Browsing by Author "Shee, Kevin"

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    Alpha-synuclein (SNCA) polymorphisms exert protective effects on memory after mild traumatic brain injury
    (Elsevier, 2016-09-06) Shee, Kevin; Lucas, Alexandra; Flashman, Laura A.; Nho, Kwangsik; Tsongalis, Gregory J.; McDonald, Brenna C.; Saykin, Andrew J.; McAllister, Thomas W.; Rhodes, C. Harker; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Problems with attention and short-term learning and memory are commonly reported after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Due to the known relationships between α-synuclein (SNCA), dopaminergic transmission, and neurologic deficits, we hypothesized that SNCA polymorphisms might be associated with cognitive outcome after mTBI. A cohort of 91 mTBI patients one month after injury and 86 healthy controls completed a series of cognitive tests assessing baseline intellectual function, attentional function, and memory, and was genotyped at 13 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SNCA gene. Significant differences in two memory measures (p = 0.001 and 0.002), but not baseline intellectual function or attentional function tasks, were found between the mTBI group and controls. A highly significant protective association between memory performance and SNCA promoter SNP rs1372525 was observed in the mTBI patients (p = 0.006 and 0.029 for the long and short delay conditions of the California Verbal Learning Tests, respectively), where the presence of at least one copy of the A (minor) allele was protective after mTBI. These results may help elucidate the pathophysiology of cognitive alterations after mTBI, and thus warrant further investigation.
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    The curcumin analog HO-3867 selectively kills cancer cells by converting mutant p53 protein to transcriptionally active wildtype p53
    (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2018-03-23) Madan, Esha; Parker, Taylor M.; Bauer, Matthias R.; Dhiman, Alisha; Pelham, Christopher J.; Nagane, Masaki; Kuppusamy, M. Lakshmi; Holmes, Matti; Holmes, Thomas R.; Shaik, Kranti; Shee, Kevin; Kiparoidze, Salome; Smith, Sean D.; Park, Yu-Soon A.; Gomm, Jennifer J.; Jones, Louise J.; Tomás, Ana R.; Cunha, Ana C.; Selvendiran, Karuppaiyah; Hansen, Laura A.; Fersht, Alan R.; Hideg, Kálmán; Gogna, Rajan; Kuppusamy, Periannan; Surgery, School of Medicine
    p53 is an important tumor-suppressor protein that is mutated in more than 50% of cancers. Strategies for restoring normal p53 function are complicated by the oncogenic properties of mutant p53 and have not met with clinical success. To counteract mutant p53 activity, a variety of drugs with the potential to reconvert mutant p53 to an active wildtype form have been developed. However, these drugs are associated with various negative effects such as cellular toxicity, nonspecific binding to other proteins, and inability to induce a wildtype p53 response in cancer tissue. Here, we report on the effects of a curcumin analog, HO-3867, on p53 activity in cancer cells from different origins. We found that HO-3867 covalently binds to mutant p53, initiates a wildtype p53-like anticancer genetic response, is exclusively cytotoxic toward cancer cells, and exhibits high anticancer efficacy in tumor models. In conclusion, HO-3867 is a p53 mutant-reactivating drug with high clinical anticancer potential.