Staufen1 Overabundance and the Consequent mTOR Hyperactivity in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s Diseases
Jamshed Arslan, Pharm D, PhD Neurodegenerative disorders involve loss of function and, ultimately, death of neurons. Selective neuronal vulnerability has been observed in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Fo... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy and RAS signaling: Clinical implications
By Christina Towers, PhD The cellular recycling process known as autophagy is currently being targeted in over 60 clinical trials focused on treating different types of cancer1. To date, the only autophagy-targeted ... Read full blog post.
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Methamphetamine with HIV induces mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal injury through oxidative stress
By Jamshed Arslan, Pharm. D., PhD. December 1 is the World AIDS Day. Despite the combination antiretroviral therapy, 10-25% of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive individuals report neurocognitive impairm... Read full blog post.
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Understanding Mitophagy Mechanisms: Canonical PINK1/Parkin, LC3-Dependent Piecemeal, and LC3-Independent Mitochondrial Derived Vesicles
By Christina Towers, PhD What is Mitophagy?The selective degradation of mitochondria via double membrane autophagosome vesicles is called mitophagy. Damaged mitochondria can generate harmful amounts of reactive ox... Read full blog post.
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Liver ASK1 activates autophagy to protect against hepatic fat accumulation, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and fibrosis
By Jamshed Arslan, Pharm. D., PhD. The most common chronic liver disorder worldwide is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This obesity-linked disorder can manifest as hepatic fat accumulation (steatosis) wit... Read full blog post.
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New Players in the Mitophagy Game
By Christina Towers, PhD Mitochondrial turn over via the lysosome, otherwise known as mitophagy, involves engulfment of mitochondria into double membrane autophagosomes and subsequent fusion with lysosomes. Much is al... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy Research Update: What a difference a year makes!
By Christina Towers, PhD Over the last two decades the field of autophagy has exploded! Innovative techniques, comprehensive analysis and disease-relevant models have yielded basic and clinical discoveries of conseque... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy and Metastasis
By Christina Towers, PhD The majority of cancer patients die from metastatic disease at secondary sites. The threshold to undergo metastasis is high. Only a minority of cancer cells acquire invasive phenotypes... Read full blog post.
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Optogenetic Control of Mitophagy: AMBRA1 based mitophagy switch
By Christina Towers, PhD Mitophagy in the BrainSelective autophagic degradation of damaged mitochondria, known as mitophagy, has been described as a cyto-protective process. Accordingly, defects in mitophagy h... Read full blog post.
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Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration: Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress
By Michalina Hanzel, PhDIn this second installment of our three blog-posts series on major cellular mechanisms responsible for neurodegenerative disorders, we will explore the processes of mitochondrial dysfunction an... Read full blog post.
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Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration: Protein aggregation and failure of autophagy
By Michalina Hanzel, PhDIn a series of three blog posts I will briefly explore the major cellular mechanisms responsible for many neurodegenerative disorders. The first, and perhaps the most apparent, is the accumulat... Read full blog post.
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How to visualize autophagy by microscopy
By Christina Towers, PhD Autophagy is a recycling process that relies on the formation of a unique organelle termed an autophagosome. An elegant way to monitor autophagy is through various microscopy techniques to... Read full blog post.
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Animal Models to Study Autophagy
By Christina Towers, PhD What is autophagy?Autophagy is the catabolic process that degrades cytoplasmic material via the lysosome. The process of macroautophagy was originally characterized in yeast, where the... Read full blog post.
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RNA-binding protein Staufen1 conspires with Atxn2 in stress granules to cause neurodegeneration by dysregulating RNA metabolism
By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is a movement disorder characterized by neurodegeneration. The cause of this autosomal dominant disease is a mutation in the RNA processing gene Atxn2,... Read full blog post.
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Losing memory: Toxicity from mutant APP and amyloid beta explain the hippocampal neuronal damage in Alzheimer's disease
By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible brain disorder that destroys memory and thinking skills. The telltale signs of AD brains are extracellular deposits of amy... Read full blog post.
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Application Focus: I see an increase in LC3, now what?
By Christina Towers, PhD. Autophagy is highly conserved and tightly regulated process that all cell types use to recycle nutrients, particularly in the instance of stress1. As a result, even sm... Read full blog post.
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E-syt in Autophagosome biogenesis: What is the source of it all?
By Christina Towers, PhD. Macroautophagy is a cellular recycling process that requires the formation of double membrane structures to engulf and degrade damaged cytoplasmic material. The pathway involves over 20 co... Read full blog post.
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A link between Autophagy and Apoptosis: Chat with First Author Brent E. Fitzwalter
By Christina Towers, PhD. Autophagy is a cellular recycling process and most often a pro-survival mechanism that regulates cellular homeostasis. On the contrary, apoptosis is an extensively conserved and elaborate pr... Read full blog post.
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Epigenetic Control of Autophagy
By Christina Towers, PhD. In the last 20 years, epigenetic regulation has become front and center for almost all fields of biology and its role in diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration are being heavily studi... Read full blog post.
