miR-181a has been presumed to target the 39-untranslated regions (39-UTR) of IL1a based on softwa... more miR-181a has been presumed to target the 39-untranslated regions (39-UTR) of IL1a based on software predictions. miR-181a and IL1a have opposite expression levels in monocytes and macrophages in the inflammatory state. This led us to suspect that mir-181a has an important function in regulating inflammatory response by targeting IL1a. Fluorescence reporter assays showed that miR-181a effectively binds to the 39-UTR
Background: Accelerated cell cycle progression is the common feature of most cancers. MiRNAs can ... more Background: Accelerated cell cycle progression is the common feature of most cancers. MiRNAs can act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors by directly modulating cell cycle machinery. It has been shown that miR-188 is upregulated in UVB-irradiated mouse skin and human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE cells under hypoxic stress. However, little is known about the function of miR-188 in cell proliferation and
Tumor metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related patient death. In this study, we performed a... more Tumor metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related patient death. In this study, we performed a wound healing migration screen to search for a metastatic inhibitor within our library of natural compounds. We found that oblongifolin C (OC), a natural compound extracted from Garcinia yunnanensis Hu, is an effective inhibitor of metastasis in human esophageal squamous carcinoma Eca109 cells. The transwell migration and matrigel invasion assay results also showed that OC inhibits the migration of Eca109 cells and HepG2 cells. OC can increase the expression of tubulin, indicating that OC inhibits metastasis via tubulin aggregation. In addition, the Western blotting, real-time PCR, and immunostaining results indicated that OC increases the expression of keratin18. Furthermore, the knockdown of keratin 18 by small interfering RNAs inhibited the expression of tubulin and increased the metastasis of cancer cells, suggesting that keratin 18 is the upstream signal of tubulin and plays a vita...
The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs (miRNAs) is complex due to a number of variables i... more The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs (miRNAs) is complex due to a number of variables involved. The potential for one miRNA to target many genes, the presence of multiple miRNA response elements (MREs) in one mRNA molecule and the interplay between RNAs that share common MREs each add a layer of complexity to the process; making it difficult to determine how regulation of gene expression by miRNAs works within the context of the system as a whole. In this study, we used luciferase report vectors inserted with different 3'UTR fragments as probes to detect the repressive effect of the miRNA pool on gene expression and uncovered some essential characteristics of gene regulation mediated by the miRNA pool, such as the nonlinear correlative relationship between the regulatory potential of a miRNA pool and the number of potential MREs, the buffering effect and the saturating effect of the miRNA pool, and the restrictive effect caused by the density of MREs. Through expressing gradient concentration of 3'UTR fragments, we indirectly detected the regulatory potential of the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) pool and analysed its effect on the regulatory potential of the miRNA pool. Our results provide some new insights into miRNA pool mediated gene regulation.
The Akt family of serine/threonine protein kinases are key regulators of multiple aspects of cell... more The Akt family of serine/threonine protein kinases are key regulators of multiple aspects of cell behaviour, including proliferation, survival, metabolism, and tumorigenesis. Growth-factor-activated Akt signalling promotes progression through normal, unperturbed cell cycles by acting on diverse downstream factors involved in controlling the G1/S and G2/M transitions. Remarkably, several recent studies have also implicated Akt in modulating DNA damage responses and genome stability. High Akt activity can suppress ATR/Chk1 signalling and homologous recombination repair (HRR) via direct phosphorylation of Chk1 or TopBP1 or, indirectly, by inhibiting recruitment of double-strand break (DSB) resection factors, such as RPA, Brca1, and Rad51, to sites of damage. Loss of checkpoint and/or HRR proficiency is therefore a potential cause of genomic instability in tumor cells with high Akt. Conversely, Akt is activated by DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in a DNA-PK- or ATM/ATR-dependent manner ...
