Browsing by Author "Tai, Ming-Hong"

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Extracellular Visfatin-Promoted Malignant Behavior in Breast Cancer Is Mediated Through c-Abl and STAT3 Activation
(2016-09-01)
Hung, Amos C.
;
Lo, Steven
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Hou, Ming-Feng
;
Lee, Yi-Chen
;
Tsai, Chun-Hao
Purpose: Visfatin is an adipocytokine involved in cellular metabolism, inflammation, and cancer. This study investigated the roles of extracellular visfatin in breast cancer, and explored underlying mechanisms in clinical and experimental settings. Experimental Design: Associations of serum visfatin with clinicopathologic characteristics and patient survival were assessed with Cox regression models and Kaplan-Meier analyses. Effects of extracellular visfatin on cultured breast cancer cells were examined, followed by in vivo investigation of tumor growth and metastasis in xenograft animal models. Imatinib and Stattic were used to inhibit c-Abl and STAT3 activation, respectively. Results: Breast cancer patients with high serum visfatin levels were associated with advanced tumor stage, increased tumor size and lymph node metastasis, and poor survival. Elevated phosphorylation of c-Abl and STAT3 in breast tumor tissues were correlated with high serum visfatin levels in patients. Visfatinpromoted in vitro cell viability and metastatic capability were suppressed by imatinib ( c-Abl inhibitor) and Stattic ( STAT3 inhibitor). Increased in vivo cell invasiveness was observed in zebrafish xenografted with visfatin-pretreated breast cancer cells. Tumor growth and lung metastasis occurred in visfatin-administered mice xenografted with breast cancer cells. Tail vein-injected mice with visfatin-pretreated breast cancer cells showed increased lung metastasis, which was suppressed by imatinib. Conclusions: Serum visfatin levels in breast cancer patients reveal potential prognostic values, and our findings that visfatin promoted breast cancer through activation of c-Abl and STAT3 may provide an important molecular basis for future design of targeted therapies that take into account different serum visfatin levels in breast cancer. (C) 2016 AACR.
Functional Production of a Soluble and Secreted Single-Chain Antibody by a Bacterial Secretion System
(2014-05-13)
Cheng, Chiu-Min
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Tzou, Shey-Cherng
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Zhuang, Ya-Han
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Huang, Chien-Chiao
;
Kao, Chien-Han
Single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) serve as an alternative to full-length monoclonal antibodies used in research and therapeutic and diagnostic applications. However, when recombinant scFvs are overexpressed in bacteria, they often form inclusion bodies and exhibit loss of function. To overcome this problem, we developed an scFv secretion system in which scFv was fused with osmotically inducible protein Y (osmY), a bacterial secretory carrier protein, for efficient protein secretion. Anti-EGFR scFv (alpha EGFR) was fused with osmY (N- and C-termini) and periplasmic leader sequence (pelB) to generate alpha EGFR-osmY, osmY-alpha EGFR, and pelB-alpha EGFR (control), respectively. In comparison with the control, both the osmY-fused alpha EGFR scFvs were soluble and secreted into the LB medium. Furthermore, the yield of soluble alpha EGFR-osmY was 20-fold higher, and the amount of secreted protein was 250-fold higher than that of osmY-alpha EGFR. In addition, the antigenbinding activity of both the osmY-fused alpha EGFRs was 2-fold higher than that of the refolded pelB-alpha EGFR from inclusion bodies. Similar results were observed with alpha TAG72-osmY and alpha Her2-osmY. These results suggest that the N-terminus of osmY fused with scFv produces a high yield of soluble, functional, and secreted scFv, and the osmY-based bacterial secretion system may be used for the large-scale industrial production of low-cost alpha EGFRprotein.