Publications by authors named "Wen-Cai Ma"

Proteasome inhibitors have revolutionized outcomes in multiple myeloma, but they are used empirically, and primary and secondary resistance are emerging problems. We have identified TJP1 as a determinant of plasma cell proteasome inhibitor susceptibility. TJP1 suppressed expression of the catalytically active immunoproteasome subunits LMP7 and LMP2, decreased proteasome activity, and enhanced proteasome inhibitor sensitivity in vitro and in vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

It is of great importance to identify new cancer genes from the data of large scale genome screenings of gene mutations in cancers. Considering the alternations of some essential functions are indispensable for oncogenesis, we define them as cancer functions and select, as their approximations, a group of detailed functions in GO (Gene Ontology) highly enriched with known cancer genes. To evaluate the efficiency of using cancer functions as features to identify cancer genes, we define, in the screened genes, the known protein kinase cancer genes as gold standard positives and the other kinase genes as gold standard negatives.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumours. However, the existing functional knowledge about the proteins related to the breast cancer is too general to promote the following study. To find their finer functions, we suggest using the function-specific interaction sub-networks by integrating the functional knowledge of Gene Ontology and the protein-protein interaction network.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF