Phd Degree / Doktora

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/2869

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  • Doctoral Thesis
    The Investigation of Anticancer Properties of (r)-4'-methylklavuzon in Liver Cancer Cells and Liver Cancer Stem Cells
    (Izmir Institute of Technology, 2017) Delman, Murat; Çağır, Ali; Erdal, Esra
    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most seen cancer type and the third leading cause of death from cancers. HCC is a fatal disease and HCC patients have a 5-year survival rate of 14%. Discovery and identification of mechanisms of action for new therapeutic agents are required for a better treatment of HCC. One of the most important target in cancer treatment is the epigenetic acetylation of histones. Histone deacetylases (HDAC) and sirtuins provide chromatin compaction and transcriptional repression by removing acetyl groups from histone proteins and nonhistone proteins. Re-acetylation of chromatin and re-expression of tumor suppressor genes with the discovery of novel HDAC and/or sirtuin inhibitors are therapeutic targets in cancer research. In this study, (R)-4’-methylklavuzon was found to be cytotoxic in HuH-7 cells with IC50 values of 1.25 μM for HuH-7 parental cells, 2.5 μM for EpCAM+/CD133+ HuH-7 cells and 1.25 μM for EpCAM-/CD133- HuH-7 cells. It was observed that (R)-4’-methylklavuzon causes cell cycle arrest at G1 phase at 1.00 μM concentration in three cell populations, it induces apoptosis at 10 μM concentration at the end of 24 hours incubation. (R)-4’-methylklavuzon does not inhibit Class I/II HDACs in vitro whereas it causes inhibition of endogenous HDACs and/or sirtuins inside the cells sorted by MACS and FACS at 0.10 μM concentration. (R)-4’-methylklavuzon upregulates p21 expression significantly in HuH-7 cell populations to cause G1 arrest. It causes 45% inhibition in p53/MDM2 complex formation when examined with pure p53 and MDM2 proteins. Drug candidate causes 46% SIRT1 inhibition at 100 μM concentration in vitro whereas there was no inhibition of HDAC1 enzyme at the same concentration. SIRT1 protein levels in HuH-7 parental cells were upregulated to 240% within 24 hours of incubation with 3.00 μM of drug candidate. It was found that (R)-4’-methylklavuzon can also inhibit CRM1 protein providing increased retention of tumor suppressor proteins in the nucleus. p53 was overexpressed at 0.10 and 1.00 μM concentrations within 6 and 24 hours in HepG2 cells but slightly overexpressed in HuH-7 parental cells.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Pre-Clinical Trial Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma on Cirrhosis in a Rat Model
    (İzmir Institute of Technology, 2017) Zeybek Kuyucu, Ayça; Şanlı Mohamed, Gülşah
    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. AKT pathway has been found activated in 50% of HCC cases, making it promising target. Therefore we assess efficacy of the allosteric AKT inhibitor or the combination of Sorafenib with AKT inhibitor compared to untreated control and to standard treatment, Sorafenib, in vitro and in vivo. AKT inhibitor blocked phosphorylation of AKT in vitro and strongly inhibited cell growth and migration with significantly higher potency than Sorafenib. Similarly, apoptotic cell was strongly increased by AKT inhibitor in vitro. To mimic human advanced HCC, we used diethylnitrosamine-induced cirrhotic rat model with fully developed HCC. MRI analyses showed that AKT inhibitor significantly reduced overall tumor size. Furthermore, number of tumors was decreased by AKT inhibitor, which was associated with increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation. Tumor contrast enhancement was significantly decreased in the AKT inhibitor group. Moreover, on tumor tissue sections, we observed a vascular normalization and a significant decrease in fibrosis in surrounding liver of animals treated with AKT inhibitor. Finally, pAKT/AKT levels in AKT inhibitor treated tumors were reduced, followed by down regulation of actors of AKT downstream signaling pathway: pmTOR, pPRAS40, pPLCγ1 and pS6K1. In conclusion, we demonstrated that AKT inhibitor blocks AKT phosphorylation in vitro and in vivo. In HCC-rat model, AKT inhibitor was well tolerated, showed anti-fibrotic effect and had stronger antitumor effect than Sorafenib. Our results confirm the importance of targeting AKT in HCC.