Academic literature on the topic 'Therapeutic potential of anticancer immunotoxins'

To date, generation of single-chain fragment variable (scFv) has become an established technique used to produce a completely functional antigen-binding fragment in bacterial systems. The advances in antibody engineering have now facilitated a more efficient and generally applicable method to produce Fv fragments. Basically, scFv antibodies produced from phage display can be genetically fused to the marker proteins, such as fluorescent proteins or alkaline phosphatase. These bifunctional proteins having both antigen-binding capacity and marker activity can be obtained from transformed bacteria and used for one-step immunodetection of biological agents. Alternatively, antibody fragments could also be applied in the construction of immunotoxins, therapeutic gene delivery, and anticancer intrabodies for therapeutic purposes. This paper provides an overview of the current studies on the principle, generation, and application of scFv. The potential of scFv in breast cancer research is also discussed in this paper.

Despite of the fact that current anticancer chemotherapeutics have many beneficial achievements, there is an urgent need for new efficient therapies. A new type of drugs which are extensively investigated are immunotoxinshybrid proteins that consist of cytotoxic component and second part which is responsible for selective binding to the receptors on tumor cells. Unfortunately, this group of therapeutics still has many drawbacks. There is a strong demand for research on a new substances and develo-ping targeted therapy strategies. In the present study we tested VapC toxin derived from prokaryotic addictive modules as a potential component in the construction of immunotoxins. Investigated fusion protein consists of VapC toxin has RNase activity and digests total RNA in various treatment times. Moreover, studied protein displays proapoptotic properties and cell cycle arrest in selected cancer cell lines.

Despite the progress of the bioinformatics approach to characterize cell-surface antigens and receptors on tumor cells, it remains difficult to generate novel cancer vaccines or neutralizing monoclonal antibody therapeutics. Among targeted cancer therapeutics, biologicals with targetable antibodies or ligands conjugated or fused to toxins or chemicals for direct cell-killing ability have been developed over the last 2 decades. These conjugated or fused chimeric proteins are termed immunotoxins or cytotoxic agents. Two agents, DAB389IL-2 (ONTAKTM) targeting the interleukin-2 receptor and CD33-calicheamicin (Mylotarg®), have been approved by the FDA for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) and relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML), respectively. Such targetable agents, including RFB4(dsFv)-PE38 (BL22), IL13-PE38QQR, and Tf-CRM107, are being tested in clinical trials. Several agents using unique technology such as a cleavable adapter or immunoliposomes with antibodies are also in the preclinical stage. This review summarizes the generation, mechanism, and development of these agents. In addition, possible future directions of this therapeutic approach are discussed.

Abstract Immunotoxins based on Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE) are promising anticancer agents that combine a variable fragment (Fv) from an antibody to a tumor-associated antigen with a 38-kDa fragment of PE (PE38). The intoxication pathway of PE immunotoxins involves receptor-mediated internalization and trafficking through endosomes/lysosomes, during which the immunotoxin undergoes important proteolytic processing steps but must otherwise remain intact for eventual transport to the cytosol. We have investigated the proteolytic susceptibility of PE38 immunotoxins to lysosomal proteases and found that cleavage clusters within a limited segment of PE38. We subsequently generated mutants containing deletions in this region using HA22, an anti-CD22 Fv-PE38 immunotoxin currently undergoing clinical trials for B-cell malignancies. One mutant, HA22-LR, lacks all identified cleavage sites, is resistant to lysosomal degradation, and retains excellent biologic activity. HA22-LR killed chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells more potently and uniformly than HA22, suggesting that lysosomal protease digestion may limit immunotoxin efficacy unless the susceptible domain is eliminated. Remarkably, mice tolerated doses of HA22-LR at least 10-fold higher than lethal doses of HA22, and these higher doses exhibited markedly enhanced antitumor activity. We conclude that HA22-LR advances the therapeutic efficacy of HA22 by using an approach that may be applicable to other PE-based immunotoxins.

