Physician’s Weekly: PCAT: an integrated portal for genomic and preclinical testing data of pediatric cancer patient-derived xenograft models.

August 20, 2020

Although cancer is the leading cause of disease-related mortality in children, the relative rarity of pediatric cancers poses a significant challenge for developing novel therapeutics to further improve prognosis. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, which are usually developed from high-risk tumors, are a useful platform to study molecular driver events, identify biomarkers and prioritize therapeutic agents.

Nature Communications: Structural basis of RNA cap modification by SARS-CoV-2

July 24, 2020

Thiruselvam Viswanathan, Shailee Arya, Siu-Hong Chan, Shan Qi, Nan Dai, Anurag Misra, Jun-Gyu Park, Fatai Oladunni, Dmytro Kovalskyy, Robert A. Hromas, Luis Martinez-Sobrido & Yogesh K. Gupta Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 3718 (2020) Abstract The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19 illness, has caused millions of infections worldwide. In […]

Oncotarget: Development and characterization of the novel human osteosarcoma cell line COS-33 with sustained activation of the mTOR pathway

July 7, 2020

Ashley VanCleave 1, Mykayla Palmer 1 2, Fang Fang 1, Haydee Torres 1 3, Tania Rodezno 1, Qilin Li 4, Kirby Fuglsby 1 5, Claire Evans 1, Yohannes Afeworki 6, Alan Ross 7, Pulivarthi Rao 8, Patricia Leiferman 9 10, Siyuan Zheng 4, Peter Houghton 4, Jianning Tao 1 3 5 10 Abstract Outcomes have not improved for metastatic osteosarcoma for several decades. In part, this failure to develop better therapies stems from a lack of understanding of osteosarcoma biology, given the rarity of the disease and the high genetic heterogeneity […]

BMC: Age-associated genes in human mammary gland drive human breast cancer progression

June 15, 2020

Xiang Gu, Bingzhi Wang, Haiyan Zhu, You Zhou, Aaron M. Horning, Tim H-M Huang, Yidong Chen, Peter Houghton, Zhao Lai, Joel E. Michalek & Lu-Zhe Sun Abstract Background Aging is a comorbidity of breast cancer suggesting that aging-associated transcriptome changes may promote breast cancer progression. However, the mechanism underlying the age effect on breast cancer remains poorly understood. Method We analyzed transcriptomics of the matched normal […]

Clinical Cancer Research: Evaluation of Eribulin Combined with Irinotecan for Treatment of Pediatric Cancer Xenografts

June 1, 2020

Andrew J. Robles, Raushan T. Kurmasheva, Abhik Bandyopadhyay, Doris A. Phelps, Stephen W. Erickson, Zhao Lai, Dias Kurmashev, Yidong Chen, Malcom A. Smith, and Peter J. Houghton Abstract Purpose: Vincristine combined with camptothecin derivatives showed synergy in preclinical pediatric cancer models, and the combinations are effective in the treatment of childhood solid tumors. We determined whether the synergy between vincristine and irinotecan extends to eribulin, another microtubule inhibitor. Experimental Design: Vincristine or eribulin, alone or […]

Springer: Prospective use of the single-mouse experimental design for the evaluation of PLX038A

January 11, 2020

Samson Ghilu, Qilin Li, Shaun D. Fontaine, Daniel V. Santi, Raushan T. Kurmasheva, Siyuan Zheng & Peter J. Houghton Abstract Purpose Defining robust criteria for drug activity in preclinical studies allows for fewer animals per treatment group, and potentially allows for the inclusion of additional cancer models that more accurately represent genetic diversity and, potentially, allows for tumor sensitivity biomarker identification. Methods […]

Technology News Network: Team Develop Drugs To Fight Leukemia and Lymphoma

December 9, 2019

UT Health San Antonio researchers, working with collaborators at the University of Florida, have discovered a safe and potent next generation of drugs to fight multiple types of leukemia and lymphoma in adults and children. The journal Nature Medicine reported the findings Dec. 2. “This is a new class of drugs called PROTACs that target […]