Lewyt College of Veterinary Medicine

ABOUT

Anait S. Levenson, MD, Ph.D

Professor of Cancer Research and Pharmacology, Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences

Email: Anait.Levenson@liu.edu

Dr. Anait S. Levenson is a Professor of Cancer Research and Pharmacology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Long Island University, Brookville, NY. Her educational background includes an MD degree from the Second Moscow State Medical Institute and a PhD in Clinical Immunology from Institute of Tuberculosis, Moscow, Russia. Upon completion of her postdoctoral training at University of Virginia, Charlottesville and Northwestern University, Chicago, she joined the Northwestern University Medical School faculty where she served for ten continuous years.  Dr. Levenson was a faculty at the Cancer Institute of University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS from 2010 - 2015. Levenson’s interest is in cancer research and drug discovery, specifically, in molecular mechanisms of hormone-dependent breast and prostate cancer. For the past several years, her laboratory has focused on understanding epigenetic mechanisms of prostate cancer progression and metastasis and on utilization of dietary agents, such as resveratrol and pterostilbene for cancer chemoprevention and treatment. Dr. Levenson has extensive experience and a strong record of accomplishment in research training and mentoring undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  Dr. Levenson is an active reviewer for numerous scientific journals, serves on the editorial boards of several journals, and is a member of national and international review panels. She served as a vice president of the American Council for Medicinally Active Plants (ACMAP) society for two years. Currently, she is a guest editor for a special issue on resveratrol and its analogs, Nutrients. Dr. Levenson is the author of more than 55 peer-reviewed publications, 5 book chapters and more than 90 abstracts. As an invited speaker at national and international meetings, Dr. Levenson gave lectures in the US, Greece, Sweden, England, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Peru, Taiwan, and India. Dr. Levenson has a strong history of directing very successful research programs and has been continuously funded throughout her career. Currently, she is funded by the Department of Defense, Prostate Cancer Research Program, IDEA Development Award, California Table Grape Commission Award, and NIH/NCI AREA R15 Grant.

Research Interests

Cancer Molecular and Cell Biology, Drug Discovery: Molecular biology and pharmacology of hormone-dependent cancers, particularly breast and prostate cancer. Molecular aspects of estrogen receptor (ER) signaling, differential pharmacology of selective ER modulators (SERMS), molecular targets and biomarkers in cancer progression and metastasis, epigenetic mechanisms in cancer, nutritional chemopreventive and therapeutic applications in cancer, dietary stilbenes and microRNAs, pre-clinical animal models (xenografts and transgenic mice) in breast and Prostate cancer and bone metastasis. 

Current projects: Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1)- targeted strategies for prostate cancer management; A grape-supplemented diet for prostate cancer chemoprevention; Pterostilbene, a potent analog of resveratrol, as a therapeutic agent in prostate cancer: epigenetic mechanisms of action.

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1FMnpCtTEcVs78/bibliography/public/

Publications - (selected manuscripts)

