As our capacity to model the human lung evolves, so will our understanding of lung regeneration and our ability to target endogenous stem cells as a therapeutic approach for lung disease.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, noncoding RNAs that are evolutionarily conserved across many different species.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/epoxomicin-bu-4061t.html  miRNA regulation of gene expression, specifically in the context of the mammalian brain, has been well characterized; however, the regulation of miRNA degradation is still a focus of ongoing research. This review focuses on recent findings concerning the cellular mechanisms that govern miRNA degradation, with an emphasis on target-mediated miRNA degradation and how this phenomenon is uniquely poised to maintain homeostasis in neuronal systems.Hypertension (HTN) is a polyfactorial disease that can manifest severe cardiovascular pathologies such as heart failure or stroke. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of HTN indicate that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contribute to increased risk for HTN and resistance to some HTN drug regimens (Hiltunen TP et al., J Am Heart Assoc 4 e001521, 2015; Le MT et al., PLoS One 8 e52062, 2013; McDonough CW et al., J Hypertens 31 698-704, 2013; Vandell AG et al., Hypertension 60 957-964, 2012). However, cellular mechanistic insights of such SNPs remain largely unknown. Using a bank of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with HTN and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene-editing approach, we investigated the effects of a female HTN risk-associated SNP (rs1154431) of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) (Bassuk SS, Manson JE., Clin Chem 60 68-77, 2014) in vascular endothelial cells. Although GPER1 deletion reduced endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation in iPSC-derived endothelial cells (iECs), the polymorphism itself did not significantly affect eNOS and NO production in a comparison of isogenic hemizygous iECs expressing either normal (P16) or HTN-associated (L16) GPER. Interestingly, we demonstrate for the first time that GPER plays a role in regulation of adhesion molecule expression and monocyte adhesion to iECs. Moreover, the L16 iECs had higher expression of inflammation genes than P16 iECs, implying that the risk variant may affect carrier individuals through increased inflammatory activity. This study further indicates that iPSCs are a useful platform for exploring mechanistic insights underlying hypertension GWAS endeavors.Epileptic seizures are the manifestation of hypersynchronous and excessive neuronal excitation. While the glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons play major roles in shaping fast neuronal excitation/inhibition homeostasis, it is well illustrated that astrocytes profoundly regulate neuronal excitation by controlling glutamate, GABA, cannabinoids, adenosine, and concentration of K+ around neurons. However, little is known about whether microglia take part in the regulation of acute neuronal excitation and ongoing epileptic behaviors. We proposed that if microglia are innately ready to respond to epileptic overexcitation, depletion of microglia might alter neuronal excitability and severity of acute epileptic seizures. We found that microglia depletion by plx3397, an inhibitor of CSF1R, exacerbates seizure severity and excitotoxicity-induced neuronal degeneration, indicating that microglia are rapidly responsive to the change of excitation/inhibition homeostasis and participate in the protection of neurons from overexcitation.Human flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) is a structure-specific, multifunctional endonuclease essential for DNA replication and repair. Our previous study showed that in response to DNA damage, FEN1 interacts with the PCNA-like Rad9-Rad1-Hus1 complex instead of PCNA to engage in DNA repair activities, such as stalled DNA replication fork repair, and undergoes SUMOylation by SUMO-1. Here, we report that succinylation of FEN1 was stimulated in response to DNA replication fork-stalling agents, such as ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, hydroxyurea, camptothecin, and mitomycin C. K200 is a key succinylation site of FEN1 that is essential for gap endonuclease activity and could be suppressed by methylation and stimulated by phosphorylation to promote SUMO-1 modification. Succinylation at K200 of FEN1 promoted the interaction of FEN1 with the Rad9-Rad1-Hus1 complex to rescue stalled replication forks. Impairment of FEN1 succinylation led to the accumulation of DNA damage and heightened sensitivity to fork-stalling agents. Altogether, our findings suggest an important role of FEN1 succinylation in regulating its roles in DNA replication and repair, thus maintaining genome stability.Generation of neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) overcomes the limited access to human brain samples and greatly facilitates the progress of research in neurological diseases. However, it is still a challenge to generate a particular neuronal subtype with high purity and yield for determining the pathogenesis of diseased neurons using biochemical approaches. Motor neurons (MNs) are a specialized neuronal subtype responsible for governing both autonomic and volitional movement. Dysfunctions in MNs are implicated in a variety of movement diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this study, we generated functional MNs from human iPSCs via lentiviral delivery of transcription factors. Moreover, we optimized induction conditions by using different combinations of transcription factors and found that a single lentiviral vector expressing three factors [neurogenin-2 (NGN2), insulin gene enhancer 1 (ISL1), and LIM/homeobox 3 (LHX3)] is necessary and sufficient to induce iPSC-derived MNs (iPSC-MNs). These MNs robustly expressed general neuron markers [microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), neurofilament protein (SMI-32), and tubulin β-3 class III (TUBB3)] and MN-specific markers [HB9 and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)] and showed electrical maturation and firing of action potentials within 3 wk. This approach significantly improved the neuronal survival, yield, and purity, making it feasible to obtain abundant materials for biochemical studies in modeling movement diseases.