Master molecular switch may prevent the spread of cancer cells to distant sites in the body

... The master-switch is called the Epithelial splicing Regulatory Protein, and comes in two closely ... genes are spliced together. This is achieved by splicing different exons -- the sequence of DNA that codes ... of Medicine. "ESRP1 and ESRP2 are necessary for splicing FGFR2 mRNA in the epithelial cell manner. This is ...

Research Shows Why Statins Don't Work for Everyone

... exon when the protein is assembled. But depending on how this HMGCR splicing occurs, a statin drug has a better or worse chance of working as it should ... the statin response than HMGCR. So, testing patients for the alternative splicing version of the protein before writing a statin prescription probably isn't ...

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards prestigious fellowships to 17 top young scientists

... gene may be expressed as multiple, distinct protein forms. Gaining a better understanding of this process is important, as disruption of normal splicing can give rise to cancer. Matthew F. Calabrese, PhD [HHMI Fellow] with his sponsor Brenda A. Schulman, PhD, at St. Jude Children's Research ...

Mayo Genomic Discovery: Protecting Kidney Function During Heart Failure

... because many heart failure patients experience low blood pressure and BNP lowered it further. The Mayo investigators discovered an alternative splicing (AS) of BNP in messenger RNA (produced by the same gene). When they shortened the amino acid sequence of ASBNP for testing, they found that it had ...

Genes Seem to Affect Tissues Differently

... be important to disease formation. "A genetic variant might influence the expression of a gene or the type of protein that is made because of splicing changes in brain cells but not in blood cells, or in blood cells but not brain cells," senior author David Goldstein, director of the Center for ...

Penn researchers gain new insights on spinal muscular atrophy

... snRNP repertoire or the 'snRNPertoire,'" says Dreyfuss. "When SMN levels are reduced, the biochemical balance needed to make the snRNP complexes for splicing RNA is impaired." The Dreyfuss lab looked at reduced SMN levels in cultured cells and mice and found that changes in levels of the snRNPs, as well ...

Gene newly linked to inherited ALS may also play role in common dementia

... mouse will generate a model for ALS-like pathology. If this affirms the link, they will begin tracing the effects of the mutation on genes whose splicing is regulated by TDP-43, working to identify key links in the chain reaction that leads to motor neuron death. These links may become new targets for ...

JCI table of contents: Nov. 15, 2007

... authors therefore suggested that it might be possible to use this approach to treat myotonia in individuals with DM1. TITLE: Correction of ClC-1 splicing eliminates chloride channelopathy and myotonia in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy AUTHOR CONTACT: Charles A. Thornton University of ...

Loss of gene leads to protein splicing and buildup of toxic proteins in neurons

... In the Sept. 26 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists demonstrate that absence of a gene known as progranulin leads to errant splicing of a protein that usually operates within the nucleus of a nerve cell (neuron). When cut these proteins move into the body of the cell, and begin to ...

Alternative Splicing in Neuronal Development

... (UCLA) and colleagues detail how alternative splicing is reprogrammed during neuronal development. Alternative splicing refers to the processing of an RNA transcript ... (PTB) is a well-known inhibitor of alternative splicing in various cell types. A neuronal version of PTB ...

Alternative Splicing - Molecular Cloning

... Alternative splicing is a molecular processwhich enables multiple ... snippets of RNA affects the way that alternative splicing is controlled in the brain. Though scientists have begun to appreciate how alternative splicing adds a layer of complexity to brain processes ...

Cancer cell behavior during Metastasis – New finding

... genetic copying program inside cells. Alternative splicing determines how the DNA is chopped into pieces and ... the gene produces. In cancer cells, the splicing machinery goes awry -- as do myriad functions within the cells. When the splicing process proceeds one way, the cells become ...

Platelets May Be The Source Of Gene Regulations

... isolated from the blood of study subjects, the Utah researchers found that splicing also takes place in the cytoplasm of circulating platelets. The U ... to pursue the mechanisms that are involved. Researchers theorize that splicing outside the nucleus is one of a number of intricate ways the body ...

Protein Splicing Upsets the DNA Colinearity Paradigm

... sequences was only interrupted by RNA splicing,” says LICR's Dr. Benoit Van den Eynde, the study's senior author. "This new study shows that protein splicing also occurs, and may even result in protein fragments, or peptides, being spliced together in the order opposite to that which occurs in the parental ...

'Mix and match' of proteins may have a significant role in immunity

... a bone-marrow transplant, activated an immune response from the Tcells in the transplanted marrow. Scientists contemplate that peptide splicing may enhance the immune system’s recognition of virus infected cells. Since viruses replicate inside the cell, they could produce new peptides on the ...

Gene is related to premature ageing disease

... progeria syndrome, but they have developed a process to reverse the symptoms. The process will eliminate mutant LMNA mRNA and lamin A protein using splicing correction to the activated cryptic splice site. On doing this, the HGPS fibroblasts become like normal cell nuclei. This helps in the proper ...