Multi-ancestry genome-wide meta-analysis of 56,241 individuals identifies LRRC4C, LHX5-AS1 and nominates ancestry-specific loci PTPRK , GRB14 , and KIAA0825 as novel risk loci for Alzheimer's disease: the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium.

Limited ancestral diversity has impaired our ability to detect risk variants more prevalent in non-European ancestry groups in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We constructed and analyzed a multi-ancestry GWAS dataset in the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Genetics Consortium (ADGC) to test for novel shared and ancestry-specific AD susceptibility loci and evaluate underlying genetic architecture in 37,382 non-Hispanic White (NHW), 6,728 African American, 8,899 Hispanic (HIS), and 3,232 East Asian individuals, performing within-ancestry fixed-effects meta-analysis followed by a cross-ancestry random-effects meta-analysis. We identified 13 loci with cross-ancestry associations including known loci at/near CR1 , BIN1 , TREM2 , CD2AP , PTK2B , CLU , SHARPIN , MS4A6A , PICALM , ABCA7 , APOE and two novel loci not previously reported at 11p12 ( LRRC4C ) and 12q24.13 ( LHX5-AS1 ). Reflecting the power of diverse ancestry in GWAS, we observed the SHARPIN locus using 7.1% the sample size of the original discovering single-ancestry GWAS (n=788,989). We additionally identified three GWS ancestry-specific loci at/near ( PTPRK ( P =2.4×10 -8 ) and GRB14 ( P =1.7×10 -8 ) in HIS), and KIAA0825 ( P =2.9×10 -8 in NHW). Pathway analysis implicated multiple amyloid regulation pathways (strongest with P adjusted =1.6×10 -4 ) and the classical complement pathway ( P adjusted =1.3×10 -3 ). Genes at/near our novel loci have known roles in neuronal development ( LRRC4C, LHX5-AS1 , and PTPRK ) and insulin receptor activity regulation ( GRB14 ). These findings provide compelling support for using traditionally-underrepresented populations for gene discovery, even with smaller sample sizes.

Helenalin-induced apoptosis is dependent on production of reactive oxygen species and independent of induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress in renal cell carcinoma.

Helenalin, a sesquiterpene lactone, exhibits anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities. Here, we investigated whether helenalin could induce apoptosis in human renal carcinoma Caki cells. Helenalin increased apoptosis in dose dependent manner in Caki cells, and also induced apoptosis in other carcinoma cells, such as human renal carcinoma ACHN cells, human colon carcinoma HT29 and HCT116 cells. We found that helenalin markedly induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related genes, such as regulated in development and DNA damage responses (REDD) 1, activating transcription factor-4 (ATF4) and/or the CCAAT enhancer-binding protein-homologous protein (CHOP). However, down-regulation of ATF4 and/or CHOP expression by siRNA had no effect on helenalin-induced apoptosis in Caki and HCT116 cells. Helenalin increased production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, ROS scavengers, N-acetylcystine (NAC), and glutathione ethyl ester (GEE), reduced helenalin-induced apoptosis. Taken together, helenalin induced apoptosis via ROS generation in human renal carcinoma Caki cells.

Rottlerin induces apoptosis of HT29 colon carcinoma cells through NAG-1 upregulation via an ERK and p38 MAPK-dependent and PKC δ-independent mechanism.

Rottlerin, a selective inhibitor of novel isoforms of protein kinase C δ (PKC δ), has been shown to exert multiple effects on cancer cells, including inhibition of cell proliferation and migration. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for these effects are not fully understood. We found that rottlerin dramatically induced non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug activated gene-1 (NAG-1) expression in both p53 wild-type and p53-null cancer cell lines, suggesting that NAG-1 upregulation is a common response to rottlerin that occurs independently of p53 in multiple cell lines. Although rottlerin is known to inhibit PKC δ, PKC δ siRNA and overexpression of dominant-negative (DN)-PKC δ did not affect rottlerin-mediated induction of NAG-1. These results suggest that rottlerin induces NAG-1 upregulation via a PKC δ-independent pathway. We also observed that CHOP protein levels were significantly increased by rottlerin, but CHOP siRNA did not affect rottlerin-induced NAG-1 expression. In addition, we demonstrated the involvement of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) signal transduction pathway in rottlerin-induced NAG-1 expression. Inhibitors of MEK (PD98059) and p38 MAP kinase (SB203580) prevented rottlerin-induced NAG-1 expression. Furthermore, we found that down-regulation of NAG-1 attenuated rottlerin-induced apoptosis. Collectively, the results of this study demonstrate, for the first time, that upregulation of NAG-1 contributes to rottlerin-induced apoptosis in cancer cells.