Each year, people are diagnosed with over one hundred diseases that are classified as different types of cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States. In 1999 alone, over 1.2 million people were affected by cancer. Malignant tumors are most dangerous when they metastasize or spread throughout the body. This occurs when cancerous cells from a tumor enter the bloodstream and invade into tissues and organs. Recently, our laboratory found that inhibition of the Na,K pump results in increased intracellular sodium in kidney epithelial cells, which induces a signal transduction pathway leading to metastasis. Differential display screening revealed that one of the key players in this pathway is the MDM2 oncoprotein, which is responsible for degradation of p53, a tumor suppressor protein. The main goal of this research is to understand the significance of the induction of AMID upon inhibition of the sodium pump and to characterize the consequence of MDM2 overexpression in polarized kidney epithelial cells.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31CA093084-03
Application #
6655637
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-3 (20))
Program Officer
Bini, Alessandra M
Project Start
2002-09-12
Project End
Budget Start
2003-09-12
Budget End
2004-09-11
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$27,588
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
092530369
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
Espineda, Cromwell E; Chang, Jay H; Twiss, Jeffery et al. (2004) Repression of Na,K-ATPase beta1-subunit by the transcription factor snail in carcinoma. Mol Biol Cell 15:1364-73
Rajasekaran, Sigrid A; Gopal, Jegan; Espineda, Cromwell et al. (2004) HPAF-II, a cell culture model to study pancreatic epithelial cell structure and function. Pancreas 29:e77-83
Espineda, Cromwell; Seligson, David B; James Ball Jr, William et al. (2003) Analysis of the Na,K-ATPase alpha- and beta-subunit expression profiles of bladder cancer using tissue microarrays. Cancer 97:1859-68