Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is an evolutionary conserved protein that is essential for embryonic development. BMP-2 is highly expressed in approximately 98% of human lung carcinomas with little expression in normal lung tissues. BMP-2 has been shown to enhance mobility, invasiveness, and metastasis of cancer cell lines. During development, BMP-2 induces the proto-oncogene phosphoinosit...

Cinnamomum cassia exhibits antioxidative, apoptotic, and cytostatic properties. These activities have been attributed to the modulation of several biological processes and are beneficial for possible pharmaceutical applications. However, the potential of C. cassia in retarding lung adenocarcinoma cells metastasis remains ambiguous. We determined whether C. cassia extract (CCE) reduces metastasi...

The blind subterranean mole rat, Spalax ehrenbergi, is a model organism for hypoxia tolerance. This superspecies have adapted to severe environment by altering an array of hypoxia-mediated genes, among which an alteration in the p53 DNA binding domain (corresponding to R174K in humans) that hinders its transcriptional activity towards apoptotic genes. It is well accepted that apoptosis is not t...

Curcumin is a novel drug for lung cancer treatment. However, the mechanism underlying the anti-tumor effect of curcumin remains elusive. Previous evidences indicated that, the methylating transferase DNMT1 is downregulated by curcumin, and the transcription factor 21 (TCF21) is suppressed by DNMT1. We hereby attempt to elucidate the correlation between curcumin treatment and TCF21 expression. E...

S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (Skp2) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase and plays an important role in the control of cell cycle progression. Skp2 is upregulated in several cancers, including lung cancers, but the role of Skp2 in the tumorigenesis and anticancer drug resistance in human lung cancer remains to be determined. We report here that Skp2 positively regulated mitotic arrest deficient 2 (...

Cytological examination is widely used as a diagnostic tool because of the ease of collecting cells from the involved area. However, the diagnostic yield of cytological examination is unsatisfactory; the reasons include sampling error, poorly prepared samples, small numbers of malignant cells, and low grades of cellular atypia. In this study, we focused on the high infectivity of adenovirus tow...

BACKGROUND Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a key enzyme involved in the repair of radiation-induced single-strand DNA breaks. PARP inhibitors such as olaparib (KU-0059436, AZD-2281) enhance tumor sensitivity to radiation and to topoisomerase I inhibitors like camptothecin (CPT). Olaparib is an orally bioavailable inhibitor of PARP-1 and PARP-2 that has been tested in multiple clinica...

The cytotoxicity of three extracts (petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol) from a plant used in folk medicine, Marchantia convoluta, to human non-small cell lung carcinoma (H1299) and liver carcinoma (HepG2) cell lines was tested. After 72-h incubation of lung and liver cancer cell cultures with varying concentrations of extracts (15 to 200 microg/mL), cytotoxicity was determined by the ...

The adenoviral gene E1a is known to enhance the antitumor effect of cisplatin, one of the cornerstones of the current cancer chemotherapy. Here we study the molecular basis of E1a mediated sensitivity to cisplatin in an experimental model of Non-small cell lung cancer. Our data show how E1a blocks the induction of autophagy triggered by cisplatin and promotes the apoptotic response in resistant...