The identification of biological mechanisms underlying emotional behavior is crucial for our understanding of the pathogenesis of mental disorders. Besides genes modulating neural transmission and influencing amygdala reactivity and anxiety-related temperamental traits a different plasticity regulating genes affect interindividual differences in emotional regulation. Recently it has been demons...

Zoledronic acid (Zol) is the most potent inhibitor of bone resorption among the bisphosphonates and is commonly used for inhibiting bone metastasis. However, it remains unclear whether Zol provides a survival benefit. Recent findings indicate that epidermal growth factor (EGF) signaling is an important mediator of bone metastasis. Thus, we examined the combined effects of Zol and an EGF recepto...

Increased amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induce apoptosis in mammalian cells. PUMA (P53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis), a mitochondrial proapoptotic BH3-only protein, induces rapid apoptosis through a Bax- and mitochondria-dependent pathway. However, the molecular basis of PUMA-induced apoptosis is largely not understood. Using a combination of biophysical and biochemical method...

Docetaxel is commonly used as an effective chemotherapeutic drug for gastric cancer patients recently. With the increasing emergence of docetaxel resistance nowadays, identification of suitable biomarkers for predicting chemosensitivity to docetaxel may be a key role for improving therapeutic effects for gastric cancer patients. In this study, we investigated the correlation between the express...

The appropriate targeting of membrane-associated proteins involves a diversity of motifs including post-translational modifications and specific protein sequences. Phosphoproteins of the stathmin family are important regulators of microtubule dynamics, in particular in the developing and mature nervous system. Whereas stathmin is cytosolic, SCG10, SCLIP and the splice variants RB3/RB3'/RB3'' ar...

BACKGROUND The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib represents an important advance in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). Bortezomib inhibits the activity of the 26S proteasome and induces cell death in a variety of tumor cells; however, the mechanism of cytotoxicity is not well understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated the differential phosphoproteome upon proteasome inhibit...

T he old saw that local actions can have global consequences holds true for neurons, too. Selvaraj et al. show that a transcription factor remains in the axon to help prevent neurodegeneration (1). In neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), neurons usually die in stages, with axons deteriorating fi rst and the cells themselves perishing later (2). Axon degenerati...