Open Access

ARTICLE

Tengyu Li, Jing Zhu, Shuai Zuo, Shanwen Chen, Ju Ma, Yongchen Ma, Shihao Guo, Pengyuan Wang, Yucun Liu
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 739-750, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15360541345000
Abstract The activated form of vitamin D3, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3], regulates numerous cellular processes, including inhibition of cancer progression. IL-1 has been reported to facilitate cancer development, especially by inducing an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in several malignant tumors. However, the underlying mechanism of 1,25(OH)2D3 and IL-1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) still remains largely unknown. To fill in this knowledge gap, we measured cell proliferation and invasion by CCK-8 and Transwell assays after stimulation with 1,25(OH)2D3 and IL-1 . E-cadherin and vimentin were chosen as markers of EMT measured by immunofluorescence, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and Western blot. The expression and function… More >

View

579

Download

332

Open Access

ARTICLE

Youwei Zhang^*, Bi Chen^†, Yongsheng Wang^‡, Qi Zhao^‡, Weijun Wu^§, Peiying Zhang^*, Liyun Miao^‡, Sanyuan Sun^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 751-761, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15372657298381
Abstract Acquired resistance remains a key challenge in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) therapy in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Recent studies have shown that Notch signaling is associated with drug resistance. However, its role and possible mechanisms in EGFR-TKI resistance are not yet clear. In our study, we found that among four members of NOTCH1–4, only NOTCH3 was upregulated in LUAD tissues and TKI-resistant cell line (HCC827GR6). Knockdown of NOTCH3 by siRNA significantly inhibited proliferative ability, and decreased colony and sphere formation in HCC827GR6 cells. Then miR-150 was identified as a posttranscriptional regulator of NOTCH3. Its expression was downregulated… More >

View

545

Download

448

Open Access

ARTICLE

Juan Li^*†1, Chunyan Liu^‡1, Dawei Li^§, Meng Wan^¶, Hong Zhang^†, Xiaoxia Zheng^†, Xuemei Jie^†, Pengju Zhang^¶, Jingjing Li^#, Hongchun Hou^†, Qing Sun^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 763-771, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15399955297355
Abstract OLFM4 has been shown to play an important role in tumor initiation and progression. This study aims to investigate the role of OLFM4 in metastatic cervical cancer and its underlying mechanism. Here we discover that OLFM4 expression is significantly reduced in metastatic cervical cancer. Accordingly, overexpression of OLFM4 inhibits epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration, and invasion in human cervical cancer cells. To further explore its molecular mechanisms, we reveal that OLFM4 augmentation interferes with mTOR signaling pathway, and the suppressive effects of OLFM4 on cell migration and invasion are largely weakened by phosphatidic acid (PA)-induced mTOR signal activation, which implicates the… More >

View

511

Download

367

Open Access

ARTICLE

Teng Liu^*, Juan Xu^†, Hong Li Yan^‡, Feng Chun Cheng^*, Xi Jie Liu^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 773-778, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15208986577685
Abstract Luteolin, which is found in plant foods, has a range of therapeutic applications. In order to examine the potential roles of luteolin in ovarian teratocarcinoma, the human ovarian teratocarcinoma cell line PA-1 was selected for functional experiments in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated that luteolin inhibited the proliferation and colony formation of PA-1 cells in vitro. The flow cytometry results suggested that luteolin induced apoptosis of PA-1 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) was decreased in luteolin-treated cells, whereas the expression of Bcl-2- associated X (Bax) was increased… More >

View

587

Download

315

Open Access

ARTICLE

Qiuying Quan^*1, Fengyun Zhong^†1, Xinwei Wang^‡, Kai Chen^§, Lingchuan Guo^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 779-788, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15442985680348
Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanisms that transforming growth factor- (TGF- )-mediated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in tumor cells contributes to 5-FU resistance. A series of experiments involving cell viability and caspase activity analyses, siRNA transfection, RNA isolation, and quantitative-PCR (qPCR) assay, cell migration analysis, Western blotting analysis of total protein and membrane protein were performed in this study. Mouse xenograft model was used to determine the effect of the PAR2 inhibitor in vivo. In this study, we found that protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) induction in 5-FU therapy is correlated with TGF- -mediated EMT and apoptosis… More >

View

502

Download

398

Open Access

ARTICLE

Jianye Li^*, Bin Zhang^†, Jizhao Cui^‡, Zhen Liang^§, Kexia Liu^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 789-799, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15444387696532
Abstract Many studies have shown that downregulated miR-203 level is in a variety of cancers including gastric cancer (GC). However, the precise molecule mechanisms of miR-203 in GC have not been well clarified. In the current study, we investigated the biological functions and molecular mechanisms of miR-203 in GC cell lines. We found that miR-203 is downregulated in GC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, the low level of miR-203 was associated with increased expression of annexin A4 in GC tissues and cell lines. The invasion and EMT of GC cells were suppressed by overexpression of miR-203. However, downregulation of miR-203 promoted… More >

