Our study aims to determine the clinical significance of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (Skp2) and thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) mRNA expressions in peripheral blood (PB) of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to investigate the gene expressions of hTERT, Skp2, TTF-1 as in th...

Pro-IL-16 is a PDZ domain-containing protein expressed in T cells. Our previous work showed that upon activation of normal T cells, pro-IL-16 mRNA and protein are diminished in close correlation to the down-regulation of p27KIP1 protein. In addition, we showed that pro-IL-16 regulates the transcription of Skp2, the mechanism of which, however, remains elusive. In this study, we identified GA bi...

Mutations in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) core promoter (CP) have been shown to be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The CP region overlaps HBV X gene, which activates AKT to regulate hepatocyte survival. However, the cooperation between these two cascades in HCC progression remains poorly understood. Here, we assayed virological factors and AKT expression in liver tissues from 56 ...

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis makes a major contribution to decreasing the levels of p27. Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of p27(kip1) is growth and cell cycle regulated in two ways: first, skp2, a component of the E3-ubiquitin ligase, is growth regulated, and second, a kinase must phosphorylate the threonine-187 position on p27 so that it can be recognized by skp2. In vitro, p27 is phosphory...

It has been shown that activation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) suppresses proliferation of a variety of tumor cells as well as nonmalignant cells. In this study, we used post-transcriptional gene silencing with small interfering RNA (siRNA) to specifically examine the effect of AMPK on pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) proliferation and to further elu...

Renal obstruction is frequently found in adults and children. Mechanical stimuli, including pressure and stretch in the obstructed kidney, contribute to damage; animal models of obstruction are characterized by increased cellular proliferation. We were interested in the direct effects of pressure and stretch on renal tubular cell proliferation. Human HKC-8 or rat NRK-52E proximal tubule cells w...

Recurrent infections with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are associated with human cervical cancers. All HPV-associated cancer tissues express the viral oncoproteins E6 and E7, which stimulate cell growth. The expression of E7 is crucial for both the initiation and the maintenance of HPV-associated cancer. Recent studies showed that the level of E7 in cancer cells is regulated by ubiqu...

Prostate cancer (PCa) patients receiving the androgen ablation therapy ultimately develop recurrent castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) within 1-3 years. Treatment with caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) suppressed cell survival and proliferation via induction of G1 or G2/M cell cycle arrest in LNCaP 104-R1, DU-145, 22Rv1, and C4-2 CRPC cells. CAPE treatment also inhibited soft agar co...

Rationale: Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a metabolic and redox sensor, is reported to suppress cell proliferation of nonmalignant and tumor cells. Whether AMPK alters vascular neointima formation induced by vascular injury is unknown. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the roles of AMPK in the development of vascular neointima hyperplasia and to elucida...

p27Kip1 (p27) is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases. Inhibiting p27 protein degradation is an actively developing cancer therapy strategy. One focus has been to identify small molecule inhibitors to block recruitment of Thr-187-phosphorylated p27 (p27T187p) to SCF(Skp2/Cks1) ubiquitin ligase. Since phosphorylation of Thr-187 is required for this recruitment, p27T187A knockin (KI) mice wer...