Professor
Office: ARB R4-224
Email: snarayan@ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 273-8163
Education and Training
Ph.D. – Biochemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India (1987)
M.S. – (M.Sc.) Biochemistry, University of Allahabad, India (1980)
B.S. – (B.Sc.) Biology & Chemistry, University of Allahabad, India (1978)
Postdoctoral Training
Postdoctoral Fellow – Department of Surgery, UTMB, Galveston, TX (1989-1991)
Postdoctoral Fellow – Institute for Environmental studies and Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (1987-1989)
Research Interests
Targeting DNA repair and replication pathways for therapy of colorectal cancer: The traditional view of cancer development suggests that all neoplastic cells within a tumor contain tumorogenic growth capacity. However, it is evident from existing literature that only a small subset of bulk colon cancer cells (CRC-Cs) are able to initiate tumor growth. This sub-set of cancer-initiating cells is identified as colorectal cancer stem cells (CRC-SCs). CRC-SCs possess: (i) capacity for self-renewal, (ii) potential for multi-lineage differentiation, (iii) ability to drive continued expansion and survive into adverse tissue micro-environment, and (iv) ability to invade and metastasize. Elimination of the self-renewal capacity is required to overcome clinical relapses and ultimate death from CRC progression. Current standard therapy for CRC is based upon the DNA-damaging drug, oxaliplatin (OXR) and nucleotide analogue, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Although very common, metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most challenging cancers to treat due to inherent drug resistance. This project will examine whether DNA repair and replication pathways can be targeted to enhance the cytotoxicity of CRC therapies. The overall goal of this pre-clinical study is to advance not only the understanding of DNA repair after standard CRC chemotherapy, but also to strategically develop novel small molecules that will be used to improve therapeutic outcomes for CRC patients. Our studies focus on both bulk and cancer stem cell populations as a target for therapeutic intervention of CRC. Our studies are also directed toward developing novel structure-based small molecule inhibitors for breast and pancreatic cancers and glioblastoma.
Mechanisms of cigarette smoke-induced breast and lung carcinogenesis: Many epidemiological studies suggest a strong link between smoking, the number of cigarettes smoked, and the incidence of breast cancer in women. However, other epidemiologic studies conflict with the association between cigarette smoking and breast cancer risk. In our studies by using an in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal models, we have shown that cigarette smoke condensate (CSC), a surrogate of cigarette smoke causes transformation of normal breast epithelial cells in the in vitro and in vivo studies. We have shown that adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a multifunctional protein having diverse cellular functions including cell migration, cell-cell adhesion, cell cycle control, chromosomal segregation and apoptosis plays a critical and new role in CSC-induced transformation of normal breast epithelial cells. We have examined the molecular mechanisms by which CSC and its major component, Benzo[α]pyrene, enhances APC-mediated accumulation of abasic DNA lesions, which is cytotoxic and mutagenic in nature, leading to enhanced neoplastic transformation of normal breast epithelial cells in an orthotopic xenograft model.
Our current focus is to determine the molecular mechanisms by which DNA base excision repair might play a role in cigarette smoke-induced lung carcinogenesis.
Role of APC in DNA repair: Our recent studies suggest that the product of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene can modulate base excision repair (BER) pathway through an interaction with DNA polymerase β (Pol-β) and flap endonuclease 1 (Fen-1). Taken together with our finding that the transcription of APC is enhanced by alkylating agents, our results suggest that APC modulation of BER activity may play an important role in carcinogenesis and chemotherapy by determining whether cells with DNA damage survive or undergo apoptosis. These findings can have implications for the development of more effective strategies for chemoprevention, prognosis, and chemotherapy of colorectal as well as other types of solid tumors.
References
Das S, Nayak A, Siddharth S, Nayak D, Narayan S, Kundu CN. TRAIL enhances quinacrine-mediated apoptosis in breast cancer cells through induction of autophagy via modulation of p21 and DR5 interactions. Cell Oncol (Dordr). 2017 Sep 21. PubMed
Jaiswal AS, Panda H, Pampo C, Siemann DW, Gairola CG, Hromas R, Narayan S. Adenomatous polyposis coli-mediated accumulation of abasic DNA lesions lead to cigarette smoke condensate-induced neoplastic transformation of normal breast epithelial cells. Neoplasia 15: 454-460, 2013. PubMed
Jaiswal AS*, Armas ML*, Tadahide I, Strauss PR, Narayan S. Adenomatous polyposis coli interacts with flap endonuclease 1 to block its nuclear entry and function. Neoplasia 14: 495-508, 2012. PubMed
Jaiswal AS, Narayan S. Assembly of base excision repair complex on abasic DNA and role of adenomatous polyposis coli in its functional activity. Biochemistry 50: 1901-1909, 2011. PubMed | Journal
Karna P, Gundala SR, Gupta MV, Shamsi SA, Pace, Yates C, Narayan S, Aneja R. Polyphenol-rich sweet potato greens extract inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Carcinogenesis 32: 1872-1880, 2011. PubMed | Journal
Jaiswal AS, Banerjee S, Aneja R, Sarkar FH, Ostrov DA, Narayan S. DNA polymerase β as a novel target for chemotherapeutic intervention of colorectal cancer. PLoS ONE 6: e16691, 2011. PubMed | Journal
Karna P, Zughaier S, Pannu V, Simmons R, Narayan S, Aneja R. Induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated autophagy by a novel microtubule-modulating agent. J. Biol. Chem. 285: 18737-18748, 2010. PubMed | Journal
Jaiswal AS, Banerjee S, Panda H, Bulkin CD, Izumi T, Sarkar FH, Ostrov DA, Narayan S. A novel inhibitor of DNA polymerase β enhances the ability of Temozolomide to impair the growth of colon cancer cells. Mol. Cancer Res. 7: 1973-1983, 2009. Note: This paper was featured on the cover of the journal. PubMed | Journal
Panda H, Jaiswal AS, Corsino PE, Armas ML, Law BK, Narayan S. Amino acid Asp181 of 5’-flap endonuclease 1 is a useful target for chemotherapeutic development. Biochemistry 48: 9952-9958, 2009. PubMed | Journal
Jaiswal AS, Aneja R, Connors SK, Joshi HC, Multani AS, Pathak S, Narayan S. 9-Bromonoscapine-induced mitotic arrest of cigarette smoke condensate-transformed breast epithelial cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 106:1146-56, 2009. PubMed | Journal
Visit PubMed for a full list of references
Current Teaching Responsibilities
College of Medicine
Course Director:
Advanced Cell Biology (GMS 6421)
Tumor Biology (GMS 6064)
Lecturer:
Advanced Cell Biology (GMS 6421)
Apoptosis (GMS 6644)
Protein Trafficking (GMS 6062)
Transcriptional Regulation of Genes (GMS 6647)
Tumor Cell Biology (GMS 6064)
College of Dentistry
Lecturer:
Advanced Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (DEN 5121C)