Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Poly(ADP-ribosylation) is a post-translational modification of proteins playing a crucial role in DNA repair, replication, transcription and cell death. In this paper, the main features of this process have been reviewed, focusing on the best known poly(ADP-ribose) polymerizing enzyme, PARP-1, a DNA nick-sensor protein that uses beta-NAD+ to form p...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Anthracycline antitumor drugs, particularly aclacinomycin (ACM) have been shown to be potent inducers of erythroid differentiation in human leukemic K562 cells. Here we report that such an event is associated with an overexpression of the erythroid-specific transcription factors GATA-1 and NFE-2. Using the electrophoretic mobility shift assay, duri...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Almost 40 years have passed from the historical discovery that cell death in the majority of the cases is not an accidental event, but corresponds to an extremely conscious and altruistic, thus highly regulated, process. Since the first observation in 1972 marked the ‘‘birth’’ of apoptosis, many advances have been made in the comprehension of the i...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Neuroblastoma is a common embryonal malignancy in which high-stage cases have a poor prognosis, often associated with resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. DNA methylation alterations are frequent in neuroblastoma and can modulate sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs in other cancers, suggesting that manipulation of epigenetic modifications could ...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Human erythroleukemic K 562 cells were induced to were induced to differentiate along the erythroid lineage by anthracycline antitumor drugs, such as aclacinomycin (ACLA) and doxorubicin (DOX). Subsequent stimulation of heme and globin synthesis led to a differential quantitative expression of hemoglobins. Gower 1 (epsilon2, zeta2) was the major ty...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) has been linked to inflammation- and cancer-related anemia, which reduces both quality of life and prognosis of patients. The aim of this study was to reveal molecular mechanisms linked to the inhibition of erythroid differentiation by TNFalpha. In this study, we showed that the in...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
The inducible transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) plays an important role in the regulation of immune, inflammatory and carcinogenic responses. While normal NF-kappaB activation is necessary for cell survival and immunity, deregulated NF-kappaB expression is a characteristic phenomenon in cancer development, as well as in several...
Published in Biochemical Pharmacology
Expression of glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GSTP1-1) is correlated to carcinogenesis and resistance of cancer cells against chemotherapeutic agents. Curcumin, a natural compound extracted from Curcuma longa, has shown strong antioxidant and anticancer properties and also the ability to regulate a wide variety of genes that require activating prot...
