• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.147-155
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• 2014

Homeostatic imbalance between cell proliferation and death in gastric mucosal epithelia may lead to gastritis and gastric cancer. Despite abundant gastrokine 1 (GKN1) expression in the normal stomach, the loss of GKN1 expression is frequently detected in gastric mucosa infected with Helicobacter pylori, as well as in intestinal metaplasia and gastric cancer tissues, suggesting that GKN1 plays an important role in gastric mucosal defense, and the gene functions as a gastric tumor suppressor. In the stomach, GKN1 is involved in gastric mucosal inflammation by regulating cytokine production, the nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ signaling pathway, and cyclooxygenase-2 expression. GKN1 also inhibits the carcinogenic potential of H. pylori protein CagA by binding to it, and up-regulates antioxidant enzymes. In addition, GKN1 reduces cell viability, proliferation, and colony formation by inhibiting cell cycle progression and epigenetic modification by down-regulating the expression levels of DNMT1 and EZH2, and DNMT1 activity, and inducing apoptosis through the death receptor-dependent pathway. Furthermore, GKN1 also inhibits gastric cancer cell invasion and metastasis via coordinated regulation of epithelial mesenchymal transition-related protein expression, reactive oxygen species production, and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway activation. Although the modes of action of GKN1 have not been clearly described, recent limited evidence suggests that GKN1 acts as a gastricspecific tumor suppressor. This review aims to discuss, comment, and summarize the recent progress in the understanding of the role of GKN1 in gastric cancer development and progression.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2020

NF-κB signaling through both canonical and non-canonical pathways plays a central role in immune responses and inflammation. NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK) stabilization is a key step in activation of the non-canonical pathway and its dysregulation implicated in various hematologic malignancies. The tumor suppressor, p53, is an established cellular gatekeeper of proliferation. Abnormalities of the TP53 gene have been detected in more than half of all human cancers. While the non-canonical NF-κB and p53 pathways have been explored for several decades, no studies to date have documented potential cross-talk between these two cancer-related mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that p53 negatively regulates NIK in an miRNA-dependent manner. Overexpression of p53 decreased the levels of NIK, leading to inhibition of the non-canonical NF-κB pathway. Conversely, its knockdown led to increased levels of NIK, IKKα phosphorylation, and p100 processing. Additionally, miR-34b induced by nutlin-3 directly targeted the coding sequences (CDS) of NIK. Treatment with anti-miR-34b-5p augmented NIK levels and subsequent non-canonical NF-κB signaling. Our collective findings support a novel cross-talk mechanism between non-canonical NF-κB and p53.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.1 s.81
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• pp.110-115
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• 2007

It has been previously described that transcription factor early growth response gene product 1 (EGR-1) functions as a tumor suppressor gene. This study was conducted to demonstrate that EGR-1 induction by phytochemical apigenin and its derivative isovitexin can mediate the growth suppression of the intestinal epithelial tumor cells. Apigenin and isovitexin induced EGR-1 gene expression both in the dose and time-dependent manners. Moreover the induction was relatively late around 9-12 hr after treatment of HCT-116 cells, while several anti-inflammatory agent such as NSAIDS and catechins elicit the ECR-1 gene expression at much earlier time about 1-3 hr after treatment. In terms of signal transduction, ERK1/2 was critical for apigenin-induced EGR-1 gene expression and its promoter activation. When EGR-1 gene expression was blocked with EGR-1 small interference RNA, the cytotoxicity of apigenin in the human epithelial cells was attenuated, suggesting the involvement of EGR-1 in the anti-tumoric activity of apigenin. To link the EGR-1 induction to EGR-1-regulated gene products in colon cancer, NSAID-Activated Gene 1 (NAG-1) was demonstrated to be elevated by apigenin and isovitexin at 24-48 hr after treatment. Taken together, apigenin-activated ERK1/2 mediated EGR-1 gene induction, which was associated with suppression of the cellular viability by apigenin compound.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.471-476
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• 2000

