• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.402-409
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• 2016

It has been found that 4-isopropyl-2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (KTH-13), a novel compound isolated from Cordyceps bassiana, is able to suppress tumor cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. To mass-produce this compound, we established a total synthesis method. Using those conditions, we further synthesized various analogs with structural similarity to KTH-13. In this study, we aimed to test their anti-cancer activity by measuring anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. Of 8 compounds tested, 4-methyl-2,6-bis(1-phenylethyl)phenol (KTH-13-Me) exhibited the strongest anti-proliferative activity toward MDA-MB 231 cells. KTH-13-Me also similarly suppressed the survival of various cancer cell lines, including C6 glioma, HCT-15, and LoVo cells. Treatment of KTH-13-Me induced several apoptotic signs in C6 glioma cells, such as morphological changes, induction of apoptotic bodies, and nuclear fragmentation and chromatin condensation. Concordantly, early-apoptotic cells were also identified by staining with FITC-Annexin V/PI. Moreover, KTH-13-Me highly enhanced the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, and decreased the protein level of Bcl-2. In addition, the phosphorylation levels of Src and STAT3 were diminished in KTH-13-Me-treated C6 cells. Therefore, these results suggest that KTH-13-Me can be developed as a novel anti-cancer drug capable of blocking proliferation, inducing apoptosis, and blocking cell survival signaling in cancer cells.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.685-690
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• 2002

The mitogen-stimulated serine/threonine kinase $p70^{S6k}$ plays an important role in the progression of cells from $G_0/G$_1$$ to S phase of the cell cycle by translational up-regulation of a family of mRNA transcripts family of mRNA transcripts which contain polypyrimidine tract at their 5 transcriptional start site. Here, we report that $p70^{S6k}$ was constitutively phosphorylated and activated to various degrees in serum-deprived AGS, A2058, HT-1376, MG63, MCF7, MDA-MB-435S, MDA-MB-231 and MB-157. Rapamycin treatment induced a significant dephosphorylation and inactivation of $p70^{S6k}$ in all cancer cell lines, while wortmannin, a specific inhibitor of PI3-K, caused a mild dephosphorylation of $p70^{S6k}$ in AGS, MDA-MB-435S and MB-157. In addition, SQ20006, methylxanthine phosphodiesterase inhibitor, reduced the phosphorylation of $p70^{S6k}$ in all cancer cells tested. Consistent with inhibitory effect of rapamycin on $p70^{S6k}$ activity, rapamycin inhibited [$^3H$]-thymidine incorporation and increased the number of cells at $G_{0}G_{1}$ phase. Furthermore, these inhibitory effects were accompanied by the decrease in growth of cancer cells. Taken together, the results indicate that the antiproliferative activity of rapamycin might be attributed to cell cycle arrest at $G_{0}G_{1}$ phase in human cancer cells through the inhibition of constitutively activated $p70^{S6k}$ of cancer cells and suggest $p70^{S6k}$ as a potential target for therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing or inhibiting tumor growth.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.183-190
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• 2017

Ficus carica L. (common fig), one of the first plants cultivated by humans, originated in the Mediterranean basin and currently grows worldwide, including southwest Asia and South Korea. It has been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of metabolic, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases as well as hemorrhoids and skin infections. Its pharmacological properties have recently been studied in detail, but research on the anti-cancer effect of its latex has been only been studied on a limited basis on several cell lines, such prostate cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer activity of the latex of Ficus carica L.and its underlying mechanism in FaDu human hypopharynx squamous carcinoma cells. (See Ed. note above) We confirmed through SDS-PAGE analysis and gelatinolytic activity analysis that the latex of Ficus carica contains cysteine protease ficin. Our data showed that the latex inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the latex treatment markedly induced apoptosis in FaDu cells as determined by FACS analysis, elevated expression level of cleaved caspase-9, -3 and PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase), and. increased the expression of Bax (pro-apoptotic factor) while decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 (anti-apoptotic factor). Taken together, these results suggested that latex containing the ficin inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis by caspase and the Bcl-2 family signaling pathway in FaDu human hypopharynx squamous carcinoma cells. These findings point to the potential of latex of Ficus carica to provide a novel chemotherapeutic drug due to its growth inhibition effects and induction of apoptosis in human oral cancer cells.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.521-526
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• 2002

