Unconventional Secretion is a Major Contributor of Cancer Cell Line Secretomes

Unconventional secretion is a major contributor of cancer cell line secretomes.

A challenge in achieving optimal management of cancer is the discovery of secreted biomarkers that represent useful surrogates for the disease and could be measured noninvasively. Because of the problems encountered in the proteomic interrogation of plasma, secretomes have been proposed as an alternative source of tumor markers that might be enriched with secreted proteins relevant to the disea...

Surface-Layer Protein A (SlpA) Is a Major Contributor to Host-Cell Adherence of Clostridium difficile

Clostridium difficile is a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and a significant etiologic agent of healthcare-associated infections. The mechanisms of attachment and host colonization of C. difficile are not well defined. We hypothesize that non-toxin bacterial factors, especially those facilitating the interaction of C. difficile with the host gut, contribute to the initiation of...

Malnutrition Is Still a Major Contributor to Child Deaths

Malnutrition continues to be one of the world’s most serious development problems. Exacerbating the consequences of infectious disease, malnutrition contributes to about 6 million deaths annually of children under 5. While lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the brunt of the problem, malnutrition affects both rich and poor countries, particularly the poorest in each nation. In developed...

Active Caspase-1 Is a Regulator of Unconventional Protein Secretion

Mammalian cells export most proteins by the endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi-dependent pathway. However, some proteins are secreted via unconventional, poorly understood mechanisms. The latter include the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin(IL)-1beta, IL-18, and IL-33, which require activation by caspase-1 for biological activity. Caspase-1 itself is activated by innate immune complexes, the infla...

Control of Tumor Metastasis Perforin Is a Major Contributor to NK Cell