Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P06889 (Mol)
 630,302 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and arachidonic acid play an important role in pancreatic cancer development and progression. These fatty acids are metabolized to eicosanoids by cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases. Abnormal expression and activities of both cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases have been reported in pancreatic cancer. In this article, we aim to provide a brief summary of (1) our understanding of the roles of these enzymes in pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis and progression; and (2) the potential of using cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitors for pancreatic cancer treatment and prevention.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 07
PMID:Lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase metabolism: new insights in treatment and chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer. 1257 99

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor with an extremely poor prognosis. The mechanisms of the aggressive growth and metastasis are not yet extensively understood. Over-expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was suggested to be associated with malignant transformation of pancreatic cancer. We examined EGFR expression in 77 cases of invasive ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, and analyzed the relation between the EGFR expression pattern and clinicopathological factors. EGFR immunoreactivity was detected in 41.6% (32/77) of human pancreatic cancers; i.e. diffuse expression in 32.5% (25/77) and focal expression in 9.1% (7/77). The EGFR expression was associated with gender (p<0.05), histological differentiation (p<0.05) and metastatic status of TNM classification (p<0.01). The observations suggested that EGFR expression plays important roles in metastasis, especially liver metastasis and recurrence of human pancreatic cancer.
Int J Mol Med 2003 Mar
PMID:Epidermal growth factor receptor expression in human pancreatic cancer: Significance for liver metastasis. 1257 31

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is characterized by poor prognosis, because of late diagnosis and lack of response to chemo- and/or radiation therapies. Resistance to apoptosis mainly causes this insensitivity to conventional therapies. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a central regulator of tissue homeostasis. Certain genetic disturbances of apoptotic signaling pathways have been found in carcinomas leading to tumor development and progression. In the past few years, the knowledge about the complex pathways of apoptosis has strongly increased and new therapeutic approaches based on this knowledge are being developed. This review will focus on the role of apoptotic proteins contributing to pancreatic cancer development and progression and will demonstrate possible targets to influence this deadly disease.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 07
PMID:Apoptosis: targets in pancreatic cancer. 1260 13

Cancer of the exocrine pancreas represents the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the Western population with an average survival after diagnosis of 3 to 6 months and a five-year survival rate under 5%. Our understanding of the molecular carcinogenesis has improved in the last few years due to the development of novel molecular biological techniques. Pancreatic cancer is a multi-stage process resulting from the accumulation of genetic changes in the somatic DNA of normal cells. In this article we describe major genetic alterations of pancreatic cancer, mutations in the proto-oncogene K-RAS and the tumor suppressors INK4A, TP53 and DPC4/SMAD4. The accumulation of these genetic changes leads to a profound disturbance in cell cycle regulation and continuous growth. The knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms will offer new therapeutic and diagnostic options and hopefully improve the outcome of this aggressive disease.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 22
PMID:Genetic alterations in pancreatic carcinoma. 1260 16

Pancreatic cancer remains a challenging disease with an overall cumulative 5-year survival rate below 1%. The process of cancer initiation, progression and metastasis is still not understood well. Invasion and tumor metastasis are closely related and both occur within a tumour-host microecology, where stroma and tumour cells exchange enzymes and cytokines that modify the local extracellular matrix, stimulate cell migration, and promote cell proliferation and tumor cell survival. During the last decade considerable progress has been made in understanding genetic alterations of genes involved in local and systemic tumor growth. The most important changes occur in genes which regulate cell cycle progression, extracellular matrix homeostasis and cell migration. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that epigenetic factors including angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis may participate in the formation of tumor metastasis. In this review we highlight the most important genetic alterations involved in tumor invasion and metastasis and further outline the role of tumor angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in systemic tumor dissemination.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 22
PMID:Invasion and metastasis in pancreatic cancer. 1260 17

As with other solid tumors, the growth and metastasis of pancreatic cancer is critically dependent on tumor angiogenesis. A major stimulus for a tumor's recruitment of additional blood vessels is cellular hypoxia, a condition which is especially pronounced in this neoplasm. Hypoxia induces transcriptional activation of genes that alter cellular metabolism and promote neoangiogenesis. Pancreatic cancer cells have demonstrated activation of such adaptive pathways even in the absence of hypoxia. A highly-angiogenic response in this neoplasm correlates with increased tumor growth, increased metastasis, and decreased survival. Pancreatic cancers expressing high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, a potent pro-angiogenic cytokine, also have a higher incidence of metastasis and poorer prognosis. Pancreatic cancer cells uniquely express receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor, indicating a role for an autocrine loop in tumor proliferation and invasion. Multiple experimental anti-angiogenic strategies, many of which target vascular endothelial growth factor, reduce pancreatic cancer growth, spread, and angiogenesis. Anti-angiogenic treatments for pancreatic cancer will likely be most effective when used as an integral part of a combination chemotherapeutic regimen.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 22
PMID:Influence of hypoxia and neoangiogenesis on the growth of pancreatic cancer. 1260 18

