Doxorubicin (DOX) and its derivatives are used as chemotherapeutic drugs to treat cancer patients. However, production of DOX-mediated reactive oxygen species (ROS) by prolonged use of these drugs has been found to cause dilative cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. Thus various preventive modalities have been developed to avoid this side effect. We have found that the DOX-mediated oxid...

Bufalin is the primary component of the traditional Chinese herb "Chan Su". Evidence suggests that this compound possesses potent anti-tumor activities, although the exact molecular mechanism(s) is unknown. Our previous study showed that bufalin inhibited growth of human osteosarcoma cell lines U2OS and U2OS/MTX300 in culture. Therefore, this study aims to further clarify the in vitro and in vi...

Heat shock proteins (hsps) occupy a central role in the regulation of intracellular homeostasis, and differential expression of individual hsps occurs in a broad range of neoplastic processes. This study was performed to test the hypothesis that the particular patterns by which individual hsps become specifically modulated in human prostate cancers are correlated with behavioral phenotype and h...

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the protein expression profile of a spectrum of renal cell carcinomas (RCC) to find potential biomarkers for disease onset and progression and therefore, prospective therapeutic targets. A 2D-gel based proteomic analysis was used to outline differences in protein levels among different subtypes of renal cell carcinomas, including clear cell carcinomas, papill...

Quercetin, a natural flavonoid, inhibits the growth of leukemia cells and induces apoptosis. Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) has been reported to promote the development of leukemia by protecting tumor cells from apoptosis through various mechanisms. The present study investigated the effects of small hairpin (sh)RNA-mediated HSP27 knockdown on the anti‑cancer effects of quercetin in U937 human l...

Nuclear receptors are ligand-dependent transcription factors responsible for controlling differentiation, growth and development of higher eukaryotes. Three amino acids within the recognition alpha-helix of the DNA-binding domain of the nuclear receptors constitute the so-called "P-box" which determines response element specificity. In the ultraspiracle (Usp) protein, which together with EcR fo...

BACKGROUND The expression pattern of stress (heat shock) proteins (HSPs) in cancer cells is frequently different from that observed in normal cells; most often some stress-inducible HSPs are constitutively and highly expressed. The objective of this study was to determine the prognostic significance of stress proteins HSP70i and HSP27 in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND ME...

Evidence showed that chemokines serve as pro-migratory factors for immune cells. CCL3, CCL4 and CCL5, as the main CC  chemokines subfamily members, activate immune cells through binding to CC chemokine receptor 5 or CCR5. Macrophages, NK cells and T lymphocytes express CCR5 and thus, affected CCR5 expression or functions could be associated with altered immune responses. Deletion of 32 base pai...

ownload scriptional activation of p53 target genes, due to DNA damage, causes either apoptosis or survival by cell rrest and DNA repair. However, the regulators of the choice between cell death and survival signaling have en completely elucidated. Here, we report that human adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7) survive UV-induced damage by heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27)–assisted Akt/p21 phosphorylation/t...

Ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) occurs in almost every liver surgery and is associated with the reduction of the liver blood flow. Ischemia impairs liver function and can even cause liver failure following surgery. The present study aimed to identify a new molecular target allowing the reduction of IRI and explore the related cellular mechanism. Adenovirus (~2.5x10(12) viral particles) bearin...