Areas of Interest
My primary research interest is chemoprevention of gynecologic
cancers, which has a focus on elucidating signaling pathways
involved in the preventive effect of natural and synthetic
compounds in ovarian, cervical, and bladder cancers. My
laboratory is studying the genetic alterations in gynecologic
malignancies and the signaling pathways in response of
chemopreventive agents. My study involves using the genetic
alterations and the expression profile of specific genes as
biomarkers to develop early detection methods and prevention
approaches against gynecologic cancers in laboratory research
and in chemoprevention trials.
Since development of an animal model to mimic a human disease
allows experimentation in a strictly controlled laboratory
environment in which experimental subjects can be manipulated in
ways that can never be done in humans, animal models of ovarian
cancer, cervical cancer and bladder cancers have been developed
in my laboratory and used in our chemoprevention studies. Using
the animal models, we have tested and evaluated the effect of
different chemopreventive agents on suppressing initiation and
development of ovarian and bladder cancers, and our findings
will help discover new agents and new drug delivery methods in
prevention of ovarian cancer and bladder cancer.
Recently, there has been increasing evidence supporting the
hypothesis that cancer stem cell plays an important role in
cancer development. Our laboratory is currently also working on
isolating and characterizing ovarian cancer stem cells, which
may be a key to develop new strategies of ovarian cancer
prevention.
Selected Publications
Molly Brewer, James Ranger-Moore, William Satterfield, Zengping
Hao, Jian Wang, Emily Brewer, J. Taylor Wharton, Robert Bast,
David Gershenson, and Changping Zou. Combination of 4-HPR and
Oral Contraceptive in Monkey Model of Chemoprevention of Ovarian
Cancer. Frontiers in Biosciences, Front Biosci. 1;12:2260-2268,
2007.
Bast RC Jr, Brewer M, Zou C, Hernandez MA, Daley M, Ozols R,
Lu K, Lu Z, Badgwell D, Mills GB, Skates S, Zhang Z, Chan D,
Lokshin A, Yu Y. Prevention and early detection of ovarian
cancer: mission impossible? Recent Results Cancer
Res.174:91-100, 2007.
Changping Zou, Molly Brewer, Xianyi Cao, Jean M Feugang, Jian
Wang, Rongyu Zang, Jianxin Lin, Yuanjian Deng, and Chun Li.
Antitumor Activity of 4-(N-Hydroxyphenyl) Retinamide Conjugated
with Poly(L-Glutamic Acid) Against Ovarian Cancer Xenografts.
Gyn Onc-Sept, 2007.
Molly Brewer, Nathaniel D. Kirkpatrick, J. Taylor Wharton,
Jian Wang, Kenneth Hatch, Nelly Auersperg, Robert Bast, Urs
Utzinger, Changping Zou. 4-HPR Modulate Gene Expression in
Ovarian Cells. Intl J Cancer 119(5):1005-1013, 2006.
Changping Zou, Sanjay Ramakumar, Changchun Zou, Rongyu Zang,
Jian Wang, Lixin Qian, H. Barton Grossman, Reuben Lotan, and
Monica Liebert. Effect of retinoic acid and interferon alpha-2a
on transitional cell carcinoma of bladder. J Urol 173:247-251,
2005.
Molly Brewer, J. Taylor Wharton, Jian Wang, Nelly Auersperg,
David Gershenson, Robert Bast, and Changping Zou. In vitro model
of normal, immortalized ovarian surface epithelium cells and
ovarian cancer cells for chemoprevention of ovarian cancer.
Gynecol Oncol 98(2):182-92, 2005.
Da-ming Zou, Molly Brewer, Francisco Garcia, Jean M Feugang,
Jian Wang, Roungyu Zang, and Changping Zou. Cactus Pear - a
Natural Product in Cancer Chemoprevention. Nutr J 4(1):25, 2005.
Zou, CP, Liebert M, Zou CC, Grossman HB, and Lotan R.
Identification of effective retinoids for inhibition growth and
inducing apoptosis in bladder cancer cells. J Urol 165:986-92,
2001.
Zou, CP, Zou CC, Carey TE, and Lotan, R. Differential effect
of chromosome 3p deletion on the expression of the putative
tumor suppressor RAR-and retinoid resistance in human squamous
carcinomas cells. Oncogene 20:6820-7, 2001. |
