Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.4.22.62 (caspase-9)
 7,507 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Many of the anticancer drugs in current use are toxic and thus limited in their efficacy. It therefore becomes essential to develop novel chemotherapeutic agents with lower levels of toxicity. The beta-lactam antibiotics have been used for many years to treat bacterial infections with limited or no toxicity. Until now, it has never been shown that beta-lactams could kill tumor cells. Here, for the first time, we have discovered and characterized the apoptosis-inducing properties of a family of novel beta-lactam antibiotics against human leukemia, breast, prostate, and head-and-neck cancer cells. We found that one particular lead compound (lactam 1) with an N-methylthio group was able to induce DNA damage and inhibit DNA replication in Jurkat T cells within a 2-h treatment. This was followed by p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation, S phase arrest, and apoptotic cell death. p38 was found to be a central player in beta-lactam-induced apoptosis and resided downstream of DNA damage but upstream of caspase activation. Accompanying caspase-8 activation was cleavage of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein Bid, and release of the mitochondrial cytochrome c. This was also associated with activation of caspase-9 and -3. Analogs of lactam 1 in which the N-methylthio group was replaced with other organothio chains exhibited progressive decreased potencies to induce DNA damage, p38 kinase activation, S phase arrest, and apoptosis, demonstrating requirement of the N-methylthio group. Because of the ease of synthesis and structural manipulation, we believe these beta-lactams may have the potential to be developed into anticancer agents.
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PMID:A novel beta-lactam antibiotic activates tumor cell apoptotic program by inducing DNA damage. 1202 96

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and laryngeal cancer represents the largest subgroup. However, the molecular mechanism underlying its malignant behavior and progression is not clarified. Accumulating evidence has shown that Notch1 signaling pathway plays a central role in carcinogenesis, but its potential role in regulating the development of laryngeal carcinoma, has not been characterized. Here, we identified that Notch1 signaling pathway was activated in laryngeal carcinoma accompanied with up-regulation of Notch1 and Hes1 expression. Overexpression of Notch1 in laryngeal carcinoma cell line Hep-2 led to suppression of tumor cellular proliferation and arrested cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase and induced cell apoptosis, which were coupled with the down-regulation of cyclin D1, cyclin E, cdk2 and bcl-2 and up-regulation of caspase-3, caspase-9 and p53. Most importantly, up-regulation of Notch1 expression also reduced the migration of Hep-2 cells, which was closely associated with down-regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9. The finding may lay a foundation for further investigations into the Notch1 signaling pathway as a potential target for laryngeal carcinoma.
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PMID:Potential role of Notch1 signaling pathway in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line Hep-2 involving proliferation inhibition, cell cycle arrest, cell apoptosis, and cell migration. 1972 60