Patankar Lab publishes study on endometriosis treatment in Reproduction

According to the World Health Organization, endometriosis affects roughly 10 percent of reproductive-aged women around the world; despite this prevalence, treatment options are limited. In a new study in Reproduction, members of the Patankar Lab describe a novel treatment strategy for the disease.

“Oxidative phosphorylation inhibitors inhibit proliferation of endometriosis cells”, by Arvinder Kapur, PhD, Jose M Ayuso, PhD, Santosh Kumari, PhD, Mildred Felder, Zach Stenerson, Melisa C Skala, PhD, Dave Beebe, PhD, Lisa Barroilhet, MD, MS, and Manish S Patankar, PhD, tests oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) inhibitors curcumin, plumbagin, and atovaquone against an endometriosis cell line:

“The results suggest that all three compounds inhibit proliferation and cause cell death of the endometriotic cells by inhibiting OXPHOS and causing an increase in intracellular oxygen radicals. The oxidative stress mediated by curcumin, plumbagin, and atovaquone causes DNA double-strand breaks as indicated by the elevation of phospho-γH2Ax. Mitochondrial energetics shows a significant decrease in oxygen consumption in 12Z cells.”

Read the study here!

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Patankar and Ong earn grant from UW Prevention Research Center

UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD, and Irene Ong, PhD, earned a Special Interest Project grant from the UW-Madison Prevention Research Center! Their project will focus on detecting early-stage ovarian cancer, with a goal of developing computational tools to help identify early-stage ovarian cancer and improve patient outcomes.

In collaboration with Jesus Gonzalez Bosquet, MD, PhD, of the University of Iowa, and Peter Argenta, MD, of the University of Minnesota, they will use machine learning models to examine electronic health record data from the three institutions to determine whether demographic/clinical variables, social determinants of health, and high-frequency germline genetic variants can be used to identify early predictors of ovarian cancer.

Congratulations, Dr. Patankar and Dr. Ong! Read more about the goals of this project in this article on WKOW: 

UW Health launches new project to detect ovarian cancer sooner

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Barroilhet and Patankar publish in Cancers

A new study co-authored by Lisa Barroilhet, MD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD was published in the journal Cancers!

“Atovaquone: An Inhibitor of Oxidative Phosphorylation as Studied in Gynecologic Cancers” outlines the Barroilhet and Patankar Labs’ research of the FDA-approved antimalarial drug atovaquone and its potential impact on gynecologic cancer:

“Our laboratory studied the anti-cancer properties of atovaquone in gynecologic cancers. We found that atovaquone slowed ovarian cancer growth in both cell lines and mouse models. Additional anti-cancer effects were seen, such as the reduced proliferation of cancer stem cells and spheroids implanted in mice. Atovaquone inhibited oxygen consumption and ATP production. Metabolic studies showed that atovaquone shifted glycolysis, electronic transport and the citric acid cycle. Our studies provided the mechanistic understanding and preclinical data to support the further investigation of atovaquone’s potential as a cancer therapy for gynecologic cancers.”

Read the whole study here. Congratulations to the Barroilhet and Patankar research groups on this exciting development!

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Barroilhet/Patankar Labs celebrate graduates

The research labs of interim department chair Lisa Barriolhet, MD, MS and Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD celebrated some amazing graduates in May!

Please help us congratulate Lojain Ibrahim Aljohani, MS and Kristal Gant, PhD, who graduated from the UW-Madison Endocrinology & Reproductive Physiology program, and Shannon Rush, MD, graduating UW Ob-Gyn gynecologic oncology fellow!

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Patankar publication featured on front page of journal Analyst

A study co-authored by UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD was featured on the front page of the journal Analyst!

Patankar and co-authors took on the study outlined in “Affinity-free enrichment and mass spectrometry analysis of the ovarian cancer biomarker CA125 (MUC16) from patient-derived ascites” to expand ovarian cancer diagnostic tools:

“Developing a mass spectrometry-based assay for the ovarian cancer biomarker CA125 (MUC16) is a desirable goal, because it may enable detection of molecular regions that are not recognized by antibodies and are therefore analytically silent in the current immunoassay. Additionally, the ability to characterize the CA125 proteoforms expressed by individuals may offer clinical insight.”

Read the whole article here!

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Patankar grad student Alharbi published in Scientific Reports

Research led by Yousef Alharbi, PhD, former graduate student in the lab of Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD, has been published in Scientific Reports!

“Oxidative stress induced by the anti-cancer agents, plumbagin, and atovaquone, inhibits ion transport through Na+/K+-ATPase” was written in collaboration with Patankar, Bikash Pattnaik, PhD, of the UW SMPH Department of Pediatrics, Lisa Barroilhet, MD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Gynecologic Oncology, and Arvinder Kapur, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive Sciences. 

In the study, Alharbi and co-authors found that plumbagin inhibits proliferation of human and mouse ovarian cancer cells:

“Recently we demonstrated that plumbagin was an effective anti-cancer agent and that its cytotoxic effect could be demonstrated across multiple cancer cell lines. Here, we extend these previous observations to further confirm the cytolytic activity of plumbagin against mouse (ID8) and human (SKOV-3, OVCAR-3, and TYKNu) high grade serous ovarian cancer cell lines. Our data demonstrate that irrespective of the cell line used, plumbagin was able to inhibit proliferation at an IC50 between 2.5 and 10 µM.”

Read the whole article here – congratulations to the research team!

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Patankar co-authors publication in Analytical Chemistry

A recent publication by UW Ob-Gyn Division of Reproductive Sciences Director Manish Patankar, PhD was selected as an Editor’s Choice article in the journal Analytical Chemistry!

“On-Tissue Derivatization with Girard’s Reagent P Enhances N-Glycan Signals for Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Sections in MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging”, coauthored with the lab of Lingjun Li, PhD, of the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy, outlines a new way of treating and imaging tissue to analyze glycans, biomolecules with important implications for better understanding conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and some types of cancer.

“This study provides a promising approach to better understand the pathogenesis of cancer related aberrant glycosylation, which is beneficial to the design of improved clinical diagnosis and therapeutic strategies.”

Read the whole study here. Articles are designated with Editors Choice status because of quality and broad public interest. What an exciting honor – amazing work, Dr. Patankar!

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