MV Bais

Boston University | BU · Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is a histone demethylase that contributes to the etiology of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in part by promoting cancer stem cell phenotypes. The molecular signals regulated by LSD1, or acting with LSD1, are poorly understood, particularly in the development of OSSC. In this study, we show that conditional...

The peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a chimeric molecule with the nucleobases connected by peptide bonds. This chimeric nature gives the PNA certain therapeutic advantages over natural antisense nucleic acid molecules. The PNA probes are known for its better and stronger complementation with target nucleic acids. However, cellular delivery of PNA is a...

In the United States, 5-12% of adults have at least one symptom of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, including TMJ osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA). However, there is no chondroprotective agent that is approved for clinical application. We showed that LOXL2 is elevated in the regenerative response during fracture healing in mice and has a critical ro...

Aberrant activation of the DPAGT1 gene, encoding an essential enzyme in the metabolic pathway of protein N-glycosylation, has been shown to be associated with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We have shown that DPAGT1 inhibits intercellular adhesion and functions in a positive feedback loop with Wnt/β-catenin signaling, and that the n...

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a major driver of head and neck cancer, a devastating malignancy with a major sub-site in the oral cavity manifesting as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). EGFR is a glycoprotein receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) whose activity is upregulated in >80 % OSCC. Current anti-EGFR therapy relies on the use of cet...

Background: The goal of this study was to determine if adenovirus-delivered LOXL2 protects against progressive knee osteoarthritis (OA), assess its specific mechanism of action; and determine if the overexpression of LOXL2 in transgenic mice can protect against the development of OA-related cartilage damage and joint disability. Methods: Four-mo...

The most common type of head and neck cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), can develop therapeutic resistance that complicates its treatment. The 5-y survival rate for HNSCC remains at ~50%, and improving these outcomes requires a better understanding of the pathogenesis of HNSCC. Studies of HNSCC using in vitro, ex vivo, and in v...

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by tumor heterogeneity, locoregional metastases, and resistance to existing treatments. Although a number of genomic and molecular alterations associated with HNSCC have been identified, they have had limited impact on the clinical management of thi...

A simple method for the determination of relative levels of insoluble collagen accumulation in fibroblast cultures is presented. Confluent cell cultures are provided with sodium ascorbate which is then permissive for collagen deposition. At intervals, cultures are fixed and stained successively with sirius red and then crystal Violet to, respective...

Background Lysyl oxidase like-2 (LOXL2) is a copper-dependent amine oxidase. Our previous studies showed that LOXL2 is elevated during mouse fracture healing. The goal of this study was to evaluate the potential of LOXL2 to act as an anabolic agent in cartilage affected by osteoarthritis (OA). Methods LOXL2 was visualized in tissues from human kne...

Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is a nuclear histone demethylase and a member of the amine oxidase (AO) family. LSD1 is a flavin-containing AO that specifically catalyzes the demethylation of mono-and di-methylated histone H3 lysine 4 through an FAD-dependent oxidative reaction. LSD1 is inappropriately upregulated in lung, liver, brain and eso...

Increasing interest in the multifunctional lysyl oxidase family of proteins is evident from the growth in the number of new publications each year. The enzymes have unique properties of strong affinities to extracellular matrix components, relative insolubility in typical buffers, low catalytic rates, and often low abundance. Here we provide detail...

Unlabelled: Over 45,000 new cases of oral and pharyngeal cancers are diagnosed and account for over 8,000 deaths a year in the United States. An environmental chemical receptor, the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), has previously been implicated in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) initiation as well as in normal tissue-specific stem cell self-r...

Lysyl oxidase pro-enzyme is secreted by tumor cells and normal cells as a 50 kDa pro-enzyme into the extracellular environment where it is cleaved into the ~30 kDa mature enzyme (LOX) and 18 kDa pro-peptide (LOX-PP). Extracellular LOX enzyme activity is required for normal collagen and elastin extracellular cross-linking and maturation of the extra...

