Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0345904 (liver cancer)
 15,188 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The lack of good molecular markers for diagnosis as well as treatment assessment has rendered the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) a major challenge in health care. In this study, woodchucks were used as an animal model for hepatitis virus-induced HCC, and gene expression studies were performed using a human oligonucleotide microarray. An analysis approach combing supervised significant analysis of microarray (SAM), prediction analysis of microarray (PAM), and unsupervised hierarchical cluster methodologies statistically determined 211 upregulated and 78 downregulated genes between liver cancer and non-cancer liver tissues, and demonstrated > or = 93% accuracy in classifying the tissue samples. RT-PCR results confirmed the differential expression of selected sequenced woodchuck genes (SAT, IDH3B, SCD) in the microarray. Our study showed that differentially expressed genes were involved in transcription, RNA splicing, translation, cell cycle, metabolism, protein folding and degradation, apoptosis, immune response, metal binding, etc. Interestingly, some genes were involved with signaling pathways such as Ras/MAPK (MAPKAP1), Src-dependent pathways (CSK), hedgehog signaling pathway (HHIP), while Wnt signaling pathway may not be dominant in woodchuck HCC as shown by the downregulation of beta-catenin (TNNB1) and the upregulation of CXXC4 and CSNK2B. Numerous genes found in this study were also differentially expressed in human HCC and many other human cancers including breast, prostate and lung cancers, etc., serving as tumor suppressors, promoters, prognostic markers or chemotherapy targets. In conclusion, this study has demonstrated the robustness of the data analysis and the potential of using human microarrays on woodchuck samples. In particular, some of the differentially expressed genes in the woodchuck HCC can be further explored for possible molecular imaging targets or biological markers in human HCC.
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PMID:Gene expression studies of hepatitis virus-induced woodchuck hepatocellular carcinoma in correlation with human results. 1714 10

Lipogenesis plays a critical role in the growth and metastasis of tumors, which is becoming an attractive target for anti-tumor drugs. RA-XII, one of the cyclopeptide glycosides isolated from Rubia yunnanensis, exerts anti-tumor effects on liver cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms are not clear. In the present study, the effects of RA-XII on lipogenesis were evaluated and the underlying mechanisms were investigated. The results indicated that RA-XII strongly inhibited tumor growth and lipogenesis (triglycerides and lipid droplets) in HepG2 cells, and the expression of key factors involved in lipogenesis (SREBP, SCD, FASN) was also obviously downregulated. Further investigation showed that the anti-tumor effects of RA-XII were attenuated by SREBP knockdown. Moreover, RA-XII downregulated the expression of SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP), an upstream regulator of SREBP, and siRNA of SCAP prevented its restrained effects on tumor growth and lipogenesis. In addition, the in vivo experiment showed that RA-XII strongly restrained the lipogenesis and growth of liver tumor in nude mice xenograft model. Taken together, these results indicate that RA-XII suppresses the liver cancer growth by inhibition of lipogenesis via SCAP-dependent SREBP suppression. The findings reveal the potentials of RA-XII to be used in a novel therapeutic approach for treating liver cancer.
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PMID:RA-XII Suppresses the Development and Growth of Liver Cancer by Inhibition of Lipogenesis via SCAP-dependent SREBP Supression. 3108 42