The RASSF1A tumor suppressor gene is frequently inactivated by promoter methylation in human tumors. The RASSF1A protein forms an endogenous complex with tubulin and promotes the stabilization of microtubules. Loss of RASSF1A expression sensitizes cells to microtubule destabilizing stimuli. We have observed a strong correlation between the loss of RASSF1A expression and the development of Taxol...

To determine why the duration of mitosis (DM) is less in Taxol than in nocodazole or Eg5 inhibitors we studied the relationship between Taxol concentration, the DM, and the mitotic checkpoint. We found that unlike for other spindle poisons, in Taxol the DM becomes progressively shorter as the concentration surpasses approximately 0.5 microM. Studies on RPE1 and PtK2 expressing GFP/cyclin B or Y...

Treatment of prostate cancer cell lines expressing bcl-2 with taxol induces bcl-2 phosphorylation and programmed cell death, whereas treat ment of ¿>c/-2-negativeprostate cancer cells with taxol does not induce apoptosis. bcl-2 phosphorylation seems to inhibit its binding to box since less box was observed in immunocomplex with bcl-2 in taxol-treated cancer cells. These findings support the us...

Synergistic multimodality therapy is needed for breast cancer. Breast cancer frequently has p53 mutations that result in cells less likely to undergo apoptosis when exposed to DNA damaging therapies. Taxol (paclitaxel) is more effective in the presence of mutant p53. (90)Y-labeled DOTA-peptide-ChL6 ((90)Y-ChL6, where ChL6 is chimeric L6 antibody and DOTA is 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-N,N',N...

Taxol is a powerful chemotherapeutic agent that binds to microtubules to prevent tumour cell division. However, a traditional high dose of taxol may also induce apoptosis in normal cells. The anti-apoptotic molecule Bcl-2 is up-regulated in tumour cells to prevent apoptosis. We designed this study to determine whether use of a low dose of taxol and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene silencing would effe...

Tumor cells grown as multicellular spheroids are known to be intrinsically more resistant to a large and diverse array of anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs compared to the same cells grown as dispersed monolayer cell cultures. Some drugs, however, seem relatively insensitive to this multicellular drug resistance, e.g., cisplatinum. Whether the cytotoxic effects of Taxol, an anticancer drug of g...

The development of treatments for neuropathic pain has been hindered by our limited understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying abnormalities in nociceptor hyperexcitability. We recently showed that the polymodal receptor transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels, may play a role in inflammatory pain (Alessan...

In the present study, we investigated the effect of the taxol resistance gene 1 (TXR1) on taxol resistance in gastric cancer (GC). Immunohistochemistry was performed in order to assess the expression pattern of TXR1 in paraffin-embedded specimens of 107 GC patients who underwent radical D2 gastrectomy with long-term follow-up. In order to determine whether TXR1 expression plays a role in taxol ...

In this study, we show that an inhibitor of glycosphin-golipid biosynthesis, D,L-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol (PDMP), increases the chemosensitivity of neuroblastoma tumor cells for Taxol and vincristine. At noneffective low doses of Taxol or vincristine, the addition of a noneffective dose of PDMP resulted in 70% cytotoxicity, indicating synergy. Such an effect was no...