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Query: UMLS:C0178874 (tumor progression)
 40,807 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The ability of macrophages to produce reactive nitrogen species, particularly nitric oxide (NO) is correlated with an enhanced microbicidal or tumoricidal activity during pathogenic or tumoral invasion, respectively. NO reacts in water with oxygen and its reactive intermediates to yield, among others, nitrite and nitrate, which are relatively, stable anions. In this study, we show the varying concentrations of nitrite and nitrate present in different body fluids during AK-5 tumor growth and regression in Wistar rats. We have followed the tumor progression profile and the corresponding levels of nitrite and nitrate present in three major body compartments: the tumor mass; the serum which is the intermediary site; and the peritoneal compartment which is the priming ground for the macrophages. We are thus able to show that the status of the tumor has a direct correlation with macrophage activation and motility to different sites in the body. We also demonstrate after in vitro coculture, that the levels of nitrite and nitrate secreted by the macrophages correlate with their cytocidal capacity.
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PMID:Role of reactive nitrogen intermediates and protein nitration during immune response against a rat histiocytoma. 1227 May 52

Arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) play an important role in the detoxification and metabolic activation of a variety of aromatic xenobiotics, including numerous carcinogens. Both of the human isoforms, NAT1 and NAT2, display interindividual variations, and associations between NAT genotypes and cancer risk have been established. Contrary to NAT2, NAT1 has a ubiquitous tissue distribution and has been shown to be expressed in cancer cells. Given that the activity of NAT1 depends on a reactive cysteine that can be a target for oxidants, we studied whether peroxynitrite, a highly reactive nitrogen species involved in human carcinogenesis, could inhibit the activity of endogenous NAT1 in MCF7 breast cancer cells. We show here that exposure of MCF7 cells to physiological concentrations of peroxynitrite and to a peroxynitrite generator (3-morpholinosydnonimine N-ethylcarbamide, or SIN1) leads to the irreversible inactivation of NAT1 in cells. Further kinetic and mechanistic analyses using recombinant NAT1 showed that the enzyme is rapidly (k(inact) = 5 x 10(4) m(-1).s(-1)) and irreversibly inactivated by peroxynitrite. This inactivation is due to oxidative modification of the catalytic cysteine. We conclude that the reducing cellular environment of MCF7 cells does not sufficiently protect NAT1 from peroxynitrite-dependent inactivation and that only high concentrations of reduced glutathione could significantly protect NAT1. Thus, cellular generation of peroxynitrite may contribute to carcinogenesis and tumor progression by weakening key cellular defense enzymes such as NAT1.
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PMID:Peroxynitrite irreversibly inactivates the human xenobiotic-metabolizing enzyme arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1 (NAT1) in human breast cancer cells: a cellular and mechanistic study. 1467 57

Mitochondrial retrograde signaling is a pathway of communication from mitochondria to the nucleus that influences many cellular and organismal activities under both normal and pathophysiological conditions. In yeast it is used as a sensor of mitochondrial dysfunction that initiates readjustments of carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism. In both yeast and animal cells, retrograde signaling is linked to TOR signaling, but the precise connections are unclear. In mammalian cells, mitochondrial dysfunction sets off signaling cascades through altered Ca(2+) dynamics, which activate factors such as NFkappaB, NFAT, and ATF. Retrograde signaling also induces invasive behavior in otherwise nontumorigenic cells implying a role in tumor progression.
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PMID:Mitochondrial signaling: the retrograde response. 1506 99

Mitochondrial dysfunction has crucial importance in carcinogenesis. Due to several reasons, it may lead to insufficiency in the electron transport chain, which activates a series of cytosolic proteins. These proteins are transported to the nucleus and promote the activation of genes leading to intracellular diverse metabolic, regulatory, signalization and stress-related pathways. Retrograde regulation is the general term for mitochondrial signaling, and is broadly defined as cellular responses to alterations in functional state of mitochondria. This signaling pathway is triggered by mitochondrial dysfunction. The retrograde response is not a simple On-Off switch, but rather it responds in a continuous manner to the changing metabolic needs of the cell. Communication between mitochondria and the nucleus is important for a variety of cellular processes such as carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism, cell cycle and proliferation, and cell growth and morphogenesis. As a result of retrograde regulation, the cell, actually a component of the multicellular organism, transforms to a unicellular lifestyle and initiates a developing course, independent of the systemic structure. This transformed cell runs metabolic regulations effectively in order to utilize all energy depots, mainly the adipose tissue of the multicellular organism. The most important one is the active utilization of glyoxylate cycle, through which the malign cells supply glucose from fats. Continuously acting glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, fatty acid oxidation and de novo lipogenesis constitute futile cycles. This in turn causes cachexia by maintaining the organism in constant negative energy balance. Mitochondria-to-nucleus stress signaling activates some of the genes implicated in tumor progression and tumor cell metastasis. Retrograde regulation also renders the cell more resistant to apoptosis. It is becoming clearer which genes control the retrograde response in human cells. Most probably, MYC is one of the transcription factors necessary for this response.
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PMID:Retrograde regulation due to mitochondrial dysfunction may be an important mechanism for carcinogenesis. 1590 43