Due to its incidence and mortality, cancer remains one of the main risks to human health and lifespans. In order to overcome this worldwide disease, immunotherapy and the therapeutic use of immunotoxins have arisen as promising approaches. However, the immunogenicity of foreign proteins limits the dose of immunotoxins administered, thereby leading to a decrease in its therapeutic benefit. In this study, we designed two different variants of non-immunogenic immunotoxins (IMTXA33αSDI and IMTXA33furαSDI) based on a deimmunized variant of the ribotoxin α-sarcin. The inclusion of a furin cleavage site in IMTXA33furαSDI would allow a more efficient release of the toxic domain to the cytosol. Both immunotoxins were produced and purified in the yeast Pichia pastoris and later functionally characterized (both in vitro and in vivo), and immunogenicity assays were carried out. The results showed that both immunotoxins were functionally active and less immunogenic than the wild-type immunotoxin. In addition, IMTXA33furαSDI showed a more efficient antitumor effect (both in vitro and in vivo) due to the inclusion of the furin linker. These results constituted a step forward in the optimization of immunotoxins with low immunogenicity and enhanced antitumor activity, which can lead to potential better outcomes in cancer treatment.

Tumor response to therapeutic treatment is largely determined by its heterogeneity and the presence of intercellular junctions, hindering the penetration of large molecules deep into the three-dimensional structure of the tumor. In that context, 3D in vitro tumor models such as cancer cell spheroids are becoming increasingly popular. We obtained spheroids of human breast adenocarcinoma SKBR-3 overexpressing the HER2 cancer marker. The toxicity of HER2-targeted immunotoxin 4D5scFv-PE40 against spheroids was shown to be several orders of magnitude lower compared to a monolayer cell culture. The significant difference in the severity of the immunotoxin effect can be explained by the fact that it ineffectively penetrates the spheroid and predominantly influences the cells of the outer layers. The resulting tumor spheroid model can be used in development of drugs for targeted therapy as well as to study ways to improve the efficiency of anticancer agents by targeting cell-cell contacts.

Immunotoxins are chimeric molecules that combine the specificity of an antibody to recognize and bind tumor antigens with the potency of the enzymatic activity of a toxin, thus, promoting the death of target cells. Among them, RNases-based immunotoxins have arisen as promising antitumor therapeutic agents. In this work, we describe the production and purification of two new immunoconjugates, based on RNase T1 and the fungal ribotoxin α-sarcin, with optimized properties for tumor treatment due to the inclusion of a furin cleavage site. Circular dichroism spectroscopy, ribonucleolytic activity studies, flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, and cell viability assays were carried out for structural and in vitro functional characterization. Our results confirm the enhanced antitumor efficiency showed by these furin-immunotoxin variants as a result of an improved release of their toxic domain to the cytosol, favoring the accessibility of both ribonucleases to their substrates. Overall, these results represent a step forward in the design of immunotoxins with optimized properties for potential therapeutic application in vivo.

The aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) superfamily is gaining momentum in regard to stem cell and cancer research. However, their regulation and expression in the cancer microenvironment is poorly understood. The aim of this work was to understand the role of selected ALDH isoforms (1A1, 1A2, 1A3, 1B1, 2, 3A1 and 7A1) in colorectal cancer (CRC) and explore the impact of hypoxia on their expression. CRC cell lines (HT29, DLD-1, SW480 and HCT116) were grown under normoxic or hypoxic conditions (0.1% O2) and HT29 and DLD-1 in spinner flasks to generate multicellular spheroids (MCS). Hypoxia was demonstrated to have an impact on the ALDH expression, which appeared cell-specific. Notably, ALDH7A1 was induced upon exposure to hypoxia in both HT29 and DLD-1 cells, shown to be expressed in the hypoxic region of the MCS variants and in 5/5 CRC xenografts (HT29, DLD-1, HCT116, SW620, and COLO205). ALDH7A1 siRNA knockdown studies in DLD-1 cells resulted in significant reduction of viable cells and significant increase in ROS levels, suggesting ALDH7A1 to possess antioxidant properties. These findings were further supported using isogenic H1299/RFP and H1299/ALDH7A1 lung cancer cell lines. ALDH7A1, however, was found not to be involved in inhibiting the pharmacological effect or causing resistance to different cytotoxic and molecularly targeted anticancer drugs. To unravel the functional role of ALDH7A1, 9 compounds obtained from a virtual screening of 24,000 compounds from the Maybridge collection of compounds were used to probe ALDH7A1 functional activity. One compound, HAN00316, was found to inhibit the antioxidant properties of ALDH7A1 and thus could be a good starting point for further chemical tool development. Although this study underpins a potential important role of ALDH7A1 in hypoxic CRC, further work is required to fully validate its potential as a biomarker and/or pharmacological target.
Jordan University of Science and Technology

The aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) superfamily is gaining momentum in regard to stem cell and cancer research. However, their regulation and expression in the cancer microenvironment is poorly understood. The aim of this work was to understand the role of selected ALDH isoforms (1A1, 1A2, 1A3, 1B1, 2, 3A1 and 7A1) in colorectal cancer (CRC) and explore the impact of hypoxia on their expression. CRC cell lines (HT29, DLD-1, SW480 and HCT116) were grown under normoxic or hypoxic conditions (0.1% O2) and HT29 and DLD-1 in spinner flasks to generate multicellular spheroids (MCS). Hypoxia was demonstrated to have an impact on the ALDH expression, which appeared cell-specific. Notably, ALDH7A1 was induced upon exposure to hypoxia in both HT29 and DLD-1 cells, shown to be expressed in the hypoxic region of the MCS variants and in 5/5 CRC xenografts (HT29, DLD-1, HCT116, SW620, and COLO205). ALDH7A1 siRNA knockdown studies in DLD-1 cells resulted in significant reduction of viable cells and significant increase in ROS levels, suggesting ALDH7A1 to possess antioxidant properties. These findings were further supported using isogenic H1299/RFP and H1299/ALDH7A1 lung cancer cell lines. ALDH7A1, however, was found not to be involved in inhibiting the pharmacological effect or causing resistance to different cytotoxic and molecularly targeted anticancer drugs. To unravel the functional role of ALDH7A1, 9 compounds obtained from a virtual screening of 24,000 compounds from the Maybridge collection of compounds were used to probe ALDH7A1 functional activity. One compound, HAN00316, was found to inhibit the antioxidant properties of ALDH7A1 and thus could be a good starting point for further chemical tool development. Although this study underpins a potential important role of ALDH7A1 in hypoxic CRC, further work is required to fully validate its potential as a biomarker and/or pharmacological target.