Microtubule interfering agents (MIAs), that can stabilise or depolymerise microtubules, are an im... more Microtubule interfering agents (MIAs), that can stabilise or depolymerise microtubules, are an important class of cancer chemotherapeutic drugs. They can lead to mitotic arrest and subsequent apoptosis. We demonstrate that cell cycle-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) is important in switching cells from mitotic arrest to apoptosis during MIAs treatment. Overexpression of non-degradable cyclin B1 sustained CDK1 activation and mitotic arrest, followed by caspase-3 dependent apoptosis. CDK1 is responsible for the phosphorylation of several pro- and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins during MIAs treatment. CDK1-mediated Bcl-2 serine 70 phosphorylation enhances its pro-apoptotic function, whereas CDK1-mediated Bad serine 128 phosphorylation promotes apoptosis. Blockage of CDK1 activity with a specific pharmacological inhibitor suppresses Mcl-1 phosphorylation, degradation and its anti-apoptotic function. Therefore, the death of cancer cells under MIAs treatment was caused by imbalance between CDK1-induced alterations in the pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic functions of phosphorylated Bcl-2 family proteins.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2011
It has been reported previously that both Cdk1 and Cdk2 phosphorylate Chk1 in a cell-cycle depend... more It has been reported previously that both Cdk1 and Cdk2 phosphorylate Chk1 in a cell-cycle dependent manner. Cdk-mediated phosphorylation is required for efficient activation of Chk1 and checkpoint proficiency in response to DNA damage. Here, we demonstrate that Cdk-mediated phosphorylation is also required for replication stress induced Chk1 activation and S/M checkpoint proficiency. Re-introduction of Chk1 mutant (S286A/S301A) into Chk1 deficient cells is capable of restraining mitosis in cells with completely unreplicated DNA, but the mitotic delay at later stage of the cell cycle is largely impaired. The mutation strongly attenuates aphidicolin induced Chk1 activation without altering the S-phase dependent Chk1 activation. These data indicate that Cdk-mediated phosphorytion is required for efficient Chk1 activation and multiple checkpoint proficiency.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2013
Inflammatory stimuli are usually associated with homeostatic responses, which have an important f... more Inflammatory stimuli are usually associated with homeostatic responses, which have an important function in protecting the body from excessive inflammatory damage. Previous studies reported the anti-inflammatory effect of miR-181a. The current study utilized two animal models of inflammation, induced by either lipopolysaccharides (LPS) or streptozotocin. We demonstrated that inflammatory stimuli significantly increase miR-181a expression, concurrently with inflammatory factors. In addition, the knock down of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) by small interfering RNA in LPS-induced Raw264.7 cells significantly reduces the expression of both miR-181a and inflammatory factors. Furthermore, patients with inflammatory response show increased expression of miR-181a, which is strongly correlated with the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. These data indicate that the up-regulation of miR-181a may be associated with homeostatic response to inflammatory stimuli by TLR-4 pathway activation. Therefore, miR-181a may serve as a novel marker for inflammatory response.
miR-181a has been presumed to target the 39-untranslated regions (39-UTR) of IL1a based on softwa... more miR-181a has been presumed to target the 39-untranslated regions (39-UTR) of IL1a based on software predictions. miR-181a and IL1a have opposite expression levels in monocytes and macrophages in the inflammatory state. This led us to suspect that mir-181a has an important function in regulating inflammatory response by targeting IL1a. Fluorescence reporter assays showed that miR-181a effectively binds to the 39-UTR
Background: Accelerated cell cycle progression is the common feature of most cancers. MiRNAs can ... more Background: Accelerated cell cycle progression is the common feature of most cancers. MiRNAs can act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors by directly modulating cell cycle machinery. It has been shown that miR-188 is upregulated in UVB-irradiated mouse skin and human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE cells under hypoxic stress. However, little is known about the function of miR-188 in cell proliferation and
Tumor metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related patient death. In this study, we performed a... more Tumor metastasis is the main cause of cancer-related patient death. In this study, we performed a wound healing migration screen to search for a metastatic inhibitor within our library of natural compounds. We found that oblongifolin C (OC), a natural compound extracted from Garcinia yunnanensis Hu, is an effective inhibitor of metastasis in human esophageal squamous carcinoma Eca109 cells. The transwell migration and matrigel invasion assay results also showed that OC inhibits the migration of Eca109 cells and HepG2 cells. OC can increase the expression of tubulin, indicating that OC inhibits metastasis via tubulin aggregation. In addition, the Western blotting, real-time PCR, and immunostaining results indicated that OC increases the expression of keratin18. Furthermore, the knockdown of keratin 18 by small interfering RNAs inhibited the expression of tubulin and increased the metastasis of cancer cells, suggesting that keratin 18 is the upstream signal of tubulin and plays a vita...
The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs (miRNAs) is complex due to a number of variables i... more The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs (miRNAs) is complex due to a number of variables involved. The potential for one miRNA to target many genes, the presence of multiple miRNA response elements (MREs) in one mRNA molecule and the interplay between RNAs that share common MREs each add a layer of complexity to the process; making it difficult to determine how regulation of gene expression by miRNAs works within the context of the system as a whole. In this study, we used luciferase report vectors inserted with different 3'UTR fragments as probes to detect the repressive effect of the miRNA pool on gene expression and uncovered some essential characteristics of gene regulation mediated by the miRNA pool, such as the nonlinear correlative relationship between the regulatory potential of a miRNA pool and the number of potential MREs, the buffering effect and the saturating effect of the miRNA pool, and the restrictive effect caused by the density of MREs. Through expressing gradient concentration of 3'UTR fragments, we indirectly detected the regulatory potential of the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) pool and analysed its effect on the regulatory potential of the miRNA pool. Our results provide some new insights into miRNA pool mediated gene regulation.
