12/10/2026

MicroRNA as key players in skin regeneration and anti-aging pathways

Azizi et al.

For full text please see pdf.

05/10/2026

Glycemia reprograms substrate transport and shapes divergent stress responses in differentiating H9c2 cells

Passaponti et al.

For full text please see pdf.

07/08/2026

Stress management by benzodiazepines in septic shock and critical illness: mechanistic and clinical evidence supporting alternative sedative strategies

Lambertucci et al.

For full text please see pdf.

07/07/2026

Triptolide inhibits ovarian cancer growth and metastasis via reprogramming of tumor-associated macrophages

Chen et al.

For full text please see pdf.

03/07/2026

Polyamine-mediated inhibition of ferroptosis contributes to geroprotection

Madeo et al.

For full text please see pdf.

24/04/2026

The IRE1α-XBP1s-NFκB axis controls cell survival and epithelial differentiation under osmotic stress through arachidonic acid metabolism activation

Parra et al.

Arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism plays a critical role in renal cell osmoadaptation. We recently demonstrated that hypertonicity induces the expression and activation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2). On one hand, AA released by cPLA2 enhances triacylglyceride (TG) synthesis and accumulation. On the other hand, AA is converted into prostaglandins (PG) through cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) activity. Both processes are required for renal cell survival under osmotic stress. However, the mechanisms by which hypertonicity induces cPLA2 expression remain poorly understood. Given that we previously shown that hypertonicity regulates TG synthesis through the IRE1α-XBP1s branch of the unfolded protein (…)

06/03/2026

Multifaceted role of CNPY2 beyond ER stress: Disease implications and therapeutic potential

Ebadollahibaruq et al.

This review meticulously dissects CNPY2’s structural characteristics, expression patterns, and biological functions across various disorders, emphasizing its role on tumor initiation, microenvironmental stress, and chemoresistance, and evaluating its potential as a therapeutic target.

30/01/2026

Antifungal peptides: from modes of action to synergistic and immunologic potential

Carmona-Gutierrez et al.
26/01/2026

Reversal of Cushing syndrome by antibody-mediated neutralization of ACBP/DBI

Shen et al.

For full text please see pdf.

19/12/2024

Cold exposure reinstates NAD+ levels and attenuates hepatocellular carcinoma

Grazioso et al.

INTRODUCTION Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary malignant tumor that arises from hepatocytes, the main functional cells of the liver 1. It is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with

28/11/2024

Endogenous plasma resuspension of peripheral blood mononuclear cells prevents preparative-associated stress that modifies polyA-enriched RNA responses to subsequent acute stressors

Li et al.

INTRODUCTION Cells are impacted by complex and co-occurring stresses throughout a life-course. Our goal was to generate physiologically relevant models of acute cellular stress, initially in relation to 3’ untranslated regions (3’UTRs), as these can

20/11/2024

Neuroglobin-enriched secretome provides neuroprotection against hydrogen peroxide and mitochondrial toxin-induced cellular stress

Bastari et al.

INTRODUCTION Cellular response to stress relies on evolutionary conserved mechanisms aimed at maintaining homeostasis and facilitating adaptation to new cellular environments 1. Under stressful conditions, post-mitotic neurons are hardly replaced. Rather, mature neurons exhibit two

18/10/2024

Stress granules formation in HEI-OC1 auditory cells and in H4 human neuroglioma cells secondary to cisplatin exposure

Abdelrasol, Chopra et al.

INTRODUCTION Cellular stress is an inherent and inevitable aspect of cell physiology, prompting cells to adapt to environmental changes. Among the distinctive intracellular adaptive responses that have been characterized in intricate molecular detail in response

09/08/2024

Dynamics of cell membrane lesions and adaptive conductance under the electrical stress

Silkunas et al.

Exceeding physiological limits of the cell membrane potential compromises structural integrity, enabling the passage of normally impermeant solutes and disrupting cell function. Electropermeabilization has been studied extensively at the cellular scale, but not at the individual membrane lesion level. We employed fast total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) imaging of Ca2+ entry transients to discern individual lesions in a hyperpolarized cell membrane and characterize their focality, thresholds, electrical conductance, and the lifecycle. A diffuse and momentary membrane permeabilization without a distinct pore formation was observed already at a -100 mV threshold. Polarizing down to -200 mV created focal pores with a low 50- to 300-pS conductance, which disappeared instantly once the hyperpolarization was removed. Charging to – 240 mV created high-conductance (> 1 nS) pores which persisted for seconds even at zero membrane potential. With (…)

11/03/2024

MiR-200c reprograms fibroblasts to recapitulate the phenotype of CAFs in breast cancer progression

Lin et al.

