PURPOSE Multiple chromosome abnormalities, including gain of chromosome20q, have been detected frequently in human pancreatic cancers. Overexpression of the STK15/BTAK/Aurora A gene located on chromosome 20q13, which encodes a centrosome-associated serine/threonine kinase, has been shown to induce chromosomal instability, leading to aneuploidy and cell transformation in multiple in vitro experi...

Pancreatic carcinoma cells exhibit a pronounced tendency to invade along and into intra- and extrapancreatic nerves, even at early stages of the disease. The neurotrophic factor glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has been shown to promote pancreatic cancer cell invasion. Here, we demonstrate that pancreatic carcinoma cell lines, such as PANC-1, expressed the RET and GDNF family ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of small non‑coding RNAs regulating gene expression by inducing the degradation of RNA or interfering with translation. Aberrant miRNA expression has been described in several types of cancer in humans. In the present study, it was demonstrated that miR‑145 is downregulated in pancreatic cancer tissues and the Panc‑1 cell line. Restoration of miR‑145 inhibit...

Snail, a potent repressor of E-cadherin expression, plays a key role in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in epithelial cancer. Recently, EMT and stemness programs are found linked together. In the current study, the expression of Snail and its contribution to cancer stem cell (CSC) marker expression, invasiveness, self-renewal, clonogenicity, and tumorigenicity of pancreatic cancer ce...

Resistance to gemcitabine is the major problem in pancreatic cancer chemotherapy, and recent evidence suggests that down-regulation of hTERT mRNA could enhance the antitumor efficacy of other well known chemotherapy agents targeting DNA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined antitumor efficacy of antisense oligonucleotides (AS-ODN) targeting hTERT mRNA and gemcitabine in human panc...

The naturally occurring compound 6-(methylsulfinyl)hexyl isothiocyanate (6-MITC) was isolated from Wasabia japonica (Wasabi), a pungent spice used in Japanese food worldwide. The synthetic derivatives 6-(methylsulfenyl)hexyl isothiocyanate (I7447) and 6-(methylsulfonyl)hexyl isothiocyanate (I7557) are small molecule compounds derived from 6-MITC. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of these...

O uso de plantas medicinais no tratamento e na cura enfermidades remonta à antiguidade surgiu com a própria humanidade. Planta medicinal é toda planta que exerce alguma ação terapêutica sobre os organismos vivos. As alimentícias não-convencionais (PANC) são comumente chamadas “daninhas”, pois florescem entre as cultivadas. PANC espécies grande importância ecológica econômica, sendo várias alime...

Hypoxia microenvironment is considered to be a contributing factor to tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the molecular mechanism whereby hypoxia contributes to these events has not been completely elucidated. Here we showed that two pancreatic cancer (PC) cells, Panc-1 and SW1990, display different invasive and migratory abilities under hypoxia conditions (1%O2). We also showed that YAP ac...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies with poor prognosis. Previously, we found that a subpopulation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the Panc-1 pancreatic cancer cell line could propagate to form spheres. Here we characterized the malignant phenotypes of the pancreatic cancer stem CD44+/CD24+ cells, which were enriched under sphere forming conditions as analyzed by flow cytome...

Axons from receptors in the cat vaginal wall run in the sensory pudendal nerve (SPN), and brief (<10 s) vaginal probing (VP) in the decerebrate cat produces a long-lasting (>1 min) contraction of the triceps surae (TS) muscles. The aim of the present project was to find out whether brief SPN stimulation also produces sustained TS response and, eventually, to study the mechanisms involved in it....