RAS

[Scientific Reports] Researchers demonstrated, using isogenic mouse fibroblasts expressing a single isoform of RAS or mutant KRAS, that RAS/RAP1-specific endopeptidase equally inactivated all isoforms of RAS as well as the major oncogenic KRAS mutants.

[Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research] Researchers evaluated the pharmacology and mechanism of sulfarotene, a new type of synthetic retinoid, on the cancer stem cell-like properties of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor-repopulating cells, and assessed its preclinical efficacy in models of HCC patient-derived xenografts

[PLoS One] Primary cell lines derived from four high-grade colon adenocarcinoma tissues were treated with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors to investigate their effect on cellular metabolism, tumorsphere formation and transcription of pluripotency genes.

[Immunity] Scientists examined the role of CCL1 in pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from PF mouse models contained high amounts of CCL1, as did lung biopsies from PF patients.

[Cancer Immunology Research] Scientists modeled tumor-specific MEK inhibition (MEKi) through CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing of tumor cells and pharmacologic MEKi with cobimetinib in a RAS-driven model of colorectal cancer.

[Scientific Reports] The authors demonstrated that in lung fibroblast cultures, TGF-β and angiotensin II synergistically induced TGF-β, AT1R, α-SMA, collagen type I and fibronectin, whereas 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D markedly suppressed the induction of these fibrotic markers.