Just when you thought it was safe to go into the membrane: the growing complexities of extra-nuclear progesterone signaling

The diversity of membrane-initiated progesterone actions has made characterization and establishment of its biological importance a complicated endeavor. A new study by Zuo and colleagues shows that progesterone via endogenous membrane progesterone receptor-α acts as a negative regulator of proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition in a breast cancer cell line. These progesterone-mediated actions appear to be regulated through epidermal growth factor receptor and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling localized in caveolae. Moreover, the study shows expression of membrane progesterone receptor-α in benign and malignant breast cancer tissues. These data bring forth novel concepts with regard to progesterone actions in the breast; however, further work is warranted to fully characterize the physiologic actions of extra-nuclear progesterone signaling in the breast

A light-hole exciton in a quantum dot

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Study of the Mannich Reaction: Beta-Amino-Methylation of N-Aryl and N-Azaheteroaryl-Substituted 2,5-Dimethylpyrroles, Compounds with Potential Biological Activity

Owing to the increasing need of drugs for the treatment of a variety of fungal and bacterial opportunistic infections, a study has been started with the aim of synthesizing structures amenable to a number of easily-to-perform structural modifications in order to meet the requirement of bypassing. resistance phenomena. This paper reports on the synthesis of several N-(alpha-azaheteroaryl)-substituted 2,5-dimethyl-pyrroles bearing in one beta-position (or in both beta-positions) aminomethyl groups, introduced via a Mannich reaction. Electronic and steric effects by the N-(azaheteroaryl) substituents and the 2- and 5- methyl groups on the course of the Mannich reaction are discussed along with the results of in vitro tests against many Candida species, some bacteria, and several pathogenic plant fungi