Objective : p16/INK4a, a kind of tumor suppressor genes, encodes a specific inhibitor of the cyclin D-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6. This prevents the association of CDK4 with cyclin D1, and subsequently inhibits phosphorylation of retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein(pRb), thus preventing exit from the G1 phase. According to previous reports, over 50% of glioma tissue and 80% of glioma cell lines have been demonstrated inactivation of p16/INK4a gene. The purpose of this study was to determine whether recombinant adenovirus-p16 virus is a suitable candidate for gene replacement therapy in cases of glioma. Methods : Three human glioma cell lines(U251MG, U87MG and U373MG) that express mutant p16 protein were used. Replication-deficient adenovirus was utilized as an expression vector to transfer exogenous p16 cDNA into the cells ; control cells were infected with the Ad-${\beta}$-gal expressing ${\beta}$-galactosidase. To monitor gene transfer and the expression of exogenous genes, we used Western Blotting analysis. Flow cytometry studies of cellular DNA content were performed to determine the cell cycle phenotype of the glioma cells before and after treatment. Results : We showed here that restoration of p16/INK4a expression in p16 negative U87MG, U251MG and partially deleted U373MG by Ad-CMV-p16 induced growth suppression in vitro. Flow cytometric study revealed that Ad-CMV-p16 infected U87MG cells were arrested during the G0-G1 phase of the cell cycle. Expression of p16 transferred by Ad-CMV-p16 in glioma cells was highly efficient and maintained for more than seven days. Conclusions : Our results suggest that Ad-CMV-p16 gene therapy strategy is potentially useful and warrants further clinical investigation for the treatment of gliomas.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2021-2023
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• 2012

Purpose: DBC2 (Deleted in Breast Cancer 2) has been indicated to be a tumor suppressor gene in many cancers including lung adenocarcinoma recently. In this study, we aimed to explore the expression status of DBC2 in different subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma (from pre-invasive to invasive lesions), and to determine if downregulation becomes more marked with pathological progression. Methods: We collected 172 tissue samples from different subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma and investigated the frequency of DBC2 loss by immunohistochemistry. Results: Our results indicated that DBC2 downregulation is a relatively frequent event in lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, as the adenocarcinoma subtype turns to be more invasive, more downregulation occurred. Conclusion: We conclude that loss of DBC2 expression is an early and progressive event in the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma. Positive DBC2 immunohistochemistry may become an indicator for early stage disease and better prognosis of lung adenocarcinomas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.19-24
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• 2006

Mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 4 (SMAD4) is a tumor suppressor gene associated with gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. The aim of the present study was to characterize more precisely its role in the development and progression of human gastric carcinoma. In this study, using tissue microarray analysis of 283 gastric cancers and related lesions, we found loss of SMAD4 protein expression in the cytoplasm (36/114, 32%) and in the nucleus (46/114, 40%) of gastric cancer cells. The loss of nuclear SMAD4 expression in primary tumors correlated significantly with poor survival, and was an independent prognostic marker in multivariate analysis. We also found a substantial decrease in SMAD4 expression at both the RNA and protein level in several human gastric carcinoma cell lines. To identify the genetic and/or epigenetic mechanisms of altered SMAD4 expression in gastric carcinoma, loss of heterozygosity (LOH), promoter hypermethylation, and exon mutations were examined. We found that LOH (20/70, 29%) and promoter hypermethylation (4/73, 5%) were associated with the loss of SMAD4 expression. SMAD4 protein levels wore also affected in certain gastric carcinoma cell lines following incubation with Mc132, a proteasome inhibitor. Taken together, our results indicate that the loss of SMAD4, especially loss of nuclear SMAD4 expression, is involved in gastric cancer progression. The loss of SMAD4 in gastric carcinomas is due to several mechanisms, including LOH, hypermethylation, and proteasome degradation.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.118-123
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• 2005