  • Campanelli G, Francois E, Parupathi P, Devarakonda LS, Yang C, Kumar A, Levenson AS. The therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action of gnetin C, a natural compound from melinjo plant, in a preclinical mouse model of advanced prostate cancer.  Special issue: Anticancer drug discovery based on natural products: from computational approaches to clinical studies. Cancers, 16, 1344 https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16071344, 2024. PMID: 38611022
  • Campanelli G, Al Deabel R, Puaar A, Devarakonda LS. Parupathi P, Zhang J, Waxner N, Yang C, Kumar A, Levenson AS. Molecular efficacy of Gnetin C as dual-targeted therapy for castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, doi: 10.1002/mnfr.202300479, 2023. PMID: 37863824 
  • Levenson AS. Dietary stilbenes as modulators of specific miRNAs in prostate cancer. Frontiers in Pharmacology, section Pharmacology of anti-cancer drugs 13:970280 doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.970280. PMID: 36091792
  • Parupathi P, Campanelli G, Al Deabel R., Puaar A, Devarakonda LS, Kumar A,   Levenson AS. Gnetin C intercepts MTA1-associated neoplastic progression in prostate cancer. Cancers (Basel) 14(24):6038 doi: 10.3390/cancers14246038, 2022. PMID: 36551523
  • Clementelli C, Arita Y, Ahmed S, Pijush DB, Park HJ, Levenson AS, Peltier MR. Short Communication: Ex-vivo Effects of Fluoxetine on Production of Biomarkers for Inflammation and Neurodevelopment by the Placenta.  Placenta 107: 46-50, 2021. PMID: 33765533
  • Hemani R., Patel I., Inamdar N, Campanelli G, Kumar A, Donovan V, Levenson AS. Dietary pterostilbene for MTA1-targeted interception in high-risk premalignant prostate cancer. Cancer Prevention Research doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-21-0242, 2021. PMID: 34675064 
  • Gadkari K, Kolhatkar U, Hemani R, Campanelli G, Cai Q, Kumar A, Levenson AS. Therapeutic potential of Gnetin C in prostate cancer: pre-clinical study. Nutrients 12 (12): E3631, doi:10.3390/nu12123631, 2020. PMID: 33255879
  • Joshi T, Patel I, Kumar A, Donovan V, Levenson AS. Grape powder supplementation attenuates prostate neoplasia associated with Pten haploinsufficiency in mice fed high-fat diet. Molecular Nutrients and Food Research 64 (16): e2000326, doi:10.1002/mnfr.202000326, 2020. PMID: 32618118
  • Kumar A, Dholakia K, Sikorska G, Martinez LA, Levenson AS. MTA1-dependent anticancer activity of Gnetin C in prostate cancer. Nutrients 11 (9), 2096, 2019 doi: 10.3390/nu1 1092096, 2019. PMID: 31487842
  • Levenson AS. MTA1-mediated antitumor and anticancer activity of dietary stilbenes for prostate cancer chemoprevention and therapy. Seminars in Cancer Biology 80 (2022) 107-117 doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2020.02.012., 2019.  PMID: 32126261  
  • Sakiyama MJ, Espinoza I, Reddy A, De Carlo F, Kumar A, Levenson AS, Bae S, Zhou X, Claudio PP, Lewin J, Pound CR, Gomez CR. Race-associated expression of MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence A (MICA) in Prostate Cancer, The Experimental and Molecular Pathology 108: 173-182, 2019 doi: 10.1016/j.yexmp.2019.04.010. PMID: 31004600
  • Kumar A, D’silva M, Dholakia K, Levenson AS. In vitro anticancer properties of table grape powder extract (GPE) in prostate cancer. Nutrients 10, 1804; 2018
  • Kumar A, Dhar S, Campanelli G, Butt NA, Schallheim JM, Gomez CR, Levenson AS. MTA1 drives malignant progression and bone metastasis in prostate cancer. Molecular Oncology 12 (9): 1596-1607, 2018
  • Butt NA, Kumar A, Dhar S, Rimando AM, Akhtar I, Hancock JC, Lage JM, Pound CR, Lewin JR, Gomez CR, Levenson AS. Targeting MTA1/HIF1-α signaling by pterostilbene in combination with histone deacetylase inhibitor attenuates prostate cancer progression. Cancer Medicine 6 (11):2673-2685, 2017
  • Kumar A, Rimando AM, Levenson AS. Resveratrol and pterostilbene as a microRNA-mediated chemopreventive and therapeutic strategy in prostate cancer. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences 1403 (1):15-26, 2017
  • Dhar S, Kumar A, Gomez CR, Akhtar I, Hancock JC, Lage JM, Pound CR, Levenson AS. MTA1-activated Epi- microRNA-22 regulates E-cadherin and prostate cancer invasiveness. FEBS Letters 591:924-933, 2017  
  • Chakraborty S, Kumar A, Butt NA, Zhang L, Williams R, Rimando AM, Biswas PK, Levenson AS. Molecular insight into the differential anti-androgenic activity of resveratrol and its natural analogs: In silico approach to understand biological actions.  Molecular BioSystems 12: 1702-1709, 2016
  • Dhar S, Kumar A, Zhang L, Rimando AM, Lage JM, Lewin JR, Atfi A, Zhang X, Levenson AS.  Dietary pterostilbene is a novel MTA1-targeted chemopreventive and therapeutic agent in prostate cancer. Oncotarget 7:18469-18484, 2016