Mesenchymal-epithelial plasticity driving cancer progression in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) is undetermined. This work identifies a subgroup of CAFs in human breast cancer exhibiting mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) or epithelial-like profile with high miR-200c expression. MiR-200c overexpression in fibroblasts is sufficient to drive breast cancer aggressiveness. Oxidative stress in the tumor microenvironment induces miR-200c by DNA demethylation. Proteomics, RNA-seq and functional analyses reveal that miR-200c is a novel positive regulator of NFκB-HIF signaling via COMMD1 downregulation and stimulates pro-tumorigenic inflammation and glycolysis. Reprogramming fibroblasts toward MET via miR-200c reduces stemness and induces (…)

11/12/2023

A versatile method for the identification of senolytic compounds

Annunziata et al.

The increased burden of senescent cells is as a well-established hallmark of aging and age-related diseases. This finding sparked significant interest in the identification of molecules capable of selectively eliminating senescent cells, so-called senolytics. Here, we fine-tuned a method for the identification of senolytics that is compatible with high-content fluorescence microscopy. We used spectral detector imaging to measure the emission spectrum of unlabeled control or senescent cells. We observed that senescent cells exhibited higher levels of autofluorescence than their non-senescent counterparts, particularly in the cytoplasmic region. Building on this result, we devised a senolytic assay based on co-culturing quiescent and senescent cells, fluorescently tagged in the nuclear region through the overexpression of H2B-GFP and H2B-RFP, respectively. We validated this approach by showing that first generation senolytics were effective in reducing the (…)

14/08/2023

Chromatin assembly factor-1 preserves genome stability in ctf4∆ cells by promoting sister chromatid cohesion

Ghaddar et al.

Chromatin assembly and the establishment of sister chromatid cohesion are intimately connected to the progression of DNA replication forks. Here we examined the genetic interaction between the heterotrimeric chromatin assembly factor-1 (CAF-1), a central component of chromatin assembly during replication, and the core replisome component Ctf4. We find that CAF-1 deficient cells as well as cells affected in newly-synthesized H3-H4 histones deposition during DNA replication exhibit a severe negative growth with ctf4∆ mutant. We dissected the role of CAF-1 in the maintenance of genome stability in ctf4∆ yeast cells. In the absence of CTF4, CAF-1 is essential for viability in cells experiencing replication problems, in cells lacking functional S-phase checkpoint or functional spindle checkpoint, and in cells lacking DNA repair pathways involving homologous recombination. We present evidence that CAF-1 affects cohesin association to chromatin in a (…)

14/08/2023

Sensitive, non-immunogenic in vivo imaging of cancer metastases and immunotherapy response

Merrill et al.

Non-invasive imaging of tumors expressing reporter transgenes is a popular preclinical method for studying tumor development and response to therapy in vivo due to its ability to distinguish signal from tumors over background noise. However, the utilized transgenes, such as firefly luciferase, are immu-nogenic and, therefore, impact results when expressed in immune-competent hosts. This represents an important limitation, given that cancer immunology and immunotherapy are currently among the most impactful areas of research and therapeutic development. Here we present a non-immunogenic preclinical tumor imaging approach. Based on the expression of murine sodium iodide symporter (mNIS), it facilitates sensitive, non-invasive detection of syngeneic tumor cells in immune-competent tumor models without (…)

02/07/2020

Regulation of immune checkpoint blockade efficacy in breast cancer by FIP200: A canonical-autophagy-independent function

Yeo and Guan

DISSECTING THE ROLE OF AUTOPHAGY AND AUTOPHAGY-INDEPENDENT FUNCTIONS OF FIP200 IN BREAST CANCER Although initial studies of autophagy genes in cancer implicated a tumor suppressive role, it has become apparent from studies in mouse models

18/06/2020

High mitochondrial calcium levels precede neuronal death in vivo in Alzheimer’s disease

Calvo-Rodriguez and Bacskai

MITOCHONDRIAL CALCIUM OVERLOAD AFTER PLAQUE DEPOSITION Ca2+ is essential for the normal function of mitochondrial activity, and therefore Ca2+ levels are tightly regulated in mitochondria. However, excessive levels of Ca2+ in mitochondria, i.e. mitochondrial Ca2+

19/05/2020

The role of lipids in autophagy and its implication in neurodegeneration

Hernandez-Diaz and Soukup

Neurodegenerative diseases are, at present, major socio-economic burdens without effective treatments and their increasing prevalence means that these diseases will be a challenge for future generations. Neurodegenerative diseases may differ in etiology and pathology but are often caused by the accumulation of dysfunctional and aggregation-prone proteins. Autophagy, a conserved cellular mechanism, deals with cellular stress and waste product build-up and has been shown to reduce the accumulation of dysfunctional proteins in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Historically, progress in understanding the precise function of lipids has traditionally been far behind other biological molecules (like proteins) but emerging works demonstrate the importance of lipids in the autophagy pathway and how the disturbance of lipid metabolism is connected to neurodegeneration. Here we review how altered autophagy and the disturbance of lipid metabolism, particularly of phosphoinositols and sphingolipids, feature in neurodegenerative diseases and address work from the field that suggests that these potentially offer an opportunity of therapeutic intervention.