The Akt family of serine/threonine protein kinases are key regulators of multiple aspects of cell... more The Akt family of serine/threonine protein kinases are key regulators of multiple aspects of cell behaviour, including proliferation, survival, metabolism, and tumorigenesis. Growth-factor-activated Akt signalling promotes progression through normal, unperturbed cell cycles by acting on diverse downstream factors involved in controlling the G1/S and G2/M transitions. Remarkably, several recent studies have also implicated Akt in modulating DNA damage responses and genome stability. High Akt activity can suppress ATR/Chk1 signalling and homologous recombination repair (HRR) via direct phosphorylation of Chk1 or TopBP1 or, indirectly, by inhibiting recruitment of double-strand break (DSB) resection factors, such as RPA, Brca1, and Rad51, to sites of damage. Loss of checkpoint and/or HRR proficiency is therefore a potential cause of genomic instability in tumor cells with high Akt. Conversely, Akt is activated by DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in a DNA-PK- or ATM/ATR-dependent manner ...
Microtubule interfering agents (MIAs), that can stabilise or depolymerise microtubules, are an im... more Microtubule interfering agents (MIAs), that can stabilise or depolymerise microtubules, are an important class of cancer chemotherapeutic drugs. They can lead to mitotic arrest and subsequent apoptosis. We demonstrate that cell cycle-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) is important in switching cells from mitotic arrest to apoptosis during MIAs treatment. Overexpression of non-degradable cyclin B1 sustained CDK1 activation and mitotic arrest, followed by caspase-3 dependent apoptosis. CDK1 is responsible for the phosphorylation of several pro- and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins during MIAs treatment. CDK1-mediated Bcl-2 serine 70 phosphorylation enhances its pro-apoptotic function, whereas CDK1-mediated Bad serine 128 phosphorylation promotes apoptosis. Blockage of CDK1 activity with a specific pharmacological inhibitor suppresses Mcl-1 phosphorylation, degradation and its anti-apoptotic function. Therefore, the death of cancer cells under MIAs treatment was caused by imbalance between CDK1-induced alterations in the pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic functions of phosphorylated Bcl-2 family proteins.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2011
It has been reported previously that both Cdk1 and Cdk2 phosphorylate Chk1 in a cell-cycle depend... more It has been reported previously that both Cdk1 and Cdk2 phosphorylate Chk1 in a cell-cycle dependent manner. Cdk-mediated phosphorylation is required for efficient activation of Chk1 and checkpoint proficiency in response to DNA damage. Here, we demonstrate that Cdk-mediated phosphorylation is also required for replication stress induced Chk1 activation and S/M checkpoint proficiency. Re-introduction of Chk1 mutant (S286A/S301A) into Chk1 deficient cells is capable of restraining mitosis in cells with completely unreplicated DNA, but the mitotic delay at later stage of the cell cycle is largely impaired. The mutation strongly attenuates aphidicolin induced Chk1 activation without altering the S-phase dependent Chk1 activation. These data indicate that Cdk-mediated phosphorytion is required for efficient Chk1 activation and multiple checkpoint proficiency.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2013
Inflammatory stimuli are usually associated with homeostatic responses, which have an important f... more Inflammatory stimuli are usually associated with homeostatic responses, which have an important function in protecting the body from excessive inflammatory damage. Previous studies reported the anti-inflammatory effect of miR-181a. The current study utilized two animal models of inflammation, induced by either lipopolysaccharides (LPS) or streptozotocin. We demonstrated that inflammatory stimuli significantly increase miR-181a expression, concurrently with inflammatory factors. In addition, the knock down of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) by small interfering RNA in LPS-induced Raw264.7 cells significantly reduces the expression of both miR-181a and inflammatory factors. Furthermore, patients with inflammatory response show increased expression of miR-181a, which is strongly correlated with the expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. These data indicate that the up-regulation of miR-181a may be associated with homeostatic response to inflammatory stimuli by TLR-4 pathway activation. Therefore, miR-181a may serve as a novel marker for inflammatory response.
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Papers by Naihan Xu