The lysyl oxidase propeptide (LOX-PP) is derived from pro-lysyl oxidase (Pro-LOX) by extracellular biosynthetic proteolysis. LOX-PP inhibits breast and prostate cancer xenograft tumor growth and has tumor suppressor activity. Although, several intracellular targets and molecular mechanisms of action of LOX-PP have been identified, LOX-PP uptake pat...

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a prevalent form of cancer that develops from the epithelium of the oral cavity. OSCC is on the rise worldwide, and death rates associated with the disease are particularly high. Despite progress in understanding of the mutational and expression landscape associated with OSCC, advances in deciphering these alt...

Lysyl oxidase is a multifunctional enzyme required for collagen biosynthesis. Various growth factors regulate lysyl oxidase during osteoblast differentiation, subject to modulation by cytokines such as TNF-α in inflammatory osteopenic disorders including diabetic bone disease. Canonical Wnt signaling promotes osteoblast development. Here we investi...

Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is a multifunctional protein required for normal collagen and elastin biosynthesis and maturation. In addition, LOX has complex roles in cancer in which the lysyl oxidase propeptide (LOX-PP) domain of secreted pro-LOX has tumor-suppressor activity, while the active enzyme promotes metastasis. In prostate cancer cell lines, recom...

The relationship between BMP2 expression and the recruitment of skeletogenic stem cells was assessed following bone marrow reaming. BMP2 expression was examined using transgenic mice in which β-galactosidase had been inserted into the coding region of BMP2. Stem cell mobilization was analyzed by FACS analysis using CD73 a marker associated with bon...

Aim: This study was designed to develop peptide analogs of Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) virus VP5 protein segment having cell penetrating ability to improve their interaction with cargo molecule (Nucleic acid) without affecting the backbone conformation. Materials and Methods: IBDV VP5 protein segment designated as RATH peptide were synthesized...

Megakaryocytes (MKs), the platelet precursors, undergo an endomitotic cell cycle that leads to polyploidy. Lysyl oxidase propeptide (LOX-PP) is generated from lysyl oxidase (LOX) pro-enzyme after proteolytical cleavage. We recently reported that LOX, a known matrix cross-linking enzyme, contributes to MK lineage expansion. In addition, LOX expressi...

Objective: Phenytoin- and nifedipine-induced human gingival overgrowth tissues contain high levels of CCN2 (connective tissue growth factor). Recombinant CCN2 protein (rCCN2) stimulates collagen accumulation in gingival fibroblast cultures via integrin alpha6 beta1. These effects are inhibited by a small synthetic CCN2 peptide (M3P). Here the mecha...

Lysyl oxidase propeptide (LOX-PP) ectopic overexpression inhibits the growth of cancer xenografts. Here the ability and mode of action of purified recombinant LOX-PP (rLOX-PP) protein to inhibit the growth of pre-existing xenografts was determined. Experimental approaches employed were direct intratumoral injection (i.t.) of rLOX-PP protein into mu...

Post natal bone repair elicits a regenerative mechanism that restores the injured tissue to its pre-injury cellular composition and structure and is believed to recapitulate the embryological processes of bone formation. Prior studies showed that Nanog, a central epigenetic regulator associated with the maintenance of embryonic stem cells (ESC) was...

The lysyl oxidase family is made up of five members: lysyl oxidase (LOX) and lysyl oxidase-like 1–4 (LOXL1-LOXL4). All members share conserved C-terminal catalytic domains that provide for lysyl oxidase or lysyl oxidase-like enzyme activity; and more divergent propeptide regions. LOX family enzyme activities catalyze the final enzymatic conversion...

The lysyl oxidase family is made up of five members: lysyl oxidase (LOX) and lysyl oxidase-like 1-4 (LOXL1-LOXL4). All members share conserved C-terminal catalytic domains that provide for lysyl oxidase or lysyl oxidase-like enzyme activity; and more divergent propeptide regions. LOX family enzyme activities catalyze the final enzymatic conversion...

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) causes economically significant Newcastle disease (ND) in almost all birds worldwide. Previous studies have shown that NDV induces caspase dependent apoptotic pathways in infected cells. In the present study, time course induction of apoptotic pathways in Vero cells is described. In NDV-infected cells, caspase-8 activi...