The cells of a weakly tumorigenic and non-metastatic murine fibrosarcoma (QR-32) are converted into highly malignant tumors (acquiring metastatic potential) once they have grown in vivo after being co-implanted with gelatin sponge which induces inflammation. In the present study, we examined whether nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the inflammation-based tumor progression by administrating a specific inhibitor to inducible nitric oxide synthase, aminoguanidine (AG). First, we co-implanted 1 x 10(5) QR-32 cells with gelatin sponge (10 x 5 x 3 mm piece) into a subcutaneous space in C57BL6 mice. Administration of AG in drinking water (1%) had started 2 days before the tumor implantation and continued until the termination of the experiment. The incidence of tumor formation and the tumor growth did not differ between AG-treated group and -untreated group. On day 28, we excised the arising tumors to establish culture cell lines for evaluation of their acquisition of metastatic phenotype in other normal mice. Metastasis incidence and the number of metastatic colonies were significantly reduced in the tumor cell lines obtained from AG-treated mice compared to those from non-treated mice (p < 0.05). Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that inducible nitric oxide synthase and nitrotyrosine in the inflamed lesion were reduced in the AG-administered mice. However, intensity of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine was not different between the groups. These results showed that nitric oxide and its reactive nitrogen oxide species cooperatively play a pivotal role in the progression of benign tumor cells in inflamed lesions.
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PMID:Involvement of reactive nitrogen oxides for acquisition of metastatic properties of benign tumors in a model of inflammation-based tumor progression. 1612 21

Numerous studies point to the fact that liver tumors are derived from single cells (monoclonal), but the important question is, which cell? Stem cell biology and cancer are inextricably linked. In continually renewing tissues such as the intestinal mucosa and epidermis, in which a steady flux of cells occurs from the stem cell zone to the terminally differentiated cells that are imminently to be lost, it is widely accepted that cancer is a disease of stem cells, as these are the only cells that persist in the tissue for a sufficient length of time to acquire the requisite number of genetic changes for neoplastic development. In the liver the identity of the founder cells for the two major primary tumors, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC), is more problematic. The reason for this is that no such obvious unidirectional flux occurs in the liver, though it is held that the centrilobular hepatocytes may be more differentiated (polyploid) and closer to cell senescence than those cells closest to the portal areas. Moreover the existence of bipotential hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs), along with hepatocytes endowed with longevity and long-term repopulating potential suggests there may be more than one type of carcinogen target cell. Irrespective of which target cell is involved, cell proliferation at the time of carcinogen exposure is pivotal for "fixation" of the genotoxic injury into a heritable form. Taking this view, any proliferative cell in the liver can be susceptible to neoplastic transformation. Thus, hepatocytes are implicated in many instances of HCC, direct injury to the biliary epithelium implicates cholangiocytes in some cases of CC, whereas HPC/oval cell activation accompanies very many instances of liver damage irrespective of etiology, making such cells very likely carcinogen targets. Of course, we must qualify this assertion by stating that many carcinogens are both cytotoxic and cytostatic, and that HPC proliferation may be merely a bystander effect of this toxicity. An indepth discussion of causes of cancer in the liver are beyond the scope of this review, but infectious agents (e.g., hepatitis B and C viruses) play a major role, not just in transactivating or otherwise disrupting cellular proto-oncogenes (hepatitis B virus [HBV]), but in also causing chronic inflammation (hepatitis C virus [HCV] and HBV). Sustained epithelial proliferation in a milieu rich in inflammatory cells, growth factors, and DNA-damaging agents (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species produced to fight infection), will lead to permanent genetic changes in proliferating cells. The upregulation of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) in transformed hepatocytes, through the paracrine action of tumor necrosis factor-alpha from neighboring endothelia and inflammatory cells, may be critical for tumor progression given the mitogenic and anti-apoptotic properties of proteins encoded by many of NF-kappaB's target genes.
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PMID:Liver stem cells: implications for hepatocarcinogenesis. 1714 62

Overexpression of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is observed in most tumor types. Increased COX-2 activity and synthesis of prostaglandins stimulates proliferation, angiogenesis, invasiveness and inhibits apoptosis. Many stress and proinflammatory signals induce COX-2 expression, including oxyradicals or DNA-damaging agents. The latter also induces p53, a transcription factor often inactivated by mutation in cancer. Several studies have identified complex cross-talks between p53 and COX-2, whereby p53 can either up- or down-regulate COX-2, which in turn controls p53 transcriptional activity. However, the molecular basis of these effects are open to debate, in particular since no p53 binding sequences have been identified in COX-2 regulatory regions. In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanisms by which COX-2 contributes to carcinogenesis and discuss the experimental set-up, results and conclusions of studies analyzing cross-talks between p53 and COX-2. We propose 2 scenarios accounting for overexpression of COX-2 in precursor and cancer lesions. In the "inflammatory" scenario, p53, activated by DNA damage induced by oxygen and nitrogen species, recruits NF-kappaB to activate COX-2, resulting in antiapoptotic effects that contribute to cell expansion in inflammatory precursor lesions. In the "constitutive proliferation" scenario, oncogenic stress due to activation of growth signaling cascades may upregulate COX-2 promoter independently of NF-kappaB and p53, synergizing with TP53 mutation to promote cancer progression. These 2 scenarios, although not mutually exclusive, may account for the diversity of the correlations between COX-2 expression and TP53 mutation, which vary according to cancer types and biological contexts, and have implications for the use of COX-2 inhibitors in cancer prevention and therapy.
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PMID:Cross-talks between cyclooxygenase-2 and tumor suppressor protein p53: Balancing life and death during inflammatory stress and carcinogenesis. 1758 97

