Vino Cheryan

Wayne State University | WSU · School of Medicine

NF-κB is a pro-inflammatory transcription factor that critically regulates immune responses and other distinct cellular pathways. However, many NF-κB-mediated pathways for cell survival and apoptosis signaling in cancer remain to be elucidated. Cell cycle and apoptosis regulatory protein 1 (CARP-1 or CCAR1) is a perinuclear phospho-protein that reg...

Cell Cycle and Apoptosis Regulatory Protein (CARP-1/CCAR1) is a peri-nuclear phosphoprotein that regulates apoptosis via chemotherapeutic Adriamycin (doxorubicin) and a novel class of CARP-1 functional mimetic (CFM) compounds. Although Adriamycin causes DNA damage, data from Comet assays revealed that CFM-4.16 also induced DNA damage. Phosphorylati...

Drug resistance is one of the significant clinical burden in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The development of drug resistance is attributed to many factors, including impairment of apoptosis, elevation of carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX, a marker of tumor hypoxia), and infiltration of tumorigenic immune cells. To alleviate the drug resistance, we have u...

CCAR1/CARP-1 is a peri-nuclear phosphoprotein that regulates apoptosis signaling by breast cancer therapeutic Doxorubicin and a novel class of CARP-1 Functional Mimetic (CFM) compounds. Prior reports have established that Doxorubicin exposure causes DNA damage in cells. Phosphorylation of histone 2AX (often referred as γH2AX) protein is involved in...

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) contributes >90% of the most common form of kidney tumor and remains one of the ten leading causes of cancer death in the US. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors have increased therapeutic possibilities for treating RCC. Although the impact on disease progression is encour...

Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) account for 85% of all lung cancers, and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is highly expressed or activated in many NSCLC that permit use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as frontline therapies. Resistance to EGFR TKIs eventually develops that necessitates development of improved and effective...

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is very difficult to treat as the cells are mostly resistant to many current therapies. Therefore, newer treatments including better ways of drug delivery are urgently needed to fight this malignant disease efficiently. The ongoing work was done by generating and characterizing RCC cells that are resistant to everolimus,...

Current treatments for Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) include a combination of surgery, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. Emergence of resistant RCCs contributes to failure of drugs and poor prognosis, and thus warrants development of new and improved treatment options for RCCs. Here we generated and characterized RCC cells that are resistant to Eve...

Women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) have poor prognosis compared to other breast cancer subtypes. There were several reports indicating racial disparity in breast cancer outcomes between African American (AA) and European American (EA) women. For example, the mortality rates of AA breast cancer patients were three times higher than of E...

Doxorubicin and Cisplatin are the frontline therapeutics for treatment of the triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs). Emergence of drug-resistance often contributes to failure of drugs and poor prognosis, and thus necessitates development of new and improved modalities to treat TNBCs. We generated and characterized chemotherapy-resistant TNBC cells...

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant brain tumor of childhood. The transcription factor NF-κB is overexpressed in human MB and is a critical factor for MB tumor growth. NF-κB is known to regulate the expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8), the chemokine that enhances cancer cell growth and resistance to chemotherapy. We have recently shown...

Recent studies indicate that functional T-lymphocyte defects compromise anti-tumor responses in various cancers. It appears that tumors not only effectively bypassed the host immune system, but have also actively corrupted the host anti-tumor response via several distinct mechanisms. Cancer Immunotherapy has made significant strides in recent years...

Dietary intake and incidence of cancer are correlated, which suggests that modification of food habits can be of great benefit for cancer prevention and cure. Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of anticancer agents such as antioxidants and antimutagens and with the advent of vinca alkaloids, the search for novel anticancer compounds from plants...

The triple negative breast cancer (TNBCs) and non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) often acquire mutations that contribute to failure of drugs in clinic and poor prognosis, thus presenting an urgent need to develop new and improved therapeutic modalities. Here we report that CARP-1 functional mimetic (CFMs) compounds 4 and 5, and 4.6, a structurall...

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) studies have shown that neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery was effective in the minority of women, whereas the majority that had a residual tumor had a relatively poor outcome. We have previously shown that cisplatin plus TRAIL treatment was most effective compared to PARP -inhibitors, pacliotaxol, dacelota...

Targeted cancer therapy using small molecule inhibitors (SMIs) has been useful in targeting the tumor cells while sparing the normal cells. Despite clinical success of many targeted therapies, their off-target effects and development of resistance are emerging as significant and challenging problems. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify target...

Neuroblastomas (NBs) are a clinically heterogeneous group of extra cranial pediatric tumors. Patients with high-risk, metastatic NBs have a long-term survival rate of below 40%, and are often resistant to current therapeutic modalities. Due to toxic side effects associated with radiation and chemotherapies, development of new agents is warranted to...

Dithiocarbamate compound Disulfiram (DSF) that binds with copper and functions as an inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenase is a Food and Drug Administration approved agent for treatment of alcoholism. Copper complexed DSF (DSF-Cu) also possesses anti-tumor and chemosensitizing properties; however, its molecular mechanisms of action remain unclear. He...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an asbestos-related thoracic malignancy that is characterized by late metastases, and resistance to therapeutic modalities. The toxic side-effects of MPM therapies often limit their clinical effectiveness, thus necessitating development of new agents to effectively treat and manage this disease in clinic. CAR...

Rigorous efforts in searching for novel chemosensitizers and unraveling their molecular mechanism have identified curcumin as one of the promising candidates. Our earlier report has shown that cervical cancer cells can be sensitized by curcumin to paclitaxel-induced apoptosis through down-regulation of NF-κB and Akt. The present study is an attempt...