Title page, table of contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library.
The aim of the work described in this thesis was initially to screen the ethanol extracts of eleven Indonesian ginger species (Zingiberaceae family) for anticancer activity. MCF-7 breast and HT-29 colon cancer cells were used for the investigations. Extracts of Zingiber aromaticum and Boesenbergia pandurata were found to be the most active species, similar to that of Curcuma langa which has been shown to possess anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo (Aruna and Sivaramakrishnan, 1992; Azuine and Bhide, 1992). These two active species were then further investigated. Bioactive compounds from the species were isolated and identified using various chromatography procedures and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and their anticancer activities were further tested on MCF-7 breast and HT-29 colon cancer cells including cell cycle analysis and measurements of apoptosis. The ethanol extracts of these two active species were also investigated using the AOM-induced colon cancer model in rats. The antiinflammatory activity of the ethanol extract of Z. aromaticum was also investigated using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced ulcerative colitis (UC) in rats. The inhibitory activity of ethanol extracts of rhizomes of 11 ginger species was initially tested against MCF-7 breast and HT-29 colon cancer cells using colorimetric tetrazolium salt (MTT) assay. Ethanol extracts of eight species (Amommum cardamomum, C. longa, C. mangga, C. xanthorrhiza, Boesenbergia pandurata, Zingiber aromaticum, Z. officinale, Z. cassumunar) showed a strong inhibitory effect on the growth of the cancer cells with the IC50 concentrations between 100-100 g/ml. The ethanol extract of Curcuma aeruginosa was less active (IC5o between 100-120 g/ml) and extracts of Kaempferia galangal and K. rotunda had no effect on the growth of either cell lines at concentrations up to 250 g/ml. Ethanol extract of C. longa was used as a comparison since curcumin, an active compound isolated from this species, has had demonstrated its anticancer activity in vitro, in vivo and is currently undergoing clinical trial against colon cancer (Greenwald, et al., 2001; Sharma et al., 2001). Extracts of Z. aromaticum and B. pandurata had very strong inhibitory activity similar to the extract of C. longa. Curcumin was not detectable in either Z. aromaticum or B. pandurata. The ethanol extracts of the active species were not toxic on human skin fibroblast cells (SF 3169). The ethanol extracts of Z. aromaticum and B. pandurata were further fractionated using two different solvents by reversed phase preparative HPLC. Fraction A was eluted with a mobile phase containing 5% vlv aqueous methanol containing 0.025% v/v trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and fraction B was eluted with 100% methanol. The inhibitory activity of fractions was then investigated against HT-29 colon cancer cells and assayed using the MTT assay. Zerumbone, a sesquiterpenoid compound was isolated from fraction B of the extract of Z. aromaticum and a chalcone derivative, panduratin A was isolated from fraction B of the extract of B. pandurata. Curcumin was in fraction A of extract of C. longa. The anticancer activity of zerumbone and panduratin A was investigated using MCF-7 breast. HT-29 and CaCo-2 colon cancer cells. The inhibitory activity of the active compounds was assessed using the MTT assay. The ICso of zerumbone in each of the cell lines was about 10 uM and of curcumin on HTU29 cells was 25 uM. The IC50 of panduratin A in HT-29 cells was 16 uM and in MCF-7 cells was 9 uM. Zerumbone and panduratin A showed antiproliferative effects by alteration of the DNA distribution in the cell cycle and induction of apoptosis. HT-29 cells treated with zerumbone at concentrations of 10 -25 uM or panduratin A at concentrations of 9 -65 uM for 24 h were stained with propidium iodide (PI) to determine cell cycle distribution and analysed using FACScan flow cytometry. The proportion of cells in the S phase was reduced from 18.7% in untreated cells to 10.2% in HT-29 cells after treatment with zerumbone at 10 uM to 3.1% at 25 uM. Cells in the G2 phase increased from 18.5% at 10 uM to 40% at a concentration of 25 uM. Panduratin A increased the proportion of cells in the GO/G1 phase from 33% of untreated cells to 71% after treatment with 65 uM for 24 h. Panduratin A slightly reduced the proportion of cells in S phase and cells in G2/M phase also decreased from 36,8% in untreated cells to 15.4% at 65 M. Apoptosis was determined using double labelled (Annexin-V-Fluos and PI) and then evaluated using FACScan Flow Cytometry. Morphological features of apoptosis were also examined using DiffQuick stain and fluorescent Hoechst 3355 and 4,6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). Zerumbone induced apoptosis in HT-29 cells in a dose dependent rnanner, At 48 h, 2% of cells treated with 10 M of zerumbone underwent apoptosis, which increased to 8% when treated with 50 M, Panduratin A at 28 M increased the number of cells undergoing apoptosis from 2,2% to 16.7% when treated with a concentration of 65 M. The ethanolic extracts of Z. aromaticum and B. pandurata were also investigated using the azoxymethane (AOM) induced aberrant crypt foci (ACF) model of colon cancer in rats in a short and long term study. Ethanolic extracts of C. tonga and curcumin were used as comparison. The basal diet used throughout all animal studies in this thesis was a semi-purified AIN-93 G diet (Reeves et aI., 1993). ACF were induced by two doses (15 mg/kg BW) subcutaneously of AOM one week apart and ACF were visualised in the formalin fixed colon using methylene blue stain. The ACF study was run over a short (5 weeks) and long (13 weeks) experiments. Diets containing ethanol extracts prepared from the equivalent of 2% (w/w) dried rhizome of Z. aromaticum, B. pandurate or C. tonga in a short term study did not affect the formation of ACF in rats compared to those in the control diet group. The ACF formation in a short term study was dominated by small numbers of aberrant crypts (1 or 2) per focus. It is suggested that large ACF (4 or more ACs/focus) are better predictors of colon cancer (Uchida et aI., 1997; Jenab et aI., 2001). Diets containing ethanol extracts of the equivalent of 4% by weight of dried rhizomes of Z. aromaticum, B. pandurata, C. longa were investigated over 13 week study, Total ACF were significantly reduced by Z. aromaticum extract (0.34%) in the diet (down 21%, p<0.05) relative to rats fed the control diet. A similar reduction was observed with C, longa extract (0.86%) in the diet (down 24%, p<0.01) and with 2000 ppm curcumin. There was no significant different in small ACFs (1-2 ACs/ focus) between dietary treatments. The number of foci containing 3-4 ACs/focus was significantly reduced (35%, p<0,001) in animals fed the Z. aromaticum extract and 34% (p<0.001) of animals fed the C. tonga extract. The total number of ACF containing 5 or more ACs per focus of animals fed 0.34% Z. aromaticum extract was 41 % lower than control (p<0.05) and for 0.86 % C. tonga extract was 22% (not significant). A diet containing extract (0.56%) of B. pandurata did not significantly affect the formation of ACF compared to the control AIN group. The concentration of zerumbone in the Z.aromaticum extract diet was assayed at 300 ppm, and of curcumin in the C. tonga extract diet was also 300 ppm. The concentration of panduratin A was not assayed in the diet due to late identification of the active compound. The antiinflammatory activity of ethanol extract of Z. aromaticum was investigated using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced ulcerative colitis in rats. Sulfasalazine, a widely used compound to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in humans was used as the positive control. Diets containing ethanol extracts (0.34% and 0.68%) prepared from the equivalent of 4% and 8% by weight of dried rhizomes of Z. aromaticum were given to the animals throughout the experiment. On day three, rats were given 2% DSS in drinking water for 5 d and then just water for 3 d and then were killed. During the DSS treatment rats were maintained in metabolic cages, body weight, food and fluid intake and clinical symptoms such as consistency of stools and blood in faeces were recorded daily. There was slight but not significant reduction in the body weight of rats fed 0.68% extract of Z. aromaticum in the diet due to reduced food consumption. The extract of Z. aromaticum (0.34%) and sulfasalazine suppressed clinical signs of ulcerative colitis. Eleven percent of the controls were hemoccult positive on day 2 after DSS administration, which progressed further by day three with 67% being hemoccult positive and 100 % on day five. By comparison, blood appeared on day 3 of rats treated with diet containing 0.34% and 0.68% extract of Z. aromaticum and 0.05% sulfasalazine, and only 33%, 67% and 22%, of rats being hemoccult positive on day 5 respectively. The disease activity index (DAI) of rats fed diet containing 0.34% extract of Z. aromaticum was about 0.4 and similar to those which were fed with diet containing sulfasalazine. The DAI of untreated rats was 1.4. The crypt score of rats fed the extract of Z. aromaticum was slightly reduced but it was not significantly different from those of untreated rats. Other histological scores were not significantly different between dietary treatments. Extract of Z. aromaticum significantly decreased the content of PGE-2 in colon tissue compared to that of untreated animals. There was a reduction of TX8-2 content in colonic tissue of rats fed with extracts of Z. aromaticum but this was not significant. The activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the colonic tissue of rats fed with sulfasalazine was significantly lower than that of the untreated controls and those which fed with extracts of Z. aromaticum. The results from the studies performed in this thesis showed that extract of Z. aromaticum which contains an active sesquiterpenoid zerumbone have anticancer and antiinflammatory activity suggesting that the extract may have benefits as a chernopreventative agent. However further studies are needed to elucidate their other pharmacological actions. Panduratin A showed potential anticancer activity in cell culture in vitro. However an extract of B. pandurata did not have effect on the AOM-induced colon cancer model. Different cancer models such as breast and prostate cancer could be used to further investigate the anticancer activity of extract of B. pandurata and panduratin A and to elucidate their mechanism.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept of Medicine, 2003