A number of experimental and epidemiological studies have implicated that antiestrogenic effects of estrogen-like compounds in legumes and plant seeds are responsible for lowering breast cancer risk in human. However, few studies have been conducted to illustrate the possible chemopreventive effects of Korean traditional food materials. This study was performed to determine the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of yellow soybeans, black soybeans and brown rice extracts on hormone-dependent and hormone-independent human breast cancer cells. Methanol-or acetone-soluble fractions of soybeans or brown rice were incubated with hormone-dependent cells (MCF-7) or hormone-independent cells (MDA-MB-231). Cell cytotoxicity was measured by MTT assay at 24, 48 and 72 hrs of incubation. Apoptotic effects of these extracts toward breast cancer cells were also determined at 48 hrs of incubation by measuring DNA fragmentation. Results indicated that the acetone-soluble fraction of brown rice exerted strongest cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 ceIls, although other fractions also reduced the number of viable MCF-7 cells after 48 hrs of incubation. Both acetone and methanol soluble fractions of all samples exerted a significant cytotoxicity towards MDA-MB-231 cells after 24 hrs of incubation, and acetone and methanol soluble fractions of brown rice were especially effective in these cells. At 48 hrs of incubation, methanol fractions of all three samples induced apopotosis of MDA-MB-231 cells. These results indicate methaol or acetone soluble fractions of yellow soybeans, black soybeans and brown rice induce cytotoxicity in both hormone-dependent and hormone-independent breast cancer cells. Therefore, possible mechanisms of cell cytotoxicity do not necessarily include antiestrogenic effects of soybean or brown rice extract. A possible anticarcinogenic effect of brown rice methanol-soluble fraction may mediated through their apoptotic effect. Further studies are requried to elucidate responsible compounds and mechanisms involved in observed anticarcinogenesis.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.203-212
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• 2020

Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) gene, through alternative splicing of its C-terminal region, generates several PML isoforms that interact with specific partners and perform distinct functions. The PML protein is a tumor suppressor that plays an important role by interacting with various proteins. Herein, we investigated the effect of the PML isoforms on oncostatin M (OSM)-induced signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT-3) transcriptional activity. PML influenced OSM-induced STAT-3 activity in a cell type-specific manner, which was dependent on the p53 status of the cells but regardless of PML isoform. Interestingly, overexpression of PML exerted opposite effects on OSM-induced STAT-3 activity in p53 wild-type and mutant cells. Specifically, overexpression of PML in the cell lines bearing wild-type p53 (NIH3T3 and U87-MG cells) decreased OSM-induced STAT-3 transcriptional activity, whereas overexpression of PML increased OSM-induced STAT-3 transcriptional activity in mutant p53-bearing cell lines (HEK293T and U251-MG cells). When wild-type p53 cells were co-transfected with PML-IV and R273H-p53 mutant, OSM-mediated STAT-3 transcriptional activity was significantly enhanced, compared to that of cells which were transfected with PML-IV alone; however, when cells bearing mutant p53 were co-transfected with PML-IV and wild-type p53, OSM-induced STAT-3 transcriptional activity was significantly decreased, compared to that of transfected cells with PML-IV alone. In conclusion, PML acts together with wild-type or mutant p53 and influences OSM-mediated STAT-3 activity in a negative or positive manner, resulting in the aberrant activation of STAT-3 in cancer cells bearing mutant p53 probably might occur through the interaction of mutant p53 with PML.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.369-377
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• 2014

In order to find out anticancer activity of Korean pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), the cytotoxicity against 8 cell lines including 293 (normal kidney cells) and A-431 (epidermoid carcinoma cells) of extracts by extraction solvents and plant parts were investigated using MTT assay. Also the correlation between content of capsaicin known as anticancer ingredient and cytotoxicity of extracts from pepper were analyzed. The distilled water extracts from seed and germinated seed showed very high cytotoxicity against 6 cancer cell lines including A549 (lung carcinoma cells), AGS (stomach adenocarcinoma cells), HeLa (cervix adenocarcinoma cells), HepG2 (hepatoblastoma cells), HT-29 (colon adenocarcinoma cells), and MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma cells). But 80% ethanol and methanol extracts showed cytotoxicity against 293 and AGS. The $RC_{50}$, that was, the concentration of sample required for 50% reduction of cell viability, of seed and germinated seed extracts against AGS were $33.4{\sim}389.1{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ and $63.9{\sim}1,316.7{\mu}g/m{\ell}$, respectively, so anticancer activity was higher in seed than in germinated seed. In capsaicin contents, seed with high cytotoxicity and pericarp with a little cytotoxicity contained $47.4{\sim}1,260.0{\mu}g/g$ and $58.3{\sim}1,498.0{\mu}g/g$, respectively. As these results, the correlation was not between cytotoxicity and capsaicin content.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-65
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• 2000

