No description available.

No description available.

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / "The present study investigated the expression and function of IGF-1R, CXCR4 and CCR7, in metastatic MDA-MB-231 and non-metastatic MCF-7 cells." / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1295746 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, 2007

Title page, table of contents and summary only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / This thesis describes two studies, one in vitro and one in vivo, which show that Apo2L/TRAIL can prevent breast cancer-induced bone destruction, and highlight the potential of this ligand for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in bone. They also highlight the complexity of Apo2L/TRAIL signalling, and the need for further studies into this area to fully exploit the potential of Apo2L/TRAIL as an anti-cancer agent for breast and other cancers. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1283688 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2007

Title page, table of contents and summary only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / This thesis describes two studies, one in vitro and one in vivo, which show that Apo2L/TRAIL can prevent breast cancer-induced bone destruction, and highlight the potential of this ligand for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in bone. They also highlight the complexity of Apo2L/TRAIL signalling, and the need for further studies into this area to fully exploit the potential of Apo2L/TRAIL as an anti-cancer agent for breast and other cancers. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1283688 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2007

Anterior Gradient-2 protein (AGR2) has recently been linked to the onset of several pathologies including asthma and inflammatory bowel disease. Most interestingly, it has been discovered to influence the transformation of cells and metastatic growth essential to cancer development, and has subsequently been linked to the development of resistance to anti-cancer therapeutics. AGR2 protein is overexpressed in a diverse range of human cancer types, and has been detected secreted into the extracellular milieu. Thus, AGR2 protein represents a compelling pro-oncogenic signalling intermediate in tumour emergence and endurance. This thesis presents an interdisciplinary approach including structural biology, cell biology and synthetic biology, and clinical studies to shed more light on the role of AGR2 in cancer development. Synthetic cell based reagents were developed to define the dominant pathways that are reprogrammed in a cell as a result of AGR2 synthesis. A cell panel was engineered incorporating the AGR2 (and mutants thereof) allele into the AGR2-null A375 cell line. These tools were then coupled to quantitative proteomics (SILAC) to unravel the mechanism whereby introduction of AGR2 alters cell phenotype, allowing identification of dominant pathways affected by AGR2 signalling. Using pathway analysis tools, the dominant pathway suppressed by wt-AGR2 expression highlighted the p53-signalling axis. DNA damage induced p53 stabilisation and p21 induction by cisplatin treatment confirmed the influence of AGR2 gene expression. Further data analysis identified the outlying protein expression changes identified by SILAC was the anti-viral cell cycle regulator TSG101 (tumour susceptibility gene 101), and confirmed by immunoblotting. Transfection and silencing studies of TSG101 confirmed that TSG101 attenuates p53 function. These data provide a mechanism to explain the most dominant pathways reprogrammed by AGR2 expression, incorporating ER stress response, proliferation markers and p53 pathway attenuation. Further advances were made in analysis of the function, regulation, and drugability of AGR2 protein. Assays were devised to define the subunit structure of AGR2 as a dimer unit; subsequent functional studies defined intrinsically disordered motifs that regulate stability of the dimer. A two-site sandwich microtiter assay (2SMTA) was designed to screen for self-peptides and mutations that regulate oligomer stability. These assays were used to identify the first biochemical property of AGR2 being that the dimer unit is required for maximal binding to the AAA+ protein, and well characterised AGR2 interactor, Reptin. In addition, based on this dimeric structure, a novel solution based dimerisation assay was developed to identify natural products that are able to disrupt the dimer suggesting that AGR2 itself can be targeted in principle with small molecules for therapeutic purposes.

Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / Metastasis is a multi-step process during which cancer cells disseminate from the primary tumour and establish secondary tumours in distant sites. The mechanisms for organ-specific metastasis are poorly understood, although recent findings suggest the role of a number of chemokine receptors on various cancer cells such as breast CXCR4 as well as CCR7, are a protein-coupled chemokine receptor (apCR) that have proven to be of considerable biological significance, since their expression has been shown on various malignant breast cancer cell lines, tumours and metastases. In this study the expression and function of CXCR4 and CCR7 was examined in a range of human breast cancer cell lines covering a spectrum of malignant and non-malignant phenotypes. The data revealed that while surface levels of CXCR4 and CCR7 were uniform across the entire panel of breast cancer cell lines, only highly invasive cells, metastatic in immunocompromised mice, expressed functional chemokine receptors. Moreover, multiple signalling pathways downstream of a proteins in the highly invasive cells were found to be activated however chemokine treatment failed to activate any of the downstream kinase cascades examined in non-invasive cell lines. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, chemokine receptor function was demonstrated to be subject to complex and tightly-controlled regulation in epithelial breast cancer cells via differential a protein-receptor complex formation and that this regulation might significantly contribute to the transition from non-metastatic to malignant tumours. Finally, the role of CXCR4 and CCR7 during breast cancer metastasis was verified using a humanised breast cancer metastasis mouse modeL By modulating the expression of chemokine receptors using siRNA-mediated knockdown, metastasis of breast cancer cells to the lungs of SCID mice was dramatically inhibited. In summary, the data point to distinct molecular mechanisms of chemokine receptor activation used by transformed invasive breast epithelial cells which leads to the metastatic spread of these cancer cells to distant sites. Improved understanding of the role of chemokine receptor/ligand interaction in metastasis may lead to novel approaches in the treatment and management of breast cancer as well as other solid tumour malignancies. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1289342 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, 2007

