The present study investigated the relationship between microRNA-203 (miR-203) and the p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (Puma) in colon (HCT116) and lung cancer (A549) cells. Colon and lung cancer cell lines were selected for this study since a relationship between p53/miR-203 and p53/Puma has been established in both cancers. In the present study, adriamycin and nutlin-3 were used to act...

The tumor suppressor p53 can induce apoptosis by activating gene expression in the nucleus, or by directly permeabilizing mitochondria in the cytoplasm. It has been shown that PUMA, a downstream target of p53 and a BH3-only Bcl-2 family member, plays an essential role in apoptosis induced by both nuclear and cytoplasmic p53. To understand how PUMA does so, we used homologous recombination to de...

BACKGROUND Puma (p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis) is a proapoptotic Bcl-2 family protein that serves as a general sensor in response to pathological apoptotic stimuli. In previous work, we demonstrated that puma ablation protects the heart from reperfusion injury in a Langendorff setting. Consistent with this, downregulation of Puma in isolated cardiac myocytes prevented apoptosis induce...

PUMA is a member of the "BH3-only" branch of the BCL-2 family. Our previous study suggests a therapeutic potential of PUMA in treating ovarian cancer, however, the action mechanism of PUMA remains elusive. In this work, we found that in PUMA adenovirus-infected A2780s ovarian cancer cells, exogenous PUMA was partially accumulated in the cytosol and mainly located to the mitochondria. We further...

Oncogenic alterations in MET or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) have been identified in a variety of human cancers. Crizotinib (PF02341066) is a dual MET and ALK inhibitor and approved for the treatment of a subset of non-small cell lung carcinoma and in clinical development for other malignancies. Crizotinib can induce apoptosis in cancer cells, whereas the underlying mechanisms are not well ...

The unfolded protein response (UPR) occurs in cells in response to accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).Whenunfolded protein accumulates secondary to a mild stress, universal protein synthesis is inhibited, but then resumes upon recovery. In contrast, a more severe or persistent stress would lead to apoptosis. UPR has not been extensively studied in the heart, tho...

BACKGROUND Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are intricately involved in tumor progression through effects on proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis. But how ROS works is not well understood. In previous study, we found PUMA (p53-upregulated modulator of apoptosis) played an important role in oxaliplatin-induced apoptosis. In the present study, we detect the role of PUMA in H2O2-induced apoptosis ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Treatment with propofol has been found to attenuate oxidative stress injury in rat cardiac cells through the inhibition of programmed cell death. However, the underlying mechanism of this beneficial effect is not clear. Previous studies showed NF-κB (NF-κB) could be activated after oxidative stress in cardiac cells, and p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) is a dir...

NVP-BKM120, a potent and highly selective PI3K inhibitor, is currently being investigated in phase I/II clinical trials. The mechanisms of action of NVP-BKM120 in colon cancer cells are unclear. In the present study, we investigated how NVP-BKM120 suppresses colon cancer cells growth and potentiates effects of other chemotherapeutic drugs. We found that NVP-BKM120 treatment enhance PUMA inducti...