Abstract Introduction: Estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer is a subgroup of breast tumors that is more likely to respond to hormone therapy. ER-positive and ER- negative breast cancers tend to show different patterns of metastasis because of different signaling cascade and genes that are activated by estrogen response. Genetic factors can contribute to high rates of metastas...

Abstract Introduction: Estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer is a subgroup of breast tumors that is more likely to respond to hormone therapy. ER-positive and ER- negative breast cancers tend to show different patterns of metastasis because of different signaling cascade and genes that are activated by estrogen response. Genetic factors can contribute to high rates of metastas...

p23 is a chaperone with multiple heat shock protein 90 dependent and independent cellular functions, including stabilizing unliganded steroid receptors and modulating receptor-DNA dynamics. p23 protein is also up-regulated in several cancers, notably breast cancer. We previously demonstrated that higher expression of p23 in the estrogen-dependent breast cancer line MCF-7 (MCF-7+p23) selectively...

As one of the complications of diabetes, liver injury results in significant hazards. Therefore, accurately diagnosing diabetes-induced liver injury beforehand is crucial for the warning and treatment of hepatic diseases. Diabetes-induced liver injury can cause changes in the microstructure and morphology of liver tissue, leading to changes in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains in the endo...

Cell apoptosis is a biochemical andmolecular pathway essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis. It is an integrated process involving in a series of signal transduction cascades. Moreover, the apoptotic pathways may be initiated inside various subcellular organelles. Increasing evidence indicates that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is closely related to cell apoptosis, particularly in the mitoch...

Cargo is selectively exported from the ER in COPII vesicles. To analyze the role of COPII in selective transport from the ER, we have purified components of the mammalian COPII complex from rat liver cytosol and then analyzed their role in cargo selection and ER export. The purified mammalian Sec23-24 complex is composed of an 85-kD (Sec23) protein and a 120-kD (Sec24) protein. Although the Sec...

Human vascular endothelial cells express the estrogen receptor-β (ER-β), which can be modulated by the opiate alkaloid morphine. OBJECTIVES: To determine if morphine is capable of down regulating the ER-β receptor in a similar fashion as the μ opiate receptor since they are both coupled to constitutive nitric oxide synthase derived nitric oxide release. METHODS AND RESULTS: Endothelial cells ob...

Following retrograde trafficking to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), cholera toxin A1 (CTA1) subunit hijacks ER-associated degradation (ERAD) machinery and retro-translocates into the cytosol to induce toxicity. We previously established a cell-based in vivo assay to identify ER components that regulate this process. However, elucidating cytosolic events that govern CTA1 retro-translocation usin...

Breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women, has been demonstrated to be associated with the steroid hormone estrogen and its receptor (ER), a ligand-activated transcription factor. Therefore, we developed a phosphorothiolate cis-element decoy against the estrogen response element (ERE decoy) to target disruption of ER DNA binding and transcriptional activity. Here, we showed that the ER...

A challenge in understanding the mechanism of protein function in biology is to establish the correlation between functional form in the intracellular environment and high-resolution structures obtained with in vitro techniques. Here we present a strategy to probe conformational changes of proteins inside cells. Our method involves: (i) engineering binding proteins to different conformations of...