No description available.

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the five leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the West, and this, largely, is due to metastatic disease. In order to better understand PDAC metastatic spread and identify novel therapeutic targets, we analysed the proteome of primary tumours and matched lymph node (LN) metastases. As frozen specimens of metastatic lesions are scarce, we examined formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Whilst such tissue is in routine diagnostic use, the cross-linkages induced by fixation have, in the past, precluded proteomic investigation for research purposes. Recent technological advances have, however, overcome this technical limitation. Using laser capture microdissection (P.A.L.M system), we isolated malignant epithelia from seven FFPE primary PDAC tumours and matched LN metastases. Following dissection, samples were analysed in duplicate using Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology (MudPIT); this resulted in the identification of 1504 proteins, 854 of which were common to all samples analysed. Comparison of the obtained proteins with data from previous proteomics studies on pancreatic tissue, pancreatic juice, serum and urine resulted in a less than 30 % overlap, indicating that our study has expanded the current database of proteins expressed in this malignancy substantially. Statistical analysis further showed that 115/854 proteins (13.5%) were significantly differentially expressed (g-value ≥ 3.8). Two proteins, S100P and 14-3-3 sigma, with highly significant g-values were confirmed to be significantly differentially expressed (S100P: p = 0.05 and 14-3-3 sigma: p < 0.001) 4 in a larger series of 55 cases of matched primary PDAC and LN metastases using immunohistochemistry. We chose to investigate further the roles of S100P in lymphatic invasion in vitro and in vivo. By co-culturing a Panc1 S100P-overexpressing clone (S5L), or a vector control clone (V3L), with human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLEC), we were able to show that different receptors mediate S5L adhesion to resting and activated HDLEC as opposed to V3L; and that the presence of S5L cells in these co-cultures significantly increased permeability at one (p = 0.02), four (p = 0.002) and eight (p = 0.007) hours post-seeding, and significantly increased translymphatic endothelial migration at 72 hours (p = 0.006). Using the V3L and S5L cell lines, which were transduced to express luciferase, we also created an orthotopic mouse model of PDAC, as well as experimental metastatic mouse models, in CD1 nude mice. These models were used to evaluate the effects of S100P on primary tumour growth, metastasis and site-specific growth. S100P was only found to significantly increase primary tumour growth in this model (n = 10 animals/group), both by bioluminescence (p = 0.002) and tumour weight (p = 0.01). No metastases (spontaneous and/or experimental) were seen however. Thus, this model can be used to evaluate the anti-tumour efficacy of novel therapies to S100P in the future.

In the present study, we characterized the ability of a novel oncolytic rhabdovirus - Maraba MG1 to boost Natural Killer (NK) cell activity. In tandem, we addressed the ability of this enhanced NK cell functionality to reduce the incidence of post-cancer surgery micrometastases. Due to the potential safety barriers associated with the use of a live virus immediately prior to surgery in cancer patients, we generated a single cycle replication virus (MG1-Gless) and UV-inactivated MG1 to stimulate NK cell function and reduce post-operative metastases. Our in vivo data demonstrate that significant NK cell activation and a similar level of reduction in postoperative tumor metastases was achieved with live MG1, MG1-Gless and UV-inactivated MG1, concluding that viral replication is important, but not necessary for NK cell activation. Mechanistically, we observed that dendritic cells (DCs) are necessary intermediates for MG1-induced NK cell activation. Finally, we characterized and compared a panel of UV-inactivated MG1 (2mins to 2hrs) to better understand the requirements for NK cell activation. Our results suggest that intact viral particle and cellular recognition and association are essential for NK cell mediated anti-tumor responses. These findings provide the preclinical rationale to develop safe and viable virotherapy-based interventional protocols that might reduce the risk of metastatic disease after cancer surgery.