Browsing by Author "Diaz, Jorge"

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    A characterization of cancer vasculogenic mimicry: Extracellular matrix induced cellular signaling to lumen formation.
    (AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH, 2021) Mingo, Gabriel; Valdivia, Andres; Aldana, Varina; Pradenas, Javiera; Babbitt, Nicole; Gonzalez, Pamela; Nualart, Francisco; Diaz, Jorge; Leyton, Lisette; Bertocchi, Cristina; Owen, Gareth
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    MUSCLE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING AND HISTOPATHOLOGY IN ACTA1-RELATED CONGENITAL NEMALINE MYOPATHY
    (2014) Castiglioni, Claudia; Cassandrini, Denis; Fattori, Fabiana; Bellacchio, Emanuele; D'Amico, Adele; Alvarez, Karin; Gejman Enríquez, Roger; Diaz, Jorge; Santorelli, Filippo M.; Romero, Norma B.; Bertini, Enrico; Bevilacqua, Jorge A.
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    Progesterone promotes focal adhesion formation and migration in breast cancer cells through induction of protease-activated receptor-1
    (BIOSCIENTIFICA LTD, 2012) Diaz, Jorge; Aranda, Evelyn; Henriquez, Soledad; Quezada, Marisol; Espinoza, Estefania; Loreto Bravo, Maria; Oliva, Barbara; Lange, Soledad; Villalon, Manuel; Jones, Marius; Brosens, Jan J.; Kato, Sumie; Cuello, Mauricio A.; Knutson, Todd P.; Lange, Carol A.; Leyton, Lisette; Owen, Gareth I.
    Progesterone and progestins have been demonstrated to enhance breast cancer cell migration, although the mechanisms are still not fully understood. The protease-activated receptors (PARs) are a family of membrane receptors that are activated by serine proteases in the blood coagulation cascade. PAR1 (F2R) has been reported to be involved in cancer cell migration and overexpressed in breast cancer. We herein demonstrate that PAR1 mRNA and protein are upregulated by progesterone treatment of the breast cancer cell lines ZR-75 and T47D. This regulation is dependent on the progesterone receptor (PR) but does not require PR phosphorylation at serine 294 or the PR proline-rich region mPRO. The increase in PAR1 mRNA was transient, being present at 3 h and returning to basal levels at 18 h. The addition of a PAR1-activating peptide (aPAR1) to cells treated with progesterone resulted in an increase in focal adhesion (FA) formation as measured by the cellular levels of phosphorylated FA kinase. The combined but not individual treatment of progesterone and aPAR1 also markedly increased stress fiber formation and the migratory capacity of breast cancer cells. In agreement with in vitro findings, data mining from the Oncomine platform revealed that PAR1 expression was significantly upregulated in PR-positive breast tumors. Our observation that PAR1 expression and signal transduction are modulated by progesterone provides new insight into how the progestin component in hormone therapies increases the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Journal of Endocrinology (2012) 214, 165-175
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    Targeting antisense mitochondrial ncRNAs inhibits murine melanoma tumor growth and metastasis through reduction in survival and invasion factors
    (IMPACT JOURNALS LLC, 2016) Lobos Gonzalez, Lorena; Silva, Veronica; Araya, Mariela; Restovic, Franko; Echenique, Javiera; Oliveira Cruz, Luciana; Fitzpatrick, Christopher; Briones, Macarena; Villegas, Jaime; Villota, Claudio; Vidaurre, Soledad; Borgna, Vincenzo; Socias, Miguel; Valenzuela, Sebastian; Lopez, Constanza; Socias, Teresa; Varas, Manuel; Diaz, Jorge; Burzio, Luis O.; Burzio, Veronica A.
    We reported that knockdown of the antisense noncoding mitochondrial RNAs (ASncmtRNAs) induces apoptotic death of several human tumor cell lines, but not normal cells, suggesting this approach for selective therapy against different types of cancer. In order to translate these results to a preclinical scenario, we characterized the murine noncoding mitochondrial RNAs (ncmtRNAs) and performed in vivo knockdown in syngeneic murine melanoma models. Mouse ncmtRNAs display structures similar to the human counterparts, including long double-stranded regions arising from the presence of inverted repeats. Knockdown of ASncmtRNAs with specific antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) reduces murine melanoma B16F10 cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in vitro through downregulation of pro-survival and metastasis markers, particularly survivin. For in vivo studies, subcutaneous B16F10 melanoma tumors in C57BL/6 mice were treated systemically with specific and control antisense oligonucleotides (ASO). For metastasis studies, tumors were resected, followed by systemic administration of ASOs and the presence of metastatic nodules in lungs and liver was assessed. Treatment with specific ASO inhibited tumor growth and metastasis after primary tumor resection. In a metastasis-only assay, mice inoculated intravenously with cells and treated with the same ASO displayed reduced number and size of melanoma nodules in the lungs, compared to controls. Our results suggest that ASncmtRNAs could be potent targets for melanoma therapy. To our knowledge, the ASncmtRNAs are the first potential non-nuclear targets for melanoma therapy.