The initiation of postembryonic cell divisions by the gonadal precursors of C. elegans requires the activity of gon-2. gon-2 encodes a predicted cation channel (GON-2) of the TRPM subfamily of TRP proteins and is likely to mediate the influx of Ca(2+) and/or Mg(2+). We report here that mutations in gem-4 (gon-2 extragenic modifier) are capable of suppressing loss-of-function alleles of gon-2. g...

Biliary tract cancer (BTC) is the second common cancer in liver cancer. Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatments for patients with advanced or metastatic disease, while fluorouracil (FU)-based and gemcitabine (GEM)-based treatments are most widely applied. This NMA aimed to figure out whether the addition of platinum (PLA) and target agents (TAR) can influence the efficacy and safety of stand...

GEM (glycosphingolipid-enriched microdomains) are specialized detergent-resistant domains of the plasma membrane in which some gangliosides concentrate. Although genesis of GEM is considered to occur in the Golgi complex, where the synthesis of gangliosides also occurs, the issue concerning the incorporation of ganglioside species into GEM is still poorly understood. In this work, using Chinese...

Gemcitabine (GEM) is the front-line standard chemotherapy used for the treatment of pancreatic cancer; however, chemoresistance to GEM remains the major obstacle to the successful control of this disease. Both the expression levels and activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) are important features of tumor-initiating and/or cancer stem cell properties in multiple types of human cancer....

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) has emerged as a promising new target for pancreatic cancer treatment over the past decade. High expression of HIF-1α increases the drug resistance of the current first line chemotherapeutic drug, gemcitabine (Gem). Here we employed biocompatible lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles to co-deliver HIF1α siRNA (si-HIF1α) and Gem for pancreatic cancer treatment in...

With the development of nanotechnology, special attention has been given to the nanomaterial application in tumor treatment. Here, a modified desolvation-cross-linking method was successfully applied to fabricate gemcitabine-loaded albumin nanospheres (GEM-ANPs), with 110 and 406 nm of mean diameter, respectively. The aim of this study was to assess the drug distribution, side effects, and anti...

Although we studied previously the mechanisms of resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to gemcitabine (GEM), prediction of the response to GEM remains unsatisfactory. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between miR-29a expression and the response to GEM in pancreatic cancer cells. Changes in the growth-inhibitory effect of pancreatic cancer cells (MIAPaCa-2, PSN-1, BxPC-3 ...

In order to improve the prognosis of patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer, there is an urgent need for enhancement of the anticancer effect of gemcitabine (Gem), a first-line drug for the disease. Here, we demonstrated that ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) such as pioglitazone (Pio) and rosiglitazone potenti...

BACKGROUND Gemcitabine (2'-deoxy-2'-difluorodeoxycytidine: Gemzar) (GEM) appears to be the only effective anticancer drug for pancreatic cancer, but it has little impact on outcome due to a high level of inherent and acquired tumor resistance. Our previous proteomic study demonstrated that the expression of three spots of heat-shock protein 27 (HSP27) was increased in GEM-resistant pancreatic c...

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) affects primarily elderly patients, with a median survival of 4-12 months after diagnosis. Presently, under clinical investigation the combination of cisplatin (CDDP) and gemcitabine (GEM) has promising activity in several of human tumor types. To develop new approaches for therapy of ATC, we evaluated the antineoplastic activity of GEM and CDDP alone (1-h and...