Published in American journal of translational research
Prostate cancer (PCa), like most human cancers, features dysregulated CD44 expression. Expression of CD44 standard (CD44s), present in benign epithelium, is lost in PCa while pro-invasive splice variant isoform CD44v7-10 is overexpressed. The role of CD44 in silibinin's anti-growth effects was uncertain. To assess silibinin's effects on CD44 promot...
Published in American journal of translational research
Chemo- or radioresistance markedly impairs the efficacy of cancer therapy and involves anti-apoptotic signal transduction pathways that prevent cell death. In resistant cancer cells, both inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) play a pivotal role in preventing apoptosis triggered by a variety of stresses, fac...
Published in American journal of translational research
Breast phyllodes tumors are rare fibroepithelial neoplasms that need to be distinguished from the common morphologically similar fibroadenomas, because phyllodes tumors can recur and progress to malignancy. Their potentially recurring and metastasizing behavior is attributed to their stromal characteristics, for which categorization between benign,...
Published in American journal of translational research
Several challenges face the development and operation of a biospecimen bank linked to clinical information, a critical component of any effective translational research program. Melanoma adds particular complexity and difficulty to such an endeavor considering the unique characteristics of this malignancy. We describe here a review of biospecimen b...
Published in American journal of translational research
Advances in molecular biology demonstrate that cancer is heterogeneous disease necessitating a personalized management approach. This is introducing a paradigm shift in clinical trial designs where molecular characterization of cancers is assuming importance equal to (or even more than) the traditional histologic diagnosis as the eligibility criter...
Published in American journal of translational research
We investigate the feasibility of using microarray gene expression profiling technology to analyze core biopsies of renal tumors for classification of tumor histology. Core biopsies were obtained ex-vivo from 7 renal tumors-comprised of four histological subtypes-following radical nephrectomy using 18-gauge biopsy needles. RNA was isolated from the...
Published in American journal of translational research
Histone deacetetylases (HDACs) are a group of corepressors of transcriptional activators and their levels of expression are potentially dysregulated in prostate cancer. Certain inhibitors of histone deacetylases show anti-tumor activity in prostate cancer cell lines. Here, we systemically studied the expression of HDACs in human prostate cancer and...
Published in American journal of translational research
Gastric cancer is a disease of gene-environment interactions, as suggested by the varying geographic patterns of its incidence. Even in areas with high rates of Helicobacter pylori infection, only a small proportion of infected individuals develop gastric cancer. Genetic susceptibility to gastric cancer can be investigated by common genetic variant...
Published in American journal of translational research
In the current era of antiretroviral treatment, the prevalence of HIV-associated dementia is on the rise. Many past works have associated inflammation and neuronal loss with cognitive deficits inherent to the syndrome. Importantly, HIV-1 induced astrogliosis has been shown to play a central role in this process. Here we examined the effect of green...
Published in American journal of translational research
The treatment of viral diseases remains an intractable problem facing the medical community. Conventional antivirals focus upon selective targeting of virus-encoded targets. However, the plasticity of viral nucleic acid mutation, coupled with the large number of progeny that can emerge from a single infected cells, often conspire to render conventi...