  • Kumar A, Dhar S, Rimando AM, Lage JM, Lewin JR, Zhang X, Levenson AS.  Epigenetic potential of resveratrol and analogs in preclinical models of prostate cancer. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences 1348:1-9, 2015
  • Dhar S, Kumar A, Rimando AM, Zhang X, Levenson AS. Resveratrol and pterostilbene epigenetically restore PTEN expression by targeting oncomiRs of the miR-17 family in   prostate cancer. Oncotarget 6:27214-27226, 2015
  • Dhar S, Kumar A, Li K, Zhang X, Tzivion G, Levenson AS. Resveratrol regulates PTEN/Akt pathway through inhibition of MTA1/HDAC unit of the NuRD complex in prostate cancer. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (Molecular Cell Research) 1853:265-275, 2015
  • Levenson AS*, Kumar A, Zhang X. MTA family of proteins in prostate cancer: biology, significance, and therapeutic opportunities. Cancer Metastasis Reviews 33:929-942, 2014 (*, corresponding author)
  • Chakraborty S, Levenson AS*, Biswas PK. Structural insights into Resveratrol’s antagonist and partial agonist actions on estrogen receptor alpha. BMC Structural Biology 13:27, 2013 (*, corresponding author)
  • Dias SJ, Zhou X, Ivanovic M, Gailey MP, Dhar S, Zhang L, He Z, Penman AD, Vijayakumar S, Levenson AS. Nuclear MTA1 overexpression is associated with aggressive prostate cancer, recurrence and metastasis in African American men. Scientific Reports3, 2331: doi: 10.1038/srep02331, 2013 
  • Li K, Dias SJ, Rimando AM, Dhar S, Mizuno C, Penman AD, Lewin JR, Levenson AS. Pterostilbene acts through metastasis-associated protein 1 to inhibit tumor progression and metastasis in prostate cancer. PLoS ONE8 (3): e57542, 201
  • Dias SJ, Li K, Rimando AM, Dhar S, Mizuno C, Penman AD, Levenson AS. Trimethoxy-resveratrol and piceatannol administered orally suppress and inhibit tumor formation and growth in prostate cancer xenografts. The Prostate 73: 1135-1146, 2013
  • Kai L and Levenson AS. Combination of resveratrol and antiandrogen flutamide has synergistic effect on androgen receptor inhibition in prostate cancer cells. Anticancer Research 33: 3323-3330, 2011  
  • Dhar S, Hicks C, Levenson AS. Resveratrol and prostate cancer: promising role for microRNAs. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research 55: 1219-1229, 2011 
  • Kai L, Wang J, Ivanovic M, Chung Y-T, Laskin WB, Schulze-Hoepfner F, Mirochnik Y, Satcher RL, Levenson AS. Targeting prostate cancer angiogenesis through metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1). The Prostate 71: 268-280, 2011 
  • Mazan-Mamczarz K, Hagner PR, Corl S, Srikantan S, Wood WH, Becker KG, Gorospe M, Keene JD, Levenson AS, Gartenhaus R. Post-transcriptional gene regulation by HuR promotes a more tumorigenic phenotype. Oncogene 27:6151-63, 2008
  • Levenson AS*, Thurn TE, Simons LA, Veliceasa D, Jarrett J, Osipo C, Jordan VC, Volpert OV, Satcher RL, Gartenhaus RB. Overexpression of MCT1 oncogene contributes to increase in vivo tumorigenicity of MCF7 cells by promotion of angiogenesis and inhibition of apoptosis. Cancer Research 65: 10651-6, 2005 (*, corresponding author)
  • Levenson AS*, Gehm BD, Timm Pearce S, Horiguchi J, Simons LA, Ward III JE, Jameson JL, Jordan VC. Resveratrol acts as an estrogen receptor (ER) agonist in breast cancer cells stably transfected with ERα. International Journal of Cancer 104: 587-596, 2003 (Cover story and art, May 1, *, corresponding author)
  • Levenson AS*, Svoboda KM, Pease KM, Kaiser SA, Chen B, Simons LA, Jovanovic BD, Dyck PA, Jordan VC. Gene expression profiles with activation of the ER-SERM complex in breast cancer cells expressing wt ER. Cancer Research 62: 4419-4426, 2002 (*, corresponding author)
  • Levenson AS, MacGregor Schafer JI, Bentrem DJ, Pease KM, Jordan VC. Control of the estrogen-like actions of the tamoxifen-estrogen receptor complex by the surface amino acid at position 351. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 76: 61-70, 2001
  • Levenson AS and Jordan VC. Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulation. Millennium Review 2000. European Journal of Cancer 35: 1628-1639, 1999 
  • Levenson AS and Jordan VC. The key to the antiestrogenic mechanism of raloxifene is amino acid 351 (Asp) in the estrogen receptor. Cancer Research 58: 1872-1875, 1998
  • Levenson AS, Svoboda KM, Kwaan HC, Jordan VC. Agonist activity of antiestrogen-receptor complexes to regulate urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) endogenous gene expression in breast cancer cells. Cancer Letters 125: 215-220, 1998
  • Levenson AS and Jordan VC. MCF-7: The first hormone responsive breast cancer cell line. Perspectives in Cancer Research. Cancer Research 57: 3071-3078, 1997