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October 8, 2009

ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ professor publishes an article in online peer-reviewed journal

PLos One, an interactive open-access journal of peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, has published the cancer research of a University of Louisiana at Monroe assistant professor of pharmacology.

Professor Yong-Yu Liu's previous research shows that the drug-resistant gene, glucosylceramide synthase (GCS), is a potential candidate for cancer chemotherapy.

His study published in PLoS One reports that a novel way has been found to reverse the gene's drug resistance, using a new mixed-backbone oligonucleotide, identified as MBO-asGCS. This new DNA-RNA oligonucleotide specifically disrupts the GCS "bad" gene and kills more cancer cells.

"This work is very important for understanding the mystery of cancer drug resistance," said Liu. "And MBO-asGCS is a highly promising agent. It might substantially reduce chemotherapy failure and the side-effects of chemotherapy."

Dr. Liu's work is in collaboration with Drs. Girish V. Shah and Paul W. Sylvester of the ÃÛ½ÛÖ±²¥ College of Pharmacy, and is supported with funding from the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network.

More than 500,000 Americans die every year from cancer, due to the failure of chemotherapy treatments. A cancer cell's drug resistance is the result of gene alteration and represents the biological basis for the chemotherapy failures, said Liu.

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