Liqun Huang

Mrs. Liqun Huang graduated valedictorian from one of the top universities in China. She has been working in various areas of pharmacology, molecular biology and microbiology. She has extensive experience with preclinical animal models of cancer, small animal surgery, pharmacology as well as cell culture, Western blot, ELISA and immunohistochemistry.

Over the years, Mrs. Huang has played an important role in the evaluation of novel anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory compounds as evidenced by several first-author publications in leading journals. She is confident that she can carry out these studies efficiently and with technical excellence.

Contributions to Science

1. Evaluated phospho-sulindac as a candidate drug for the treatment of DED, studying its efficacy, safety, formulation, PK, biodistribution and mechanism of action. More work is in press and in progress.

a. Honkanen RA, Huang L, Xie G, Rigas B. Phosphosulindac is efficacious in an improved concanavalin A-based rabbit model of chronic dry eye disease. Transl Res 2018;198:58-72. PMID: 29702077. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931524418300562?via%3Dihub

b. Wen Z, Muratomi N, Huang W, Huang L, Ren J, Yang J, Persaud Y, Loloi J, Mallangada N, Kung P, Honkanen R, Rigas B. The ocular pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of phospho-sulindac (OXT-328) formulated in nanoparticles: Enhanced and targeted tissue drug delivery. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2019;557:273-279. Available from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037851731830975X?via%3Dihub

c. Honkanen RA, Huang L, Rigas B. A rabbit model of aqueous-deficient dry eye disease induced by concanavalin A injection into the lacrimal glands: Application to drug efficacy studies. J Vis Exp; 2019; in press.

d. Honkanen RA, Huang W, Huang L, Kaplowitz K, Weissbart S, Rigas B. A new rabbit model of chronic dry eye disease induced by complete surgical dacryoadenectomy. Current Eye Research; 2019; in press.

2. Evaluated the anti-cancer properties of phospho-NSAIDs.

Phospho-NSAIDs are safe and highly effective compounds on inhibiting tumor growth in various animal models. I have extensively studied their safety, efficacy and mechanism of action.

a. Huang L, Mackenzie GG, Sun Y, Ouyang N, Xie G, Vrankova K, Komninou D, Rigas B. Chemotherapeutic properties of phospho-nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, a new class of anticancer compounds. Cancer Res. 2011 Dec 15; 71 (24):7617-27. PMCID: PMC3242900

b. Huang L, Wong CC, Cheng KW, Rigas B. Phospho-aspirin-2 (MDC-22) inhibits estrogen receptor positive breast cancer growth both in vitro and in vivo by a redox-dependent effect. PLoS One, 2014, 4;9(11):e111720. PMCID: PMC4219766

c. Huang L, Wong CC, Mackenzie GG, Sun Y, Cheng KW, Vrankova K, Alston N, Ouyang N, Rigas B. Phospho-aspirin (MDC-22) inhibits breast cancer in preclinical animal models: an effect mediated by EGFR inhibition, p53 acetylation and oxidative stress. BMC Cancer. 2014 Feb 28;14:141 PMCID: PMC3941604

d. Huang L, Zhu C, Sun Y, Xie G, Mackenzie GG, Qiao G, Komninou D, Rigas B. Phospho-sulindac (OXT-922) inhibits the growth of human colon cancer cell lines: A redox/polyamine dependent effect. Carcinogenesis, 2010, 31(11): 1982-90. PMCID: PMC2966552

3. Evaluated the anti-inflammatory effects of phosphosulindac (OXT-328)

I have extensively studied the anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties of OXT-328 and other structurally similar compounds in a variety of animal and cell culture models.

a. Huang L, Mackenzie G, Ouyang N, Sun Y, Xie G, Johnson F, Komniou D, Rigas B. The novel phospho-non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, OXT-328, MDC-22 and MDC-917, inhibit adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. Br J Pharmacol., 2011, 162(7):1521-33. PMCID: PMC3057290

b. Mattheolabakis G, Mackenzie GG, Huang L, Ouyang N, Cheng KW, Rigas B. Topically applied phospho-sulindac hydrogel is efficacious and safe in the treatment of experimental arthritis in rats. Pharm Res. 2013 Jun;30(6):1471-82. PMCID: PMC4395004

4. Co-developed a novel inhibitor of NF-κB activation:

I was part of a team of four that developed a novel small molecule inhibitor of NF-κB based on our observation that annexin 1 is an endogenous inhibitor of NF-κB and that annexin 1 mediates the anti-inflammatory activity of all corticosteroids. This peptide is currently being developed for clinical applications.

a. Zhang Z, Huang L, Zhao W, Rigas B. Annexin 1 induced by anti-inflammatory drugs binds to NF-kappaB and inhibits its activation: anticancer effects in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Research, 70 (6), 2379-88, 2010. PMCID: PMC2953961

5. Screening for cooperating oncogenes in leukemia:

My early research at the National University of Singapore focused on screening for oncogenes in RUNX1+/-transgenic mice. We identified cancer genes cooperated with the RUNX1 gene in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by retroviral integration. The selected four publications below summarize the main points of our work.

a. Huang L, Osato M, Yanagida M, Yamashita N, Ito Y. The myeloid features of BXH2 leukemias may result from lack of one copy of repetitive sequence in the long terminal repeat (LTR) viral enhancer. International Journal of Hematology, 85(2):170-172, 2007. PMID: 17321997

b. Asou N, Yanagida M, Huang L, Yamamoto M, Shigesada K, Mitsuya H, Ito Y, Osato M. Concurrent transcriptional deregulation of AML1/RUNX1 and GATA factors by the AML1-TRPS1 chimeric gene in t(8;21)(q24;q22) acute myeloid leukemia. Blood, 109(9): 4023-4027, 2007. PMID: 17244685

c. Yamashita N, Osato M, Huang L, Yanagida M, Kogan SC, Iwasaki M, Nakamura T, Shigesada K, Asou N, Ito Y. Haploinsufficiency of Runx1/AML1 promotes myeloid features and leukaemogenesis in BXH2 mice. British Journal of Hematology, 131(4): 495-507, 2005. PMID: 16281942

d. Yanagida M, Osato M, Yamashita N, Liqun H, Jacob B, Wu F, Cao X, Nakamura T, Yokomizo T, Takahashi S, Yamamoto M, Shigesada K, Ito Y. Increased dosage of RUNX1/AML1 acts as a positive modulator of myeloid leukemogenesis in BXH2 mice. Oncogene, 24(28): 4477-85, 2005. PMID: 15856017