Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity in Cancer Metastasis
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity in Cancer Metastasis

Author: Mohit Kumar Jolly

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2020-12-29

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 3039367242

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Recent studies have highlighted that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is not only about cell migration and invasion, but it can also govern many other important elements such as immunosuppression, metabolic reprogramming, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), stem cell properties, therapy resistance, and tumor microenvironment interactions. With the on-going debate about the requirement of EMT for cancer metastasis, an emerging focus on intermediate states of EMT and its reverse process mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) offer new ideas for metastatic requirements and the dynamics of EMT/MET during the entire metastatic cascade. Therefore, we would like to initiate discussions on viewing EMT and its downstream signaling networks as a fulcrum of cellular plasticity, and a facilitator of the adaptive responses of cancer cells to distant organ microenvironments and various therapeutic assaults. We hereby invite scientists who have prominently contributed to this field, and whose valuable insights have led to the appreciation of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity as a more comprehensive mediator of the adaptive response of cancer cells, with huge implications in metastasis, drug resistance, tumor relapse, and patient survival.

Cancer Evolution
Cancer Evolution

Author: Charles Swanton

Publisher: Perspectives Cshl

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9781621821434

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Tumor progression is driven by mutations that confer growth advantages to different subpopulations of cancer cells. As a tumor grows, these subpopulations expand, accumulate new mutations, and are subjected to selective pressures from the environment, including anticancer interventions. This process, termed clonal evolution, can lead to the emergence of therapy-resistant tumors and poses a major challenge for cancer eradication efforts. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine examines cancer progression as an evolutionary process and explores how this way of looking at cancer may lead to more effective strategies for managing and treating it. The contributors review efforts to characterize the subclonal architecture and dynamics of tumors, understand the roles of chromosomal instability, driver mutations, and mutation order, and determine how cancer cells respond to selective pressures imposed by anticancer agents, immune cells, and other components of the tumor microenvironment. They compare cancer evolution to organismal evolution and describe how ecological theories and mathematical models are being used to understand the complex dynamics between a tumor and its microenvironment during cancer progression. The authors also discuss improved methods to monitor tumor evolution (e.g., liquid biopsies) and the development of more effective strategies for managing and treating cancers (e.g., immunotherapies). This volume will therefore serve as a vital reference for all cancer biologists as well as anyone seeking to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.

Chromatin Regulation and Dynamics
Chromatin Regulation and Dynamics

Author: Anita Göndör

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2016-10-25

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0128034025

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Chromatin Regulation and Dynamics integrates knowledge on the dynamic regulation of primary chromatin fiber with the 3D nuclear architecture, then connects related processes to circadian regulation of cellular metabolic states, representing a paradigm of adaptation to environmental changes. The final chapters discuss the many ways chromatin dynamics can synergize to fundamentally contribute to the development of complex diseases. Chromatin dynamics, which is strategically positioned at the gene-environment interface, is at the core of disease development. As such, Chromatin Regulation and Dynamics, part of the Translational Epigenetics series, facilitates the flow of information between research areas such as chromatin regulation, developmental biology, and epidemiology by focusing on recent findings of the fast-moving field of chromatin regulation. - Presents and discusses novel principles of chromatin regulation and dynamics with a cross-disciplinary perspective - Promotes crosstalk between basic sciences and their applications in medicine - Provides a framework for future studies on complex diseases by integrating various aspects of chromatin biology with cellular metabolic states, with an emphasis on the dynamic nature of chromatin and stochastic principles - Integrates knowledge on the dynamic regulation of primary chromatin fiber with 3D nuclear architecture, then connects related processes to circadian regulation of cellular metabolic states, representing a paradigm of adaptation to environmental changes

Rise and Fall of Epithelial Phenotype
Rise and Fall of Epithelial Phenotype

Author: Pierre Savagner

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-07-05

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0387286713

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Epithelial phenotype is a dynamic stage of differentiation that can be modulated during several physiological or pathological events. The rapid conversion to a mesenchymal-like phenotype is called an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The Rise and Fall of Epithelial Phenotype is the first book to comprehensively introduce the concept of EMT. The first part of this volume describes main examples and models and explains their physiological relevance. These examples include hydra morphogenesis, gastrulation in mouse, drosophila and sea urchin, as well as neural crest cell migration and heart morphogenesis in vertebrates. Part two reviews in detail, specific EMT molecular pathways covering extracellular induction, transduction and transcription response and modulation of cell-cell adhesion structures. It emphasizes new specific pathways with potential medical applications. EMTs can also be linked to pathological events such as wound healing and cancer progression, as detailed in this section of the book.

