Detecting the active forms of proteases by using activity-based probes in complex proteomes has become an intensively investigated. The detection of cathepsins, has relied on using the probes that incorporate reactive electrophilic moieties to modify a cysteine in the active site covalently. We first report on an activity-based probe targeting cathepsins and incorporating a photo inducible benzophenone group for covalent labelling. When tested, this probe selectively and specifically detected cathepsin L making the photo affinity labelling promising for developing selective protease probes.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2681935
Cytotoxicity and the mechanisms of cell death induced by xanthohumol (XN) were compared in normal and GBM cells for the potential use of XN in cancer therapy. The GBM cells proved more susceptible to XN than normal asrocytes. XN induced more severe apoptosis in GBM cells than in astrocytes, which was associated with p53 activation and an elevated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, indicating on intrinsic caspase-dependent apoptosis in GBM cells, in which lower concentration of XN inhibited invasion. Selective sensitivity of cells to XN makes it a candidate for adjuvant therapy in the treatment of GBM.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2541135
The ability of Microcystis aeruginosa, one of the most frequent toxic bloom-forming cyanobacterial species, to adergo apoptosis by pursuing morphological, molecular and physiological characteristics after the induction of stress has been investigated. Elevated caspase-3-like activity, nontypical DNA laddering togethjer with a variety of other morphological and physiological observations proved that stress can induce an apoptotic-like cell death in cyanobacteria. These results provide a novel mechanism for explaining cyanobacterial bloom dynamics and contribute to the understanding of origin and evolution of programmed cell death (PCD) in general.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2655311
Human exposure to cadmium in the environment is a persisting problem, as it is still not possible to assess its health risks. In this invited review we described complex mechanisms of cadmium activity leading to genomic instability that consequently represents increased risk for cancer and degenerative diseases development. In the concluding part the discussion is focused on cadmium induced molecular effects, which were studied mostly in in vitro experimental models, in relation to concentrations of cadmium reported in non-occupationally exposed humans, and the role of these results in the assessment of risk for exposed humans.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2430543
In this study we have investigated the interaction of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and tumor cells, fundamental for MSC’s cellular treatment vectors design. We demonstrated that in gliomas, the recruitment of MSC is driven by glioma-secreted factors. We showed that glioma cells as well as MSCs differentially express connexins by which they interact via gap-junctional coupling to form functional and structural syncytium, which are responsible for cells’ phenotype change. The described phenomena provides new insight into the complexity of interactions between tumor cells and host MSCs.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2501199