ArticleCancer biology & therapy2015
Methionine enkephalin (MENK) inhibits tumor growth through regulating CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in mice.
Article in Cancer biology & therapy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cancer-related pain: A bidirectional modulator of cancer progression.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
- Amino acid metabolic regulatory network in tumor immune escape: mechanistic exploration and intervention directions.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Exploring the potential of anticancer peptides as therapeutic agents for cancer treatment.Research in pharmaceutical sciences · 2025Review
- Enkephalins and Pain Modulation: Mechanisms of Action and Therapeutic Perspectives.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- The Opioid Growth Factor in Growth Regulation and Immune Responses in Cancer.Advances in neurobiology · 2024Article
- Methionine enkephalin(MENK) upregulated memory T cells in anti-influenza response.BMC immunology · 2023Article
- Antimicrobial Peptides and Cationic Nanoparticles: A Broad-Spectrum Weapon to Fight Multi-Drug Resistance Not Only in Bacteria.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Immunotherapy in soft tissue and bone sarcoma: unraveling the barriers to effectiveness.Theranostics · 2022Review
- Anti-cancer peptides: classification, mechanism of action, reconstruction and modification.Open biology · 2020Review
- The novel mechanism of anticancer effect on gastric cancer through inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and caspase-dependent apoptosis in vitro and in vivo by methionine enkephalin.Cancer management and research · 2018Article
- B-Cell Depletion with CD20 Antibodies as New Approach in the Treatment of Inflammatory and Immunological Events Associated with Spinal Cord Injury.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Methionine enkephalin (MENK), an endogenous neuropeptide, plays an crucial role in both neuroendocrine and immune systems. CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are identified as a major subpopulation of T lymphocytes in suppressing immune system to keep balanced immunity. The aim of this research work was to elucidate the mechanisms via which MENK interacts with Tregs in cancer situation. The influence of MENK on transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) mediated conversion from naïve CD4+CD25- T cells to CD4+CD25+ Tregs was determined and the data from flow cytometry (FCM) analysis indicated that MENK effectively inhibited the expression of Foxp3 during the process of TGF-βinduction. Furthermore, this inhibiting process was accompanied by diminishing phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of Smad2/3, confirmed by western blot (WB) analysis and immunofluorescence (IF) at molecular level. We established sarcoma mice model with S180 to investigate whether MENK could modulate Tregs in tumor circumstance. Our findings showed that MENK delayed the development of tumor in S180 tumor bearing mice and down-regulated level of Tregs. Together, these novel findings reached a conclusion that MENK could inhibit Tregs activity directly and retard tumor development through down-regulating Tregs in mice. This work advances the deepening understanding of the influence of MENK on Tregs in cancer situation, and relation of MENK with immune system, supporting the implication of MENK as a new strategy for cancer immunotherapy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.