WDFY-1

Cyclosporin A (CsA) is an effective immunosuppressive agent, but its myocardial toxicity limits its widespread and long-term clinical application. In this study, CsA treatment led to damages in myocardial fiber structure, an increase in myocardial fibrosis, and changes in heart size and shape; moreover, the degree of damage was exacerbated with prolonged drug application and increases in dose. However, the mechanism is not clear; therefore, the purpose of this study was to reveal the mechanism of CsA-induced myocardial fibrosis and identify a new target for the prevention and treatment of CsA-induced myocardial injury...

E26 transformation-specific-1 (ETS1) and WDFY family member 4 (WDFY4) are closely related with systemic lupus erythematosus. We hypothesized that ETS1 and WDFY4 polymorphisms may contribute to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility. We studied ETS1 rs1128334 G/A and WDFY4 rs7097397 A/G gene polymorphisms in 329 patients with RA and 697 controls in a Chinese population. Genotyping was done using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. When the WDFY4 rs7097397 AA homozygote genotype was used as the reference group, the AG genotype was associated with a significantly increased risk for RA...

A major contributor to cancer mortality is recurrence and subsequent metastatic transformation following therapeutic intervention. Therefore, in order to develop new treatment modalities and improve the efficacy of current ones, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms that promote resistance to therapy in cancer cells. One pathway contributing to therapy resistance is autophagy, a self-digestive process that can eliminate unnecessary or damaged organelles to protect cancer cells from death. We have found that the VEGF-C/NRP-2 axis is involved in the activation of autophagy, which helps cancer cell survival following treatment...