ArticleOncotarget2016
Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase serves as a poor prognosis marker and therapeutic target in gastric cancer.
Article in Oncotarget, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase (Biology · 2026Review
- The role of MELK in cancer: mechanisms and therapeutic options.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Targeting MELK in tumor cells and tumor microenvironment: from function and mechanism to therapeutic application.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Review
- Upregulation of MELK promotes chemoresistance and induces macrophage M2 polarization via CSF-1/JAK2/STAT3 pathway in gastric cancer.Cancer cell international · 2024Article
- FOXM1 promotes TGF-β2-induced injury of human lens epithelial cells by up regulating VEGFA expression.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2023Article
- Computational exploration of maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) as a cancer drug target.Saudi journal of biological sciences · 2022Article
- Targeting Apoptosis in Cancer.Current oncology reports · 2022Review
- Functional genomics for breast cancer drug target discovery.Journal of human genetics · 2021Review
- High expression of maternal embryonic leucine-zipper kinase (MELK) impacts clinical outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer and its inhibition suppresses ovarian cancer cells growth ex vivo.Journal of gynecologic oncology · 2020Article
- Identification of key differentially expressed mRNAs and microRNAs in non-small cell lung cancer using bioinformatics analysis.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2020Article
- Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase serves as a poor prognosis marker and therapeutic target in osteosarcoma.Oncology reports · 2020Observational
- Enigmatic MELK: The controversy surrounding its complex role in cancer.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2020Review
- Mass spectrometry-based selectivity profiling identifies a highly selective inhibitor of the kinase MELK that delays mitotic entry in cancer cells.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2020Article
- MELK Inhibition Effectively Suppresses Growth of Glioblastoma and Cancer Stem-Like Cells by Blocking AKT and FOXM1 Pathways.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Article
- Mutant P53 induces MELK expression by release of wild-type P53-dependent suppression of FOXM1.NPJ breast cancer · 2020Article
- Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase Promotes Tumor Growth and Metastasis via Stimulating FOXM1 Signaling in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Article
- Inhibition of MELK Protooncogene as an Innovative Treatment for Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2019Article
- Clinical Implementation of Precision Medicine in Gastric Cancer.Journal of gastric cancer · 2019Review
- Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase (MELK), a Potential Therapeutic Target for Neuroblastoma.Molecular cancer therapeutics · 2019Article
- The novel lncRNA p4516 acts as a prognostic biomarker promoting gastric cancer cell proliferation and metastasis.Cancer management and research · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) is upregulated in a variety of human tumors, and is considered an attractive molecular target for cancer treatment. We characterized the expression of MELK in gastric cancer (GC) and measured the effects of reducing MELK mRNA levels and protein activity on GC growth. MELK was frequently overexpressed in primary GCs, and higher MELK levels correlated with worse clinical outcomes. Reducing MELK expression or inhibiting kinase activity resulted in growth inhibition, G2/M arrest, apoptosis and suppression of invasive capability of GC cells in vitro and in vivo. MELK knockdown led to alteration of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated proteins. Furthermore, targeting treatment with OTSSP167 in GC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models had anticancer effects. Thus, MELK promotes cell growth and invasiveness by inhibiting apoptosis and promoting G2/M transition and EMT in GC. These results suggest that MELK may be a promising target for GC treatment.
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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.