Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the common malignancies worldwide, accounting for a significant percentage of cancer mortality. Concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) is now a standard treatment for unresectable malignancies of anorectum. To improve quality of life, CCRT is also commonly applied in treatment of lower rectal and anal canal cancer to preserve anal sphincter function. The most commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs combined with radiation as radiosensitizers is 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC), which contribute to the tumor vessel formation, reflect the response to chemotherapy both in animal model and clinical trial. Thus, circulating EPC can be used as a marker for optimizing and monitoring the anti-angiogenesis therapy including angiogenesis inhibitors and chemotherapy. Whether circulating EPC can be served as a marker of CCRT efficacy or not remains undetermined. Since CCRT is now a standard treatment of locally advanced and high-risk CRC, the development of a surrogate marker for monitoring CCRT response and optimize treatment intensity is very important. In this grant we intent to monitor the levels of circulating EPC in locally advanced and high-risk CRC patients before, during and after CCRT. To further characterize the changes in function and biology of EPC caused by CCRT, a syngeneic animal model will be also used to evaluate the clonogenecity and specific gene expression of EPC in tumor-bearing mice receiving CCRT.

| 2028928 | ecrin-mdr-crc

Coordinated control of neuronal differentiation and wiring by sustained transcription factors

Project description:The large diversity of cell types in nervous systems presents a challenge in identifying the genetic mechanisms that encode it. Here, we report that nearly 200 distinct neurons in the Drosophila visual system can each be defined by unique combinations of on average 10 continuously expressed transcription factors. We show that targeted modifications of this terminal selector code induce predictable conversions of neuronal fates that appear morphologically and transcriptionally complete. Cis-regulatory analysis of open chromatin links one of these genes to an upstream patterning factor that specifies neuronal fates in stem cells. Experimentally validated network models describe the synergistic regulation of downstream effectors by terminal selectors and ecdysone signaling during brain wiring. Our results provide a generalizable framework of how specific fates are implemented in postmitotic neurons.

2022-04-01 | GSE199734 | GEO

Single-Cell Encapsulation via Click-Chemistry Alters Production of Paracrine Factors from Neural Progenitor Cells.

Project description: Not available

| S-EPMC7175248 | biostudies-literature

The Secretome of Hydrogel-Coembedded Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Mesenchymal Stem Cells Instructs Macrophage Polarization in Endotoxemia.

Project description: Not available

| S-EPMC4479616 | biostudies-literature