博士
國立臺灣大學
毒理學研究所
97
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The incidence of HCC is estimated to range from ranging 500,000 to 1,000,000 new cases annually, causing 600,000 deaths worldwide per year. Surgery with curative intent is achievable for only 15 to 25% of patients, and most patients die from locally advanced or metastatic disease in a relatively short period of time. To date, cytotoxic chemotherapy has not been a standard treatment for HCC. With intensive research on the molecular biology of HCC, several important intracellular signaling pathways such as the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway and the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway have been identified as involved in the carcinogenesis and tumor progression of HCC. Recently, molecular targeted therapy, which acts on these dysregulated signal transduction pathways, has shown promise as a treatment for advanced HCC. Development of novel agents to enhance the effectiveness of treatment is mandatory. OSU-03012 is a derivative of celecoxib, a cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor which has been shown to induce cell death in various types of cancer cells, including prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer. The mechanism of action is presumably through inhibition of the 3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1)/Akt signaling pathway. In addition to PDK-1/Akt signaling inhibition, OSU-03012 might also have effects on other important signaling pathways. For example, OSU-03012 has been reported to cause a PDK1/Akt-independent cell death in glioma cells. These findings suggest that OSU-03012 might be a multi-targeted inhibitor which exerts its functions in a cell type-dependent manner. Autophagy has been recognized as a cellular catabolic degradation response to starvation or stress where cellular proteins and organelles are engulfed, digested and recycled to maintain cellular metabolism. The process of autophagy starts by sequestering a portion of the cytoplasm and intracellular organelles in a double-membrane-bound structure known as the autophagosome. These autophagosomes subsequently fuse with lysosomes to form autolysosomes, in which the sequestered contents are degraded by lysosomal hydrolases. Recent studies demonstrated that autophagy also has an active role in cell death. Autophagy or autophagic cell death, also known as type II programmed cell death, has been shown to be a response to various anticancer therapies in many kinds of cancer cells. In this study, we showed that OSU-03012 inhibits growth of Huh7, Hep3B, and HepG2 cells within a low micromolor range. TUNEL assay and flow cytometry analysis indicated that no apoptotic cell death was induced by OSU-03012 treatment. Active caspase-3 and cleaved PARP, two biochemical markers of apoptosis, were undetectable by Western blot analysis in OSU-03012-treated Huh7 cells. OSU-03012 induced a significantly increased S-phase population in Huh7 cells. Interestingly, OSU-03012 induced autophagy in Huh7 cells, evidenced by MDC staining, electron microscopy image and Western blot analysis of MAP1-LC3, an important marker of autophagy. OSU-03012-induced autophagy as well as cytotoxicity was partially reversed by silencing ATG5, a gene involved in autophagy, or 3-MA, a widely used autophagy chemical inhibitor. The xenograft tumor model demonstrated that OSU-03012 suppressed Huh7 tumor growth. These findings suggest that autophagy is a mechanism which contributes to the in vivo cytotoxic effect of OSU-03012. We next demonstrated that OSU-03012 induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by using H2DCFDA-based flow cytometry and florescence microscopy detection. While high levels of ROS often induce apoptotic cell death through caspase activation, ROS cause autophagic cell death in different cancer cells under certain physiological conditions. The ROS scavengers N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and tiron abrogated OSU-03012-induced autophagy and subsequent cytotoxicity. We found that OSU-03012 increased ROS accumulation which in turn induced ER stress and ERK1/2 activation. Knockdown of Bip, an ER stress marker, enhanced OSU-03012-induced autophagy, while overexpression of Bip decreased OSU-03012-induced autophagy and subsequent cytotoxicity, suggesting that ER stress is involved in OSU-03012-induced autophagic cell death and Bip protects the cells from OSU-03012-induced cell death. In parallel, we found that inhibition of ERK1/2 activated by ROS accumulation reversed OSU-03012-induced cytotoxicity in Huh7 cells. We showed that activated ERK1/2 triggered a decrease in the p27 kip1 protein level, which may result in arrested or prolonged S-phase cells. We further demonstrated that the expression of cyclin A and CDK2, two G1/S-related proteins, were increased by OSU-03012. In conclusion, our results show that the orally bioavailable drug OSU-03012 induces autophagic but not apoptotic cell death in HCC, and that this autophagy-inducing activity is in part related to ROS accumulation. This study demonstrates a novel biological effect of OSU-03012 which supports its clinical potential as a component of therapeutic strategies for HCC.

