Organ trafficking

There has been little attention given to roles played by human trafficking in health care organizations' supply chains. Hand sanitizers and gloves, for example, might be produced by forced labor, which tends to increase in prevalence during pandemics, mass violence, migration, or other global crises. This article considers the nature and scope of health care organizations' corporate and social responsibilities to procure products and personnel justly, offers recommendations to minimize possibilities that supplies are produced by forced labor, and advocates for a public health approach to limiting human trafficking in organizations' supply chains...

The lipocalin protein family is a structurally conserved group of proteins with a variety of biological functions defined by their ability to bind small molecule ligands and interact with partner proteins. One member of this family is siderocalin, a protein found in mammals. Its role is discussed in inflammatory processes, iron trafficking, protection against bacterial infections and oxidative stress, cell migration, induction of apoptosis, and cancer. Though it seems to be involved in numerous essential pathways, the exact mechanisms are often not fully understood...

OBJECTIVES: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) began collecting data on intimate partner violence (IPV) and human trafficking (HT) in the 2020 Uniform Data System (UDS). We examined patients affected by IPV and HT served by HRSA-funded health centers in medically underserved US communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We established a baseline and measured trends in patient care by analyzing data from the 2020 (N = 28 590 897) and 2021 (N = 30 193 278) UDS...

BACKGROUND: Jilin white goose is an excellent local breed in China, with a high annual egg production and laying eggs mainly from February to July each year. The testis, as the only organ that can produce sperm, can affect the sexual maturity and fecundity of male animals. Its growth and development are affected and regulated by a variety of factors. Proteomics is generally applied to identify and quantify proteins in cells and tissues in order to understand the physiological or pathological changes that occur in tissues or cells under specific conditions...

The human memory-associated protein KIBRA regulates synaptic plasticity and trafficking of AMPA-type glutamate receptors, and is implicated in multiple neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders. How KIBRA forms complexes with and regulates AMPA receptors remains unclear. Here, we show that KIBRA does not interact directly with the AMPA receptor subunit GluA2, but that PICK1, a key regulator of AMPA receptor trafficking, can serve as a bridge between KIBRA and GluA2. We identified structural determinants of KIBRA-PICK1-AMPAR complexes by investigating interactions and cellular expression patterns of different combinations of KIBRA and PICK1 domain mutants...

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer in women, and remains one of the major causes of death in women worldwide. It is now well established that alterations in membrane trafficking are implicated in BC progression. Indeed, membrane trafficking pathways regulate BC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis. The 22 members of the ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) and the >60 members of the rat sarcoma (RAS)-related in brain (RAB) families of small GTP-binding proteins (GTPases), which belong to the RAS superfamily, are master regulators of membrane trafficking pathways...

Recent and pioneering animal research has revealed the brain utilizes a variety of molecular, cellular, and network-level mechanisms used to forget memories in a process referred to as "active forgetting". Active forgetting increases behavioral flexibility and removes irrelevant information. Individuals with impaired active forgetting mechanisms can experience intrusive memories, distressing thoughts, and unwanted impulses that occur in neuropsychiatric diseases. The current evidence indicates that active forgetting mechanisms degrade, or mask, molecular and cellular memory traces created in synaptic connections of "engram cells" that are specific for a given memory...

BACKGROUND: Rab35 is a member of a GTPase family of endocytic trafficking proteins. Studies in cell lines have indicated that Rab35 participates in cell adhesion, polarity, cytokinesis, and primary cilia length and composition. Additionally, sea urchin Rab35 regulates actin organization and is required for gastrulation. In mice, loss of Rab35 in the CNS disrupts hippocampal development and neuronal organization. Outside of the CNS, the functions of mammalian Rab35 in vivo are unknown...

Belonging to a lipid phosphatase family containing 16 members, myotubularin-related proteins (MTMRs) are widely expressed in a variety of tissues and organs. MTMRs preferentially hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 3-monophosphate and phosphatidylinositol (3,5) bis-phosphate to generate phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol 5-monophosphate, respectively. These phosphoinositides (PIPs) promote membrane degradation during autophagosome-lysosomal fusion and are also involved in various regulatory signal transduction...

Organ transplant is a crucial therapeutic strategy offering a life-saving and transformative medical intervention. It provides an opportunity to improve their quality of life and increase their lifespan. The shortage of organs remains a critical global challenge, leading to a prolonged waiting times for organ receivers, which contributes to an increase in morbidity and mortality rates. Hence, xenotransplantation offered a promising solution to the global shortage of organs through the use of animal organs, leading to an increase in donor availability, reducing waiting times, minimizing organ trafficking, improving genetic engineering advancements, and driving scientific innovation...

