13 research outputs found
Development and immunogenicity of a prototype multivalent Group B Streptococcus bioconjugate vaccine
Group
Ceramide targets xIAP and cIAP1 to sensitize metastatic colon and breast cancer cells to apoptosis induction to suppress tumor progression
Epigenetic regulation of apoptosis and cell cycle regulatory genes in human colon carcinoma cells
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the standard chemotherapy for certain high risk stage 2 and all stage 3 and 4 human colorectal cancer patients. However, patients often develop chemoresistance to 5-FU. We have identified verticillin A from Verticillium-infected wild mushrooms as a potent anti-cancer agent that effectively suppresses 5-FU-resistant human colon cancer cells. Interestingly, a sublethal dose of verticillin A also acts as a potent sensitizer that overcomes human colon carcinoma cell resistance to FasL- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis. To identify verticillin A-regulated genes, we performed a genome-wide gene expression analysis and identified 1287 genes whose expression levels were either up- or down-regulated 1.5 fold. Forty-six of these genes have known function in regulation of apoptosis, and ninety genes have function in cell cycle regulation. Our recent study has identified verticillin A as a selective histone methyltransferase inhibitor. These identified genes are thus potential molecular targets for epigenetic-based therapy to overcome human colon cancer 5-FU resistance. The entire dataset is deposited in the NIH GEO database; accession number GSE51262