Cyclophosphamide is used to treat a wide range of human malignancies. However, it is also a known carcinogen associated with induction of therapy-related leukemia and bladder cancer. The DNA repair protein, O-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT), protects cells from the toxic and mutagenic effects of O-alkylating agents. We report here the contribution of AGT in protecting against the toxic ...

PURPOSE Posterior capsular opacification (PCO) is caused mainly by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), proliferation, and migration of human lens epithelial (HLE) cells. wingless (Wnt) signaling has been implicated in the fibrotic process by inducing EMT and increasing the proliferation of epithelial cells. This study investigated the role of Wnt3a in PCO formation. METHODS Wnt3a was...

HuR (ELAVL1), a RNA-binding protein, plays a key role in posttranscriptional regulation of multidrug resistance (MDR)-related genes. Among various HuR-regulated oncogenic transcripts, the activation of galectin-3/β-catenin survival pathway is critical to induce transcription of cyclin D1, P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and/or multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs). In this study, we aim to eluc...

During chronic liver inflammation, up-regulated Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) targets hepatocytes and induces abnormal reactive oxygen species (ROS) production responsible for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) alterations. The serine/threonine Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta (GSK3β) plays a pivotal role during inflammation but its involvement in the maintenance of mtDNA remains unknown. The aim o...

The Fcg receptor IIIb (FcgRIIIb) for the Fc domain of IgG is expressed exclusively on neutrophils. The FcgRIIIb bears allotypic polymorphisms referred to as NA1, NA2, and SH, which are known for their frequent involvement in alloimmune and autoimmune neutropenias as well as in transfusion reactions. The bactericidal capacity of isolated neutrophils is easily activatable, and activation results ...

Nramp2/DMT1 is a transmembrane proton-coupled Fe(2+) transporter. Two different mRNAs are generated by alternative splicing; isoform I contains an iron responsive element (IRE), whereas isoform II does not. They encode two proteins differing at their C-terminal end and by their subcellular localization. IRE-mediated stabilization of isoform I mRNA is thought to stimulate DMT1 expression in resp...

PURPOSE We recently reported the significant therapeutic efficacy of radioiodine therapy in various tumor mouse models following transcriptionally targeted sodium iodide symporter (NIS) gene transfer. These studies showed the high potential of NIS as a novel diagnostic and therapeutic gene for the treatment of extrathyroidal tumors. As a next crucial step towards clinical application of NIS-med...