Protein Kinase Mediated Decisions Between Life And Death

Protein phosphorylation via protein kinases is an inevitable process that alters physiological and pathological functions of the cells. Thus, protein kinases play key roles in the regulation of cell life or death decisions. Protein kinases are frequently a driving factor in a variety of human diseases including aging and cellular senescence, immune system and endothelial dysfunctions, cancers, insulin resistance, cholestasis and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as bacterial resistance in persistent infections. Recent developments in quantitative proteomics provide important opinions on kinase inhibitor selectivity and their modes of action in the biological context. Protein Kinase-mediated Decisions Between Life and Death aims to have the reader catch insights about up-to-date opinions on “Protein Kinases” related pathways that threaten human health and life. As “Protein Kinases” are related to many health problems, clinicians, basic science researchers and students need this information. Chapter “Signal Transduction in Immune Cells and Protein Kinases” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In this book leading researchers in the field discuss the state-of-the-art of many aspects of SAPK signaling in various systems from yeast to mammals. These include various chapters on regulatory mechanisms as well as the contribution of the SAPK signaling pathways to processes such as gene expression, metabolism, cell cycle regulation, immune responses and tumorigenesis. Written by international experts, the book will appeal to cell biologists and biochemists.

Apoptosis, or cell death, can be pathological, a sign of disease and damage, or physiological, a process essential for normal health. This book, with contributions from experts in the field, provides a timely compilation of reviews of mechanisms of apoptosis. The book is organized into three convenient sections. The first section explores the different processes of cell death and how they relate to one another. The second section focuses on organ-specific apoptosis-related diseases. The third section explores cell death in non-mammalian organisms, such as plants. This comprehensive text is a must-read for all researchers and scholars interested in apoptosis.

Molecular mechanisms in visual transduction is presently one of the most intensely studied areas in the field of signal transduction research in biological cells. Because the sense of vision plays a primary role in animal biology, and thus has been subject to long evolutionary development, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying vision have a high degree of sensitivity and versatility. The aims of visual transduction research are first to determine which molecules participate, and then to understand how they act in concert to produce the exquisite electrical responses of the photoreceptor cells. Since the 1940s [1] we have known that rod vision begins with the capture of a quantum of energy, a photon, by a visual pigment molecule, rhodopsin. As the function of photon absorption is to convert the visual pigment molecule into a G-protein activating state, the structural details of the visual pigments must be explained from the perspective of their role in activating their specific G-proteins. Thus, Chapters 1-3 of this Handbook extensively cover the physico-chemical molecular characteristics of the vertebrate rhodopsins. Following photoconversion and G-protein activation, the phototransduction cascade leads to modifications of the population of closed and open ion channels in the photoreceptor plasma membrane, and thereby to the electrical response. The nature of the channels of vertebrate photoreceptors is examined in Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 integrates the present body of knowledge of the activation steps in the cascade into a quantitative framework. Once the phototransduction cascade is activated, it must be subsequently silenced. The various molecular mechanisms participating in inactivation are treated in Chapters 1-4 and especially Chapter 5. Molecular biology is now an indispensable tool in signal transduction studies. Numerous vertebrate (Chapter 6) and invertebrate (Chapter 7) visual pigments have been characterized and cloned. The genetics and evolutionary aspects of this great subfamily of G-protein activating receptors are intriguing as they present a natural probe for the intimate relationship between structure and function of the visual pigments. Understanding the spectral characteristics from the molecular composition can be expected to

Apoptosis, Cell Signaling, and Human Diseases: Molecular Mechanisms, Volumes 1 and 2, present a concise synthesis of recent developments in the understanding of both cell survival and apoptotic pathways. Particular attention is given to apoptosis in human diseases, such as different forms of cancer. These comprehensive volumes integrate the most innovative and current findings. The contributors are at the forefront of scientific discovery.

This is the very first book to deal with sex and gender differences in drug therapy - an increasingly recognized medical need. It starts with an overview on S/G in clinical syndromes and a documentation of the medical and socioeconomic damage caused by gender specific adverse drug effects. Part I covers S/G differences in pharmacokinetics. Researchers will be satisfied by the detailed discussion of the mechanisms of S/G differences in drug effects that represents cutting edge science and includes interaction of drugs with sex hormones, genomic and epigenetic mechanisms. It also covers S/G in drug development, in animal models and clinical development and S/G in drug prescriptions. Part II targets S/G differences in drug effects in cardiovascular, pulmonary, CNS, neuromuscular, neuropsychiatric and metabolic diseases, in cancer, inflammation, and rheumatic diseases, in bacterial and retroviral infections, thrombosis, embolism. New drugs will be discussed.

Contains papers from a July 1998 conference held at the Queens College Campus of the City University of New York. Papers are arranged in sections on mechanisms and general considerations, programmed (developmental) cell death, and cell death and pathological and clinical situations. Specific topics

To read current biomedical science, one has to have a working knowledge of how important effector molecules cause transduction of their signal within cells, altering the control of genes. This work aims to provide that basic knowledge for medical readers. Students of immunology or cell biology will note its relevance. One will learn how platelets, macrophages, neutrophils, T and B lymphocytes and natural killer cells perform their functions and how skin, breast, prostate and colon cancers emerge. The associated diagrams and tables are used to obviate extensive text. Appropriate references to articles and reviews by workers in each field are given so that further consideration can easily be undertaken. We are all at differing stages of our appreciation of immunology and of pat- physiology. Some persons will have a profound background in biochemistry or molecular biology. Others will have a reminiscence of lectures received years ago. Since this work is principally for clinical doctors, the sections that can be avoided at first reading are marked with an asterisk (*). Always proceed line by line and think of associations that you know. Do you feel comfortable with the statement, “Interleukin 6 stimulates glucose uptake in renal proximal tubular cells, and that action is associated with Stat3, PI3K/Akt, MAPKs and NF-kB signal pathways”? If not, please read on.