In the past decades, a lot of effort has been put in identifying the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in cancer. The main role of MMPs in angiogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis is degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM) and release and/or activation of growth factors through their degradative activity. The degradative activity finally results in cancer progression. MMP-inhibitors (...

Presenilin-1 null mutation (PS1 -/-) in mice is associated with morphological alterations and defects in cleavage of transmembrane proteins. Here, we demonstrate that PS1 deficiency also leads to the formation of degradative vacuoles and to the aberrant translocation of presynaptic alpha- and beta-synuclein proteins to these organelles in the perikarya of primary neurons, concomitant with signi...

Genes that encode the degradation of both naturally occurring and xenobiotic organic compounds are often located on plasmids, transposons or other mobile and/or integrative elements. The list of published reports of such mobile genetic elements (MGEs) keeps growing as researchers continue to isolate and characterize new degrading bacteria and their corresponding degradative genes. There is also...

Retinal degeneration and visual impairment are the first signs of juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis caused by CLN3 mutations, followed by inevitable progression to blindness. We investigated retinal degeneration in Cln3(Δex1-6) null mice, revealing classic 'fingerprint' lysosomal storage in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), replicating the human disease. The lysosomes contain mitochon...

Genes that encode the degradation of both naturally occurring and xenobiotic organic compounds are often located on plasmids, transposons or other mobile and/or integrative elements. The list of published reports of such mobile genetic elements (MGEs) keeps growing as researchers continue to isolate and characterize new degrading bacteria and their corresponding degradative genes. There is also...

We have previously reported that human vascular endothelial cells and skin fibroblasts carry out degradation of [3H]histamine by a mechanism involving two successive enzymatic steps: imidazole ring tele-methylation by the cells' endogenous methyltransferase and subsequent amine oxidation by an exogenous diamine oxidase. Both histamine and the exogenous second enzyme in the pathway associate wit...

Data presented in the accompanying paper suggests nascent autophagic vacuoles are formed from RER (Dunn, W. A. 1990. J. Cell Biol. 110:1923-1933). In the present report, the maturation of newly formed or nascent autophagic vacuoles into degradative vacuoles was examined using morphological and biochemical methods combined with immunological probes. Within 15 min of formation, autophagic vacuole...

One of the defining pathological features of Alzheimer disease (AD) is the intraneuronal accumulation of tau. The tau that forms these accumulations is altered both posttranslationally and conformationally, and there is now significant evidence that soluble forms of these modified tau species are the toxic entities rather than the insoluble neurofibrillary tangles. However there is still notewo...