Sphingosylphosphorylcholine in cancer progress.

Sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC) is a naturally occurring bioactive sphingolipid in blood plasma, metabolizing from the hydrolysis of the membrane sphingolipid. It has been shown to exert multifunctional role in cell physiological regulation either as an intracellular second messenger or as an extracellular agent through G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Because of elevated levels of SPC in malicious ascites of patients with cancer, the role of SPC in tumor progression has prompted wide interest.

Finding ATF4/p75NTR/IL-8 signal pathway in endothelial-mesenchymal transition by safrole oxide.

Targeting the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) may be a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer and various diseases induced by fibrosis. We aimed to identify a small chemical molecule as an inducer of EndoMT and find a new signal pathway by using the inducer. Safrole oxide (SFO), 50 µg/ml, could most effectively induce EndoMT within 12 h.

Regulation of apoptosis and autophagy by sphingosylphosphorylcholine in vascular endothelial cells.

Sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC), an important cardiovascular mediator derived from sphingomyelin that has atheroprotective effects via actions on vascular endothelial cells (VECs) at normal levels in vivo. However, the underlying mechanism is not well known. To clarify this question, we first investigated the effect of SPC on VEC apoptosis and autophagy induced by deprivation of serum and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2).

[Applications of chemical genetics in biomedical research].

Chemical genetics is the science which takes the small molecular compounds as tools to solve the genetics problems or to disturb/adjust normal biological process so as to find out protein functions. Because the small molecules have the diverse chemical characters and the ability to identify the target proteins, they also can be filtrated on the basis of phenotype. So the methods of chemical genetics have been applied in almost all of the researches on biology and medicine.