The concept of pancreatic cancer origin is controversial. Acinar, ductal or islet cells have been hypothesized as the cell of origin. The pros and cons of each of these hypotheses are discussed. Based on the world literature and recent observations, pancreatic cells seem to have potential for phenotypical transdifferentiation, i.e ductal-islet, ductal-acinar, acinar-ductal, acinar-islet, islet-acinar and islet-ductal cells. Although the possibility is discussed that cancer may arise from either islet, ductal or acinar cells, the circumstances favoring the islet cells as the tumor cell origin include their greater transdifferentiation potency into both pancreatic and extrapancreatic cells, the presence of a variety of carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes, some of which are present exclusively in islet cells and the growth factor-rich environment of islets.
Mol Cancer 2003 Jan 22
PMID:What is the origin of pancreatic adenocarcinoma? 1263 73

Lumican is a member of a small leucine-rich proteoglycan family. We previously found that lumican mRNA and its protein were ectopically and highly expressed in acinar cells in chronic pancreatitis (CP)-like lesions close to pancreatic cancer cells. CP-like lesions are characterized by acinar and ductal-ductular cell proliferation with expanding fibrosis. This finding suggests that lumican is ectopically synthesized by acinar cells under chronic inflammatory conditions and plays a role in fibrosis of the pancreas. However, the expression and role of lumican in acute inflammatory changes of the pancreas are not completely elucidated. In the present study, we aim to clarify whether lumican mRNA and its protein are expressed in exocrine or endocrine components in acute pancreatitis (AP). For experimental AP, Wistar rats received an intraperitoneal injection of L-arginine. Western blot analysis showed an intense 50-kDa band corresponding to the lumican protein in normal and L-arginine-treated rat pancreas. After L-arginine injection, three intense bands at 42, 57, and 92 kDa were detected on day 1. Immunohistochemically, the lumican protein was localized in ductal and a few centroacinar cells in the normal pancreas. After L-arginine injection, an immature fibrosis with fragmented and loose collagen fibers was observed in AP on day 4 and lumican immunoreactivity was detected in the collagen fibers. Lumican mRNA was faintly detected in islet cells in the normal pancreas, but it was strongly expressed in acinar and islet cells on day 1. Furthermore, lumican mRNA was expressed in many proliferating fibroblasts on day 4 by in situ hybridization. These findings indicate that lumican is transiently synthesized by acinar cells and fibroblasts in AP. Lumican proteins synthesized by acinar cells, islet cells, and fibroblasts may contribute to immature and transient fibrosis of AP.
Exp Mol Pathol 2003 Feb
PMID:Transient and ectopic expression of lumican by acinar cells in L-arginine-induced acute pancreatitis. 1264 30

We constructed a prokaryotic vector expressing a truncated VP22-EGFP gene and purified this fusion protein from Escherichia coli cultures using nickel resin. Application of purified VP22-EGFP protein to human pancreatic carcinoma cells showed a highly efficient time-dependent and dose-dependent uptake and resulted in green fluorescence predominantly located in the nuclei of treated cells. Purified VP22-EGFP efficiently translocated into deeper layers of pancreatic tumor cell spheroids. Homogeneous uptake into the whole tumor was observed after peritumoral injection in human pancreatic tumors in SCID mice. We conclude that the direct application of purified VP22 fusion proteins offers a new, peptide-mediated and potentially systemic therapy for pancreatic cancer. This opens the possibility of achieving specific antitumor effects induced by fused apoptosis-enhancing proteins.
J Mol Med (Berl) 2003 Mar
PMID:Efficient dose-dependent and time-dependent protein transduction of pancreatic carcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo using purified VP22-EGFP fusion protein. 1268 29

Cells contain a large number of antioxidants to prevent or repair the damage caused by reactive oxygen species. One component of the antioxidant system, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), is localized in the mitochondria, and the levels of this protein have been previously shown to inversely correlate with pancreatic cancer cell growth. The aim of the present study was to determine whether MnSOD overexpression could suppress the in vitro and in vivo malignant phenotype of a human pancreatic cancer cell line. Tumor cell behavior was determined in the pancreatic cancer cell line MIA PaCa-2 by examining cell growth, plating efficiency, and anchorage-independent growth in soft agar. MnSOD was overexpressed in the pancreatic cancer cell line MIA PaCa-2 by infection with an adenovirus-MnSOD construct. Cells were also injected s.c. in nude mice and tumor volume was calculated. Single and multiple direct injections of the adenoviral MnSOD construct (10(9) plaque-forming units) were delivered to the tumor. Increases in MnSOD immunoreactivity and activity were seen after transduction with the adenovirus-MnSOD construct. Increasing MnSOD levels correlated with increased doubling time. Cell growth, plating efficiency, and growth in soft agar decreased with increasing amounts of the adenovirus MnSOD construct. Tumors grew slower and survival was increased in nude mice injected with the adenoviral MnSOD construct compared with the parental cell line, whereas multiple injections of the adenoviral MnSOD construct further inhibited tumor cell growth and extended survival. These results suggest that MnSOD may be a tumor suppressor gene in human pancreatic cancer. Delivery of the MnSOD gene may prove beneficial for suppression of pancreatic cancer growth.
Mol Cancer Ther 2003 Apr
PMID:Suppression of the malignant phenotype in human pancreatic cancer cells by the overexpression of manganese superoxide dismutase. 1270 Feb 80


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