NSAIDs: Painkillers, inflammation inhibitors, anti-cancer drugs and new de-methylating agents
The research team, led by Wen-Chun Hung, Dean of College of Science, National Sun Yat-Sen University, and a recent doctorial graduate Mei-Ren Pan and two collaborators Hui-Chiu Chang and Lea-Yea Chuang of Kaohsiung Medical University found that NSAIDs up-regulated several anti-metastatic genes including secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), thrombospindin-1 (TSP-1), TSP-3 and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2) in human lung cancer cells. “Our functional assay suggested that increases of SPARC and other anti-metastatic genes were important for NSAIDs to inhibit tumor invasion and metastasis” said Wen-Chun Hung. “More importantly, we elucidated the underlying mechanism and demonstrated that up-regulation of SPARC in human lung cancer cells was mediated via inhibition of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) expression and promoter de-methylation. This is the first report to show that NSAIDs may inhibit the expression of DNMTs to reverse promoter methylation and to reactivate gene transcription.”
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