Browsing by Author "Crooks, Peter"

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    Effects of the nicotinic agonist varenicline, nicotinic antagonist r-bPiDI, and DAT inhibitor R-modafinil on co-use of ethanol and nicotine in female P rats.
    (Springer, 2018-05) Maggio, Sarah E.; Saunders, Meredith A.; Baxter, Thomas A.; Nixon, Kimberly; Prendergast, Mark A.; Zheng, Guangrong; Crooks, Peter; Dwoskin, Linda P.; Slack, Rachel D.; Newman, Amy H.; Bell, Richard L.; Bardo, Michael T.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Rationale: Co-users of alcohol and nicotine are the largest group of polysubstance users worldwide. Commonalities in mechanisms of action for ethanol (EtOH) and nicotine proposes the possibility of developing a single pharmacotherapeutic to treat co-use. Objectives: Toward developing a preclinical model of co-use, female alcohol-preferring (P) rats were trained for voluntary EtOH drinking and i.v. nicotine self-administration in three phases: (1) EtOH alone (0 vs. 15%, 2-bottle choice); (2) nicotine alone (0.03 mg/kg/infusion, active vs. inactive lever); and (3) concurrent access to both EtOH and nicotine. Using this model, we examined the effects of (1) varenicline, a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) partial agonist with high affinity for the α4β2 subtype; (2) r-bPiDI, a subtype-selective antagonist at α6β2* nAChRs; and (3) (R)-modafinil, an atypical inhibitor of the dopamine transporter (DAT). Results: In Phases 1 and 2, pharmacologically relevant intake of EtOH and nicotine was achieved. In the concurrent access phase (Phase 3), EtOH consumption decreased while nicotine intake increased relative to Phases 1 and 2. For drug pretreatments, in the EtOH access phase (Phase 1), (R)-modafinil (100 mg/kg) decreased EtOH consumption, with no effect on water consumption. In the concurrent access phase, varenicline (3 mg/kg), r-bPiDI (20 mg/kg), and (R)-modafinil (100 mg/kg) decreased nicotine self-administration, but did not alter EtOH consumption, water consumption, or inactive lever pressing. Conclusions: These results indicate that therapeutics which may be useful for smoking cessation via selective inhibition of α4β2 or α6β2* nAChRs, or DAT inhibition, may not be sufficient to treat EtOH and nicotine co-use.
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    Organ-specific adaptive signaling pathway activation in metastatic breast cancer cells
    (Impact Journals, LLC, 2015-05-20) Burnett, Riesa M.; Craven, Kelly E.; Krishnamurthy, Purna; Goswami, Chirayu P.; Badve, Sunil; Crooks, Peter; Mathews, William P.; Bhat-Nakshatri, Poornima; Nakshatri, Harikrishna; Department of Surgery, IU School of Medicine
    Breast cancer metastasizes to bone, visceral organs, and/or brain depending on the subtype, which may involve activation of a host organ-specific signaling network in metastatic cells. To test this possibility, we determined gene expression patterns in MDA-MB-231 cells and its mammary fat pad tumor (TMD-231), lung-metastasis (LMD-231), bone-metastasis (BMD-231), adrenal-metastasis (ADMD-231) and brain-metastasis (231-BR) variants. When gene expression between metastases was compared, 231-BR cells showed the highest gene expression difference followed by ADMD-231, LMD-231, and BMD-231 cells. Neuronal transmembrane proteins SLITRK2, TMEM47, and LYPD1 were specifically overexpressed in 231-BR cells. Pathway-analyses revealed activation of signaling networks that would enable cancer cells to adapt to organs of metastasis such as drug detoxification/oxidative stress response/semaphorin neuronal pathway in 231-BR, Notch/orphan nuclear receptor signals involved in steroidogenesis in ADMD-231, acute phase response in LMD-231, and cytokine/hematopoietic stem cell signaling in BMD-231 cells. Only NF-κB signaling pathway activation was common to all except BMD-231 cells. We confirmed NF-κB activation in 231-BR and in a brain metastatic variant of 4T1 cells (4T1-BR). Dimethylaminoparthenolide inhibited NF-κB activity, LYPD1 expression, and proliferation of 231-BR and 4T1-BR cells. Thus, transcriptome change enabling adaptation to host organs is likely one of the mechanisms associated with organ-specific metastasis and could potentially be targeted therapeutically.
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    A water soluble parthenolide analogue suppresses in vivo tumor growth of two tobacco associated cancers, lung and bladder cancer, by targeting NF-κB and generating reactive oxygen species
    (Wiley, 2011-05-15) Shanmugam, Rajasubramaniam; Kusumanchi, Praveen; Appaiah, Hitesh; Cheng, Liang; Crooks, Peter; Neelakantan, Sundar; Peat, Tyler; Klaunig, James; Matthews, William; Nakshatri, Harikrishna; Sweeney, Christopher J
    Dimethylaminoparthenolide (DMAPT) is a water soluble parthenolide analogue with preclinical activity in hematologic malignancies. Using NSCLC cell lines (A549, H522) and an immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell line (BEAS2B) and TCC cell lines (UMUC-3, HT-1197, HT-1376) and a bladder papilloma (RT-4), we aimed to characterize DMAPT's anti-cancer activity in tobacco associated neoplasms. Flow cytometric, electrophorectic mobility gel shift assays (EMSA), and western blot studies measured generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), inhibition of NFκB DNA binding, and changes in cell cycle distribution and apoptotic proteins. DMAPT generated ROS with subsequent JNK activation and also decreased NFκB DNA binding and anti-apoptotic proteins, TRAF-2 and XIAP. DMAPT induced apoptotic cell death and altered cell cycle distribution with upregulation of p21 and p73 levels in a cell type dependent manner. DMAPT suppressed cyclin D1 in BEAS2B. DMAPT retained NFκB and cell cycle inhibitory activity in the presence of the tobacco carcinogen nitrosamine ketone, 4(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3–pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). Using a BrdU accumulation assay, 5 to 20μM of DMAPT was shown to inhibit cellular proliferation of all cell lines by more than 95%. Oral dosing of DMAPT suppressed in vivo A549 and UMUC-3 subcutaneous xenograft growth by 54% (p=0.015) and 63% (p<0.01) respectively and A549 lung metastatic volume by 28% (p=0.043). In total this data demonstrates DMAPT's novel anti-cancer properties in both early and late stage tobacco associated neoplasms as well as its significant in vivo activity. The data provides support for the conduct of clinical trials in TCC and NSCLC.