K-FGF mediated transformation and induction of metastatic potential involves altered ornithine decarboxylase and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase expression--role in cellular invasion

N-ω-chloroacetyl-l-ornithine, a new competitive inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, induces selective growth inhibition and cytotoxicity on human cancer cells versus normal cells

Many cancer cells have high expression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and there is a concerted effort to seek new inhibitors of this enzyme. The aim of the study was to initially characterize the inhibition properties, then to evaluate the cytotoxicity/antiproliferative cell based activity of N-ω-chloroacetyl-l-ornithine (NCAO) on three human cancer cell lines. Results showed NCAO to be a reversible competitive ODC inhibitor (Ki = 59 µM) with cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects, which were concentration- and time-dependent. The EC50,72h of NCAO was 15.8, 17.5 and 10.1 µM for HeLa, MCF-7 and HepG2 cells, respectively. NCAO at 500 µM completely inhibited growth of all cancer cells at 48 h treatment, with almost no effect on normal cells. Putrescine reversed NCAO effects on MCF-7 and HeLa cells, indicating that this antiproliferative activity is due to ODC inhibition.

Ornithine decarboxylase: a promising and exploratory candidate target for natural products in cancer chemoprevention

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the first enzyme in the polyamine biosynthesis, plays an important role in tumor progression, cell proliferation and differentiation. In recent years, ODC has been the subject of intense study among researchers, as a target for anti-cancer therapy and specific inhibitory agents, have the potential to suppress carcinogenesis and find applications in clinical therapy. In particular, it is suggested that ODC is a promising candidate target for natural products in cancer chemoprevention. Future exploration of ornithine decarboxylase inhibitors present in nature may offer great hope for finding new cancer chemopreventive agents.

Expression profiling of mouse endometrial cancers microdissected from ethanol-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues

Expression-profiling studies have helped define genetic changes associated with carcinogenesis. Determining which alterations in gene expression are causally associated with cancer and which result from the general dysregulation in gene expression that is characteristic of malignancies remains a problem. Transcriptional profiling of early lesions (small cancers or precancers) holds promise for identifying biologically important changes in gene expression. There are, however, technical barriers to the study of small tumors. The total number of cells available for analysis is limiting. It is also often difficult to distinguish cancer cells from normal proliferating cells in frozen sections that are typically used as a source of RNA. Here we describe an ethanol fixation and paraffin-embedding protocol that preserves tissue architecture and cellular morphology of the mouse endometrium, and allows for the recovery of high-quality RNA from microdissected cells. We performed GeneChip expression profiling using RNA from 800 to 4400 cells microdissected from ethanol-fixed, paraffin-embedded uteri. Endometrial adenocarcinomas exhibited changes in the levels of a number of messages known to be abnormally expressed in cancer, and differential expression of additional transcripts not previously implicated in carcinogenesis. We confirmed increased Amd1 expression in RNAs from mouse endometrial carcinomas that were hybridized to GeneChips and validated overexpression of this transcript in additional tumors.