• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.142-149
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• 2001

Background: The expression of the proto-oncogene c-fos in spinal cord neurons following various noxious stimuli has been demonstrated in numerous studies. However, the pattern of expression of c-fos after incisional stimulus has not been evaluated. This study was designed to examine c-fos expression in an incisional pain model of rats. Methods: A 1 cm longitudinal incision was made through the skin, fascia and muscle of the plantar aspect of the hindpaw in enflurane-anesthetized rats. Withdrawal responses were measured using von Frey filaments at areas around the wound before surgery and for the next 48 hours. The expression of c-fos protein in the lumbar spinal cord was examined by immunohistochemistry. Results: After incision, c-fos was strongly expressed within laminae I, II, III, IV, V and VI ipsilateral to the incision. C-fos positive neurons were detected in the controlateral site, as well. Conclusions: These studies suggest that spinal c-fos protein may not be used as a specific marker for spinal nociceptive processing in an incisional pain model.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2013

Urinary bladder squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), one of the most common neoplasms in Egypt, is attributed to chronic urinary infection with Schistosoma haematobium (Schistosomiasis). The proto-oncogene c-KIT, encoding a tyrosine kinase receptor and implicated in the development of a number of human malignancies, has not been studied so far in schistosomal urinary bladder SCCs. We therefore determined immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of c-KIT in paraffin sections from 120 radical cystectomies of SCCs originally obtained from the Pathology Department of Suez Canal University (Ismailia, Egypt). Each slide was evaluated for staining intensity where the staining extent of >10% of cells was considered positive. c-KIT overexpression was detected in 78.3% (94/120) of the patients, the staining extents in the tumor cells were 11-50% and >50% in 40 (42.6%) and 54 (57.4%) respectively. The positive cases had 14.9%, 63.8%, 21.3% as weak, moderate and strong intensity respectively. Patients with positive bilharzial ova had significantly higher c-KIT expression than patients without (95.2% vs. 38.9%, P=0.000). Mutation analysis of exons 9-13 was negative in thirty KIT positive cases. The high rate of positivity in SBSCC was one of the striking findings; However, CD117 may be a potential target for site specific immunotherapy to improve the outcome of this tumor.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6653-6656
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• 2013

Background: The single most common proto-oncogene change in human neoplasms is a point mutation in RAS genes. A wide range of variation in frequency of KRAS mutations has been seen in hematologic malignancies. Despite this, RAS roles in leukemogenesis remain unclear. The frequency of KRAS mutations in CML has been reported to be between zero an 10%. Many attempts have been done to develop an anti-RAS drug as a therapeutic target. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was performed in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran from 2010-2012. In 78 CML patients (diagnosed according to WHO 2008 criteria) in chronic or accelerated phases, KRAS mutations in codons 12 and 13 were analyzed using a modified PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Results: We did not detect any KRAS mutations in this study. Conclusions: KRAS mutations are overall rare in early phase CML and might be secondary events happening late in leukemogenesis cooperating with initial genetic lesions.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.377-380
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• 2015

Muscle contusion has a negative effect on muscle function. Although several studies showed that pain control and muscle recovery is facilitated by pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF), there has not been much research regarding the specific effects of PEMF on them. The aim of the present study is to investigate effects of PEMF on pain and muscle recovery following extensor digitorum longus (EDL) contusion injury through measuring the expression of the c-fos proto-oncogene and nerve growth factor (NGF). Significantly reduced c-fos expression in the spinal cord was shown in PEMF groups compared with control (CON) groups. There was no significant difference between PEMF1 and CON1, but significantly increased NGF expression was shown in PEMF3 and PEMF5 compared with in CON groups, where the numbers in the group names are the days from contusion. In conclusion, PEMF could be used to not only reduce pain in muscle injuries by down-regulating c-fos expression in the spinal cord, but it could also influence muscle healing through increasing NGF expression in the injured muscle.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.158-165
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• 1996

The signal transduction pathways through the RAS gene product and adenyl cyclease play a critical role in regulation of the cell cycle in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We examined the genetic relationship between the spt3 gene and ras/cAMP pathway. A mutation in the SPT3 gene suppressed cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase caused by either an inactivation of the RAS or CYR1 gene which encodes a yeast homologue of human ras proto-oncogene or adenyl cyclase, respectively. The phenotypes such as sporulation and heat shock resistancy, that resulted from a partial inactivation of the RAS or CYR1 genes, were also suppressed by the spt3 mutation. Expression of the SSA1 gene encoding one of th heat shock proteins (Hsp70) can be induced by heat shock or nitrogen starvation. Expression of this gene is derepressed in cry1-2 and spt3 mutants. The bcy 1 mutation repressed by the bcy1 mutation, but not in spt3 mutants. These results suggest that the SPT gene is involved in expression of genes that are affected by the RAS/cAMP pathway.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.637-640
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• 1997

