Our research projects focus on investigating how genetic alterations affect cancer resistance to chemotherapy, aimed discovering specific therapeutic approaches for breast cancer and colon cancer. With fund supports, our group published over fifty research papers in cancer research.
We identified glucosylceramide synthase (GCS), which catalyzes ceramide glycosylation, is a cause of cancer drug resistance. Further, our studies will understand how glycosphingolipids (GSLs) promote the formation of cancer stem cells in tumors under treatments anticancer drugs and develop therapeutic approaches to inhibit GCS with small molecules overcomes drug resistance of cancers.
We initially characterized molecular mechanisms underlying p53 mutant proteins expressed in cancer cells and demonstrated that suppressing of RNA N6-methyladenosinemethylation can eliminate the expression of mutant proteins and possibly restore wild-type protein in cancer cells carrying p53 mutations. We will find out how specifically target the expression of mutant proteins, aimed to develop selective and effective approaches for eradicating cancer stem cells and restoring anticancer immunity.
Education:
1986 – 89 Ph.D., Biochemistry
Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
1984 – 85 Intern, Medicine and Surgery
Soochow University School of Medicine Hospital, Suzhou, China
1979 – 84 M.D., Medicine & Surgery
Soochow University School of Medicine, Suzhou, China
ORCID identifier: 0000-0002-7968-0162
MyNCBI Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/yong-yu.liu.1/bibliography/public/
Selected Publications:
1. Liu, Y.Y., Yu, J.Y., Yin, D., Patwardhan, G., Gupta, V., Hirabayashi, Y., Holleran, W. M., Jazwinski, S.M., Giuliano, A.E.,Gouaze-Andersson, V., Consoli, D. P., Cabot, M.C. 2008. A role for ceramide in driving cancer cell resistance to doxorubicin. FASEB J. 22, 2541-2551 PMID: 18245173.
2. Liu, YY, Gupta, V, Patwardhan, GA, Yin, D, Bhinge, K, Zhao, Y, Bao, J, Mehendale, H, Cabot, MC., Li, YT, and Jazwinski, SM. 2010.Glucosylceramide Synthase upregulates MDR1 expression in the regulation of cancer drug resistance through cSrc and beta-catenin signaling. MolCancer 9(1):145 PMID: 20540746
3. Liu, YY, Patwardhan, GA, Bhinge, K, Gupta, V, Gu, X, and Jazwinski, SM., 2011. Suppression of glucosylceramide synthase restoresp53-dependent apoptosis in mutant p53 cancer cells. Cancer Res. 71(6):2276-85 PMID: 21278235
4. Khiste SK, Liu Z, Roy KR, Uddin MB, Hosain SB, Gu X, Nazzal S, Hill RA and Liu YY.2020. Ceramide-Rubusoside nanomicelles, a potential therapeutic approach to target cancers carrying p53 missense mutations. Mol Cancer Ther19(2):564-74 PMID: 31645443
5. Uddin MB, Roy KR, Hosain SB, Khiste SK, Hill RA, Jois SD, Zhao Y, Tackett AJ and LiuYY. 2019. An N6-methyladenosine at the transited codon 273 ofp53 pre-mRNA promotes the expression of R273H mutant protein and drug resistance of cancer cells. Biochem Pharmacol 160:134-145. PMID:30578766
“Topics” (Keywords/Tags): cancer, drug resistance, stem cells, gene mutation, restoration, ceramide glycosylation, RNA methylation, Natural killercells, tumor suppressor p53
Link to lab website: https://webservices.ulm.edu/facultyactivities/profile/yliu