Cancer development and the efficiency of chemotherapy relies on the patients calcium-related pathological status such as hyper- or hypocalcemica. In the present study, we investigated the effect of extracellular cations such as calcium and magnesium on the therapeutic efficacy of antitumor drugs. The analytic parameters used were cellular drug uptake/excretion and the chemosensitivity of the human breast cancer cell lines, MCF7 and MCF7/ADR. Both calcium and magnesium ions decreased the membrane permeability of cancer cells, which was determined bycell size analysis. These divalent ions also lowered the drug uptake and the cytoplasmic levels of rhodamine 123 and adriamycin, suggesting that they might interfere with the diffusion of these drugs by modifying the physical properties of the cytoplasmic membrane. The acute cytotoxicity of adriamycin after a short period of incubation correlated with changes in its cytoplasmic level. Our results indicate that these extracellular cations might play an important role in the therapeutic activities of anticancer drugs in cancer patients. These results also provide insight a new aspect of chemotherapy, because they suggest that the therapeutic dose of anti-cancer drugs should be modified in cancer-bearing patients presenting with abnormal blood calcium levels.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.687-693
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate the antioxidant activity, fibrinolytic activity and cytotoxic effect of Korean traditional noble rice wine made using different methods (A-C) and commercial rice wine (D-H) on various tumor cell lines. The antioxidant activity of rice wine was measured by DPPH (2,2-dipicryl-1-picrylhydrazyl), ABTS [2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)] and NO (nitric oxide) radical scavenging assay. In this study, Samhaeju showed the greatest fibrinolytic activity of 13-17U and exhibited the highest antioxidant activity. Among the different Samhaeju, the sample prepared using method C had the highest antioxidant activity. The cytotoxic effect of rice wine were also examined against the human cancer cell line (A549 cells and HeLa cells) based on the results of a WST-1 assay and morphological changes. Rice wine induced the inhibition of cell proliferation and morphological changes in tumor cell lines in a concentration-dependent manner, with Samhaeju diluted 10 fold having the strongest effect on these factors. These findings suggest that Korean rice wine has antioxidant activity and cytotoxic effect, and that these factors are influenced by the method of preparation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3395-3402
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• 2015

Background: Preoperative 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemoradiotherapy is a standard treatment for locally advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). However, CRC cells often develop chemoradiation resistance (CRR). Recent studies have shown that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays critical roles in a myriad of biological processes and human diseases, as well as chemotherapy resistance. Since the roles of lncRNAs in 5-FU-based CRR in human CRC cells remain unknown, they were investigated in this study. Materials and Methods: A 5-FU-based concurrent CRR cell model was established using human CRC cell line HCT116. Microarray expression profiling of lncRNAs and mRNAs was undertaken in parental HCT116 and 5-FU-based CRR cell lines. Results: In total, 2,662 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 2,398 mRNAs were identified in 5-FU-based CRR HCT116 cells when compared with those in parental HCT116. Moreover, 6 lncRNAs and 6 mRNAs found to be differentially expressed were validated by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis for the differentially expressed mRNAs indicated involvement of many, such as Jak-STAT, PI3K-Akt and NF-kappa B signaling pathways. To better understand the molecular basis of 5-FU-based CRR in CRC cells, correlated expression networks were constructed based on 8 intergenic lncRNAs and their nearby coding genes. Conclusions: Changes in lncRNA expression are involved in 5-FU-based CRR in CRC cells. These findings may provide novel insight for the prognosis and prediction of response to therapy in CRC patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7143-7147
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• 2015

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were conjugated with gallic acid (GA) at various concentrations between 30 and $150{\mu}M$ and characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-VIS). The anticancer activities of the gallic acid-stabilized gold nanoparticles against well-differentiated (M213) and moderately differentiated (M214) adenocarcinomas were then determined using a neutral red assay. The GA mechanism of action was evaluated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy. Distinctive features of the FTIR spectra between the control and GA-treated cells were confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA). The surface plasmon resonance spectra of the GNPs had a maximum absorption at 520 nm, whereas GNPs-GA shifted the maximum absorption values. In an in vitro study, the complexed GNPs-GA had an increased ability to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells that was statistically significant (P<0.0001) in both M213 and M214 cells compared to GA alone, indicating that the anticancer activity of GA can be improved by conjugation with GNPs. Moreover, PCA revealed that exposure of the tested cells to GA resulted in significant changes in their cell membrane lipids and fatty acids, which may enhance the efficacy of this anticancer activity regarding apoptosis pathways.