Dineo Khabele | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | Columbia University |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital Albert Einstein College of Medicine Meharry Medical College University of Kansas School of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis |
Dineo Khabele is an American obstetrician who is Mitchell and Elaine Yanow Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine. In 2019 Khabele was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Khabele was born to Paseka Edwin and Joan Means Khabele, one of three children. [1] She was born and raised in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. For high school, Khabele attended St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. [2] Her family had strong connections with the school; her aunt, Patricia Means King, was the first African-American student, and her grandmother, Bertha Sadler Means, had fought for civil rights and an end to segregated schools. [3] She was an undergraduate at Columbia University, intent on majoring in English or Politics. [2] Khabele arrived at Columbia during the peak of the AIDS epidemic, and was captivated by the urgency that surrounded the battle against HIV/AIDS. She started to wonder whether her political aspirations and scientific interests could contribute to solving the crisis. [2] During her undergraduate studies she completed her pre-medical requirements, and after graduating spent a year working in public health. [2] She remained at Columbia University for her medical studies, before starting a residency in obstetrics at the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. [4] [5] She was a fellow in gynaecologic oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[ citation needed ]
After completing her fellowship, Khabele joined Meharry Medical College as an Assistant Professor. She worked there for several years before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University. In 2017 Khabele joined the University of Kansas School of Medicine. [6] There her research considered the pathology of ovarian cancer in an effort to design new therapeutic strategies. She has studied the differences in gene expression between the different stages of ovarian cancer. [7] She combines xenografts derived from patients with mouse models to understand both genetic and epigenetic alterations in the DNA damage response. [6] In this instance, the damage response refers to the network of cells that sense and repair DNA lesions caused by cancer. [6]
Khabele developed a histone deacetylase inhibitor [8] that can be combined with a PARP inhibitor for the treatment of ovarian cancer that is resistant to chemotherapy. [9] In early January 2020, Washington University in St. Louis announced that, after a nationwide search, they had appointed Khabele Head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. [6] [10]
The ovary is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are endocrine glands, secreting various hormones that play a role in the menstrual cycle and fertility. The ovary progresses through many stages beginning in the prenatal period through menopause.
Obstetrics and gynaecology is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics and gynaecology. The specialization is an important part of care for women's health.
Histone deacetylases (EC 3.5.1.98, HDAC) are a class of enzymes that remove acetyl groups (O=C-CH3) from an ε-N-acetyl lysine amino acid on both histone and non-histone proteins. HDACs allow histones to wrap the DNA more tightly. This is important because DNA is wrapped around histones, and DNA expression is regulated by acetylation and de-acetylation. HDAC's action is opposite to that of histone acetyltransferase. HDAC proteins are now also called lysine deacetylases (KDAC), to describe their function rather than their target, which also includes non-histone proteins. In general, they suppress gene expression.
Trichostatin A (TSA) is an organic compound that serves as an antifungal antibiotic and selectively inhibits the class I and II mammalian histone deacetylase (HDAC) families of enzymes, but not class III HDACs. However, there are recent reports of the interactions of this molecule with Sirt 6 protein. TSA inhibits the eukaryotic cell cycle during the beginning of the growth stage. TSA can be used to alter gene expression by interfering with the removal of acetyl groups from histones and therefore altering the ability of DNA transcription factors to access the DNA molecules inside chromatin. It is a member of a larger class of histone deacetylase inhibitors that have a broad spectrum of epigenetic activities. Thus, TSA has some potential as an anti-cancer drug. One suggested mechanism is that TSA promotes the expression of apoptosis-related genes, leading to cancerous cells surviving at lower rates, thus slowing the progression of cancer. Other mechanisms may include the activity of HDIs to induce cell differentiation, thus acting to "mature" some of the de-differentiated cells found in tumors. HDIs have multiple effects on non-histone effector molecules, so the anti-cancer mechanisms are truly not understood at this time.
Reproductive medicine is a branch of medicine concerning the male and female reproductive systems. It encompasses a variety of reproductive conditions, their prevention and assessment, as well as their subsequent treatment and prognosis.
Vorinostat (rINN), also known as suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, is a member of a larger class of compounds that inhibit histone deacetylases (HDAC). Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDI) have a broad spectrum of epigenetic activities.
