Publications by authors named "Alexander Th Wu"

Article Synopsis
  • Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is a highly lethal cancer, primarily influenced by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) which alter the tumor environment via interactions with hyaluronic acid (HA) and hyaluronidase, relevant to cancer growth and spread.
  • The study explores the roles of CAFs and hyaluronidase in PAAD and evaluates a new anti-cancer compound called NSC777201 that targets hyaluronidase, using computational and experimental methods to identify gene expression changes.
  • Key findings include the identification of 416 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) linked to CAFs and 570 DEGs associated with NSC777201 treatment, with a focus on the protein TM
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Objectives: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most prevalent secondary complications associated with diabetes mellitus. Decades of research have implicated multiple pathways in the etiology and pathophysiology of diabetic nephropathy. There has been no reliable predictive biomarkers for the onset or progression of DN and no successful treatments are available.

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Despite the therapeutic advancement with chemotherapy and targeted therapy against non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), most patients ultimately develop resistance to these drugs, exhibiting disease progression, metastasis, and worse prognosis. There is, therefore, a need for the development of novel multi-targeted therapies that can offer a high therapeutic index with lesser chances of drug resistance against NSCLC. In the present study, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of a novel multi-target small molecule NLOC-015A for targeted treatment of NSCLC.

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a very aggressive subtype of breast cancer characterized by drug resistance and distant metastasis. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered a major contributor to TNBC's drug resistance. Thus targeting and eliminating CSCs have been vigorously researched.

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Head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC) affects more than half a million individuals and ranks the ninth leading cause of death globally each year. Many patients develop treatment resistance leading to poor clinical outcomes. The poor treatment responses are in part due to the heterogeneity of HNSCC tumor and tumor microenvironment (TME).

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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a type of leukemia with an aggressive phenotype, that commonly occurs in adults and with disappointing treatment outcomes. Genetic alterations were implicated in the etiology of cancers and form the basis for defining patient prognoses and guiding targeted therapies. In the present study, we leveraged bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing datasets from AML patients to determine the clinical significance of Fms-related receptor tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) alterations on the T-cell phenotype and immune response of AML patients.

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Background And Aims: Chronic stress is a major common cause of male infertility. Many species of velvet beans are shown to be rich in l-DOPA. In Thai folklore medicine, seeds of (L.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text refers to a correction made to an article found on page 2590 of volume 11 of a journal.
  • The article is identified by its PubMed ID, PMID: 34249417.
  • This correction likely addresses errors or updates to information presented in the original article.
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Background: Despite advances in chemotherapies and targeted drugs, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains challenging to treat due to drug resistance. Emerging evidence indicates that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) facilitate the generation of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) and drug resistance. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK) associated signaling pathways have been implicated in the generation of CSCs and represent a target for therapeutics development.

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Thrombolysis is a standard treatment for rapidly restoring blood flow. However, the application of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (Uk) in clinical therapy is limited due to its nonspecific distribution and inadequate therapeutic accumulation. Precise thrombus imaging and site-specific drug delivery can enhance the diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy for thrombosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • The PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MEK/ERK signaling pathways are vital for normal body functions, and their deregulation is linked to various cancers, highlighting the need for better targeted therapies.
  • A new molecule, NSC777213, shows strong anti-cancer effects across multiple human tumor cell lines, especially in chemoresistant ovarian cancers, suggesting it could be a promising alternative to existing treatments.
  • NSC777213 demonstrates a potent ability to inhibit key proteins in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/MEK pathways, making it a potential candidate for further preclinical testing as a cancer treatment.
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Patients with advanced-stage colon cancer often exhibit resistance against treatment and distant metastasis, both key contributors to poor prognosis. Emerging evidence indicates that cancer stem cells (CSCs), characterized by the enhanced ability to self-renew, resist therapeutics, and promote metastasis, represents a clinical challenge to target. Alternative therapeutic approaches are urgently required.

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The role and therapeutic promise of poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in anticancer chemotherapy are increasingly being explored, particularly in adjuvant or maintenance therapy, considering their low efficacy as monotherapy agents and their potentiating effects on concurrently administered contemporary chemotherapeutics. Against the background of increasing acquired resistance to FGFR1 inhibitors and our previous work, which partially demonstrated the caspase-3/PARP-mediated antitumor and antimetastatic efficacy of PD173074, a selective FGFR1 inhibitor, against ALDH-high/FGFR1-rich pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells, we investigated the probable synthetic lethality and therapeutic efficacy of targeted PARP inhibition combined with FGFR1 blockade in patients with PDAC. Using bioinformatics-based analyses of gene expression profiles, co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity, molecular docking, immunofluorescence staining, clonogenicity, Western blotting, cell viability or cytotoxicity screening, and tumorsphere formation assays, we demonstrated that FGFR1 and PARP co-occur, form a complex, and reduce survival in patients with PDAC.

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The management of glioblastomas (GBMs) is challenged by the development of therapeutic resistance and early disease recurrence, despite multi-modal therapy. This may be attributed to the presence of glioma stem cells (GSCs) which are known to survive radio- and chemotherapy, by circumventing death signals and inducing cell re-population. Recent findings suggest GSCs may be enriched by certain treatment modality.

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5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) regimen remains the backbone of the first-line agent to treat colon cancer, but often these patients develop resistance. Cancer stem cells (CSC's) are considered as one of the key contributors in the development of drug resistance and tumor recurrence. We aimed to provide preclinical evidence for (), as a potential in suppressing colon cancer CSC's to overcome 5-FU drug-resistant.

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Metastasis remains the major cause of death from colon cancer. We intend to identify differentially expressed genes that are associated with the metastatic process and prognosis in colon cancer. ATP synthase epsilon subunit () gene was found to encode the mitochondrial FF ATP synthase subunit epsilon that was overexpressed in tumor cells compared to their normal counterparts, while other genes encoding the ATP synthase subunit were repressed in public microarray datasets.

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Low response rate and recurrence are common issues in lung cancer; thus, identifying a potential compound for these patients is essential. Utilizing an in silico screening method, we identified withaferin A (WA), a cell-permeable steroidal lactone initially extracted from , as a potential anti-lung cancer and anti-lung cancer stem-like cell (CSC) agent. First, we demonstrated that WA exhibited potent cytotoxicity in several lung cancer cells, as evidenced by low IC values.

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Controversy still surrounds clinical benefits of robotic-assisted (RS) over laparoscopic surgery (LS) despite its popularity in clinical use in terms of outcomes and complication rates. The study aims to systematically review and provide the evidence concerning the risk of conversion to open laparotomy and oncological outcomes of LS vs RS rectal cancer surgery. The Cochrane Library (including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), EMBASE, PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing LS and RS.

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Background: Few studies have evaluated the risk of oral cavity cancer (OC) in patients with recurrent oral aphthae (ROA) and dry eye syndrome (DES). This study assessed the risk of OC in patients who had received diagnoses of ROA and DES in Taiwan.

Methods: A population-based frequency-matched case-control study was conducted in which data were analyzed from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) represents a major health concern worldwide. We applied the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) to analyze paired normal (N) and tumor (T) samples from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma as well as liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis in HNSCC cell lines to identify tumor-associated biomarkers. Our results showed a number of proteins found to be over-expressed in HNSCC.

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Colon cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer types in developed countries. Metastasis and drug resistance are two contributing factors to the high mortality rate. Accumulating evidence suggest that cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) represents as a major contributor to these malignant features.

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