18/05/2020

Immune system activation by natural products and complex fractions: a network pharmacology approach in cancer treatment

Gomez-Cadena <iet al.

INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, immunotherapy has become a promising approach to treat cancer and is now being combined with standard chemotherapy and immune response activators to improve the outcome for cancer patients [1]. However,

14/05/2020

Mitochondria, mitophagy, and metabolic disease: towards assembling the puzzle

Chen et al.

Mitochondria — the intracellular powerhouse that stores energy and signaling metabolites — are highly dynamic, double-membrane organelles that enact metabolism, hence sustaining physiology and organismal health. The maintenance of these functionally pleiotropic organelles is particularly

11/05/2020

Mitochondria in cancer

Grasso et al.

The rediscovery and reinterpretation of the Warburg effect in the year 2000 occulted for almost a decade the key functions exerted by mitochondria in cancer cells. Until recent times, the scientific community indeed focused on constitutive glycolysis as a hallmark of cancer cells, which it is not, largely ignoring the contribution of mitochondria to the malignancy of oxidative and glycolytic cancer cells, being Warburgian or merely adapted to hypoxia. In this review, we highlight that mitochondria are not only powerhouses in some cancer cells, but also dynamic regulators of life, death, proliferation, motion and stemness in other types of cancer cells. Similar to the cells that host them, mitochondria are capable to adapt to tumoral conditions, and probably to evolve to ‘oncogenic mitochondria’ capable of transferring malignant capacities to recipient cells. In the wider quest of metabolic modulators of cancer, treatments have already been identified targeting mitochondria in cancer cells, but the field is still in infancy.

15/04/2020

Towards understanding the role of Receptor Expression Enhancing Protein 5 (REEP5) in cardiac muscle and beyond

Lee et al.

DISCOVERY OF REEP5 Cardiac membrane proteins play an important role in regulating normal beat-to-beat function of the heart given their importance in coordinating spontaneous contractions of cardiomyocytes in the heart. In hopes of discovering novel

10/03/2020

Role of RNA Binding Proteins with prion-like domains in muscle and neuromuscular diseases

Picchiarelli and Dupuis

A number of neuromuscular and muscular diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and several myopathies, are associated to mutations in related RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), including TDP-43, FUS, MATR3 or hnRNPA1/B2. These proteins harbor similar modular primary sequence with RNA binding motifs and low complexity domains, that enables them to phase separate and create liquid microdomains. These RBPs have been shown to critically regulate multiple events of RNA lifecycle, including transcriptional events, splicing and RNA trafficking and sequestration. Here, we review the roles of these disease-related RBPs in muscle and motor neurons, and how their dysfunction in these cell types might contribute to disease.

18/02/2020

Biomechanical stress regulates mammalian tooth replacement

Wu and Wang

The DT eruption released a biomechanical stress of about 3-20 kPa inside the mandible. By culturing the mandible slice in vitro, the SDL of the PT immediately transitioned into the bud stage. However, the initiation

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15/03/2019

Mitochondria organize the cellular proteostatic response and promote cellular senescence

Li et al.

Timely disposal and degradation of misfolded proteins and their aggregates is critical for cellular proteostasis and the well-being of a cell. During evolution, cells have acquired a sophisticated system to monitor protein quality and maintain

25/01/2019

Could de-stressing the brain be the solution for long-term weight loss?

Seyfried and Hankir

INTRODUCTION One just needs to take a look at a typical vending machine (often found in hospitals) to appreciate what has happened to our food and drink. The relatively sudden widespread ease of access to

29/09/2018

Astrocytes, emerging stars of energy homeostasis

Camandola

INTRODUCTION The brain is the organ responsible for the centralized control of the other organs’ functions and, in higher vertebrates, of reasoning. Such tasks are achieved thanks to the interconnections of billions of neurons and

28/09/2018

Base editors: a powerful tool for generating animal models of human diseases

Lu and Huang

BASE EDITORS: A NOVEL GENOME ENGINEERING TOOL Genetically engineered mouse models of human diseases have long been used in understanding the underlying mechanisms of the clinically relevant genetic disorders. In the past, using gene-targeting technology

10/09/2018

Unweaving the role of nuclear Lamins in neural circuit integrity

Deal and Yamamoto

Structural integrity of the nuclear membrane is essential for the homeostasis of eukaryotic cells. Critical components of this process are Lamins or type-V intermediate filament proteins that form a meshwork on the inner nuclear membrane

29/06/2018

Alzheimer’s disease: amyloid-based pathogenesis and potential therapies

Zhou et al.

