Liqian Ma

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | UIUC · Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology

Oxysterols are derivatives of cholesterol and an important regulator of cholesterol metabolism, in part due to their role as ligands for nuclear receptors, such as the liver x receptors. Oxysterols are also known to be ligands for the RAR-related orphan receptors, involved in normal T cell differentiation. However, increasing evidence supports a ro...

Breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in the US. Elevated cholesterol is a major risk factor for breast cancer onset and recurrence, while cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, are associated with a good prognosis. Previous work in murine models showed that cholesterol increases breast cancer metastasis, and the...

Cholesterol has been implicated in the pathophysiology and progression of several cancers now, although the mechanisms by which it influences cancer biology are just emerging. Two likely contributing mechanisms are the ability for cholesterol to directly regulate signaling molecules within the membrane, and certain metabolites acting as signaling m...

The primary purpose of our work was to characterize the effects of the nuclear receptor TLX (NR2E1) in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in order to evaluate its potential therapeutic value in a subtype of breast cancer that has proven particularly challenging to treat, primarily due to the lack of targeted modes of intervention. Unfortunately,...

Cholesterol has been implicated in the clinical progression of breast cancer, a disease that continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Previous work has identified the cholesterol metabolite, 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC), as a major mediator of the effects of cholesterol on breast tumor growth and progression. 27HC can act as an...

Despite the development of various therapeutic strategies, breast cancer persists as the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the United States. While endocrine modulation and monoclonal antibody therapy have proved to be indispensable modes of intervention for hormone receptor (HR)-positive and HER-2 positive patients, the t...

Metastatic estrogen receptor α (ERα) positive breast cancer is presently incurable and most patients die within 7 years. From a medicinal chemistry program, we identified a novel small molecule that acts through ERα to kill breast cancer cells and often induces complete regression without recurrence of large, therapy-resistant primary breast tumors...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is challenging to treat successfully because targeted therapies do not exist. Instead, systemic therapy is typically restricted to cytotoxic chemotherapy, which fails more often in patients with elevated circulating cholesterol. Liver x receptors are ligand-dependent transcription factors that are homeostatic re...

Breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in the US. Elevated cholesterol is a major risk factor for breast cancer onset and recurrence, while cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, are associated with a good prognosis. Previous work in murine models showed that cholesterol increases breast cancer metastasis, and the...

There is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic or lifestyle strategies for treating ovarian cancer due to its high mortality and recurrence rate. In this regard, we found that cholesterol appears to be clinically important for ovarian cancer survival, highlighting it and its metabolism as potential therapeutic targets for improving the lifespan...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is challenging to treat successfully because targeted therapies do not exist. Instead, systemic therapy is typically restricted to cytotoxic chemotherapy, which fails more often in patients with elevated circulating cholesterol. Liver x receptors are ligand-dependent transcription factors that are homeostatic re...

Immune checkpoint blockade has had underwhelming responses in breast cancer, in part due to the highly immune suppressive microenvironment. As a result, breast cancer continues to be the second most common cancer-related mortality amongst women, providing strong rationale for the development of new therapeutic approaches. Elevated circulating chole...

Metastatic estrogen receptor α (ERα) positive breast cancer is presently incurable and most patients die within 7 years. From a medicinal chemistry program, we identified a novel small molecule that acts through ERα to kill breast cancer cells and often induces complete regression without recurrence of large, therapy-resistant primary breast tumors...

Elevated cholesterol has been identified as a major risk factor of breast cancer onset and recurrence, while cholesterol-lowering drugs are associated with a good prognosis. Previous work in murine models has found that cholesterol increases breast cancer metastasis. However, the prometastatic effects of cholesterol were due to its primary metaboli...

Breast cancer continues to be the second most common cancer-related mortality among women, providing strong rationale for the development of new therapeutic approaches. Cholesterol and its metabolism have been implicated in the progression of breast cancer. Specifically, elevated circulating cholesterol is a poor prognostic, while patients taking c...

Ovarian cancer continues to have a high mortality and recurrence rate. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic or lifestyle strategies. In this regard, epidemiologic studies have implicated elevated cholesterol as a negative prognostic factor. Conversely, ovarian cancer patients prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs (HMGCoA-R inhi...

It has become clear that cholesterol metabolism and homeostasis play significant roles in the progression of breast cancer. Specifically, elevated circulating cholesterol is a poor prognostic, while patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins display increased recurrence-free survival time. Preclinical and clinical work has establish...

Breast cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, with the majority of mortality being associated with the metastatic spread of this disease. In terms of onset, genetic drivers such as mutations in BCR1/2 account for only ~10% of all cases. Thus, environmental factors, including the diet are significant contributors to b...

Breast cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, with the majority of mortality being associated with the metastatic spread of this disease. In terms of onset, genetic drivers such as mutations in BCR1/2 account for only ~10% of all cases. Thus, environmental factors, including the diet are significant contributors to b...

The involvement of Small Heterodimer Partner (SHP) in the inhibition of hepatic bile acid synthesis from cholesterol has been established. However, extrahepatic expression of SHP implies that SHP may have regulatory functions other than those in the liver. Here, we find that SHP mRNA expression is high in murine bone marrow cells, suggesting a phys...

There is an urgent need for more effective strategies to treat ovarian cancer. Elevated cholesterol levels are associated with a decreased progression free survival time (PFS) while statins are protective. 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC), a primary metabolite of cholesterol has been shown to modulate the activities of the estrogen receptors (ERs) and...

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and among the leading causes of death among women in the United States. Our previous work has found that a metabolite of cholesterol, 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC) promotes breast cancer metastasis in preclinical models. 27HC is a ligand of both the estrogen receptor (ER) and liver X receptor (LXR)...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism by which the cholesterol metabolite, 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC) promotes breast cancer metastasis. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and among the leading causes of death in women in the United States. Elevated cholesterol is identified as a major risk factor of breast ca...

Ovarian cancer continues to have a high mortality and recurrence rate. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic or lifestyle strategies. In this regard, epidemiological studies have implicated elevated cholesterol as a negative prognostic factor. Conversely, ovarian cancer patients prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs (HMGCoA-R in...