Haiquan Li

Publications (3)10.02 Total impact

• Article: APRIL Induces Tumorigenesis and Metastasis of Colorectal Cancer Cells via Activation of the PI3K/Akt Pathway.

  Guihua Wang, Feng Wang, Weifeng Ding, Jingchun Wang, Rongrong Jing, Haiquan Li, Xudong Wang, Yueguo Wang, Shaoqing Ju, Huimin Wang
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  ABSTRACT: A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) is highly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and cell lines. However, the biological functions and precise signals elicited by APRIL in CRC have not been fully understood. Here, we used small interfering RNA to selectively deplete APRIL and to determine its tumorigenic effects in a CRC cell line SW480 both in vitro and in vivo. Knockdown of APRIL in SW480 cells was associated with modulation of cell proliferation as well as reduction of cell migration and invasion in vitro. Moreover APRIL-knockdown SW480 cells displayed markedly inhibited tumor growth and decreased metastasis to the liver in immunodeficient mice upon subcutaneous injection. Importantly, we observed that downregulation of APRIL in SW480 cells resulted in greatly decreased activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway. In addition, we observed that recombinant human APRIL mediated activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway in CRC cells resulting in induced expression of important cell cycle proteins and matrix metalloproteinases in a PI3K/Akt dependent manner. This was concurrent with marked cell growth viability as well as increased cell migration and invasion. Together, these compelling data suggest that APRIL-induced tumorigenesis and metastasis of CRC cells may be accomplished through activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. These findings may lead to a better understanding of the biological effects of APRIL and may provide clues for identifying novel therapeutic and preventive molecular markers for CRC.
  PLoS ONE 01/2013; 8(1):e55298. · 4.09 Impact Factor
• Article: Simultaneous knockdown of APRIL via multiple shRNAs reduces the malignancy of SW480 cells.

  Haiquan Li, Keke Shao, Jingchun Wang, Guihua Wang, Jin Xu, Jinde Cao, Shaoqing Ju, Huimin Wang
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  ABSTRACT: A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) is a key factor involved in the tumor development and progression in some tumor tissues and cells. Its overexpression and as gene target in SW480 colon carcinoma cells was confirmed in our previous study. To seek a more potent way to treat colon carcinoma using a gene therapy method, herein, we constructed a multiple short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression vector containing four shRNAs against the APRIL gene in SW480 cells. APRIL expression levels and cell biological behavior were detected after transfection with different kinds of vectors. As expected, we found that our multiple shRNA vector produced a more significant knockdown effect of APRIL than the vectors containing only one APRIL shRNA. Furthermore, our findings indicate that silencing APRIL expression in SW480 cells decreased their malignancy by reducing proliferation, invasion and adhesion, as well as inducing apoptosis. Based on our findings, vectors containing multiple shRNAs to silence the expression of APRIL may be exploited as a novel therapeutic strategy for tumors.
  Oncology Reports 08/2012; 28(5):1613-8. · 1.84 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: PubMed Central

  Article: Emulsion PCR: a high efficient way of PCR amplification of random DNA libraries in aptamer selection.

  Keke Shao, Weifeng Ding, Feng Wang, Haiquan Li, Da Ma, Huimin Wang
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  ABSTRACT: Aptamers are short RNA or DNA oligonucleotides which can bind with different targets. Typically, they are selected from a large number of random DNA sequence libraries. The main strategy to obtain aptamers is systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). Low efficiency is one of the limitations for conventional PCR amplification of random DNA sequence library in aptamer selection because of relative low products and high by-products formation efficiency. Here, we developed emulsion PCR for aptamer selection. With this method, the by-products formation decreased tremendously to an undetectable level, while the products formation increased significantly. Our results indicated that by-products in conventional PCR amplification were from primer-product and product-product hybridization. In emulsion PCR, we can completely avoid the product-product hybridization and avoid the most of primer-product hybridization if the conditions were optimized. In addition, it also showed that the molecule ratio of template to compartment was crucial to by-product formation efficiency in emulsion PCR amplification. Furthermore, the concentration of the Taq DNA polymerase in the emulsion PCR mixture had a significant impact on product formation efficiency. So, the results of our study indicated that emulsion PCR could improve the efficiency of SELEX.
  PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(9):e24910. · 4.09 Impact Factor