Collaborative Research

The role of NOS related NATs in cancer and neuronal differentiation in mammals.

In collaboration with Mr Giles Critchley, consultant neurosurgeon from Hurstwood Park Neurological Centre we extended our studies on mammals and identified a NOS-related NAT in human brain tumours. We showed that this NAT is expressed in different types of brain tumors, including meningiomas and glioblastomas. It is known that malfunctioning of NO signalling pathway can be observed in a number of serious neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. Therefore, uncovering novel NAT-mediated mechanisms, which regulate the production of NO could help to address questions of clinical relevance.

Furthermore, in collaboration with Prof Kiselev (Moscow) we demonstrated that the expression profiles of the NAT and its sense partner exhibit concurrent reciprocal changes in undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and in hESCs induced to differentiate into neurogenic precursors. Our results suggest that this NAT might play a role in the regulation of neuronal differentiation of hESCs through the modulation of NO production.