We compared the effects of monotherapy (photodynamic therapy or chemotherapy) versus combination therapy (photodynamic therapy plus a specific drug) on the non-small cell lung cancer cell line H1299. Our aim was to evaluate whether the additive/synergistic effects of combination treatment were such that the cytostatic dose could be reduced without affecting treatment efficacy. Photodynamic ther...

Reduced connexin expression and loss of gap junction function is a characteristic of many cancers, including lung cancer. However, there are little reports about the relation between Cx31.1 and lung cancer. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Cx31.1 on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We found that the Cx31.1 was down-regulated in NSCLC cell lines, and the expression levels...

Aberrant expression of microRNA is associated with the development and progression of cancers. MicroRNA-204 (miR-204) down-regulation has been previously demonstrated in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC); however, the underlying mechanism by which miR-204 suppresses tumorigenesis in NSCLC remains elusive. In this study, miR-204 expression was found to be down-regulated, and that of Janus ki...

Epigenome aberrations have been observed in tobacco-associated human malignancies. (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been proven to modulate gene expression by targeting DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) through a proposed mechanism involving the gallate moiety of EGCG. We show that gallic acid (GA) changes the methylome of lung cancer and pre-malignant oral cell lines and markedly reduces...

Objective(s): Chemoresistance remains the main causes of treatment failure and mortality in cancer patients. There is an urgent need to investigate novel approaches to improve current therapeutic modalities and increase cancer patients' survival. Induction of drug efflux due to overexpression of                  P-glycoproteins is considered as an important leading cause of multidrug resistance...

High-linear energy transfer (LET) heavy ions have been increasingly employed as a useful alternative to conventional photon radiotherapy. As recent studies suggested that high LET radiation mainly affects the nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway of DNA double strand break (DSB) repair, we further investigated this concept by evaluating the combined effect of an NHEJ inhibitor (NU7441) at a ...

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), a major IGF-binding protein in human serum, regulates the growth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells through IGF-dependent and IGF-independent mechanisms. However, the role of IGFBP-3 in lung cancer metastasis is not well known. In the present study, we showed that noncytotoxic doses of adenoviral or recombinant IGFBP-3 significant...

Preclinical studies were performed of a novel selective imidazopyridine cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitor, AZ703. In vitro kinase assays showed that IC50 values for AZ703 against purified cyclin E/cdk2 and cyclin B/cdk1 were 34 and 29 nmol/L, respectively. In contrast, the IC50 against cdk4 was 10 micromol/L. AZ703 also inhibited cdk7 and cdk9 with IC50 values of 2.1 micromol/L and 521 nm...

The transforming growth factor β regulator 4 (TBRG4) gene, located on the 7p14-p13 chromosomal region, is implicated in numerous types of cancer. However, the contribution(s) of TBRG4 in human lung cancer remains unknown. In the present study, the expression of TBRG4 mRNA was investigated in the H1299 lung cancer cell line using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) following the kn...