Publications by authors named "Eun-Ji Kwon"

Purpose: A "Smart Cancer Care" platform that integrates patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with management has been established in Korea. This study focused on improving health behaviors and connecting patients to welfare services by introducing and assessing the feasibility of "Smart Cancer Care 2.0," an enhanced version designed for monitoring complications post-cancer treatment.

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Epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFRi) have exhibited promising clinical outcomes in the treatment of various cancers. However, their widespread application has been limited by low patient eligibility and the emergence of resistance. Leveraging a multi-omics approach (>1000 cancer cell lines), we explored molecular signatures linked to EGFRi responsiveness and found that expression signatures involved in the estrogen response could recapitulate cancer cell dependency on EGFR, a phenomenon not solely attributable to EGFR-activating mutations.

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During in vitro culture, human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) often acquire survival advantages characterized by decreased susceptibility to mitochondrial cell death, known as "culture adaptation." This adaptation is associated with genetic and epigenetic abnormalities, including TP53 mutations, copy number variations, trisomy, and methylation changes. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying this acquired survival advantage is crucial for safe hPSC-based cell therapies.

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Tissue regeneration after injury involves the dedifferentiation of somatic cells, a natural adaptive reprogramming that leads to the emergence of injury-responsive cells with fetal-like characteristics. However, there is no direct evidence that adaptive reprogramming involves a shared molecular mechanism with direct cellular reprogramming. Here, we induced dedifferentiation of intestinal epithelial cells using OSKM (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc) in vivo.

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Despite genetic perturbations resulting in embryo lethality for most mitotic kinases, loss of the histone H3 mitotic kinase HASPIN reveals no adverse effect in mice models, establishing HASPIN as a promising target for anticancer therapy. However, developing a HASPIN inhibitor from conventional pharmacophores poses a technical challenge as this atypical kinase shares slight similarities with eukaryotic protein kinases. Chemically modifying a cytotoxic 4'-thioadenosine analogue through high genotoxicity yielded several novel nongenotoxic kinase inhibitors.

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Genetic alterations have been reported for decades in most human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Survival advantage, a typical trait acquired during long-term in vitro culture, results from the induction of BCL2L1 upon frequent copy number variation (CNV) at locus 20q11.21 and is one of the strongest candidates associated with genetic alterations that occur via escape from mitotic stress.

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Article Synopsis
  • Onychomatricoma (OM) is a rare tumor that causes finger-like growths on nails and not much is known about how it forms.
  • Researchers studied two OM cases using special techniques to learn about the cells and genes involved in this condition.
  • They found that a group of genes related to a process called the Wnt pathway is overly active in OM, and onychofibroblasts are the main type of cell in the tumor's tissue.
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The nail unit and hair follicle are both hard keratin-producing organs that share various biological features. In this study, we used digital spatial profiling and single-cell RNA sequencing to define a spatially resolved expression profile of the human nail unit and hair follicle. Our approach showed the presence of a nail-specific mesenchymal population called onychofibroblasts within the onychodermis.

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Background: The requirement of the Mek1 inhibitor (iMek1) during naïve pluripotency maintenance results from the activation of the Mek1-Erk1/2 (Mek/Erk) signaling pathway upon leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) stimulation.

Methods: Through a meta-analysis of previous genome-wide screening for negative regulators of naïve pluripotency, Ptpn11 (encoding the Shp2 protein, which serves both as a tyrosine phosphatase and putative adapter), was predicted as one of the key factors for the negative modulation of naïve pluripotency through LIF-dependent Jak/Stat3 signaling. Using an isogenic pair of naïve and primed mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), we demonstrated the differential role of Shp2 in naïve and primed pluripotency.

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Article Synopsis
  • Using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) with genetic mutations, researchers faced challenges in comparing affected and control cells due to their differing genetic backgrounds.
  • To address this, the study created isogenic disease models of GNE myopathy by using base editing to introduce specific mutations in the GNE gene, allowing for more precise phenotypic analysis.
  • Findings showed that these mutations resulted in different patterns of hyposialylation and gene signature changes, which correlated with clinical symptoms, while a drug candidate demonstrated varied effectiveness based on the specific mutation present in the models.
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The development of anticancer drugs remains challenging owing to the potential for drug resistance. The simultaneous inhibition of multiple targets involved in cancer could overcome resistance, and these agents would exhibit higher potency than single-target inhibitors. Protein kinases represent a promising target for the development of anticancer agents.

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Research on human nail tissue has been limited by the restricted access to fresh specimen. Here, we studied transcriptome profiles of human nail units using polydactyly specimens. Single-cell RNAseq with 11,541 cells from 4 extra digits revealed nail-specific mesenchymal and epithelial cell populations, characterized by RSPO4 (major gene in congenital anonychia) and SPINK6, respectively.

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Serpin family E member 1 (SERPINE1), a serine proteinase inhibitor, serves as an important regulator of extracellular matrix remodeling. Emerging evidence suggests that SERPINE1 has diverse roles in cancer and is associated with poor prognosis. However, the mechanism via which SERPINE1 is induced in cancer has not been fully determined.

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The acquisition of chemoresistance remains a major cause of cancer mortality due to the limited accessibility of targeted or immune therapies. However, given that severe alterations of molecular features during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) lead to acquired chemoresistance, emerging studies have focused on identifying targetable drivers associated with acquired chemoresistance. Particularly, AXL, a key receptor tyrosine kinase that confers resistance against targets and chemotherapeutics, is highly expressed in mesenchymal cancer cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • Erastin is a synthetic compound that targets cancer cells with an oncogenic RAS mutation by inducing ferroptosis through inhibition of cystine/glutamate antiporters.
  • Researchers found that a redox imbalance in lung cancer cells depletes glutathione, leading to ferroptosis, and identified transcription factors like NRF2 and AhR as key markers for resistance to erastin.
  • Using an integrated gene expression model based on the nuclear receptor meta-pathway (NRM), the study suggests that this approach could help classify patients better for treatments with erastin across various cancer types.
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Despite the continual discovery of promising new cancer targets, drug discovery is often hampered by the poor druggability of these targets. As such, repurposing FDA-approved drugs based on cancer signatures is a useful alternative to cancer precision medicine. Here, we adopted an in silico approach based on large-scale gene expression signatures to identify drug candidates for lung cancer metastasis.

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We present 2 patients with chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (LE) associated with xanthomatized macrophages on light microscopic findings. Skin biopsies revealed hyperkeratotic and atrophic epidermis, vacuolar degeneration of the dermal-epidermal junction, thickened basement membrane, follicular plugging, and perivascular and perifollicular lymphohistiocytic infiltrate. Notably, large collections of lipid-laden histiocytes were observed within the subjacent dermis.

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Background: Syphilis is often misdiagnosed clinically, and biopsies might be required.

Objective: To determine histopathologic features that distinguish secondary syphilis from pityriasis lichenoides (PL), pityriasis rosea (PR), and early mycosis fungoides (MF).

Methods: Histopathologic features of 100 cases of syphilis, 110 cases of PL, 72 cases of PR, and 101 cases of MF were compared.

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Backgrounds: We previously demonstrated the presence of onychodermis below nail matrix and nail bed. Because nail matrix is a producer of nail plate, we hypothesized that onychodermis below nail matrix could be the nail counterpart of follicular dermal papilla. In this study, we sought to further characterize histologic, histochemical, and immunohistochemical features of nail matrix onychodermis.

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