Big shout out to Jiraroch Meevassana for his new paper published in Biomedical reports entitled; “B1 repetitive sequence methylation enhances wound healing of second‑degree burns in rats”. Available here (open access).
Jiraroch is a burn specialist and joint PhD student at Chulalongkorn University and the University of Liverpool, where he is supervised by myself and Carl Sheridan.
The work that has just been published was predicated on the hypothesis that DNA methylation in interspersed repetitive sequences can prevent or reduce DNA damage associated with burn wounds and promote wound repair. When this is coupled to the knowledge that RNA-directed DNA methylation at CpG islands occurs in B1 elements, then use of B1 siRNA to induce methylation emerges as a potential intervention approach.
Jiraroch tested this hypothesis and found that treatment of burn wounds via nanoparticle delivery of B1 siRNA improved the rate of contracture of burn wounds, improved the pathological score and decreased the markers of DNA damage compared with control treatments
These studies suggest that B1 siRNA treatment could be useful clinically and the next steps will be to work on delivery options.
Click on the pic below to download the pdf.
Wait, this wasn’t about laminins?
Correct, but don’t worry. Right now Jiraroch is in the lab working on revisions for one of his other manuscripts…watch this space. All will become clear.
LaNts and Laminins 
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