Heavy-metal associated breast cancer and colorectal cancer hot spots and their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

Purpose: Cancer registries offer an avenue to identify cancer clusters across large populations and efficiently examine potential environmental harms affecting cancer. The role of known metal carcinogens (i.e.

Chronic arsenic exposure suppresses proteasomal and autophagic protein degradation.

Ubiquitin Proteasomal System (UPS) and autophagy dysregulation initiate cancer. These pathways are regulated by zinc finger proteins. Trivalent inorganic arsenic (iAs) displaces zinc from zinc finger proteins disrupting functions of important cellular proteins.

miR-186 induces tetraploidy in arsenic exposed human keratinocytes.

Chronic inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure in drinking water is a global issue affecting >225 million people. Skin is a major target organ for iAs. miRNA dysregulation and chromosomal instability (CIN) are proposed mechanisms of iAs-induced carcinogenesis.

miRNAs and arsenic-induced carcinogenesis.

Arsenic-induced carcinogenesis is a worldwide health problem. Identifying the molecular mechanisms responsible for the induction of arsenic-induced cancers is important for developing treatment strategies. MicroRNA (miRNA) dysregulation is known to affect development and progression of human cancer.

Human macrophage-engineered vesicles for utilization in ovarian cancer treatment.

Background: Ovarian cancer is a deadly female malignancy with a high rate of recurrent and chemotherapy-resistant disease. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a significant component of the tumor microenvironment and include high levels of M2-protumor macrophages that promote chemoresistance and metastatic spread. M2 macrophages can be converted to M1 anti-tumor macrophages, representing a novel therapeutic approach.

Chronic arsenic exposure suppresses ATM pathway activation in human keratinocytes.

An estimated 220 million people worldwide are chronically exposed to inorganic arsenic (iAs) primarily as a result of drinking iAs-contaminated water. Chronic iAs exposure is associated with a plethora of human diseases including skin lesions and multi-organ cancers. iAs is a known clastogen, inducing DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) in both exposed human populations and in vitro.

miRNA dysregulation is an emerging modulator of genomic instability.

Genomic instability consists of a range of genetic alterations within the genome that contributes to tumor heterogeneity and drug resistance. It is a well-established characteristic of most cancer cells. Genome instability induction results from defects in DNA damage surveillance mechanisms, mitotic checkpoints and DNA repair machinery.

Highly homologous mouse Cyp2a4 and Cyp2a5 genes are differentially expressed in the liver and both express long non-coding antisense RNAs.

The mammalian Cytochrome P450 (Cyp) gene superfamily encodes enzymes involved in numerous metabolic pathways and are frequently expressed in the liver. Despite the remarkably high sequence similarity of Cyp2a4 and Cyp2a5 genes and their surrounding genomic regions, they exhibit differences in expression in the adult mouse liver. For example, Cyp2a4 is highly female-biased whereas Cyp2a5 is only moderately female-biased and Cyp2a4, but not Cyp2a5, is activated in liver cancer.

Evolutionary Analysis of the Zinc Finger and Homeoboxes Family of Proteins Identifies Multiple Conserved Domains and a Common Early Chordate Ancestor.

The Zinc Fingers and Homeoboxes (Zhx) proteins, Zhx1, Zhx2, and Zhx3, comprise a small family of proteins containing two amino-terminal C2-H2 zinc fingers and four or five carboxy-terminal homeodomains. These multiple homeodomains make Zhx proteins unusual because the majority of homeodomain-containing proteins contain a single homeodomain. Studies in cultured cells and mice suggest that Zhx proteins can function as positive or negative transcriptional regulators.