BACKGROUND Cancer gene therapy by retroviral vectors is mainly limited by the level of transduction. Retroviral gene transfer requires target cell division. Cell synchronization, obtained by drugs inducing a reversible inhibition of DNA synthesis, could therefore be proposed to precondition target cells to retroviral gene transfer. We tested whether drug-mediated cell synchronization could enha...

UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) are highly expressed in liver, intestine and kidney, and catalyze the glucuronic acid conjugation of both endogenous compounds and xenobiotics. Using recombinant human UGT isoforms, we show that glucuronic acid conjugation of the model substrate, (-)-epicatechin, is catalyzed mainly by UGT1A8 and UGT1A9. In HepG2 cells, pretreatment with polyunsaturated fatty...

BACKGROUND Apoptosis or programmed cell death is an essential process for elimination of damaged cells. Also, induction of apoptosis is fundamental for treating cancer. Screening for agents that induce apoptosis in tumor cells help in the development of novel agents for cancer treatment. Numerous studies suggest that the exposure of tumor cells to statins can lead to cell death via two separate...

Chemotherapeutic agents targeting thymidylate synthase (TS) are effective against human tumors. Efficacy is limited by drug resistance, often mediated by TS overexpression. Treatment of HeLa cells in vitro with an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN 83) targeting human TS mRNA reduces TS mRNA and protein levels, inhibits cell proliferation, and sensitizes cells to TS-targeting drugs (Ferguson e...

Phage display represents an attractive screening strategy for the identification of novel, specific binding ligands that could be used for tumor targeting. Recently, a new peptide (CaIX-P1) with affinity for human carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) was identified and evaluated. The aim of the present study is to characterize the properties of CaIX-P1 for targeting human colorectal carcinoma and inves...

We have previously shown that cisplatin triggers an early acid sphingomyelinase (aSMase)-dependent ceramide generation concomitantly with an increase in membrane fluidity and induces apoptosis in HT29 cells. The present study further explores the role and origin of membrane fluidification in cisplatin-induced apoptosis. The rapid increase in membrane fluidity following cisplatin treatment was i...

Dicathais orbita is a large Australian marine gastropod known to produce bioactive compounds with anticancer properties. In this research, we used bioassay guided fractionation from the egg mass extract of D. orbita using flash column chromatography and identified fractions containing tyrindoleninone and 6-bromoisatin as the most active against colon cancer cells HT29 and Caco-2. Liquid chromat...

Suramin, a drug used in the treatment of trypanosomiasis and onchocerciasis inhibits growth factor-induced mitogenesis. In the present report, we show that suramin inhibits the growth of human colic adenocarcinoma cells HT29-D4 and rapidly induces their differentiation into enterocyte-like cells. As soon as 6 days after the addition of suramin (100 micrograms/ml) in the culture medium, the cell...