Sanguinarine (SNG), a natural compound with an array of pharmacological activities, has promising therapeutic potential against a number of pathological conditions, including malignancies. This research aimed to investigate the antiproliferative and anti-cancer potential of SNG against two well characterized papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) cell lines, BCPAP and TPC-1 .In both cell lines , SNG was able to inhibit cell proliferation in time and dose dependent manner. Western blot analysis revealed increased expression of apoptosis and autophagy markers , caspase-3,cleaved caspase-3 , P62, and LC3. SNG modulate its anticancer effect through ROS production, because NAC was able to reverse SNG effect. Interestingly, co-treatment of PTC with SNG and cisplatin amplified anticancer activity. Finally, SNG treatment of PTC spheroid suppressed its growth with downregulation of stemness markers including ALDH2 and SOX2 markers. In conclusion, SNG enhanced the anti cancer activity against PTC cells and the effect is amplified when cisplatin is added.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequently diagnosed malignancy, as well as a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in men globally. Despite the initial response to hormonal targeted therapy, the majority of patients ultimately progress to a lethal form of the disease, termed as castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which currently lacks curative therapeutic options and is associated with poor prognosis. Therefore, the development of novel treatment modalities for PCa is urgently needed. Chalcones, also known as 1,3-diphenyl-2-propen-1-ones, are among the highly attractive scaffolds being investigated for their antitumor activities. Three series of 18 cyclic (tetralone-based) and two acyclic chalcone analogs, in which ring B was either substituted with nitrogen mustard or replaced by pyrrole or pyridine heterocyclic rings, were designed, synthesized and evaluated as potential therapies for CRPC. Compounds were synthesized by Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction, purified using columnchromatography or recrystallization and characterized by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and LC-MS. The compounds' in-vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated against three prostate cancer cell lines (PC3, DU145, and LNCaP). Among the tested compounds, OH14, OH19 and OH22 showed potent antiproliferative activities at low micromolar levels with IC50 values ranging between 4.4 and 10 µM against PC3 and DU145 cell lines. Detailed biological studies of the lead molecule OH19 revealed that it significantly induces apoptosis through upregulation of Bax and downregulation of BCL-2. In addition, OH19 potently inhibits colony formation and reduces cell migration of androgen-independent PCa cell lines (PC3 and DU145). The molecular pathway analysis show that the anticancer activity of OH19 is associated with attenuation in the phosphorylation of Akt and ERK. Furthermore, OH19 inhibits blood vessel formation in the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model as compared to control. These results indicate that OH19 could serve as a potential promising lead molecule for the treatment of CRPC and thus, further in-vitro and invivo studies are warranted.

