Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Nprl2/Tusc4 Functions As A Tumor Suppressor By Regulating Brca1’S Stability Via The E3 Ubiquitination Pathway, Yang Peng

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Expression of the tumor suppressor protein BRCA1 is frequently lost in breast cancer patients, and the loss of its expression is associated with disruption of various critical functions in cells and cancer development. In the present study, we demonstrate through microarray analysis that cells with tumor suppressor candidate 4 (NPRL2/TUSC4) knockdown show critical changes to cell cycle, cell death pathways and a global impact on cancer development. More importantly, we observed a clear cluster pattern of NPRL2/TUSC4-knockdown gene profiles with established homologous recombination (HR) repair defect signature. Additionally, NPRL2/TUSC4 protein physically interacts with the E3 ligase HERC2 and prevents ubiquitin …

Imbalance Between Neutrophil Elastase And Elafin Promotes Breast Cancer Growth And Progression, Joseph Anthony Caruso

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Elafin, an endogenous serine protease inhibitor, is a critical component of the epithelial barrier against neutrophil elastase (NE) activity. The central hypothesis examined in this dissertation was that elafin has tumor suppressive properties in breast cancer. In support of this hypothesis, immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis revealed that elafin was downregulated in the majority of invasive breast tumors and a subset of pre-invasive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) compared to elafin expression in the normal mammary epithelium. To understand the role of elafin in the mammary epithelium and the impetus for its downregulation during breast tumorigenesis, primary and immortalized human mammary epithelial …

Targeting Breast Cancer With Bacteriophage Associated Silicon Particles, Srimeenakshi Srinivasan

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Nanoparticle based therapeutics have been successfully used in the treatment of breast cancer. Development of nanovectors targeted to cancer cells or elements in the tumor microenvironment has been pursued to improve their site specific accumulation while reducing the non-specific delivery to normal tissues. However, addition of targeting ligands to the surface of nanovectors while maintaining their payload carrying potential is generally challenging. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop surface decoration strategies that allow for effective combination of targeting and payload delivery to the tumor.

In this study, we propose a novel strategy for covering the surface of mesoporous …