Comparison of Expression Profiles of Runx2 By Two Methods of Normalization. An example of the set of splice variants seen for the Runx2 is shown in Figure S1. These results are used to provide a demonstration of how copy number values can be extrapolated from the externally normalized expression values. A comparison of the temporal expression of th...

Identified Biological Ontologies Used To Define the Percentages of Functional Activities Seen in Commonly Expressed Genes Between Fracture Healing and Those that Are Preferentially Expressed in ESCs. Table S2 presents the individual biological processes that were grouped together for presentation in Figure 4. The percentages for representative onto...

Tabular Summary of the Expressed Genes Across the Time Course of Fracture Healing. Expressed gene sets are arranged by numeric cluster from the CAGED analysis. Unigene number, short letter gene name and gene name are denoted. Two sets of values are presented: Log ratio intensity values based on normalization to Day 0 no fracture: Log ratio intensit...

Tabular Summaries of the Expressed Genes across the Time Course of Fracture Healing Showing Overlap With Those Preferentially Expressed in ESC, Embryonic MSCs or Post Natal MSCs. The overlap of those genes showing differential expression during the time course of fracture healing to three published gene sets of those showing preferential expression...

Summary of the Expression of FGF Morphogenetic Family and Receptors Across the Time Course of Fracture Healing. The FGF morphogens and the FGF receptor are summarized based on clusters in which they are associated. Expressed genes are arranged by numeric cluster from the CAGED analysis. Unigene number, short letter gene name and gene name are denot...

Expression Characteristics of Known Genes Associated With Skeletal Disorders During Fracture Healing [37]. The list of skeletal disorders as summarized in Superti-Furga and Unger, 2007, was compared to those expressed genes seen in fracture healing. The observed list is arranged based on the classification scheme presented by Superti-Furga and Unge...

Identified Biological Ontologies Used To Define the General Percentages of Functional Activities Across Fracture Healing. Table S1 presents the individual biological processes that were grouped together for presentation in Figure 3. The percentages for representative ontology groups that were identified using DAVID were determined for the total com...

Fractures are among the most common human traumas. Fracture healing represents a unique temporarily definable post-natal process in which to study the complex interactions of multiple molecular events that regulate endochondral skeletal tissue formation. Because of the regenerative nature of fracture healing, it is hypothesized that large numbers o...

The effects of BMP2 on bone marrow stromal cell differentiation and bone formation after bone marrow ablation were determined using C57 BL/6J (B6) mice. Inhibition of BMP2 expression with lentiviral BMP2 shRNA prevented both mineralized nodule formation in vitro and bone formation in vivo, and blocked the expression of Runx2 and osterix, transcript...

Fractures are among the most common human traumas. Fracture healing represents a unique temporarily definable post-natal process in which to study the complex interactions of multiple molecular events that regulate endochondral skeletal tissue formation. Because of the regenerative nature of fracture healing, it is hypothesized that large numbers o...

In the present study, a novel cell penetrating peptide (CPP) named as Rath, has been identified from the avian infectious bursal disease virus. It has the potential to penetrate and translocate cargo molecules into cells independent of temperature. Additionally, it can deliver oligonucleotide in 30min and antibodies within an hour intracellular to...

Bluetongue virus (BTV) causes haemorrhagic disease in sheep and induces death in cultured mammalian cells. In the present study, BTV-induced apoptotic pathways in Vero cells were elucidated. Cells infected with BTV at 0.1 m.o.i underwent DNA fragmentation and membrane blebbing within 48 h postinfection. BTV-induced apoptosis was blocked by the pan-...

Four Indian field isolates, a classical virulent and an attenuated vaccine strains of Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) have been characterized by sequence analysis of part of the VP1 gene (from nucleotide 1538-1979) comprising one of viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase motifs. Sequence alignment of these viruses with reported viruses of other...

Sequence analysis of genome segment A of an Indian Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) field isolate (KT1/99) revealed total 95 nucleotide substitutions, resulting in 17 amino acid changes. Of these, five amino acid changes, namely F60S, T137I, I374V, V519I and E682D were unique to the KT1/99 isolate. The amino acid change P222A and the proposed...