Nanoscale particulate systems have been studied as the delivery vehicle of various drugs and therapeutic agents for decades with promising outcomes. Recently, nano-particulate systems that are responsive to one or more environmental stimuli (such as temperature, pH, and electromagnetic field) are attracting increasing attention because they allow drug delivery and release to be done in a more controllable fashion [1]. The thermally (temperature) responsive nanoparticles are of particular interest to many researchers because the temperature controlled release of the encapsulated drug can be conveniently done with either thermo (using supraphysiologic temperatures) or cryo (using sub-zero temperature) therapies, minimally invasive energy-based surgical techniques that have been widely studied as potential alternatives to radical surgical intervention for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Moreover, a significantly improved outcome of cancer treatment has been reported by combining thermotherapy (using supraphysiologic temperatures) and anticancer drug encapsulated in thermally responsive nanoparticles [2]. Here, we report thermally responsive nanocapsules that can be combined with cryotherapy for cancer treatment.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic effects of Jianpi Liqi decoction (JPLQD) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and explore its underlying mechanisms. Methods: The characteristics and outcomes of HCC patients with intermediate stage B who underwent sequential conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (cTACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) only or in conjunction with JPLQD were analysed retrospectively. The plasma proteins were screened using label-free quantitative proteomics analysis. The effective mechanisms of JPLQD were predicted through network pharmacology approach and partially verified by ELISA. Results: Clinical research demonstrated that the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome scores, neutropenia and bilirubin, median progression-free survival (PFS), and median overall survival (OS) in HCC patients treated with JPLQD were superior to those in patients not treated with JPLQD (all P<0.05). The analysis of network pharmacology, combined with proteomics, suggested that 52 compounds targeted 80 potential targets, which were involved in the regulation of multiple signaling pathways, especially affecting the apoptosis-related pathways including TNF, p53, PI3K-AKT, and MAPK. Plasma IGFBP3 and CA2 were significantly up-regulated in HCC patients with sequential cTACE and RFA therapy treated with JPLQD than those in patients not treated with JPLQD (P<0.001). The AUC of the IGFBP3 and CA2 panel, estimated using ROC analysis for JPLQD efficacy evaluation, was 0.867. Conclusion: These data suggested that JPLQD improves the quality of life, prolongs the overall survival, protects liver function in HCC patients, and exhibits an anticancer activity against HCC. IGFBP3 and CA2 panels may be potential therapeutic targets and indicators in the efficacy evaluation for JPLQD treatment, and the effective mechanisms involved in the regulation of multiple signaling pathways, possibly affected the regulation of apoptosis.