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How a cell "reaches" out for help
By Christina Towers, PhD. Parkinson's disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative condition defined by the accumulation of alpha-synuclein-containing (alpha-SYN) intra-cytoplasmic inclusions, called Lewy bodies. The ... Read full blog post.
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Measuring Autophagic Flux with LC3 protein levels: The do's and don'ts
By Christina Towers, PhD. Autophagy is a dynamic cellular recycling process that can be influenced by many different external and internal stimuli. The most commonly used assay to measure autophagy is a western blot f... Read full blog post.
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Monitoring Autophagy in Neurons
By Christina Towers, PhD. Autophagy is a critical cellular process used by most cells in the body to recycle nutrients and prevent harmful buildup of damaged proteins. It is particularly important in the brain, where ... Read full blog post.
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Crosstalk Between Oxidative Stress and Autophagy
By Christina Towers, PhD. Role of Reactive Species in Cellular FunctionOxidative stress is a byproduct of an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants present in the cell, resulting in dysfunctional redox si... Read full blog post.
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Lysosomal Dysfunction is Linked to Exosomal Secretion
By Christina Towers, PhD. Lysosomal Dysfunction and DiseaseLysosomes are highly acidic organelles that are critical for cellular function and indispensable for degradative pathways like autophagy and endocytosis.... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy independent roles of the core ATG proteins
By Christina Towers, PhD. Autophagy and ATG ProteinsAutophagy is a nutrient recycling process that cells use to fuel metabolism, particularly in response to nutrient deprivation. It is critical for removal of dam... Read full blog post.
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Nuclear LC3: Why is it there and what is it doing?
By Christina Towers, PhD. Cells use the complex process of autophagy to degrade and recycle cytoplasmic material. There are over 20 proteins that have been implicated in this process and appropriately named core ... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy inhibition in pediatrics: One physician-scientist’s brave decision
By Christina Towers, PhD. The current time from when a discovery is first made on the bench to when that discovery might translate into an approved therapy in cancer patients is an astounding 10-15 years. Scientis... Read full blog post.
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Cleaner gone bad: Autophagy regulates motor neuron loss in spinal muscular atrophy
By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D. Neuromuscular disorders affect the peripheral nervous system and muscles. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is one such incurable disease in which muscles fail to receive signals from the sp... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy in the Tumor Microenvironment
By Christina Towers, PhD. The last 20 years of cancer research have taught us the vast complexities of this life-altering disease. In the last 5 years we have realized that those complexities might extend beyond the... Read full blog post.
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CaMKII stimulates autophagic degradation of 'ID', a new frontier against cancer
By Yoskaly Lazo-Fernandez, PhD The field of Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) research has been gaining traction in recent years1. CSCs are a minority group of cells (usually about 1 in 10000) within solid tumors of hematolog... Read full blog post.
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Brain size matters: MTOR regulates autophagy and number of cortical interneurons
By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D. Interneurons transmit impulses between other neurons, in part, to facilitate the birth of neurons. Cortical interneurons themselves arise from the progenitors in the ventral telencephalo... Read full blog post.
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Chaperone Mediated Autophagy (CMA) does it all!
By Christina Towers, PhD. The degradation of cellular proteins is a critical step of both regulation and quality control and results in the turn over and recycling of critical amino acids. The two main mechanisms o... Read full blog post.
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The Many Connections Between Autophagy and Kidney Disease
By Yoskaly Lazo-Fernandez, PhD The first description of what is called today an autophagosome was given in a paper published in 1957. Its author employed electron microscopy to observe the neonatal features of mous... Read full blog post.
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From Then ‘till Now: The History of Autophagy and Cancer Research
By Christina Towers, PhD. The fundamental process that cells use to degrade damaged cytoplasmic material and recycle nutrients is called autophagy. This term was first coined by the Belgium biochemist Christian de... Read full blog post.
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There's an autophagy for that!
By Christina Towers, PhDA critical mechanism that cells use to generate nutrients and fuel metabolism is through a process called autophagy. This process is complex and involves over 20 different proteins, most of which are highly conserved acro... Read full blog post.
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Autophagy: Pro or Anti-tumorigenic? And the role of epigenetics in this debate
By Christina Towers, PhDAutophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that cells use to break down damaged cytoplasmic constituents in order to fuel cellular metabolism, particularly in instances of stress. This process has been heavily ... Read full blog post.
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Novel Insights into Hypoxia Induced AKT Signaling
Hypoxia is a common feature of most tumors and is a product of rapid cell growth and poor vascularization1. When oxygen availability is low in the tumor environment, the hypoxia inducing transcription factors (HIFs) regulate a variety of signaling ... Read full blog post.
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What are the major differences between Apoptosis, Necroptosis & Autophagy?
Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death which is mediated by cysteine proteases called caspases. It is an essential phenomenon in the maintenance of homeostasis and growth of tissues, and it also plays a critical role in immune response. The ... Read full blog post.
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Why LC3B Antibodies Make Ideal Autophagosomes Membrane Markers
The human form of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) is expressed as 3 splice variants LC3A, LC3B, and LC3C.1 LC3B is a subunit of the MAP1A and MAP1B microtubule-binding proteins and plays a central role in autophagosome membrane stru... Read full blog post.
