Haploinsufficiency for the HMG-box transcription factor SOX2 results in abnormalities of the human ventral forebrain and its derivative structures. These defects include anophthalmia (absence of eye), microphthalmia (small eye) and hypothalamic hamartoma (HH), an overgrowth of the ventral hypothalamus. To determine how Sox2 deficiency affects the morphogenesis of the ventral diencephalon and ey...

Recently, SOX2 has been identified as a potential lineage-specific oncogene in lung squamous cell carcinomas. Since head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) are morphologically and clinically highly related to lung squamous cell carcinomas, we hypothesized that SOX2 also plays an oncogenic role in this tumor entity. We assembled a cohort of 496 patients with HNSCC, including 253 metastase...

Genetic and molecular heterogeneity, together with intrinsic acquired resistance to therapy, represent the major obstacles successful treatment of different types breast carcinoma. Increasing evidence demonstrates that SOX transcription factors in carcinomas could act both as oncogenes tumor suppressors have been associated stage grade, poor prognosis, therapy resistance. Both SOX2 SOX18 overex...

Abstract Choroid plexus (CP) neoplasms are rare, predominantly pediatric, brain tumors ranging from benign CP papilloma to aggressive carcinoma (CPC) associated with poor survival. Survivors often experience devastating side effects current treatment strategies. There is an urgent need for safer, more effective therapies CPC. A subset of human CPC exhibits abnormal NOTCH activity, whereas mutat...

BACKGROUND Anti-SOX2 antibody responses are observed in about 10 to 20% of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether such responses reflect a particular pattern of SOX2 protein expression in the tumor and whether this pattern associates with clinical outcome. METHODS Paraffin embedded tumor tissues, obtained from SCLC patients who had no evidence o...

BACKGROUND SRY (sex-determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2) is a crucial transcription factor for the maintenance of embryonic stem cell pluripotency and the determination of cell fate. Previously, we demonstrated that SOX2 plays important roles in growth inhibition through cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and that SOX2 expression is frequently down-regulated in gastric cancers. However, the mechani...

The transcription factor SOX2 is central in establishing and maintaining pluripotency. The processes that modulate SOX2 activity to promote pluripotency are not well understood. Here, we show SOX2 is O-GlcNAc modified in its transactivation domain during reprogramming and in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). Upon induction of differentiation SOX2 O-GlcNAcylation at serine 248 is decreased. Re...

Gene amplification of Sox2 at 3q26.33 is a common event in squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the lung and esophagus, as well as several other cancers. Here, we show that the expression of LSD1/KDM1 histone demethylase is significantly elevated in Sox2-expressing lung SCCs. LSD1-specific inhibitors selectively impair the growth of Sox2-expressing lung SCCs, but not that of Sox2-negative cells. ...

The self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells (ESC) is regulated by a highly integrated network of essential transcription factors, which includes Sox2. Previous studies have shown that elevating Sox2 on its own in mouse ESC induces differentiation and inhibits the expression of endogenous Sox2 at the protein and mRNA level. These findings led us to hypothesize that increases in Sox...