Raf-1, a cytoplasmic serine/threonine protein kinase, serves as a central intermediate in many signaling pathways in cell proliferation, differentiation, and development. In this study, we investigated that B-raf, Drosophila homolog of the human c-raf-1, is involved in ultraviolet (UV) responsive events by using hypomorphic mutant $D-raf^{c110}$ and Draf-lacZ transgenic fly. At first, effect of UV damage on the survival of wild-type and $D-raf^{C110}$ strains was examined. In terms of $1/LD_{50}$ value, the relative ratio of UV sensitivities of wild-type versus $D-raf^{C110}$ strain was 1 : 2.2. By using quantitative $\beta$-galactosidase activity analysis, transcriptional activity of the D-raf gene promoter was also examined in UV-irradiated Draf-lacZ transgenic larvae. UV irradiation increased the expression of lacZ reporter gene in Draf-lacZ transgenic fly. However, in $D-raf^{C110}$ strain the transcriptional activity of D-raf gene promoter by UV irradiation was extensively reduced. Results obtained in this study suggest that D-raf plays a role in UV response, leading to better survival of Drosophila to UV damage.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2005

The c-myc proto-oncogene encodes a nuclear protein that is deregulated and/or mutated in most human cancers. Acting primarily as an activator and sometimes as a repressor, MYC protein controls the synthesis of up to 10-15% of genes. The key MYC targets contributing to oncogenesis are incompletely enumerated and it is not known whether pathology arises from the expression of physiologic targets at abnormal levels or from the pathologic response of new target genes that are not normally regulated by MYC. Regardless of which, available evidence indicates that the level of MYC expression is an important determinant of MYC biology. The c-myc promoter has architectural and functional features that contribute to uniform expression and help to prevent or mitigate conditions that might otherwise create noisy expression. Those features include the use of an expanded proximal promoter, the averaging of input from dozens of transcription factors, and real-time feedback using the supercoil-deformable Far UpStream Element (FUSE) as physical sensor of ongoing transcriptional activity, and the FUSE binding protein (FBP) as well as the FBP interacting repressor (FIR) as effectors to enforce normal transcription from the c-myc promoter.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.93-97
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• 2003

Alternative or complementary medicine plays an important role in health care system. Ginseng, being one of the most popular oriental herbs, is believed to contain various steroid hormone activity. Ginseng has been demonstrated pharmacological effect in the cardiovascular, endocrine, central nervous, and immune system. Our objective was to study that total saponin might mediate some of their actions by binding to the steroid hormone receptor, as they share many of the actions of steroid hormone in various physiological system. Using total saponin from Panax Ginseng, we have studied the possibility of total saponin being a potential estrogen receptor, androgen receptor, and retinoic acid receptor ligand. Total saponin activated the transcription of both the estrogen and androgen responsive luciferase reporter plasmids at a concentration of 100$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml in COS cells transiently transfected with the corresponding receptor and hormone responsive receptor plasmids. And total saponin caused a concentration-dependent stimulation of estrogen receptor. Total saponin increased the expression of estrogen responsive c-fos proto-oncogene at the protein level in MCF7 cells at 24 h treatment as examined by Western analysis. The c-fos induction was used as a specific marker of estrogen responsiveness. This activation was inhibited by the specific estrogen receptor antagonist, ICI 182,780. However, total saponin failed to activate the retinoic acid receptor in COS cells transiently transfected with the corresponding receptor and retinoic acid responsive reporter plasmids. These results show that total saponin is capable of activating estrogen and androgen receptors.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.93-106
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• 2003

Objective : To investigate the possible molecular mechanism(s) of melittin as a candidate of anti-cancer drug, we examined the effects of the compound on the growth of human lung carcinoma cell line A549. Methods: MTT, morphological changes, DAPI staining, Western blot, RT-PCR and in vitro prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) accumulation assays were performed. Results: The anti-proliferative effect by melittin treatment in A549 cells was associated with morphological changes such as membrane shrinking and cell rounding up. Melittin induced apoptotic cell death in a concentration-dependent manner, which was associated with inhibition or degradation of apoptotic target proteins such as ${\beta}$-catenin, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase(PARP) and phospholipase $C-{\gamma}1(PLC-{\gamma}1)$. Melittin treatment inhibited the expression of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and accumulation of PGE2 in aconcentration-dependent fashion. In addition, Melittin treatment induced the down-regulation of telomerase reverse transcriptase(hTERT) and proto-oncogene c-myc expression of A549 cells. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest that melittin-induced inhibition of human lung cancer cell proliferation is associated with the induction of apoptotic cell death via regulation of several major growth regulatory gene products, and melittin may have therapeutic potential in human lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.255-260
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• 2012

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations derive clinical benefit from treatment with EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors ((EGFR-TKIs)-namely gefitinib and erlotinib. However, these patients eventually develop resistance to EGFR-TKIs. Despite the fact that this acquired resistance may be the result of a secondary mutation in the EGFR gene, such as T790M or amplification of the MET proto-oncogene, there are other mechanisms which need to be explored. MicroRNAs (miRs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that play pivotal roles in tumorigenesis, tumor progression and chemo-resistance. In this study, we firstly successfully established a gefitinib resistant cell line-HCC827/GR, by exposing normal HCC827 cells (an NSCLC cell line with a 746E-750A in-frame deletion of EGFR gene) to increasing concentrations of gefitinib. Then, we found that miR-214 was significantly up-regulated in HCC827/GR. We also showed that miR-214 and PTEN were inversely expressed in HCC827/GR. Knockdown of miR-214 altered the expression of PTEN and p-AKT and re-sensitized HCC827/GR to gefitinib. Taken together, miR-214 may regulate the acquired resistance to gefitinib in HCC827 via PTEN/AKT signaling pathway. Suppression of miR-214 may thus reverse the acquired resistance to EGFR-TKIs therapy.