Recent studies have demonstrated a potent anticancer potential of medicinal fungus Antrodia cinnamomea, especially against hepatocarcinoma. These studies, however, were performed with prolonged treatments, and the early anticancer events remain missing. To probe the early anticancer mechanisms of A. cinnamomea, we treated SK-Hep-1 liver cancer cell with A. cinnamomea fruiting body extract for 2...

Interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase (Itk) is a member of the Btk (Bruton's tyrosine kinase) family of tyrosine kinases. Itk plays an important role in normal T-cell functions and in the pathophysiology of both autoimmune diseases and T-cell malignancies. Here, we describe the initial characterization of a selective inhibitor, 7-benzyl-1-(3-(piperidin-1-yl)propyl)-2-(4-(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)-1H...

Ependymomas (EPN) are enigmatic tumors which continue to present significant management challenges to clinicians as evidenced by the failure to cure up to 40% of cases [1]. Recent genomic and epigenomic studies have identified alterations in DNA copy number, gene expression [2,3], and methylation [4] and showed that EPN is a heterogeneous disease and consists of distinct molecular subtypes. How...

In the last decade, the scientific community has been shaken by what we call the " noncoding revolution. " We have witnessed the discovery of an increasing amount of RNA molecules, which play a critical role in normal physiology as well as disease, without providing any protein product. The smallest regulatory RNA species, known as the ∼22 nucleotide-long microRNAs (miRNAs), were at the forefro...

We examined the expression levels of microRNAs (miRNAs; miRs) in colorectal tumors (63 cancer specimens and 65 adenoma specimens) compared to adjacent non-tumorous tissues. Decreased expression of miR-143 and -145 was frequently observed in the adenoma and cancer samples. As the down-regulation of miR-143 and -145 was observed even in the early phase of adenoma formation, their decreased expres...

MicroRNAs are a class of small non-coding RNAs that are involved in the negative regulation of gene expression primarily through binding to the 3’untranslated region of their target mRNA. MicroRNAs have multiple mRNA targets, each of which can be regulated by multiple microRNAs making this a complex regulatory network. The identification of their importance in different types of cancer and vali...

In response to appropriate stimuli in their microenvironment, naïve CD4 + T cells differentiate into one of several T helper cell lineages, such as Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cells, as defined by their transcription factor expression, cytokine secretion, and effector functions. Although T helper subsets are known to be regulated by specific transcription factors and cytokines, the molecular basis...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that function as master regulators of posttranscriptional gene expression with each miRNA negatively regulating hundreds of genes. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a mitogenic lipid present within the ovarian tumor microenvironment and induces LPA receptor activation and intracellular signaling cascades like ERK/MAPK, leading to enhanced cellular prolif...

It is estimated that up to 50% of all human proteincoding genes are regulated by miRNAs. This family of non-coding RNAs, with ∼1500 members reported up-to-date, can impact a variety of cellular processes including cellular proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. It is not surprising that deregulated expression of selected miRNAs can thus promote cancer initiation and progression. Several ...