Nicotine has been implicated as a potential factor in the pathogenesis of human lung cancer, however its mechanism of action in the development of lung cancer remains largely unknown. To explore the role of nicotine in the development of lung cancer, we first investigated the effects of nicotine on the expression of tumor associated genes by treating Sprague-Dawley rats with nicotine (10 mg/kg) by gavage once daily for 10 days. We determined the expression of proteins and mRNAs of the ras, raf, myc, jun, fos oncogenes and p53, Rb tumor suppressor genes by Western and Northern blotting, respectively. We did not detect any changes on the levels of proteins and mRNAs of these tumor associated genes in the lung of Sprague-Dawley rats from 3 days to 12 weeks after the last treatment of nicotine, indicating that nicotine appears to have no effect on expression of these oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes at an early stage in multistage chemical carcinogenesis. In a second experiment, we investigated the possibility that 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) could be formed endogenously by treating with nicotine and sodium nitrite. We treated groups of Fischer 344 rats with nicotine ($60{\mu}mol/kg$) and sodium nitrite ($180{\mu}mol/kg$), nicotine, sodium nitrite and NNK (120 nmol/kg) alone by gavage once daily for 7 days, respectively and determined the 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), as an indicator of NNK formation, in the lungs of rats 24 hours and 48 hours after the last treatment by HPLC/ECD method. We detect increased level of 8-OHdG in the lungs of rats treated with NNK, but in the case of nicotine plus sodium nitrite, nicotine and sodium nitrite alone we could not detected any changes of 8-OHdG, respectively.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.577-583
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• 2014

The recent discovery of tiny microRNAs (miRNAs) has brought about awareness of a new class of regulators of diverse pathways in many physiological and pathological processes, such as tumorigenesis. They modulate gene expression by targeting plethora of mRNAs, mostly reducing the protein yield of a targeted mRNA. With accumulation of information on characteristics of miR-205, complex and in some cases converse roles of miR-205 in tumor initiation, progression and metastasis are emerging. miR-205 acts either as an oncogene via facilitating tumor initiation and proliferation, or in some cases as a tumor suppressor through inhibiting proliferation and invasion. The aim of this review is to discuss miR-205 roles in different types of cancers. Given the critical effects of deregulated miR-205 on processes involved in tumorigenesis, they hold potential as novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.819-825
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• 2003

pharbitis nil and Taraxacum mongolicum are representative herbs that have been used for cancer treatment in Korean traditional medicine. To understand the molecular basis of the antitumor function, we analyzed the effect of these herbs on proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells using a gastric cancer cell line AGS. Cell counting assay showed that pharbitis nil strongly inhibit cell proliferation Of AGS whereas Taraxacum mongolicum exhibit no detectable effect on cellular growth. [³H]thymidine uptake analysis also demonstrated that DNA replication of AGS is suppressed in a dose-dependent manner by treatment with pharbitis nil. Additionally, tryphan blue exclusion assay showed that Pharbitis nil induce apoptotic cell death of AGS in a dose-dependent. To explore whether anti antiproliferative and/or proapototic property of Pharbitis nil is associated with their effect on gene expression, we performed RT-PCR analysis of cell cycle- and apoptosis-related genes. Interestingly, mRNA expression levels of c-Jun, c-Fos, c-Myc, and Cyclin D1 were markedly reduced by Pharbitis nil. Taraxacum mongolicum also showed inhibitory action on expression of these growth-promoting protooncogene but there effects are less significant, as compared to Pharbitis nil. Furthermore, it was also found that Pharbitis nil activates expression of the p53 tumor suppressor and its downstream effector p21Waf1, which induce G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Collectively, our data demonstrate that Pharbitis nil induce growth inhibition and apoptosis of human gastric cancer cells and these effects are accompanied with down-and up-regulation of growth-regulating protooncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, respectively. This observation thus suggests that the anticancer effect of Pharbitis nil might be associated with its regulatory capability of tumor-related gene expression.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.176-181
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• 2020

The RUNX transcription factors serve as master regulators of development and are frequently dysregulated in human cancers. Among the three family members, RUNX3 is the least studied, and has long been considered to be a tumor-suppressor gene in human cancers. This idea is mainly based on the observation that RUNX3 is inactivated by genetic/epigenetic alterations or protein mislocalization during the initiation of tumorigenesis. Recently, this paradigm has been challenged, as several lines of evidence have shown that RUNX3 is upregulated over the course of tumor development. Resolving this paradox and understanding how a single gene can exhibit both oncogenic and tumor-suppressive properties is essential for successful drug targeting of RUNX. We propose a simple explanation for the duality of RUNX3: p53 status. In this model, p53 deficiency causes RUNX3 to become an oncogene, resulting in aberrant upregulation of MYC.