CD44 adhesion molecules are expressed in many breast cancer cells and have been demonstrated to play a key role in regulating malignant phenotypes such as growth, migration, and invasion. CD44 is an integral transmembrane protein encoded by a single 20-exon gene. The diversity of the biological functions of CD44 is the result of the various splicing variants of these exons. Previous studies sug...

microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are a class of single‑stranded non‑coding RNA molecules of 19‑24 nucleotides (nt) in length. They are widely expressed in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses. Via specific mRNA complementary pairing of target genes, miRNAs are able to regulate the expression of mRNA levels or inhibit protein translation following transcription. miRNA expression has a time‑ and space sp...

PURPOSE The gene for Eph-receptor tyrosinekinase-type A2 (EPHA2) has been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of age-related cataract (ARC). The aim of this study was to examine whether EPHA2 polymorphisms were associated with the susceptibility to age-related cortical cataract in a Han Chinese population. METHODS Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)-rs3768293, rs3754334, rs754820...

PURPOSE Cataract is the major cause of vision-related disability worldwide. Mutations in the crystallin genes are the most common known cause of inherited congenital cataract. Mutations in the genes associated with intercellular contacts, such as Nance-Horan Syndrome (NHS) and Ephrin type A receptor-2 (EPHA2), are other recognized causes of congenital cataract. The EPHA2 gene has been also asso...

Purpose: Underestimation of disease severity is a major problem confronting the successful clinical management of non-small cell lung cancer. Recent advances in molecular biological substaging may provide an opportunity to identify those patients with the most aggressive forms of the disease, but there is a continuing need for accurate markers of disease relapse and survival. Experimental Desig...

Downregulation of the novel tumor suppressor gene HIC1 (hypermethylated in cancer 1) occurs frequently in various tumors where it causes tumor progression and metastasis. In this study, we investigated a role of HIC1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the underlying mechanisms. Downregulation of HIC1 occurred in approximately 70% of primary ESCCs at both mRNA and protein level whe...

Photosensitizers are generally treated as key components for photodynamic therapy. In contrast, we herein report an aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen)-based photosensitizer (TPE-Py-FFGYSA) that can serve as a non-toxic adjuvant to amplify the antitumor efficacy of paclitaxel, a well-known anticancer drug, with a synergistic effect of "0 + 1 > 1". Besides the adjuvant function, TPE-...

During metastatic tumor progression, cancer cells are exposed to different microenvironments. The microenvironment with which they negotiate within primary tumor is unlike the one they encounter when invading into stroma or vasculature, and different also from what they will be exposed to as they spread into secondary sites. Therefore, one property that cancer cells acquire is plasticity. The c...