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Three things everyone studying autophagy should know
Novus Biologicals' antibodies are the gold standard to monitor autophagy and detect LC3 expression. The recently published Guidelines for the Use and Interpretation of Assays for Monitoring Autophagy (3rd Edition) comprehensively details methods ... Read full blog post.
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ATG4C - A regulator of the early steps of autophagosome assembly
Autophagy is an important cellular process that maintains homeostasis by degrading and recycling damaged proteins and organelles. Autophagy receptors, such as p62/SQSTM1, recognize these intracellular cargo and mediate their engulfment by the doubl... Read full blog post.
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LAMP2 - a marker of lysosomes and late endosomes
Lysosomes are membrane-bound organelles responsible for the degradation of various biological macromolecules. Vesicles containing hydrolytic enzymes bud from the Golgi and fuse with endosomes to form the mature lysosome capable of breaking down va... Read full blog post.
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Beclin 1 - A Key Regulator of Autophagosome Formation
The Beclin 1 protein is a central regulator of autophagy in mammalian cells. Autophagy is an essential process used to maintain cellular homeostasis by degrading and recycling cellular components such as damaged or worn out organelles and macromole... Read full blog post.
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ATG9A - early marker autophagosome assembly
ATG9A is the only essential integral membrane protein involved in autophagy. ATG9A contains six transmembrane domains and initiates the assembly of autophagosomes. The autophagosome is a double-membrane structure that engulfs and eventually degrade... Read full blog post.
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LC3B - a novel marker for autophagosome
Autophagy, also known as macroautophagy, supplies alternative fuel for cells that are under environmental stress conditions (including starvation, growth factor deprivation, and hypoxia). This highly regulated and catabolic cell process recycles a... Read full blog post.
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Comprehensive Autophagy Research Tools - New Catalog Available Now!
Autophagy, a protein degradation process through autophagosome-lysosomal pathway, is important for cellular homeostasis and plays a role in many diseases. To help researchers learn more about this process and the products available for its study, N... Read full blog post.
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ATG5: Roles in Cellular Defense
ATG5, or Autophagy Related 5, is a protein crucial for autophagy. Autophagy is a mechanism in which dysfunctional or pathogenic cells or cellular components are degraded and sometimes recycled. This process happens when ATG5 conjugates with another pr... Read full blog post.
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ATG5, Autophagy and Apoptosis
ATG5 is a member of the ATG family that regulates autophagy, the evolutionary conserved homeostatic response to a diverse variety of self- and foreign-originating cellular stresses. ATG5 is ubiquitously expressed in cells and found co-localized with c... Read full blog post.
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Wide Ranging Uses for the Autophagy Marker - Beclin-1 Antibody
Beclin 1 is the first mammalian gene identified as a mediator of autophagy, and plays important roles in development, tumorigenesis, and neurodegeneration. Research with the beclin-1 antibody has revealed that, Beclin 1 is found in complex with the th... Read full blog post.
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PINK1: Promoting Organelle Stability and Preventing Parkinson's disease
PINK1 is a protein serine/threonine kinase (PTK) that protects the organelles from cellular stress and controls selective autophagy to clear damage. Exner, et. al. were among the first to report that PINK1 deficiency in humans was linked to autosomal ... Read full blog post.
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LC3: Roles in Autophagy, Apoptosis, Neurological Diseases and Cancer
LC3 is distributed ubiquitously in eukaryotes and is a heavily studied autophagy biomarker that was originally identified as a subunit of MAP1A and MAP1B. Because autophagy is a crucial process for maintaining normal neural networks and function, unde... Read full blog post.
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LC3B: From Autophagy to Cancer
LC3B is subunit component of the LC3 autophagy biomarker associated with microtubule-associated proteins MAP1A and MAP1B and one of the best characterized markers to date. In resting state, it is cytosolic, but upon activation, is lapidated and become... Read full blog post.
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ATG5: From Autophagy to Alzheimer's Disease
Autophagy is a conserved mechanism whereby cells form double membrane autophagosomes to sequester cytoplasmic components for subsequent destruction by fusion with lysosomes (eukaryotes) or vacuoles (yeast). Targets of autophagy include aging proteins,... Read full blog post.
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LC3B Empowers Protein Quality Control by Autophagy
LC3B, also known as microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta (MAP1LC3B), is an autophagy gene that contributes appreciably to protein degradation. Autophagy is a highly synchronized and dynamic catabolic degradation activity that ... Read full blog post.
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Analyzing LC3 in Western blot
Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) is considered one of the definitive markers of autophagy, and its use is widespread in labs throughout the world. Despite its popularity, there are several considerations when employing LC3 antibodies... Read full blog post.
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The Role of LC3 within the Autophagic Pathway
We at Novus Biologicals have a broad antibody database covering the area of autophagy - over 1400 reagents in total. Autophagy is the bulk degradation of cytoplasmic components - literally, self-digestion of the cell. Double-membrane vesicles, called ... Read full blog post.
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