INTRODUCTION Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent forms of dementia; in 2015, for example, AD affected ~46.8 million people worldwide. It is estimated that this number will continue to increase and reach

11/06/2018

Membrane closure in stress induced-autophagosome formation

Morita

Autophagy (macroautophagy) is a bulk degradation system that sequesters cytoplasmic components by generating double-layered isolation membranes and delivering these isolated contents to the lysosomes [cite]10.1146/annurev-cellbio-092910-154005[/cite]. Though this pathway was originally identified as a system essential

24/01/2018

Centriolar satellites prevent uncontrolled degradation of centrosome proteins: a speculative review

Lecland and Merdes

INTRODUCTION Centrosomes are cytoplasmic structures that serve as primary microtubule organizing centers in a large variety of animal cells. They consist of a pair of cylindrically shaped centrioles, surrounded by pericentriolar material. Since the 1950s,

23/12/2017

Novel role of the SIRT4-OPA1 axis in mitochondrial quality control

Lang and Piekorz

Aging is defined by various molecular and cellular hallmarks, among them stem cell exhaustion, genomic instability, altered proteostasis, cellular senescence, and mitochondrial dysfunction [cite]10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.039[/cite]. Mitochondrial defects are considered major drivers of cellular aging and are

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Whether you’re preparing a manuscript, reviewing a paper, or just exploring the journal, this FAQ answers the essentials—from scope and founders to impact and how to submit. Prefer a tailored path? Pick For authors or For reviewers below.

Peer-reviewed, open-access research using unicellular organisms (and multicellular microorganisms) to understand cellular responses and human disease.

The journal (founded in 2014) is led by its Editors-in-Chief Frank Madeo, Didac Carmona-Gutierrez, and Guido Kroemer

Microbial Cell has been publishing original scientific literature since 2014, and from the very beginning has been managed by active scientists through an independent Publishing House (Shared science Publishers). The journal was conceived as a platform to acknowledge the importance of unicellular organisms, both as model systems as well as in the biological context of human health and disease.

Ever since, Microbial Cell has very positively developed and strongly grown into a respected journal in the unicellular research community and even beyond. This scientific impact is reflected in the yearly number of citations obtained by articles published in Microbial Cell, as recorded by the Web of Science (Clarivate, formerly Thomson/Reuters):

The scientific impact of Microbial Cell is also mirrored in a series of milestones:

2015: Microbial Cell is included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), a selection of developing journals drafted by Clarivate Analytics based on the candidate’s publishing standards, quality, editorial content, and citation data. Note: As an ESCI-selected journal, Microbial Cell is currently being evaluated in a rigorous and long process to determine an inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), which allows the official calculation of Clarivate Analytics’ impact factor.

2016: Microbial Cell is awarded the so-called DOAJ Seal by the selective Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ Seal is an exclusive mark of certification for open access journals granted by DOAJ to journals that adhere to outstanding best practice and achieve an extra high and clear commitment to open access and high publishing standards.

2017: Microbial Cell is included in Pubmed Central (PMC), allowing the archiving of all the journal’s articles in PMC and PubMed.

2019: Microbial Cell is indexed in the prestigious abstract and citation database Scopus after a thorough selection process. This also means that Microbial Cell obtains, for the first time, an official Scopus CiteScore as well as an official journal ranking in the Scimago Journal and Country Ranking.

2022: Microbial Cell’s CiteScore reaches a value of 7.2 for the year 2021, positioning Microbial Cell among the top microbiology journals (previously available CiteScores: 2019: 5.4; 2020: 5.1).

2022: Microbial Cell is indexed in the highly selective Science Citation Index Expanded™, which covers approx. 9,500 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. In their journal selection and curation process, Clarivate´s editors apply 24 ‘quality’ criteria and four ‘impact’ criteria to select the most influential journals in their respective fields. This selection is also a pre-requisite for inclusion in the JCR, which features the impact factor.

2022: Microbial Cell is listed in the Journal Citation Reports™ (JCR), and obtains its first official Journal Impact Factor™ (JIF) for the year 2021: 5.316.

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