Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C1522282 (EMT)
 2,868 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Small molecule inhibitors of signaling pathways have proven to be extremely useful for the development of therapeutic strategies for human cancers. Blocking the tumor-promoting effects of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) in advanced stage carcinogenesis provides a potentially interesting drug target for therapeutic intervention. Although very few TGF-beta receptor kinase inhibitors (TRKI) are now emerging in preclinical studies, nothing is known about how these inhibitors might regulate the tumor-suppressive or tumor-promoting effects of TGF-beta, or when these inhibitors might be useful for treatment during cancer progression. We have investigated the potential of TRKI in new therapeutic approaches in preclinical models. Here, we demonstrate that the TRKI, SB-431542, inhibits TGF-beta-induced transcription, gene expression, apoptosis, and growth suppression. We have observed that SB-431542 attenuates the tumor-promoting effects of TGF-beta, including TGF-beta-induced EMT, cell motility, migration and invasion, and vascular endothelial growth factor secretion in human cancer cell lines. Interestingly, SB-431542 induces anchorage independent growth of cells that are growth-inhibited by TGF-beta, whereas it reduces colony formation by cells that are growth-promoted by TGF-beta. However, SB-431542 has no effect on a cell line that failed to respond to TGF-beta. This represents a novel potential application of these inhibitors as therapeutic agents for human cancers with the goal of blocking tumor invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis, when tumors are refractory to TGF-beta-induced tumor-suppressor functions but responsive to tumor-promoting effects of TGF-beta.
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PMID:A specific inhibitor of TGF-beta receptor kinase, SB-431542, as a potent antitumor agent for human cancers. 1596 3

BMP signaling has been found to have tumor-promoting as well as tumor-suppressing effects in different types of tumors. In this study, we investigated the effects of BMP signaling and of BMP inhibitors on ovarian cancer (OC) cells in vitro and in vivo. High expression of BMP receptor 2 (BMPR2) correlated with poor overall survival of OC patients in the TCGA dataset. Both BMP2 and BMPR2 enhanced OC cell proliferation, whereas BMP receptor kinase inhibitors inhibited OC cell growth in cell culture as well as in a mouse model. BMP2 also augmented sphere formation, migration, and invasion of OC cells, and induced EMT. High BMP2 expression was observed after chemotherapy of OC patients in the GSE109934 dataset. In accordance, carboplatin, used for the treatment of OC patients, increased BMP2 secretion from OC cells, and induced EMT partially via activation of BMP signaling. Our data suggest that BMP signaling has tumor-promoting effects in OC, and that BMP inhibitors might be useful therapeutic agents for OC patients. Considering that carboplatin treatment augmented BMP2 secretion, the possibility to use a combination of BMP inhibitors and carboplatin in the treatment of OC patients, would be worth exploring.
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PMID:BMP signaling is a therapeutic target in ovarian cancer. 3329 1