Gynecologic oncology is a specialized field of medicine that focuses on cancers of the female reproductive system, including ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, and vulvar cancer. As specialists, they have extensive training in the diagnosis and treatment of these cancers.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors are chemical compounds that inhibit histone deacetylases. Since deacetylation of histones produces transcriptionally silenced heterochromatin, HDIs can render chromatin more transcriptionally active and induce epigenomic changes.
Chromatin remodeling is the dynamic modification of chromatin architecture to allow access of condensed genomic DNA to the regulatory transcription machinery proteins, and thereby control gene expression. Such remodeling is principally carried out by 1) covalent histone modifications by specific enzymes, e.g., histone acetyltransferases (HATs), deacetylases, methyltransferases, and kinases, and 2) ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes which either move, eject or restructure nucleosomes. Besides actively regulating gene expression, dynamic remodeling of chromatin imparts an epigenetic regulatory role in several key biological processes, egg cells DNA replication and repair; apoptosis; chromosome segregation as well as development and pluripotency. Aberrations in chromatin remodeling proteins are found to be associated with human diseases, including cancer. Targeting chromatin remodeling pathways is currently evolving as a major therapeutic strategy in the treatment of several cancers.
Gynecologic cancer is a type of cancer that affects the female reproductive system, including ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, and vulvar cancer.
Panobinostat, sold under the brand name Farydak, is a medication used for the treatment of multiple myeloma. It is a hydroxamic acid and acts as a non-selective histone deacetylase inhibitor.
Master of Medicine is a postgraduate professional clinical degree awarded by medical schools to physicians following a period of instruction, supervised clinical rotations, and examination.
Cancer epigenetics is the study of epigenetic modifications to the DNA of cancer cells that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence, but instead involve a change in the way the genetic code is expressed. Epigenetic mechanisms are necessary to maintain normal sequences of tissue specific gene expression and are crucial for normal development. They may be just as important, if not even more important, than genetic mutations in a cell's transformation to cancer. The disturbance of epigenetic processes in cancers, can lead to a loss of expression of genes that occurs about 10 times more frequently by transcription silencing than by mutations. As Vogelstein et al. points out, in a colorectal cancer there are usually about 3 to 6 driver mutations and 33 to 66 hitchhiker or passenger mutations. However, in colon tumors compared to adjacent normal-appearing colonic mucosa, there are about 600 to 800 heavily methylated CpG islands in the promoters of genes in the tumors while these CpG islands are not methylated in the adjacent mucosa. Manipulation of epigenetic alterations holds great promise for cancer prevention, detection, and therapy. In different types of cancer, a variety of epigenetic mechanisms can be perturbed, such as the silencing of tumor suppressor genes and activation of oncogenes by altered CpG island methylation patterns, histone modifications, and dysregulation of DNA binding proteins. There are several medications which have epigenetic impact, that are now used in a number of these diseases.
Epigenetic therapy refers to the use of drugs or other interventions to modify gene expression patterns, potentially treating diseases by targeting epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modifications.
Sven Becker is a German gynaecologist, gynaecologic surgeon, and oncologist.
Valerie Montgomery Rice is an American obstetrician, gynecologist, and college administrator. She is the president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine.
Ernst Robert Lengyel is an American gynecologic oncologist. Lengyel is the Arthur L. and Lee G. Herbst Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago. Lengyel directs the Ovarian Cancer Research Laboratory, a translational research laboratory focused on understanding ovarian cancer metastasis and on developing and testing new treatments for ovarian cancer. In this role, Lengyel and his research team began to investigate the role of the fallopian tube in ovarian cancer as the cells more closely resemble those in the fallopian tube rather than the ovary.
Bradley J. Monk is an American gynecologic oncologist, academician and researcher. He is a professor on the Clinical Scholar Track in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. He also serves as Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.
Beth Young Karlan is an American gynecologic oncologist. In 2008, she was named editor-in-chief of the medical journals Gynecologic Oncology and Gynecologic Oncology Reports. In 2012, Karlan was appointed by the White House to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board, and in 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Breast and ovarian cancer does not necessarily imply that both cancers occur at the same time, but rather that getting one cancer would lead to the development of the other within a few years. Women with a history of breast cancer have a higher chance of developing ovarian cancer, vice versa.
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