In a recent study published in Nature it was discovered that the polyamine spermine acts as a chelator of intracellular iron and thus as a suppressor of ferroptosis. Spermine is a polyamine metabolite that is essential for cellular homeostasis, with known roles ranging from DNA stabilization and RNA processing to protein synthesis and ion channel regulation. Dysregulation of spermine metabolism is implicated in various malignant, neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases...Read more

The nucleus of mammalian cells is highly compartmentalized both in terms of DNA and protein organization. Speckles are large membrane-less irregularly shaped nuclear condensates with a dynamic composition of hundreds of different proteins, many of which are involved in RNA splicing. Evidence from recent studies points towards an interesting connection between the evolution of nuclear speckles and genome structure in terms of base composition, gene clustering and 3D-genome organization...Read more

The ability to degrade intracellular proteins in a controlled manner is an important cellular function. It is utilized to remove and recycle unnecessary, damaged and/or harmful components, which is an essential ability to maintain cellular homeostasis and health. The most well-known routes to selective degradation of proteins are proteasomal degradation and selective autophagy. In both pathways, proteins targeted for degradation are marked polyubiquitination (polyUb), with chains that are linked at lysine K48 and K63, respectively...Read more

Cancer is a leading cause of death in every country of the world and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is third in line in terms of mortality (Sung, 2021). In the past few years, immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has become a common treatment route for HCC, but a large proportion of patients are resistant to such treatments...Read more

Mitosis is the fundamental process by which genetic information is passed from a parental cell to two daughter cells. The crucial role of the microtubule cytoskeleton and the centrosomes in this process is well known, and still early mouse embryo lack centrosomes. In a study published in Cell researches have found an explanation to this paradox...Read more