The pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which represents over 90% of cancer cases, has the highest proliferative and metastatic rate in comparison to other compartments. This study is designed determine whether small nucleolar RNA, H/ACA box 64 (snoRNA64) associated with initiation progression. Gene expression data from Expression Omnibus (GEO) repository have shown that snoRNA64 reduced p...

Among the 33 human tetraspanin proteins, CD151, CD9 and Tspan12 play particularly important roles in cancer. Tetraspanin CD151, in partnership with integrins α6β1 and α6β4, modulates tumour cell growth, invasion, migration, metastasis, signalling and drug sensitivity. Tetraspanin CD9 has suppressor functions in multiple tumour cell types. Major CD9 partner proteins, such as EWI-2 and EWI-F, may...

ADAMTS13 (A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease with ThromboSpondin Type 1 repeats, 13), a plasma metalloprotease, cleaves von Willebrand factor (VWF) [1,2]. This cleavage is crucial for reducing the size of VWF multimers and adhesiveness, thereby preventing excessive platelet aggregation and thrombus formation at sites of vascular injury [3,4]. Deficiency of plasma ADAMTS13 activity could result i...

A novel paradigm for local cancer chemotherapy, based upon local activation of chemotherapeutic molecules by soluble proteases, is presented. In the presence of matrix metalloproteases, a family of cancer-associated proteases, cisplatin is released from a hydrogel matrix in an active form. In the absence of matrix metalloproteases, cisplatin is released at a much lower rate. The mesh size of th...

Von Willebrand Factor (VWF) is a multimeric glycoprotein that plays a major role in platelet adhesion and aggregation. Large VWF multimers are highly procoagulant and are cleaved by its metalloprotease ADAMTS13 (A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease with ThromboSpondin motif repeats 13) in smaller, less procoagulant forms. In case of a deficiency of ADAMTS13, large VWF multimers are not cleaved, re...

Notch receptors transmit signals between adjacent cells. Signaling is initiated when ligand binding induces metalloprotease cleavage of Notch within an extracellular negative regulatory region (NRR). We present here the X-ray structure of the human NOTCH2 NRR, which adopts an autoinhibited conformation. Extensive interdomain interactions within the NRR bury the metalloprotease site, showing tha...