Chromatin Signaling and Diseases
Chromatin Signaling and Diseases

Author: Olivier Binda

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2016-08-06

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 012802609X

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Chromatin Signaling and Diseases covers the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression, which govern everything from embryonic development, growth, and human pathologies associated with aging, such as cancer. This book helps researchers learn about or keep up with the quickly expanding field of chromatin signaling. After reading this book, clinicians will be more capable of explaining the mechanisms of gene expression regulation to their patients to reassure them about new drug developments that target chromatin signaling mechanisms. For example, several epigenetic drugs that act on chromatin signaling factors are in clinical trials or even approved for usage in cancer treatments, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's diseases. Other epigenetic drugs are in development to regulate various class of chromatin signaling factors. To keep up with this changing landscape, clinicians and doctors will need to stay familiar with genetic advances that translate to clinical practice, such as chromatin signaling. Although sequencing of the human genome was completed over a decade ago and its structure investigated for nearly half a century, molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression remain largely misunderstood. An emerging concept called chromatin signaling proposes that small protein domains recognize chemical modifications on the genome scaffolding histone proteins, facilitating the nucleation of enzymatic complexes at specific loci that then open up or shut down the access to genetic information, thereby regulating gene expression. The addition and removal of chemical modifications on histones, as well as the proteins that specifically recognize these, is reviewed in Chromatin Signaling and Diseases. Finally, the impact of gene expression defects associated with malfunctioning chromatin signaling is also explored. - Explains molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression, which governs everything from embryonic development, growth, and human pathologies associated with aging - Educates clinicians and researchers about chromatin signaling, a molecular mechanism that is changing our understanding of human pathology - Explores the addition and removal of chemical modifications on histones, the proteins that specifically recognize these, and the impact of gene expression defects associated with malfunctioning chromatin signaling - Helps researchers learn about the quickly expanding field of chromatin signaling

Single Cell Sequencing and Systems Immunology
Single Cell Sequencing and Systems Immunology

Author: Xiangdong Wang

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-03-27

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9401797536

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The volume focuses on the genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics of a single cell, especially lymphocytes and on understanding the molecular mechanisms of systems immunology. Based on the author’s personal experience, it provides revealing insights into the potential applications, significance, workflow, comparison, future perspectives and challenges of single-cell sequencing for identifying and developing disease-specific biomarkers in order to understand the biological function, activation and dysfunction of single cells and lymphocytes and to explore their functional roles and responses to therapies. It also provides detailed information on individual subgroups of lymphocytes, including cell characters, function, surface markers, receptor function, intracellular signals and pathways, production of inflammatory mediators, nuclear receptors and factors, omics, sequencing, disease-specific biomarkers, bioinformatics, networks and dynamic networks, their role in disease and future prospects. Dr. Xiangdong Wang is a Professor of Medicine, Director of Shanghai Institute of Clinical Bioinformatics, Director of Fudan University Center for Clinical Bioinformatics, Director of the Biomedical Research Center of Zhongshan Hospital, Deputy Director of Shanghai Respiratory Research Institute, Shanghai, China.

Philosophy of Cancer
Philosophy of Cancer

Author: Marta Bertolaso

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-08-24

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9402408657

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Since the 1970s, the origin of cancer is being explored from the point of view of the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT), focusing on genetic mutations and clonal expansion of somatic cells. As cancer research expanded in several directions, the dominant focus on cells remained steady, but the classes of genes and the kinds of extra-genetic factors that were shown to have causal relevance in the onset of cancer multiplied. The wild heterogeneity of cancer-related mutations and phenotypes, along with the increasing complication of models, led to an oscillation between the hectic search of ‘the’ few key factors that cause cancer and the discouragement in face of a seeming ‘endless complexity’. To tame this complexity, cancer research started to avail itself of the tools that were being developed by Systems Biology. At the same time, anti-reductionist voices began claiming that cancer research was stuck in a sterile research paradigm. This alternative discourse even gave birth to an alternative theory: the Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT). A deeper philosophical analysis shows limits and possibilities of reductionist and anti-reductionist positions and of their polarization. This book demonstrates that a radical philosophical reflection is necessary to drive cancer research out of its impasses. At the very least, this will be a reflection on the assumptions of different kinds of cancer research, on the implications of what cancer research has been discovering over 40 years and more, on a view of scientific practice that is most able to make sense of the cognitive and social conflicts that are seen in the scientific community (and in its results), and, finally, on the nature of living entities with which we entertain this fascinating epistemological dance that we call scientific research. The proposed Dynamic and Relational View of carcinogenesis is a starting point in all these directions.