Assistant Research Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
School of Medicine
Loma Linda University
Loma Linda, CA 92350
(909) 558-7562
(909) 558-4887 (Fax)
E-mail: usoto@llu.edu
Viruses contribute to over 15 percent of the world's cancer. Total or partial integration of viral genome into the cellular genome is a critical step to cancer progression. The presence of viral oncogenes, inhibition of tumor suppressor proteins and activation of cellular genes are some of the mechanisms how viruses contribute to cancer. Additionally, viral proteins can also induce signal transduction pathways increasing cell proliferation.
My lab is interested basically in three topics: cancer-associated viruses, tumor microenvironment and cancer stem cells. We are testing some of our hypothesis both in vitro and in vivo. So far we are focused in two kinds of viruses strongly associated with cancer: 1) Human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus associated with cervical cancer and 2) Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a virus involved in Burkitt's and Hodgkin's lymphoma, in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and in post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease.
Selected Publications
van Riggelen J, Buchwalter G, Soto U, De-Castro Arce J, Zur Hausen H, Wasylyk B, Rosl F. Loss of Net as repressor leads to constitutive increased c-fos transcription in cervical cancer cells. J Biol Chem 2005 280(5): 3286-3294.
De Castro-Arce J, Soto U, van Riggelen J, Schwarz E, zur Hausen H, Rösl, F. Ectopic expression of non-liganded RAR-β abrogates AP-1 activity by selective degradation of c-Jun in cervical carcinoma cells. J Biol Chem 2004 279(44): 45408-45416.
Hergenhahn M, Soto U, Weninger A, Polack A, Hsu C-H, Cheng A-L, Rösl F. The chemopreventive compound curcumin is an efficient inhibitor of Epstein-Barr virus BZLF-1 transcription in Raji DR-Luc cells. Mol Car 2002 33(3):137-145.
Viedt C, Soto U, Krieger-Brauer HI, Fei J, Elsing C, Kübler W, Kreuzer J. Differential activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases in smooth muscle cells by angiotensin II: Involvement of p22phox and reactive oxygen species. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2000 20(4):940-948.
Soto U, Das BC, Lengert M, Finzer P, zur Hausen H, Rösl F. Conversion of HPV 18 positive non-tumorigenic HeLa-fibroblast hybrids to invasive growth involves loss of TNF- a mediated repression of viral transcription and modification of the AP-1 transcription complex. Oncogene 1999 18(21):3187-3198.
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Last Revised: Mon, Mar 26, 2007