Jun Liu, PhD

Caveolae are specific microdomains on cell surface involved in endocytosis, transcytosis and signal transduction. The major structural proteins of caveolae are 22-kDa proteins named caveolins. Recent evidence has suggested that caveolin may function as...

Associate Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Biochemistry

Classification:

Faculty

Member

Organization:

West Virginia University WVU Cancer Institute

Department:

WVU Cancer Institute Research Programs

Classification:

Faculty

• PhD, University of Oxford, 1996

Ten Most Recent:
Incorporation of a basil-seed-based surface enhanced raman scattering sensor with a pipet for detection of melamine.
Zhou NN, Zhou QT, Meng GW, Huang ZL, Ke Y, Liu J, Wu NQ.
ACS Sens. 2016; 1(10): 1193-1197.

Helicobacter pylori FKBP-type PPIase promotes gastric epithelial cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth through activation of ERK-mediated mitogenic signaling pathway.
Zhu Y, Chen M, Gong Y, Liu Z, Li A, Kang D, Han F, Liu J, Liu J, Yuan Y.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2015; 362(7).

Inhibition of autophagy potentiated the antitumor effect of nedaplatin in cisplatin-resistant nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.
Liu Z, Liu J, Li L, Nie D, Tao Q, Wu J, Fan J, Lin C, Zhao S, Ju D.
PLoS One. 2015; 10(8): e0135236.
PMC4543554

Differential proteomic analysis of caveolin-1 KO cells reveals Sh2b3 and Clec12b as novel interaction partners of caveolin-1 and Capns1 as a potential mediator of caveolin-1-induced apoptosis.
Kulkarni YM, Liu C, Qi Q, Zhu Y, Klinke DJ, Liu J.
Analyst. 2013; 138(22): 6986-6996.
PMC4165583

Subtractive hybridization analysis of gastric diseases-associated Helicobacter pylori identifies peptidyl-prolyl isomerase as a potential marker for gastric cancer.
Gong YH, Chen M, Xu Y, Dong N, Sang Z, Liu J, Yuan Y.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2011; 320(2): 103-109.

A conserved sequence in caveolin-1 is both necessary and sufficient for caveolin polarity and cell directional migration.
Sun XH, Liu ZY, Chen H, Beardsley AR, Qi Q, Liu J.
FEBS Lett. 2009; 583(22): 3681-3689.

Caveolin-1 up-regulation during epithelial to mesenchymal transition is mediated by focal adhesion kinase.
Bailey KM, Liu J.
J Biol Chem. 2008; 283(20): 13714-13724.
PMC2376249

Identification of a novel domain at the N terminus of caveolin-1 that controls rear polarization of the protein and caveolae formation.
Sun XH, Flynn DC, Castranova V, Millecchia LL, Beardsley AR, Liu J.
J Biol Chem. 2007; 282(10): 7232-7241.

Overexpression of caveolin-1 inhibits endothelial cell proliferation by arresting the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase.
Fang K, Fu W, Beardsley AR, Sun X, Lisanti MP, Liu J.
Cell Cycle. 2007; 6(2): 199-204.

Loss of caveolin-1 polarity impedes endothelial cell polarization and directional movement.
Beardsley AR, Fang K, Mertz H, Castranova V, Friend S, Liu J.
J Biol Chem. 2005; 280(5): 3541-3547.
 

Mechanisms of Metastasis & Therapeutic Response Program (MMTR)

1. Angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is a process by which new blood vessel develops from pre-existing capillary. This process is tightly regulated both by angiogenesis activators, such as VEGF, FGF and HGF, as well as angiogenesis inhibitors, e.g., angiostatin and endostatin. Although a variety of angiogenesis activators and inhibitors have been identified and characterized, there is very little information on the common target(s) that receives signals from both angiogenic regulators to determine the state of endothelial cells. Recently, we have shown that angiogenesis activators and inhibitors affect the level of caveolin-1 expression. Furthermore, overexpression of caveolin-1 substantially suppresses angiogenic signaling induced by activation of VEGF receptor, hence, suggesting that caveolin might be an intracellular target both for angiogenesis activators and inhibitors. Our laboratory is focusing on the function of caveolin in the regulation of endothelial cell growth and differentiation. There are three general questions we would like to address: 1) what are the molecular mechanisms underlying the reciprocal regulation of caveolin-1 expression by angiogenesis activators (such as VEGF) and angiogenesis inhibitors in endothelial cells? 2) does caveolin-1 affect VEGF receptor signaling pathways? 3) does caveolin-1 play any role in the regulation of angiogenesis?


2. Cell motility. We have found that during cell migration, caveolin-1 and caveolae polarize at the rear of migrating cells. We hypothesize that when cells are stimulated to migrate, caveolin-1 moves to the rear of a migrating cell in a sequence-specific fashion as a mechanism to sequester it away from signaling proteins that direct cell motility at the leading edge. In deed, we have recently identified a sequence motif that controls caveolin polarity in migrating cells and demonstrated that loss of caveolin polarity impedes cell polarization and directional movement. By using the caveolin depolarization model, we are investigating the role of caveolin in spatial organization of cell signaling, cytoskeleton arrangement and cell migration.