Multitarget compounds that act on a diverse set of regulatory pathways are emerging as a therapeutic approach for a variety of cancers. Toward a more specified use of this approach, we hypothesize that the desired efficacy can be recreated in terms of a particular combination of relatively more specific (i.e., ostensibly single target) compounds. We test this hypothesis for the geldanamycin ana...

In this study, a solvent evaporation technique was used to fabricate poly(3hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV, 8% PHV) microspheres as scaffold to guide liver cell growth. Human hepatoma cell lines, HepG2 and Hep3B, were cultured in vitro on both the microspheres and polymer films. SEM and optical microscope images showed that multilayer cells were formed among the microspheres to brid...

Golgi phosphoprotein 2 (GP73) is a type II Golgi protein, which was found on examination of the fucosylated proteome as a potential tumor marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The serum levels of both total and fucosylated GP73 were increased in the sera of patients with HCC. Fucosylation is one of the most important oligosaccharide modifications involved in cancer and is catalyzed by α1,6...

Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) has a central role in cellular oxygen-sensing, and its overexpression in many types of cancer is considered important in tumor progression. Thus, targeting HIF-1α production and activity has been of great therapeutic interest. In normoxic conditions, HIF-1α is hydroxylated by oxygen-dependent prolyl-hydroxylases, which require ferrous iron for its activity. ...

N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) has been reported to be elevated in uremic patients. Based on the hypothesis that the pathogenesis of the anemia of renal disease might be due to the perturbation of transcription factors of the erythropoietin (Epo) gene by L-NMMA, the present study was designed to investigate the effect of L-NMMA on Epo gene expression through the GATA transcription factor. ...

MircroRNA-130b (miR-130b) is proposed as a novel tumor-related miRNA and has been found to be significantly dysregulated in tumors. In this study, the expression level of miR-130b was found to be obviously higher in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues than that in nontumor tissues. Further, miR-130b was expressed at significantly higher levels in aggressive and recurrent tumor tissues. Clini...

This study aims to explore which radicals dominate sodium nitroprusside (SNP)-induced cytotoxicity in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells (HepG2 and Hep3B). Exposure of SNP to cell medium produced abundant nitric oxide (NO), superoxide anion (O2•-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and iron ions. SNP potently induced caspases activation, mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and apoptosis in H...

Topotecan (TpT) is a major inhibitory compound of topoisomerase (topo) I that plays important roles in gene transcription and cell division. We have previously reported that heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) might be transported to the cell nucleus and they can interact with topoisomerase I. We hypothesized that heparin and HS might interfere with the action of TpT. To test this hypothesis we is...