|
|
The role of ADAM17 and other metalloproteases in liver pathological processes
Žbodáková, Oľga ; Sedláček, Radislav (advisor) ; Muchová, Lucie (referee) ; Stříšovský, Kvido (referee)
1 Abstract Liver fibrosis is a condition described by extensive accumulation of scar tissue in the liver. With further progression, it leads to cirrhosis or even to hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver fibrosis accompanies every chronic liver disease and its prevalence in adult European population is estimated to be around 4%. During my dissertation work, I studied the function of three members of Metzincin family of metalloproteinases - ADAM17, ADAM10 and MMP-19, in liver fibrosis and liver regeneration using mouse genetic models. ADAM17 and ADAM10 are important regulators of signalling pathways which are involved in immune response as well as differentiation. Both proteases are able to cleave ectodomains of their substrates from cell membrane, affecting bioavailability of ligands and functionality of receptors. Several of their substrates are involved in liver pathologies. MMP-19 on the other hand, is a metalloprotease mainly involved in extracellular matrix cleavage, important process in fibrosis development, as well as resolution of fibrosis. Our results demonstrate that ablation of ADAM10 results in increased susceptibility to liver fibrosis in mice, both spontaneous and toxin induced. ADAM10 deficiency affected biliary epithelium, as we detected higher markers of biliary damage in serum of ADAM10 deficient...
|
|
|
Development and validation of a new method for enrichment and detection of circulating tumor DNA in cancer patients
Pláničková, Lenka ; Minárik, Marek (advisor) ; Kuthan, Martin (referee)
Tumors are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Generally, the prognosis is better if the treatment begins at an early stage. Nowadays, the conventional chemotherapy treatment of cancer, known for its limited efficacy and side effects, is being gradually replaced by targeted biological treatment, which is used when specific genetic mutations are found. A part of the treatment is a detection of a potential progression, which is mainly based on the tumor biomarkers monitoring. Currently, further investigation of a so-called liquid biopsy method are ongoing, on which this thesis is focused. The main aim of this work was the experimental development and validation of the method for detection of the ctDNA in the plasma samples based on the somatic mutations presence. For the development and optimization of the system on the principle of denaturation capillary electrophoresis, the samples of cancer patients with KRAS mutation were used. Subsequently, a clinical part of the research was performed on a pilot set of 21 plasma samples. Finally, the method was optimized for the detection of BRAF and EGFR markers. A partial objective was to improve the detection sensitivity and increase the capture of the ctDNA in patients with advanced stage of the disease. The results of this work suggest the...
|
guest ::
