Claudette Klein, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

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Research

Development of Zinc as a new chemotherapeutic option for the treatment of cancer.

Research Interests

The primary goal of this research is to develop a new chemotherapeutic option for the treatment of cancer. We have chosen to develop Zn as a chemotherapeutic agent, based on our observations that Zn treatment of a variety of cancer cell lines results cell death. The rapidity with which cell death is induced is very attractive with respect to treatment protocols and is in dramatic contrast to the days-weeks required to achieve cell death with current chemotherapeutics. Importantly, Zn-mediated cell death is independent of the presence or absence of growth factors, is not limited to rapidly growing cells, and is independent of p53 status.

Publications

Recent

Early clinical complications after ABO-incompatible live-donor kidney transplantation: a national study of Medicare-insured recipients
Lentine KL, Axelrod D, Klein C, Simpkins C, Xiao H, Schnitzler MA, Tuttle-Newhall JE, Dharnidharka VR, Brennan DC and Segev DL
Pubmed | Transplantation

Direct intra-tumoral injection of zinc-acetate halts tumor growth in a xenograft model of prostate cancer
Shah MR, Kriedt CL, Lents NH, Hoyer MK, Jamaluddin N, Klein C and Baldassare J
Pubmed | J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res.

Neuronostatin encoded by the somatostatin gene regulates neuronal, cardiovascular, and metabolic functions
Samson WK, Zhang JV, Avsian-Kretchmer O, Cui K, Yosten GL, Klein C, Lyu RM, Wang YX, Chen XQ, Yang J, Price CJ, Hoyda TD, Ferguson AV, Yuan XB, Chang JK and Hsueh AJ
Pubmed | J. Biol. Chem.

Zinc induces ERK-dependent cell death through a specific Ras isoform
Klein C, Creach K, Irintcheva V, Hughes KJ, Blackwell PL, Corbett JA and Baldassare JJ
Pubmed | Apoptosis

Zinc inhibition of adenylyl cyclase correlates with conformational changes in the enzyme
Klein C, Heyduk T and Sunahara RK
Pubmed | Cell. Signal.