Junxuan Lu, PhD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile

Junxuan Lu, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmacology
Scientific Program:Next-Generation Therapies
Research Interests
Dr. Junxuan "Johnny" Lu's research interests and expertise include angiogenesis, apoptosis, autophagy, cell cycle regulation, senescence, prostate and mammary carcinogenesis models, androgen and estrogen receptor signaling; Proteomics-iTRAQ; transcriptomics; metabolomics; PK/PD; biomarkers; immunity and cancer; and clinical translation research.
The major areas of ongoing studies in the Lu lab include:
- Herbal compounds as novel cancer chemopreventive and therapeutic agents. The Lu lab faculty and associates discovered pyranocoumarins from Korean angelica as a novel class of anti-androgens. They are studying Korean angelica extract and compounds for anti-cancer efficacy and mechanisms using xenograft and transgenic models. They are planning clinical trials in prostate cancer patients with oncologists and urologists at Penn State Cancer Institute.
- Next-gen selenium compounds for cancer chemoprevention. The Lu lab has used cell culture models (cancer, vascular endothelial cells) to identify the lead Se compounds with cancer chemopreventive potential and their cellular and molecular mechanisms. They assess in vivo efficacy in animal models including xenografts, transgenic and conditional knockout mice models. The Lu lab collaborates with chemist colleagues in the department to study novel selenium hybrid drugs.
- Precision therapy of cancer. The Lu lab has contributed to the findings that hexokinase 2 (HK2) plays a crucial role in subsets of aggressive prostate cancer and the proof of principle that co-targeting HK2-mediated Warburg effect with 2-deoxyglucose and its ULK1-mediated anti-apoptotic autophagy with chloroquine remarkably regresses these cancers in mouse models. The lab is collaborating with oncologists to repurpose these drugs to cancer patients.
- Neoplasms
- Prostatic Neoplasms
- Apoptosis
- Selenium
- Growth
- Carcinogenesis
- Prostate
- methylselenic acid
- decursin
- Androgen Receptors
- Breast Neoplasms
- Angelica
Recent Publications
2022
Lü, J, Jiang, C, Schell, TD, Joshi, M, Raman, JD & Xing, C 2022, 'Angelica gigas: Signature Compounds, In Vivo Anticancer, Analgesic, Neuroprotective and Other Activities, and the Clinical Translation Challenges', American Journal of Chinese Medicine, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1475-1527. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X2250063X
Kim, S, Li, L, Zhang, J, Jiang, C & Lü, J 2022, 'Aqueous metabolome of tissue-specific conditional Pten-knockout mouse prostate cancer and TRAMP neuroendocrine carcinoma', Prostate, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 154-166. https://doi.org/10.1002/pros.24256
Crawford, LTC, Kim, S, Karelia, D, Sepulveda, DE, Morgan, DJ, Lü, J & Henderson-Redmond, AN 2022, 'Decursinol-mediated antinociception and anti-allodynia in acute and neuropathic pain models in male mice: Tolerance and receptor profiling', Frontiers in Pharmacology, vol. 13, 968976. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.968976
Bosland, MC, Schlicht, MJ, Deng, Y & Lü, J 2022, 'Effect of Dietary Methylseleninic Acid and Se-Methylselenocysteine on Carcinogen-Induced, Androgen-Promoted Prostate Carcinogenesis in Rats', Nutrition and cancer, vol. 74, no. 10, pp. 3761-3768. https://doi.org/10.1080/01635581.2022.2093387
Hati, S, Hu, Q, Huo, Z, Lu, J & Xing, C 2022, 'In vivo Structure-Activity Relationship of Dihydromethysticin in Reducing Nicotine-Derived Nitrosamine Ketone (NNK)-Induced Lung DNA Damage against Lung Carcinogenesis in A/J Mice', ChemMedChem, vol. 17, no. 7, e202100727. https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.202100727
Karelia, DN, Kim, S, Plano, D, Sharma, AK, Jiang, C & Lu, J 2023, 'Seleno-aspirin compound AS-10 promotes histone acetylation ahead of suppressing androgen receptor transcription, G1 arrest, and apoptosis of prostate cancer cells', Prostate, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 16-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/pros.24430
Bian, T, Ding, H, Wang, Y, Hu, Q, Chen, S, Fujioka, N, Zahra Aly, F, Lu, J, Huo, Z & Xing, C 2022, 'Suppressing the activation of protein kinase A as a DNA damage-independent mechanistic lead for dihydromethysticin prophylaxis of NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis', Carcinogenesis, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 659-670. https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgac031
2021
Tang, SN, Jiang, P, Kim, S, Zhang, J, Jiang, C & Lu, J 2021, 'Interception targets of angelica gigas nakai root extract versus pyranocoumarins in prostate early lesions and neuroendocrine carcinomas in TRAMP Mice', Cancer Prevention Research, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 635-648. https://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-20-0589
Karelia, DN, Kim, S, Pandey, MK, Plano, D, Amin, S, Lu, J & Sharma, AK 2021, 'Novel seleno-aspirinyl compound as-10 induces apoptosis, g1 arrest of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells, inhibits their nf-κb signaling, and synergizes with gemcitabine cytotoxicity', International journal of molecular sciences, vol. 22, no. 9, 4966. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22094966
2020
Bian, T, Corral, P, Wang, Y, Botello, J, Kingston, R, Daniels, T, Salloum, RG, Johnston, E, Huo, Z, Lu, J, Liu, AC & Xing, C 2020, 'Kava as a clinical nutrient: Promises and challenges', Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 10, 3044, pp. 1-35. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12103044
Hu, Q, Corral, P, Narayanapillai, SC, Leitzman, P, Upadhyaya, P, O'sullivan, MG, Hecht, SS, Lu, J & Xing, C 2020, 'Oral Dosing of Dihydromethysticin Ahead of Tobacco Carcinogen NNK Effectively Prevents Lung Tumorigenesis in A/J Mice', Chemical research in toxicology, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 1980-1988. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00161
Wang, Y, Narayanapillai, SC, Tessier, KM, Strayer, LG, Upadhyaya, P, Hu, Q, Kingston, R, Salloum, RG, Lu, J, Hecht, SS, Hatsukami, DK, Fujioka, N & Xing, C 2020, 'The Impact of One-week Dietary Supplementation with Kava on Biomarkers of Tobacco Use and Nitrosamine-based Carcinogenesis Risk among Active Smokers', Cancer Prevention Research, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 483-492. https://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-19-0501
2019
Kim, S, Zhang, Y, Tang, S, Qin, C, Karelia, D, Sharma, A, Jiang, C & Lu, J 2019, 'Optimizing live-animal bioluminescence imaging prediction of tumor burden in human prostate cancer xenograft models in SCID-NSG mice', Prostate, vol. 79, no. 9, pp. 949-960. https://doi.org/10.1002/pros.23802