Chronic inflammation is a critical component of carcinogenesis and tumor progression. Reactive nitrogen and oxygen species generated by inflammatory cells form mutagenic DNA lesions, such as 8-nitroguanine, which may play an integral role in inflammation-related carcinogenesis. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha has been established as a prognostic biomarker in various tumors, including malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of 8-nitroguanine formation and HIF-1alpha expression on the prognosis of patients with inflammation-related cancer. Immunohistochemical analyses were employed to examine the distribution of 8-nitroguanine and HIF-1alpha, using clinical specimens from 36 patients with MFH as a model of inflammation-related cancer. 8-Nitroguanine formation was predominantly observed in the nuclei of tumor cells and inflammatory cells in tumor tissues, while HIF-1alpha was expressed in the cytoplasm and nuclei of tumor cells. Little or no immunoreactivity of 8-nitroguanine and HIF-1alpha was observed in adjacent non-tumor tissues. Significantly higher levels of both 8-nitroguanine and HIF-1alpha were observed in the tissue specimens of deceased patients than in those of living subjects. Survival curves analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method differed significantly between the high- and low-staining groups of 8-nitroguanine (p=0.00003) as well as HIF-1alpha (p=0.01104). These results suggest a significant role of the pathway of iNOS-dependent 8-nitroguanine formation via HIF-1alpha and NF-kappaB on the progression of inflammation-related cancer. In conclusion, 8-nitroguanine is an excellent candidate prognostic and predictive biomarker together with HIF-1alpha in inflammation-related tumor progression.
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PMID:8-Nitroguanine as a potential biomarker for progression of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a model of inflammation-related cancer. 1791 67

Cancer patients suffering from bone metastases are at increased risk for skeletal complications, which contribute to increased morbidity and negatively affect patient quality of life. Therefore, there has been great interest in the development of clinical therapies to prevent bone metastases. Bisphosphonates are currently used for the treatment of bone metastases secondary to solid tumors, including tumors of the breast, prostate, and lung. Current evidence indicates that nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates may have antitumor potential. Preclinical studies using in vitro and in vivo cancer models have shown that zoledronic acid, a third-generation bisphosphonate, can inhibit angiogenesis, invasion and adhesion of tumor cells, and overall tumor progression. Furthermore, pilot clinical studies suggest that zoledronic acid can prevent bone metastases, and larger clinical trials are under way (AZURE, NSABP-B-34, S0307, ZEUS, G2419) to examine the use of bisphosphonates for prevention of bone metastases in adjuvant therapy settings. Biochemical markers of bone turnover and tumor markers are being characterized and may provide useful tools to identify high-risk patients who may especially benefit from bisphosphonate therapy.
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PMID:Emerging strategies in bone health management for the adjuvant patient. 1806 85

Prometastatic gene expression events occur during the early phases of prostate oncogenesis, even though overlaping with genes that induce primary cancer growth. Cytogenetic and genomic profiling analyses have identified many cancer-associated chromosomal abnormalities consisting mainly in losses in the early phases of sporadic primary prostate carcinoma. Metastatic genes are those in which gains in oncogene functional activity or lack of tumor suppressor genes enable cancer cells to detach, escape into the circulation, penetrate and colonize distant organs. In metastatic prostate carcinoma some genes, such as MTA1 and MYBL2, are differentially upregulated in comparison to primary site, while IGFBP, DAN1, FAT and RAB5A appear to be downregulated. Epigenetic alterations, such as histone deacetylation/hypermethylation, are also involved in the metastasis promotion. Nevertheless, during oncogenesis and cancer progression, prostate cancer cells may regain pluripotent stem cell-like properties or, as an alternative, may be, them selves, malignant stem cell clones, equipped with self-renewal mechanisms. Pleiotropic contributions to cancer progression and metastatic spread are also brought up from a variety of tumor microenvironment-associated factors. Moreover, inflammatory processes can partecipate in prostate tumorigenesis and cancer progression through several mechanisms, such as generation of both oxygen and nitrogen reactive species, induction of cyclooxygenase-2 and production of growth factors and cytokines by neutrophils and macrophages of host microenvironment. The knowledge of both genetic and microenvironmental cancer aggressiveness factors is necessary to define timing and suitability of therapeutical strategies.
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PMID:Genetic and microenvironmental implications in prostate cancer progression and metastasis. 1870 Jun 88


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