Neuromedin U (NMU) has been shown driving the progression of various tumor entities, including breast cancer. However, the expression pattern of NMU and its receptors in breast cancer tissues as well as systematic insight into mechanisms and downstream targets of the NMU-driven signaling pathways are still elusive. Here, NMU expression was found up-regulated in all breast cancer subtypes when c...

HER2/neu positive breast tumors predict a high mortality and comprise 25%-30% of breast cancer. We have shown that Flavokawain A (FKA) preferentially reduces the viabilities of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer cell lines (i.e., SKBR3 and MCF7/HER2) versus those with less HER2 expression (i.e., MCF7 and MDA-MB-468). FKA at cytotoxic concentrations to breast cancer cell lines also has a minimal ...

There is a need for the development of new, safe and efficacious drug therapies for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancers. RL71 is a second-generation curcumin analog that exhibits potent cytotoxicity towards a variety of ER-negative breast cancer cells. Therefore, we have further examined the mechanism of this anticancer activity in three different ER-negative breast ...

Although reduced levels of the epithelial cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin are often associated with poorly differentiated breast cancers, recent studies show that expression of other cadherins such as N-cadherin, P-cadherin, and the mesenchymal cadherin-11 is actually elevated in invasive breast cancers and cell lines. Cadherin-11 is unique among cadherins in that it exists as two alternative...

Tumors are heterogeneous at the cellular level where the ability to maintain tumor growth resides in discrete cell populations. Floating sphere-forming assays are broadly used to test stem cell activity in tissues, tumors and cell lines. Spheroids are originated from a small population of cells with stem cell features able to grow in suspension culture and behaving as tumorigenic in mice. We te...

AIM Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) is a tyrosine kinase receptor mediating cell growth and survival of cancer cells. We studied responses to IGF1R tyrosine kinase inhibitor NVP-AEW541 combined with conventional systemic drugs in breast cancer cell lines of different clinical subtype. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sensitivity to NVP-AEW541, single treatment and combinations with tamoxif...

The interaction of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) with its receptor (EGFR) is known to be complex, and the common over-expression of EGF receptor family members in a multitude of tumors makes it important to decipher this interaction and the following signaling pathways. We have investigated the affinity and kinetics of (125)I-EGF binding to EGFR in four human tumor cell lines, each using fo...

Neu differentiation factor (NDF), a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-related peptide family, activates ErbB2 via heterodimerization with the NDF receptors ErbB3 and ErbB4. In a similar fashion, EGF receptor (EGFR) agonists induce heterodimers of EGFR and ErbB2. In this paper, we show that the ErbB2-overexpressing breast tumor cells SKBR3, AU565, and MDA-MB453 are growth inhibited by ...

Herbimycin A, a benzoquinoid ansamycin, is widely used as an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases. We have examined the effects of herbimycin A and several analogues on p185, the tyrosine kinase encoded by the erbB2 gene in human breast cancer cells. Exposure to 0.35 microM herbimycin A reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of p185 in SKBr3 cells by 80% after 2 h, and the p185 protein level was reduced by ...

Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) is an anaplerotic enzyme that catalyzes the carboxylation of pyruvate to oxaloacetate, which is crucial for replenishing tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates when they are used for biosynthetic purposes. We examined the expression of PC by immunohistochemistry of paraffin-embedded breast tissue sections of 57 breast cancer patients with different stages of cancer pro...