View

452

Download

377

Open Access

ARTICLE

Zhenghua Fei^*1, Zhenxiang Deng^†1, Lingyang Zhou^‡, Kejie Li^*, Xiaofang Xia^*, Raoying Xie^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 801-807, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15446984186056
Abstract Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is a malignant epithelial carcinoma of the head and neck. Cancer therapy targeting programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) or programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) is revolutionary. However, the tumorigenic mechanism of PD-L1 is not yet clear in NPC. Here we demonstrated an oncogenic role of PD-L1 via activating PI3K/AKT in NPC cells. PD-L1 overexpression was frequently detected in NPC biopsies and cell lines by qRT-PCR. PD-L1 overexpression and knockdown demonstrated that PD-L1 promoted NPC cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, PD-L1 prominently activated the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) process in a PI3K/AKT-dependent manner. Taken together,… More >

View

457

Download

345

Open Access

ARTICLE

Juanjuan Yao^*, Liang Zhong^†, Pengqiang Zhong^*, Dongdong Liu^†, Zhen Yuan^†, Junmei Liu^*, Shifei Yao^*, Yi Zhao^*, Min Chen^*, Lianwen Li^*, Lu Liu^†, Beizhong Liu^*†
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 809-818, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15451301487729
Abstract RAS-responsive element-binding protein 1 (RREB1) is a transcription factor that is implicated in RAS signaling and multiple tumors. However, the role of RREB1 in acute myeloid leukemia has not been studied. We found that RREB1 is overexpressed in AML patients and myeloid leukemia cell lines (NB4 and HL-60), and RREB1 expression was significantly decreased during granulocytic differentiation of myeloid leukemia cells induced by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Then we performed a RREB1 knockdown assay in NB4 and HL-60 cells; the results showed that knockdown of RREB1 upregulated expression of CD11b, CEBP , and microRNA-145 (miR-145), which hinted that knockdown of… More >

View

661

Download

419

Open Access

ARTICLE

Jie Xu^*1, Zhongzhou Su^*1, Qiuping Ding^†, Liang Shen^*, Xiaohu Nie^*, Xuyan Pan^*, Ai Yan^*, Renfu Yan^*, Yue Zhou^*, Liqin Li^‡, Bin Lu^*
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 819-826, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15478559215014
Abstract Human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) accounts for the majority of human brain gliomas. Several TMEM proteins, such as TMEM 45A, TMEM 97, and TMEM 140, are implicated in human brain gliomas. However, the roles of TMEM168 in human GBM remain poorly understood. Herein we found that mRNA levels of TMEM168 were overexpressed in GBM patients (n=85) when compared with healthy people (n=10), which was also supported by data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Kaplan–Meier analysis of Gene Expression Omnibus dataset GSE16011 suggested that enhanced TMEM168 expression was associated with shorter survival time. To investigate whether and how TMEM168 functioned in… More >

View

577

Download

455

Open Access

ARTICLE

Qing Wei¹, Rui Zhu¹, Junying Zhu, Rongping Zhao, Min Li
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 827-834, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15462920753012
Abstract Emerging evidence suggests that 17β-estradiol (E2) and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling are protective against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In our previous study, we showed that E2 suppressed the carcinogenesis and progression of HCC by targeting NLRP3 inflammasome activation, whereas the molecular mechanism by which the NLRP3 inflammasome initiated cancer cell death was not elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of NLRP3 inflammasome activation on cell death pathways and autophagy of HCC cells. First, we observed an increasing mortality in E2-treated HCC cells, and then apoptotic and pyroptotic cell death were both detected. The mortality of HCC cells was… More >

View

578

Download

396

Open Access

ARTICLE

Hyun-Jung Moon,1 So-Young Park,1 Su-Hoon Lee, Chi-Dug Kang, Sun-Hee Kim
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 835-847, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504019X15517850319579
Abstract Recently, novel therapeutic strategies have been designed with the aim of killing cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), and considerable interest has been generated in the development of specific therapies that target stemnessrelated marker of CSCs. In this study, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) significantly potentiated Hsp90 inhibitor 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG)-mediated cytotoxicity through apoptotic and autophagic cell death induction, but COX-2-inhibitory function was not required for NSAIDinduced autophagy in CD44-overexpressing human chronic myeloid leukemia K562 (CD44^highK562) cells. Importantly, we found that treatment with NSAIDs resulted in a dose-dependent increase in LC3-II level and decrease in p62 level and simultaneous reduction in multiple stemness-related markers… More >

View

705

Download

415

Open Access

REVIEW

Jie Wei^*†1, Yuanliang Yan^*†1, Xi Chen^*†, Long Qian^*†, Shuangshuang Zeng^*†, Zhi Li^‡, Shuang Dai^*†, Zhicheng Gong^*†,Zhijie Xu^§
Oncology Research, Vol.27, No.7, pp. 849-858, 2019, DOI:10.3727/096504018X15447833065047
Abstract Over the past decade, natural compounds have been proven to be effective against many human diseases, including cancers. Triptolide (TPL), a diterpenoid triepoxide from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, has exhibited attractive cytotoxic activity on several cancer cells. An increasing number of studies have emphasized the antitumor effects of TPL on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here we mainly focused on the key molecular signaling pathways that lead to the inhibitory effects of TPL on human NSCLC, such as mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) modulation, inhibition of NF- B activation, suppression of miRNA expression, etc. In addition, the effect… More >

View

632

Download

340