Dr. Na Li obtained her Phd in oncology at Central South University, Changsha. Her current activity primarily focuses on understanding the relationship between energy metabolism and cancer as well as the signaling mechanisms used by receptors involved in immunity. In addition to discovering some of the most important energy metabolism related signal transduction pathways and establishing molecular links of cancer, my work has revealed new targets for cancer prevention and therapy.
Protein tyrosine nitration is an important molecular event in nervous system tumor such as glioma and pituitary adenomas. It is the essential step to identify the protein targets and exact modified sites of tyrosine nitration for addressing the biological roles of protein tyrosine nitration in nervous system tumors and discovering effective biomarkers to understand in-depth molecular mechanisms and determine new diagnosis strategy and novel therapeutic targets. One/two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (1DGE, 2DGE), or nitrotyrosine affinity column (NTAC), coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) have been successfully applied in the analysis of nitroproteins in nervous system tumors. This article address the basic concept of protein tyrosine nitration, nitroproteomics methodology based on gel electrophoresis/immunoaffinity enrichment and tandem mass spectrometry, and the current status of nitroprotein study in nervous system tumors. The established nitroproteomics approach is easily translated to study other diseases.
Part of the book: Electrophoresis
Energy metabolism heterogeneity is a hallmark in ovarian cancer; namely, the Warburg and reverse Warburg effects coexist in ovarian cancer. Exploration of energy metabolism heterogeneity benefits the discovery of the effective biomarkers for ovarian cancers. The integrative analysis of transcriptomics (20,115 genes in 419 ovarian cancer samples), proteomics (205 differentially expressed proteins), and mitochondrial proteomics (1198 mitochondrial differentially expressed proteins) revealed (i) the upregulations of rate-limiting enzymes PKM2 in glycolysis, IDH2 in Krebs cycle, and UQCRH in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) pathways, (ii) the upregulation of PDHB that converts pyruvate from glycolysis into acetyl-CoA in Krebs cycle, and (iii) that miRNA (hsa-miR-186-5p) and RNA-binding protein (EIF4AIII) had target sites in those key proteins in energy metabolism pathways. Furthermore, lncRNA SNHG3 interacted with miRNA (hsa-miR-186-5p) and RNA-binding protein (EIF4AIII). Those results were confirmed in the ovarian cancer cell model and tissues. It clearly concluded that lncRNA SNHG3 regulates energy metabolism through miRNA (hsa-miR-186-5p) and RNA-binding protein (EIF4AIII) to regulate the key proteins in the energy metabolism pathways. SNHG3 inhibitor might interfere with the energy metabolism to treat ovarian cancers. These findings provide more accurate understanding of molecular mechanisms of ovarian cancers and discovery of effective energy-metabolism-heterogeneity therapeutic drug for ovarian cancers.
Part of the book: Molecular Medicine
Part of the book: Metabolomics