Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.12.2 (MEK)
 18,161 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To test the role of STAT3 in human rhabdomyosarcoma cells, genetic approaches were used to either knockdown the expression of STAT3 and GP130, an upstream activator of STAT3 using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) or express persistently active STAT3 protein. Knockdown expression of GP130 or STAT3 sensitized cells to anti-cancer drugs doxorubicin, cisplatin, and MEK inhibitor AZD6244. On the other hand, expression of the constitutively active STAT3 protein reduced the sensitivity of rhabdomyosarcoma cells to those drugs. In addition, we tested a small molecule STAT3 inhibitor LY5 and a GP130 inhibitor bazedoxifene in rhabdomyosarcoma cells. Our data demonstrated that the combination of LY5 or bazedoxifene with doxorubicin, cisplatin, and AZD6244 showed stronger inhibitory effects than single agent alone. In summary, our results demonstrated that GP130/STAT3 signaling contributes to the resistance of these drugs in rhabdomyosarcoma cells. They also suggested a potentially novel cancer therapeutic strategy using the combination of inhibitors of GP130/STAT3 signaling with doxorubicin, cisplatin, or AZD6244 for rhabdomyosarcoma treatments.
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PMID:Persistent GP130/STAT3 Signaling Contributes to the Resistance of Doxorubicin, Cisplatin, and MEK Inhibitor in Human Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells. 2637 15

Humanin is a small secreted peptide that is encoded in the mitochondrial genome. Humanin and its analogues have a protective role in multiple age-related diseases including type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, through cytoprotective and neuroprotective effects both in vitro and in vivo. However, the humanin-mediated signaling pathways are not well understood. In this paper, we demonstrate that humanin acts through the GP130/IL6ST receptor complex to activate AKT, ERK1/2, and STAT3 signaling pathways. Humanin treatment increases phosphorylation in AKT, ERK 1/2, and STAT3 where PI3K, MEK, and JAK are involved in the activation of those three signaling pathways, respectively. Furthermore, old mice, but not young mice, injected with humanin showed an increase in phosphorylation in AKT and ERK1/2 in the hippocampus. These findings uncover a key signaling pathway of humanin that is important for humanin's function and also demonstrates an age-specific in vivo effect in a region of the brain that is critical for memory formation in an age-dependent manner.
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PMID:The mitochondrial-derived peptide humanin activates the ERK1/2, AKT, and STAT3 signaling pathways and has age-dependent signaling differences in the hippocampus. 2738 91

Recent studies have confirmed that IL-6/GP130 targets are closely associated with tumor growth, metastasis and drug resistance. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the most common chemotherapeutic agent for colon cancer but is limited due to chemoresistance and high cytotoxicity. Bazedoxifene (BZA), a third-generation selective estrogen receptor modulator, was discovered by multiple ligand simultaneous docking and drug repositioning approaches to have a novel function as an IL-6/GP130 target inhibitor. Thus, we speculated that in colon cancer, the anti-tumor efficacy of 5-FU might be increased in combination with IL-6/GP130 inhibitors. CCK8 assay and colony formation assay were used to detect the cell proliferation and colony formation. We measured the IC50 value of 5-FU alone and in combination with BZA by cell viability inhibition. Cell migration and invasion ability were tested by scratch migration assays and transwell invasion assays. Flow cytometric analysis for cell apoptosis and cell cycle. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect Bad, Bcl-2 and Ki-67 mRNA expression and western blotting (WB) assay analyzed protein expression of Bad/Bcl-2 signaling pathway. Further mechanism study, WB analysis detected the key proteins level in IL-6/GP130 targets and JAK/STAT3, Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. A colon cancer xenograft model was used to further confirm the efficacy of 5-FU and BZA in vivo. The GP130, P-STAT3, P-AKT, and P-ERK expression levels were detected by immunohistochemistry in the xenograft tumor. BZA markedly potentiates the anti-tumor function of 5-FU in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, 5-FU activation is reduced following exogenous IL-6 treatment in cells. Further mechanistic studies determined that BZA treatment enhanced 5-FU anti-tumor activation by inhibiting the IL-6/GP130 signaling pathway and the phosphorylation status of the downstream effectors AKT, ERK and STAT3. In contrast, IL-6 can attenuate 5-FU function via activating IL-6R/GP130 signaling and the P-AKT, P-ERK and P-STAT3 levels. This study firstly verifies that targeting IL-6/GP130 signaling can increase the anti-tumor function of 5-FU; in addition, this strategy can sensitize cancer cell drug sensitivity, implying that blocking IL-6/GP130 targets can reverse chemoresistance. Therefore, combining 5-FU and IL-6/GP130 target inhibitors may be a promising approach for cancer treatment.
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PMID:Down-regulating IL-6/GP130 targets improved the anti-tumor effects of 5-fluorouracil in colon cancer. 2977 30