Medulloblastomas (MBs) constitute an aggressive class of intracranial pediatric tumors. Current multimodality treatments for MBs include surgery, ionizing radiation, and chemotherapy. Toxic side effects of therapies coupled with high incidence of recurrence and the metastatic spread warrant development of more effective, less toxic therapies for th...

List of CFM-4-regulated genes in Daoy MB cells. (XLSX)

Treatments of MB cells with purified, mature NTF3 (A) or purified, pro-NTF3 (B) does not inhibit MB cell growth. MB cells were either untreated (denoted as -), pre-treated with noted doses of NTF3 or pro-NTF3 for 12 h, in the absence or presence of respective CFMs as indicated. Determination of viable/live cells was carried out by MTT assay as in f...

Stable knock-down of NTF3 interferes with inhibitory effects of CFMs. (A) MB cells were transfected with vector or NTF3-AS clone 1 plasmids, and stable, neomycin-resistant sublines were isolated as in Methods. Cell lysates were analyzed by western blotting for levels of pro-NTF3 and actin proteins as in figure 6. (B, C). The indicated sublines were...

Expression of TrkC-like peptides in MB cells. (A) MB cells were either untreated (Control) or treated with noted doses of respective CFMs for 6 h. Staining of the cells was performed using anti-TrkC antibody (Santa Cruz, Biotech) as detailed in Methods. In panels B-D, cells were either untreated (Control) or treated with CFMs for indicated dose and...

3,5-Dihydroxy-4-isopropylstilbene is a natural phytoalexin and was first identified as bacterial secondary metabolites. The aim of this study is to investigate in vitro antioxidant and anticancer activity of 3,5-dihydroxy-4-isopropystilbene purified from the cell free culture filtrate of Bacillus sp. N strain associated with rhabditid entomopathoge...

Medulloblastomas (MBs) are an aggressive class of intracranial pediatric tumors. Current multimodality treatments for MBs include surgery, ionizing radiation, and chemotherapy. Toxic side effects of therapies coupled with high incidence of recurrence and the metastatic spread warrants development of more effective, less toxic therapies for this dis...

The molecular complexity of cancers and therapy-associated side effects often limit effectiveness of many therapies, and warrant development of new agents for specific molecular targets while minimizing the off-target effects. Thus, our goal is to develop novel, safer and effective anti-cancer therapies on the basis of cell growth and survival inhi...

[This corrects the article on p. e41214 in vol. 7.].

The medicinal plant Withania somnifera has been used for over centuries in Indian Ayurvedic Medicine to treat a wide spectrum of disorders. Withaferin A (WA), a bioactive compound that is isolated from this plant, has anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-cancer properties. Here we investigated malignant pleural mesothelio...

List of WA-regulated genes in H2373 MPM cells. (XLS)

The medicinal plant Withania somnifera has been used for over centuries in Indian Ayurvedic medicine to treat a wide spectrum of disorders. Withaferin A (WA), a bioactive compound that is isolated from this plant, has recently been found to have anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-cancer properties. Here we investigated...

Immune impairment is hypothesized to be one of the reasons for the dismal treatment response in oral cancers. This study evaluates the immune impairment in patients with primary squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and the effect of IL-2 administration on restoration of the immune responses. T-cell populations were enumerated by flow cytometr...

The synthesis and cytotoxic activity studies of a new series of cyclic amine containing benzoxazole and benzoxazolone derivatives are described. The 2-cyclic amine-1,3-benzoxazoles 5a–k, 5-chloro-3-(3-chloropropyl)-1,3-benzoxazol-2(3H)-one 8 and 3-[3-(cyclic amino)propyl]-1,3-benzoxazol-2(3H)-ones 9a–f were synthesized. The newly synthesized compou...

Paclitaxel is the most promising chemotherapeutic agent of plant origin despite its high cost and dose-limiting toxicity. Our earlier report has shown that cervical cancer cells can be sensitized by curcumin to paclitaxel-induced apoptosis through down-regulation of NF-κB and Akt. In the present study we have attempted to decipher the signaling pat...

Lung cancer is the most lethal cancer and almost 90% of lung cancer is due to cigarette smoking. Even though nicotine, one of the major ingredients of cigarette smoke and the causative agent for addiction, is not a carcinogen by itself, several investigators have shown that nicotine can induce cell proliferation and angiogenesis. We observed that t...

Thorium(IV) complexes with the Schiff base furan-2-carboxaldehyde4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (L) were synthesised and characterized. The composition and structure of the metal complexes were proposed based on elemental analysis, molar conductivity measurements, FTIR and 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The Schiff base behaves as a neutral bidentate ligand coo...

The ability of T-lymphocytes to recognize antigens and transduce signals to the nucleus successfully is a key component in the initiation and maintenance of an immune response. The present study addressed the expression status of the signal-transducing proteins in relation to the immune impairment in cervical cancer patients. Immune response was me...

We report mechanism-based evidence for the anticancer efficacy of a protein fraction, SF2 (Sesbania fraction 2) isolated from the flower of the medicinal plant, Sesbania grandiflora (S. grandiflora). The fraction was evaluated in two murine ascites tumour cell lines and human cancer cell lines of different origin for its anticancer effect. SF2 inhi...

Summary Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a unique cancer due to its etiology, and incidence and viral infection pattern. Radiotherapy (RT) is the main treatment modality and these lesions vary considerably in treatment response. In the present study, the effect of EBV and HPV infection on response to treatment based on the expression of DNA-repair...