STAT3 in the systemic inflammation of cancer cachexia

Weight loss is diagnostic of cachexia, a debilitating syndrome contributing mightily to morbidity and mortality in cancer. Most research has probed mechanisms leading to muscle atrophy and adipose wasting in cachexia; however cachexia is a truly systemic phenomenon. Presence of the tumor elicits an inflammatory response and profound metabolic derangements involving not only muscle and fat, but also the hypothalamus, liver, heart, blood, spleen and likely other organs. This global response is orchestrated in part through circulating cytokines that rise in conditions of cachexia. Exogenous Interleukin-6 (IL6) and related cytokines can induce most cachexia symptomatology, including muscle and fat wasting, the acute phase response and anemia, while IL-6 inhibition reduces muscle loss in cancer. Although mechanistic studies are ongoing, certain of these cachexia phenotypes have been causally linked to the cytokine-activated transcription factor, STAT3, including skeletal muscle wasting, cardiac dysfunction and hypothalamic inflammation. Correlative studies implicate STAT3 in fat wasting and the acute phase response in cancer cachexia. Parallel data in non-cancer models and disease states suggest both pathological and protective functions for STAT3 in other organs during cachexia. STAT3 also contributes to cancer cachexia through enhancing tumorigenesis, metastasis and immune suppression, particularly in tumors associated with high prevalence of cachexia. This review examines the evidence linking STAT3 to multi-organ manifestations of cachexia and the potential and perils for targeting STAT3 to reduce cachexia and prolong survival in cancer patients

hym_name_dict

Hymentopera names in the homolog trees

cary_name_dict

Names translations for the tips in the homolog trees

Table_1_Characterizing the Duration and Severity of Fishing Gear Entanglement on a North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Using Stable Isotopes, Steroid and Thyroid Hormones in Baleen.PDF

<p>North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are highly endangered and frequently exposed to a myriad of human activities and stressors in their industrialized habitat. Entanglements in fixed fishing gear represent a particularly pervasive and often drawn-out source of anthropogenic morbidity and mortality to the species. To better understand both the physiological response to entanglement, and to determine fundamental parameters such as acquisition, duration, and severity of entanglement, we measured a suite of biogeochemical markers in the baleen of an adult female that died from a well-documented chronic entanglement in 2005 (whale Eg2301). Steroid hormones (cortisol, corticosterone, estradiol, and progesterone), thyroid hormones (triiodothyronine (T₃) and thyroxine (T₄)), and stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) were all measured in a longitudinally sampled baleen plate. This yielded an 8-year profile of foraging and migration behavior, stress response, and reproduction. Stable isotopes cycled in annual patterns that reflect the animal's north-south migration behavior and seasonally abundant zooplankton diet. A progesterone peak, lasting approximately 23 months, was associated with the single known calving event (in 2002) for this female. Estradiol, cortisol, corticosterone, T₃, and T₄ were also elevated, although variably so, during the progesterone peak. This whale was initially sighted with a fishing gear entanglement in September 2004, but the hormone panel suggests that the animal first interacted with the gear as early as June 2004. Elevated δ¹⁵N, T₃, and T₄ indicate that Eg2301 potentially experienced increased energy expenditure, significant lipid catabolism, and thermal stress approximately 3 months before the initial sighting with fishing gear. All hormones in the panel (except cortisol) were elevated above baseline by September 2004. This novel study illustrates the value of using baleen to reconstruct recent temporal profiles and as a comparative matrix in which key physiological indicators of individual whales can be used to understand the impacts of anthropogenic activity on threatened whale populations.</p

Files resulting from chloroplast assemblies in three genera in Orobanchaceae

Contigs, ACE files, and other resulting files from chloroplast assemblies in three genera in Orobanchaceae (Bartsia, Castilleja, Lamourouxia). These assemblies were done by combining long PCR amplicons and NGS data from an Illumina HiSeq 2000. The Alignreads pipeline v2.25 (Straub et al., 2011) was used

HYM_bootstrap_rr_extract_clades.tar

Hymenoptera homolog files. The names for the taxa can be found in the hym_name_dict.txt file

cary_rooted_bootstrap_at-least-60-taxa.tar

Homolog trees for Caryophyllales. Names can be found in the cary_name_dict.txt file

Botany 2013 - Two talks I gave at the Botany conference: the first one on a subgenomic approach for phylogenomics using microfluidic PCR and next-generation sequencing and the other one on whole chloroplast amplification and sequencing

<p>I presented these two talk at "Botany 2013 - Celebrating Diversity", the joint meeting of the Botanical Society of America, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the International Association of Plant Taxonomists, the American Fern Society, and the American Bryological and Lichenological Society.</p

RaxML input matrix “>3.4_excluded”

RaxML input matrix “>3.4_excluded”, Anodendron excluded, created from matrix “Allsites_noAno” by exclusion of sites with AIR rates > 3.4, 125,871 base pairs retained, 559 base pairs excluded, Phylip format

RaxML partition file for matrix “>3.3_excluded”

RaxML partition file for matrix “>3.3_excluded