Immunity to infectious diseases is predominantly studied by measuring immune responses towards a single pathogen, although co-infections are common. In-depth mechanisms on how co-infections impact anti-viral immunity are lacking, but are highly relevant to treatment and prevention. We established a mouse model of co-infection with unrelated viruses, influenza A (IAV) and Semliki Forest virus (SFV), causing disease in different organ systems. SFV infection eight days before IAV infection results in prolonged IAV replication, elevated cytokine/chemokine levels and exacerbated lung pathology...

The characterization of the structural and functional organization of eukaryotic cells has revealed the membrane compartments and machinery required for vesicular protein transport. Most proteins essential for intercellular communication contain an N-terminal signal sequence enabling them to be incorporated into the biosynthetic or conventional secretory pathway, in which proteins are sequentially transported through the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus. However, major research studies have shown the existence of alternative secretory routes that are independent of the ER-Golgi and designated as unconventional secretory pathways...

Chemokine receptors are members of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily. The C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), one of the most studied chemokine receptors, is widely expressed in hematopoietic and immune cell populations. It is involved in leukocyte trafficking in lymphoid organs and inflammatory sites through its interaction with its natural ligand CXCL12. CXCR4 assumes a pivotal role in B-cell development, ranging from early progenitors to the differentiation of antibody-secreting cells. This review emphasizes the significance of CXCR4 across the various stages of B-cell development, including central tolerance, and delves into the association between CXCR4 and B cell-mediated disorders, from immunodeficiencies such as WHIM (warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections, and myelokathexis) syndrome to autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus...

Delivery to peripheral lymphatics can be achieved following interstitial administration of nano-sized delivery systems (nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers etc) or molecules that hitchhike on endogenous nano-sized carriers (such as albumin). The published work concerning the hitchhiking approach has mostly focussed on the lymphatic uptake of vaccines conjugated directly to albumin binding moieties (ABMs such as lipids, Evans blue dye derivatives or peptides) and their subsequent trafficking into draining lymph nodes...

The intricate relationship between sleep and leukocyte trafficking has garnered intense attention, particularly their homing dynamics to secondary lymphoid organs under normal and restricted sleep (SR). Considering the scarcity of information regarding circadian rhythms in major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I) expression in SR, we designed a study that assessed the temporal expression of MHC-I in murine lymph nodes and spleen and the subsequent effects of sleep recovery. Male C57BL/6, housed in 12:12 light/dark cycle, were grouped into control (C) and SR...

Plasmodesmata are plasma membrane-lined connections that join plant cells to their neighbours, establishing an intercellular cytoplasmic continuum through which molecules can travel between cells, tissues, and organs. As plasmodesmata connect almost all cells in plants, their molecular traffic carries information and resources across a range of scales, but dynamic control of plasmodesmal aperture can change the possible domains of molecular exchange under different conditions. Plasmodesmal aperture is controlled by specialised signalling cascades accommodated in spatially discrete membrane and cell wall domains...

Phospholipase D (PLD) is an enzyme that consists of six isoforms (PLD1-PLD6) and has been discovered in different organisms including bacteria, viruses, plants, and mammals. PLD is involved in regulating a wide range of nerve cells' physiological processes, such as cytoskeleton modulation, proliferation/growth, vesicle trafficking, morphogenesis, and development. Simultaneously, PLD, which also plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neuroimmune diseases. In this review, family members, characterizations, structure, functions and related signaling pathways, and therapeutic values of PLD was summarized, then five representative diseases including Alzheimer disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), etc...

The influence of systemic immune activation on whole-body Ca trafficking and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) physiology are not clear. Thus, study objectives were to characterize the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on Ca pools and GIT dynamics to increase understanding of immune-induced hypocalcemia, ileus and stomach hemorrhaging. Twelve crossbred pigs [44 ± 3 kg body weight (BW)] were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 intramuscular treatments: (1) control (CON; 2 mL saline; n=6) or (2) LPS (40 µg LPS/kg BW; n=6)...

Neurotransmission occurs within highly specialized compartments forming the active synapse where the complex organization and dynamics of the interactions are tightly orchestrated both in time and space. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are central to these spatiotemporal regulations to ensure an efficient synaptic transmission. SUMOylation is a dynamic PTM that modulates the interactions between proteins and consequently regulates the conformation, the distribution and the trafficking of the SUMO-target proteins...

Apicobasal epithelial polarity controls the functional properties of most organs. Thus, there has been extensive research on the molecular intricacies governing the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity. Whereas loss of apicobasal polarity is a well-documented phenomenon associated with multiple diseases, less is known regarding another type of apicobasal polarity alteration - the inversion of polarity. In this Review, we provide a unifying definition of inverted polarity and discuss multiple scenarios in mammalian systems and human health and disease in which apical and basolateral membrane domains are interchanged...