Publications by authors named "Shunji Yu"

Gastric cancer (GC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related death with limited serum biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis. Netrin-4 (Ntn4) is a laminin-related secreted molecule found to regulate tumor progression and metastasis. However, it is completely unknown whether Ntn4 has roles in GC development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adenosine, a metabolite of ATP, ubiquitously exists in a wide range of organs and tissues. We previously reported that adenosine was implicated in apoptosis in many cancer cells by extrinsic and/or intrinsic pathways. Here, we found that adenosine suppresses the cell growth by induction of apoptosis of human colonic cancer cells through a novel mechanism.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mitochondria are the most important sensor for apoptosis. Extracellular adenosine is well reported to induce apoptosis of tumor cells. Here we found that extracellular adenosine suppresses the cell growth by induction of apoptosis in BEL-7404 liver cancer cells, and identified a novel mechanism that extracellular adenosine triggers apoptosis by increasing Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) production and mitochondrial membrane dysfunction in the cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF