublished non-Ia samples donated from the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP), the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II). A spectroscopically confirmed subset was provided for training. We challenged scientists to run their classification algorithms and report a type and photo-z for each SN. Participants from 10 groups contributed 13 entries for the sample that included a host-galaxy photo-z for each SN and nine entries for the sample that had no redshift information. Several different classification strategies resulted in similar performance, and for all entries the performance was significantly better for the training subset than for the unconfirmed sample. For the spectroscopically unconfirmed subset, the entry with the highest average figure of merit for classifying SNe Ia has an efficiency of 0.96 and an SN Ia purity of 0.79. As a public resource for the future development of photometric SN classification and photo-z estimators, we have released updated simulations with improvements based on our experience from the SNPhotCC, added samples corresponding to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the SDSS-II, and provided the answer keys so that developers can evaluate their own analysis.
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6. |
- Norddahl, Gudmundur, et al.
(author)
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Reduced repression of cytokine signaling ameliorates age-induced decline in hematopoietic stem cell function
- 2012
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In: Aging Cell. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 1474-9718 .- 1474-9726. ; 11:6, s. 1128-1131
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aging causes profound effects on the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) pool, including an altered output of mature progeny and enhanced self-propagation of repopulating-defective HSCs. An important outstanding question is whether HSCs can be protected from aging. The signal adaptor protein LNK negatively regulates hematopoiesis at several cellular stages. It has remained unclear how the enhanced sensitivity to cytokine signaling caused by LNK deficiency affects hematopoiesis upon aging. Our findings demonstrate that aged LNK-/- HSCs displayed a robust overall reconstitution potential and gave rise to a hematopoietic system with a balanced lineage distribution. Although aged LNK-/- HSCs displayed a distinct molecular profile in which reduced proliferation was central, little or no difference in the proliferation of aged LNK-/- HSCs was observed after transplantation when compared to aged WT HSCs. This coincided with equal telomere maintenance in WT and LNK-/- HSCs. Collectively, our studies suggest that enhanced cytokine signaling can counteract functional age-related HSC decline.
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7. |
- van Es, Michael A, et al.
(author)
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Angiogenin variants in Parkinson disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- 2011
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In: Annals of Neurology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0364-5134 .- 1531-8249. ; 70:6, s. 964-973
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Several studies have suggested an increased frequency of variants in the gene encoding angiogenin (ANG) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Interestingly, a few ALS patients carrying ANG variants also showed signs of Parkinson disease (PD). Furthermore, relatives of ALS patients have an increased risk to develop PD, and the prevalence of concomitant motor neuron disease in PD is higher than expected based on chance occurrence. We therefore investigated whether ANG variants could predispose to both ALS and PD.METHODS: We reviewed all previous studies on ANG in ALS and performed sequence experiments on additional samples, which allowed us to analyze data from 6,471 ALS patients and 7,668 controls from 15 centers (13 from Europe and 2 from the USA). We sequenced DNA samples from 3,146 PD patients from 6 centers (5 from Europe and 1 from the USA). Statistical analysis was performed using the variable threshold test, and the Mantel-Haenszel procedure was used to estimate odds ratios.RESULTS: Analysis of sequence data from 17,258 individuals demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of ANG variants in both ALS and PD patients compared to control subjects (p = 9.3 × 10(-6) for ALS and p = 4.3 × 10(-5) for PD). The odds ratio for any ANG variant in patients versus controls was 9.2 for ALS and 6.7 for PD.INTERPRETATION: The data from this multicenter study demonstrate that there is a strong association between PD, ALS, and ANG variants. ANG is a genetic link between ALS and PD.
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