MD:

Joined the faculty: 2001
Affiliations: MBRCC, Molecular Medicine Core - LINK
Teaching: CCB 702, BMS 730, PCOL 761

Office: 2312
Lab: 2184, 2290 HSN
Phone:  (304) 293-8661
Labs:    (304) 293-3124/0502
Fax:    (304) 293-5244
Email: jyu@hsc.wvu.edu

Thirty years after FDA approval, cisplatin and its homologs continue to play a key role in treating solid tumors.  Today, they are used as cancer therapeutic regimens for patients with adenocarcinoma, breast, cervical, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, gastrointestinal, head & neck, lung, melanoma, non-hodgkins lymphoma, ovarian, pancreatic and testicular cancers.  However, platinum-based chemotherapy often results in relatively low survival due to the development of drug resistance.  Enhanced repair of platinum-induced DNA-adduct has been suggested as one of the major mechanisms of acquired platinum resistance.  Recent research indicates that alteration of the DNA repair system resulting in reduced apoptosis is the leading mechanism of increased DNA repair and platinum-drug resistance.  Our goal is to block the DNA repair pathway genes, thereby enhancing cisplatin sensitivity, making cancer chemotherapy more effective.

  References:

• Yu JJ. Unlocking the Molecular Mechanisms of DNA Repair and Platinum Drug Resistance in Cancer Chemotherapy. Current Drug Therapy 4(1): 19-28, 2009.
   
• Yu JJ, Liang XB, Yan QW, Reed E, Fojo AT, Guo Y, He Q and Mueller MD. Chk2 and ERCC1 in the DNA Adduct Repair Pathway that Mediates Acquired Cisplatin Resistance. In: Bonetti, A.; Leone, R.; Muggia, F.; Howell, S.B. (Eds.) Platinum and Other Heavy Metal Compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications. New York, Humana Press, Chapter 22, p189-194, 2009.
   
• Yu JJ and Flynn DC. EGFR Artifactual Mutations Associated with two DNA Sequencers. BioTechniques, 42(1):41, 2007.
   
• Yan QW, Reed E, Zhong XS, Thornton K, Guo Y and Yu JJ. MZF1 possesses a repressively regulatory function in ERCC1 expression. Biochemical Pharmacology, 71:761-771, 2006.
   
• Liang XB, Reed E and Yu JJ. Protein Phosphatase 2A Interacts With Chk2 and Regulates Phosphorylation at Thr-68 After Cisplatin Treatment of Human Ovarian Cancer Cells. Int J Mol Medicine, 17:703-708, 2006.
   
• Yunmbam MK, Guo Y, Miller MR and Yu JJ. Combinatorial treatment of ovarian cancer cells with harringtonine and cisplatin results in increased cisplatin-DNA adducts. Oncology Reports, 11: 833-838, 2004.