Blogs for January 2019: Novus Biologicals

Sample collection from mammalian culture cells for kinomic analysis

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 - 10:10

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D., PhD.

Introduction

Kinome describes kinases, and kinomics refers to the kinase signaling. Studying the effects of reagent (exogenously applied growth factor or inhibitor) on kinase activity is a common experiment in cell, developmental and integrative biology laboratories. This blog offers a cost-effective and robust method of obtaining adequate amount of sample for kinomic analysis from mammalian culture cells like HEK cells after treatment with reagent. Using this method, you can easily get over 50 μg protein sample in 50 μl volume from a confluent well of a standard 6-well plate with 0.5 x 10⁶...

Best Methods to Induce and Inhibit Autophagy Pharmacologically

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 - 09:33

By Christina Towers, PhD

Autophagy facilitates the degradation and recycling of damaged cytoplasmic material. The multistep process includes a double membrane structure called an autophagosome that engulfs proteins and organelles and then fuses with lysosomes to facilitate their breakdown. Autophagy is tightly regulated by nutrient availability and is negatively regulated by the robust nutrient sensor mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Starvation, either by glucose deprivation or amino acid depletion, causes a marked increase in autophagy, best quantified by an increase in...

Phagocytes in Multiple Sclerosis: Myelin uptake leads to oxysterol-induced activation of liver X receptors, LXRs

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - 08:41

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D., PhD.

Myelin is a cholesterol-rich layer around nerves. Damage to this protective layer and the consequent slowing down of nerve impulses are hallmarks of multiple sclerosis (MS) and other demyelinating diseases. Myelin breakdown alters plasma levels of 27-hydroxycholesterol (27OHC) and other CNS-specific oxysterols, which are natural ligands of transcription factors called liver X receptors (LXRs). Since myelin phagocytosis is a source of intracellular oxysterols in the resident microglia and infiltrating macrophages, a team of scientists in Europe decided to test the hypothesis that myelin uptake and subsequent...

mTOR Signaling and the Tumor Microenvironment

Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - 09:10

By Yoskaly Lazo-Fernandez, PhD

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a conserved serine/threonine kinase that, as a member of two distinct intracellular protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, regulates protein synthesis, autophagy metabolism, proliferation and survival. More and more research is showing how the catalytic activity of both mTOR complexes plays an important role in cancer biology. Not only mTOR is upregulated and contributes to the development of numerous cancer types, but it also contributes to the angiogenic and immune responses within the tumor microenvironment (TME)¹.

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NOX2 oxidase is a potential target for broad-spectrum antiviral therapies

Wednesday, January 2, 2019 - 09:24

By Beth Melson, MS

Viral infection induces the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by inflammatory cells, the majority of which is produced by the NOX2 oxidase. While NOX2 oxidase contributes to the clearance of bacteria and fungi, its role in viral infection is less clear, and in fact seems to contribute to increased viral pathogenicity. Recently, it was demonstrated that viruses, including influenza A, induce NOX2 oxidase production through suppression of TLR7 sensing single-stranded RNA (ssRNA)¹. Therefore, inhibition of the NOX2 oxidase pathway represents an opportunity for viral...