UCC would like to congratulate and express gratitude to the Biomedical Proteomic Facility (BPF) laboratory team, under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Boukli, Professor in the Microbiology and Immunology Department and Director of the BPF. Sheila López, first author in this publication, was a key element, along with Dr. Boukli and the BPF team, to be the first to demonstrate the molecular mechanism behind HIV subtype (clade) B neurotoxicity as compared to HIV subtype C in brain tumor cells (astrocytoma). These cells were used as an astrocyte model to evaluate the differential effect of HIV subtype B envelope protein gp120 versus gp120 from HIV subtype C.
The results from this study indicate that as compared to gp120 from HIV subtype C, HIV-1 gp120 subtype B had a specific neuropathogenic role triggered by continual proliferation and migration of cells associated with persistent HIV-1 viral replication. This role revealed to be bestowed to a survival mechanism triggered by GRP78. This novel finding in the field of NeuroAIDS is a significant contribution in deciphering new molecular mechanisms and identifying therapeutic targets and mechanistic strategies against HIV-1 clade B and C.
At the UCC we are extremely honored that Oncotarget published Dr. Boukli’s lab findings, especially since Oncotarget is currently ranked the number 1 top online medical journal for oncology and has been qualified as the best journal of oncology. As part of our campus community, all of us celebrate this achievement and are proud that a high impact factor peer review article has been published, becoming the UCC’s first article published in the notable Oncotarget journal..
For information regarding this project, see the publication link:
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.18632/oncotarget.19474
Facts on the Oncotarget journal
http://tbcounseling.com/index.php/2017/02/28/oncotarget-is-the-best-journal-of-oncology/
http://britainforpeace.org/oncotarget-the-best-journal-of-oncology/
http://neildouglasreilly.com/2017/03/28/why-the-best-publish-in-oncotarget/
Congratulations are also in order for Mariela Rivera, under Dr. Boukli’s guidance and leadership, for another recent article from the BPF lab titled: Targeting multiple pro-apoptotic signaling pathways with curcumin in prostate cancer cells, published in PLoS One https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28628644
And lastly, our heartiest congratulations for key members of the BPF, Sheila López and Madeline Rodríguez, Ph.D. students mentored by Dr. Boukli, who recently defended and presented remarkably well their Ph.D. thesis and who contributed arduously to these projects. We wish the BPF and its members further successes in their future endeavors. Your scientific contributions pave the path of future research at the UCC and are truly inspiring!