Computer science has served to insulate programs and programmers from knowledge of the underlying mechanisms used to manipulate information, however this fiction is increasingly hard to maintain as computing devices decrease in size and systems increase in complexity. Manifestations of these limits appearing in computers include scaling issues in interconnect, dissipation, and coding. Reconfigu...

A large body of evidence has shown that stromal cells play a significant role in determining the fate of neighboring tumor cells through the secretion of various cytokines. How cytokine secretion by stromal cells is regulated in this context is poorly understood. In this study, we used a bioengineered human tissue model of skin squamous cell carcinoma progression to reveal that RalA function in...

The angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT(1)R) plays an important role in cardiovascular function and as such represents a primary target for therapeutic intervention. The AT(1)R has traditionally been considered to be coupled to the activation of phospholipase C (PLC) beta via its association with G alpha(q/11), leading to increases in intracellular inositol phosphate (IP) and release of calcium ...

A large body of evidence has shown that stromal cells play a significant role in determining the fate of neighboring tumor cells through the secretion of various cytokines. How cytokine secretion by stromal cells is regulated in this context is poorly understood. In this study, we used a bioengineered human tissue model of skin squamous cell carcinoma progression to reveal that RalA function in...

Metastasis is a complex process during which several gross cellular changes occur. Cells must dissociate from the tumor mass and gain the ability to degrade extracellular matrix and migrate in order to ultimately attach and form a satellite tumor. Regulation of the actin cytoskeleton is an indispensible aspect of cell migration, and many different factors have been implicated in this process. W...

The neuropeptide PDF promotes the normal sequencing of circadian behavioral rhythms in Drosophila, but its signaling mechanisms are not well understood. We report daily rhythmicity in responsiveness to PDF in critical pacemakers called small LNvs. There is a daily change in potency, as great as 10-fold higher, around dawn. The rhythm persists in constant darkness and does not require endogenous...

Purpose: To investigate the role of RAS-like protein A (RalA) in lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory regulation primary microglia chronic constriction injury (CCI)-induced neuropathic pain rat models.
 Methods: In vitro, overexpression (OE) RalA was performed using transfection procedure, and then LPS used to provoke phenotype. vivo, model induced CCI treated with LV-RalA. Neuroinflamm...

Mutationally activated K-Ras can utilize a multitude of downstream effector proteins to promote oncogenesis. While the Raf and phosphoinositol 3-kinase effector pathways are the best-studied and validated, recent studies have established the critical importance of Ral guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RalGEF) activation of the RalA and RalB small GTPases in cancer biology. Due to recent evide...

The naturally occurring compound α-lipoic acid (ALA) is implicated in manifold critical biological roles and its potent antioxidant properties and potential for treatment of various diseases have led to its widespread use as a dietary supplement. However, shortcomings of poor aqueous solubility and low thermal stability have hampered its development as a medicinal agent, prompting the use of cy...