Sodium butyrate (NaBu) is regarded as a potential reagent for cancer therapy. In this study, a specific breast cancer cell population that is resistant NaBu treatment was identified. These cells possess cancer stem cell characters, such as the capability of sphere formation in vitro and high tumor incident rate (85%) in mouse model. Forty percent of the NaBu resistant cells express the cancer s...

ΔNP63α, the predominant TP63 isoform expressed in diverse epithelial tissues, including the mammary gland, is required for the preservation of stem cells and has been implicated in tumorigenesis and metastasis. Despite data characterizing ΔNP63α as a master regulator of stem cell activity, identification of the targets underlying these effects is incompletely understood. Recently, ΔNP63α was id...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is a remarkably heterogeneous disease. Luminal, basal-like, "normal-like", and ERBB2+ subgroups were identified and were shown to have different prognoses. The mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity are poorly understood. In our study, we explored the role of cellular differentiation and senescence as a potential cause of heterogeneity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING...

BACKGROUND/AIM The Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) model proposes that cancer is driven by a cellular component which possesses stem cell (SC) properties, cancer stem cells (CSCs), a distinct cell-type which is tumorigenic and capable of invasion and metastasis. Enzymatic activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 (ALDH1), a de-toxifying enzyme that oxidizes intracellular aldehydes, has been used as a marker ...

Wnt signaling plays a central role in mammary stem cell (MaSC) homeostasis and in breast cancer. In particular, epigenetic alterations at different members of the Wnt pathway have been identified among triple-negative, basal-like breast cancers. Previously, we developed a mouse model for metaplastic breast adenocarcinoma, a subtype of triple-negative breast cancer, by targeting a hypomorphic mu...

BRCA1 is an important susceptibility gene for breast cancer, which confers substantial lifetime risks of breast cancer, particularly in the pre-menopausal age group. Typically, carriers of BRCA1 mutations develop breast tumours that grow rapidly and are high grade and oestrogen receptor negative. They also possess a basal epithelial phenotype, as defined by cytokeratin expression, that is not p...

The transcriptional responses of drug treatments combined with a protein target prediction algorithm was utilised to associate compounds to biological genomic space. This enabled us to predict efficacy of compounds in cMap and LINCS against 181 databases of diseases extracted from GEO. 18/30 of top drugs predicted for leukemia (e.g. Leflunomide and Etoposide) and breast cancer (e.g. Tamoxifen a...

AIMS Cancer stem cell biology is tightly connected to the regulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine network. The concept of cancer stem cells "inflammatory addiction" leads to envisage the potential role of anti-inflammatory molecules as new anti-cancer targets. Here we report on the relationship between nuclear receptors activity and the modulation of the pro-inflammatory phenotype in breast...

Purpose: To investigate the antitumor and chemoresistance-lowering effects of pectolinarigenin on breast cancer cells. Methods: Pectolinarigenin was purified by a combination of silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography from ethanol extracts of the aerial parts of C. japonicum DC. Breast cancer selfrenewal properties were tested by colony formation and tumor sphere formation assays. T...