Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P05412 (c-Jun)
 11,453 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Alteration in genes which takes place during malignant conversion and progression could be potential targets for gene therapy. We previously identified REIC/Dkk-3 as a gene whose expression is reduced in many human cancers. Here, we showed that expression of REIC/Dkk-3 was consistently reduced in human prostate cancer tissues in a stage-dependent manner. Forced expression of REIC/Dkk-3 induced apoptosis in human prostate cancer cell lines lacking endogenous REIC/Dkk-3 expression but not in REIC/Dkk-3-proficient normal prostate epithelial and stromal cells. The apoptosis involved c-Jun-NH2-kinase activation, mitochondrial translocation of Bax, and reduction of Bcl-2. A single injection of an adenovirus vector carrying REIC/Dkk-3 showed a dramatic antitumor effect on a xenotransplanted human prostate cancer. Thus, REIC/Dkk-3 could be a novel target for gene-based therapy of prostate cancer.
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PMID:Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of REIC/Dkk-3 selectively induces apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells through activation of c-Jun-NH2-kinase. 1626 78

Human testicular cancer is very sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy and is regarded as a curable cancer. The cancer prevails in the young reproductive generation and testicular dysfunction is often observed as a side effect, remaining a serious challenge. In the present study, we examined the potential utility of REIC/Dkk-3-based gene therapy against human testicular cancer. Expression of REIC/Dkk-3 was reduced in all of the human seminoma and non-seminomatous germ cell tumor tissues. Overexpression of REIC/Dkk-3 using an adenovirus vector (Ad-REIC) induced apoptosis in a testicular germ cell cancer cell line NCCIT but not in normal human fibroblasts. c-Jun terminal kinase (JNK) was activated by Ad-REIC and the induction of apoptosis was abrogated by a JNK inhibitor. A single intratumoral injection of Ad-REIC markedly inhibited the tumorigenic growth of NCCIT cells in nude mice. These results indicate that Ad-REIC may lead to developing less insulting and non-genotoxic therapeutic measures against human testicular cancer.
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PMID:REIC/Dkk-3 as a potential gene therapeutic agent against human testicular cancer. 1727 81

The overexpression of reduced expression in immortalized cells (REIC)/Dickkopf-3 (Dkk-3), a tumor suppressor gene, induced apoptosis in human prostatic and testicular cancer cells. The aim of this study is to examine the potential of REIC/Dkk-3 as a therapeutic target against breast cancer. First, the in vitro apoptotic effect of Ad-REIC treatment was investigated in breast cancer cell lines and the adenovirus-mediated overexpression of REIC/Dkk-3 was thus found to lead to apoptotic cell death in a c-Jun-NH(2)-kinase (JNK) phosphorylaion-dependent manner. Moreover, an in vivo apoptotic effect and MCF/Wt tumor growth inhibition were observed in the mouse model after intratumoral Ad-REIC injection. As multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major problem in the chemotherapy of progressive breast cancer, the in vitro effects of Ad-REIC treatment were investigated in terms of the sensitivity of multidrug-resistant MCF7/ADR cells to doxorubicin and of the P-glycoprotein expression. Ad-REIC treatment in MCF7/ADR cells also downregulated P-glycoprotein expresssion through JNK activation, and sensitized its drug resistance against doxorubicin. Therefore, not only apoptosis induction but also the reversal of anticancer drug resistance was achieved using Ad-REIC. We suggest that REIC/Dkk-3 is a novel target for breast cancer treatment and that Ad-REIC might be an attractive agent against drug-resistant cancer in combination with conventional antineoplastic agents.
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PMID:REIC/Dkk-3 overexpression downregulates P-glycoprotein in multidrug-resistant MCF7/ADR cells and induces apoptosis in breast cancer. 1865 8

REIC/Dickkopf-3 (Dkk-3), a tumor suppressor gene, has been investigated in gene therapy studies. Our previous study suggested that REIC/Dkk-3-induced apoptosis mainly resulted from phosphorylation of c-Jun-NH(2) kinase (JNK) in prostate cancer cells. However, the precise mechanisms, especially the molecular mechanisms regulating JNK phosphorylation, remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms participating in JNK phosphorylation in the context of a refractory cancer disease, malignant mesothelioma (MM). Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of REIC/Dkk-3 induced apoptosis mainly through JNK activation in immortalized MM cells (211H cells). Interestingly, transcriptional down-regulation of inhibition of differentiation-1 (Id-1) was detected in REIC/Dkk-3-overexpressed 211H cells. Moreover, restoration of Id-1 expression antagonized REIC/Dkk-3-induced JNK phosphorylation and apoptosis. Mutagenesis experiments with the 2.1-kb human Id-1 promoter revealed that activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) and Smad interaction, with their respective binding motifs, was essential for REIC/Dkk-3-mediated suppression of Id-1 promoter activity. ATF3 activation was probably induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress. Finally, we showed strong antitumor effects from REIC/Dkk-3 gene transfer into the pleural cavity in an orthotopic MM mouse model. Relative to control tumor tissue, REIC/Dkk-3-treated tumor tissue showed down-regulated expression of Id-1 mRNA, enhanced expression of phosphorylated JNK, and an increased number of apoptotic cells. In summary, we first showed that both ATF3 and Smad were crucially and synergistically involved in down-regulation of Id-1, which regulated JNK phosphorylation in REIC/Dkk-3-induced apoptosis. Thus, gene therapy with REIC/Dkk-3 may be a promising therapeutic tool for MM.
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PMID:Down-regulation of inhibition of differentiation-1 via activation of activating transcription factor 3 and Smad regulates REIC/Dickkopf-3-induced apoptosis. 1892 5

Bladder cancer is one of the most common urogenital malignancies. The intravesical instillation of anticancer agents is an attractive strategy to treat a superficial lesion or floating/disseminated cancer cells after transurethral operation. An adenovirus carrying REIC/Dkk-3, a tumor suppressor gene (Ad-REIC), exhibits cancer-specific apoptotic effects in various types of cancer cells. The aim of the present study was to examine the potential of Ad-REIC as a therapeutic agent for bladder cancer. KK47 and RT4 human bladder cancer cells were sensitive to the Ad-REIC treatment for apoptosis induction, but some human bladder cancer cell lines (T24, J82 and TccSup) were resistant. Significant cell growth inhibition was observed when these resistant cancer cell lines were treated with Ad-REIC in a condition of floating cells, which is clinically observed after transurethral operation and becomes a cause of intravesical cancer dissemination. The therapeutic potential of Ad-REIC for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bladder cancer was investigated. The adriamycin-resistant KK47 bladder cancer cells (KK47/ADM), which also present multidrug resistance, showed induction of significant apoptosis following Ad-REIC treatment. The Ad-REIC treatment induced downregulation of P-glycoprotein in KK47/ADM cells and restored the sensitivity to doxorubicin (adriamycin). Ad-REIC suppressed P-glycoprotein expression in a c-Jun-NH2-kinase (JNK)-dependent manner. Therefore, the current study indicated two therapeutic aspects of the Ad-REIC agent against human bladder cancer cells, as an apoptosis inducer/cell growth inhibitor and as a sensitizer of chemotherapeutic agents in multidrug-resistant cancer cells. The intravesical instillation of Ad-REIC could be an attractive therapeutic method in human bladder cancer where the treatment of superficial lesions and floating/disseminated or multidrug-resistant cancer cells is necessary.
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PMID:REIC/Dkk-3-encoding adenoviral vector as a potentially effective therapeutic agent for bladder cancer. 2266 39