The relationship between 67KD laminin receptor expression and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Recent Advances in Anticancer Activities and Drug Delivery Systems of Tannins

Tannins, polyphenols in medicinal plants, have been divided into two groups of hydrolysable and condensed tannins, including gallotannins, ellagitannins, and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Potent anticancer activities have been observed in tannins (especially EGCG) with multiple mechanisms, such as apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, and inhibition of invasion and metastases. Furthermore, the combinational effects of tannins and anticancer drugs have been demonstrated in this review, including chemoprotective, chemosensitive, and antagonizing effects accompanying with anticancer effect. However, the applications of tannins have been hindered due to their poor liposolubility, low bioavailability, off-taste, and shorter half-life time in human body, such as EGCG, gallic acid, and ellagic acid. To tackle these obstacles, novel drug delivery systems have been employed to deliver tannins with the aim of improving their applications, such as gelatin nanoparticles, micelles, nanogold, liposomes, and so on. In this review, the chemical characteristics, anticancer properties, and drug delivery systems of tannins were discussed with an attempt to provide a systemic reference to promote the development of tannins as anticancer agents.

Improving the Anticancer Efficacy of Laminin Receptor-Specific Therapeutic Ruthenium Nanoparticles (RuBB-Loaded EGCG-RuNPs) via ROS-Dependent Apoptosis in SMMC-7721 Cells

Functionalization can promote the uptake of nanoparticles into cancer cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis, enabling them to exert their therapeutic effects. In this paper, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which has a high binding affinity to 67 kDa laminin receptor (67LR) overexpressed in HCC cells, was employed in the present study to functionalized ruthenium nanoparticles (RuNPs) loaded with luminescent ruthenium complexes to achieve antiliver cancer efficacy. [Ru(bpy)2(4-B)] (ClO4)2·2H2O (RuBB)-loaded EGCG-RuNPs (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) showed small particle size with narrow distribution, better stability, and high selectivity between liver cancer and normal cells. The internalization of RuBB-loaded EGCG-RuNPs was inhibited by 67LR-blocking antibody or laminin, suggesting that 67LR-mediated endocytosis played an important role in the uptake into HCC cells. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy and confocal microscopic images showed that RuBB-loaded EGCG-RuNPs accumulated in the cytoplasm of SMMC-7721 cells. Furthermore, our results indicated that the EGCG-functionalized nanoparticles displayed enhanced anticancer effects in a target-specific manner. Concentrations of RuBB-loaded EGCG-RuNPs, nontoxic in normal L-02 cells, showed direct reactive oxygen species-dependent cytotoxic, pro-apoptotic, and anti-invasive effects in SMMC-7721 cells. Furthermore, in vivo animal study demonstrated that RuBB-loaded EGCG-RuNPs possessed high antitumor efficacy on tumor-bearing nude mice. It is encouraging to conclude that the multifunctional RuNPs may form the basis of new strategies on the treatment of liver cancer and other malignancies.

Proteomics for the discovery of nuclear bile acid receptor FXR targets

Nuclear receptors (NRs) are important pharmacological targets for a number of diseases, including cancer and metabolic disorders. To unmask the direct role of NR function it is fundamental to find the NR targets. During the last few years several NRs have been shown to affect microRNA expression, thereby modulating protein levels. The farnesoid X receptor (FXR), the main regulator of bile acid (BA) homeostasis, also regulates cholesterol, lipid and glucose metabolism. Here we used, for the first time, a proteomics approach on mice treated with a FXR ligand to find novel hepatic FXR targets. Nineteen spots with a more than two-fold difference in protein amounts were found by 2D-DIGE and 20 proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF MS as putative novel FXR targets. The most striking feature of the protein list was the great number of mitochondrial proteins, indicating a substantial impact of FXR activation on mitochondrial function in the liver. To examine if the differences found in the proteomics assay reflected differences at the mRNA level, a microarray assay was generated on hepatic samples from wild type and FXR^−/− mice treated with a FXR ligand and compared to vehicle treatment. At least six proteins were shown to be regulated only at a post-transcriptional level. In conclusion, our study provides the impetus to include proteomic analysis for the identification of novel targets of transcription factors, such as NRs. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Translating nuclear receptors from health to disease.

Protein expression associated with early intrahepatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after curative surgery

The poor prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is attributed to intrahepatic recurrence. To understand the molecular background of early intrahepatic recurrence, we conducted a global protein expression study. We compared the protein expression profiles of the primary HCC tissues of 12 patients who showed intrahepatic recurrence within 6 months post surgery with those of 15 patients who had no recurrence 2 years post surgery. Two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis identified 23 protein spots, the intensity of which was highly associated with early intrahepatic recurrence. To validate the prediction performance of the identified proteins, we examined additional HCC tissues from 13 HCC patients; six with early intrahepatic recurrence and seven without recurrence. We found that all but one of the 13 patients were grouped according to their recurrence status based on the intensity of the 23 protein spots. Mass spectrometry identified 23 proteins corresponding to the spots. Although 13 of 23 have been previously reported to be correlated with HCC, their association with early intrahepatic recurrence had not been established. The identified proteins are involved in signal transduction pathways, glucose metabolism, cytoskeletal structure, cell adhesion, or function as antioxidants and chaperones. The identified proteins may be candidates for prognostic markers and contribute to the improvement of existing therapeutic strategies.