Emerging immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of breast cancer

SNORA5A regulates tumor-associated macrophage M1/M2 phenotypes via TRAF3IP3 in breast cancer

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have robust potential functions and therapeutic value in breast cancer. Herein, we investigated the role SNORA5A in breast cancer. Samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were reviewed. The transcription matrix and clinical information were analyzed using R software and validated in clinical tissue samples. SNORA5A was significantly down-regulated in breast cancer, and high expression of SNORA5A correlated with a favorable prognosis. High expression of SNORA5A induced a high concentration of tumor-associated macrophages M1 and a low concentration of tumor-associated macrophages M2. Moreover, SNORA5A were clustered in terms related to cancer and immune functions. Possible downstream molecules of SNORA5A were identified, among which TRAF3IP3 was positively correlated with M1 and negatively correlated with M2. The function of TRAF3IP3 in tumor inhibition and its relationship with macrophages in clinical tissue samples were in accordance with bioinformatics analysis results. SNORA5A could regulate macrophage phenotypes through TRAF3IP3 and serves as a potential prognostic marker for breast cancer patients.

Synthesis, pharmacological evaluation, and in silico study of new 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones as antibacterial and anticancer agents

New 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones were synthesized, characterized and pharmacologically evaluated as antibacterial and anticancer agents against two bacterial species; Gram-positive (Streptococcus pyogenes) and Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa). All tested final compounds were active against the two bacterial species; S. pyogenes and P . aeruginosa. Especially compound AM4 showed large inhibition zone (27.13 and 23.30 mm), respectively. Using the DPPH assay, the new chalcones were evaluated for their free radical scavenging activity and found to reach up to 90 %, accomplished at a test concentration of 200 μg/mL. Furthermore, the chalcone derivatives were investigated against two breast cell lines; MCF-7 (cancerous) and MCF-10A (non-cancerous). Compound AM4 showed potent anticancer activity (IC50 = 19.354 μg/mL) in comparison to the other tested chalcone derivatives. In silico study was achieved using the PyRx AutoDock Vina software (0.8) to study the interaction types between the new hits and the binding sites of targeted proteins; glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase and tubulin, the target for antibacterial and anticancer drugs, respectively. Based on the molecular docking results the tested chalcones bind to the active pocket of the respective proteins, which support the in vitro results. In conclusion, 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones could serve as new hits in the discovery of novel anticancer and/or antibacterial drugs.

Design, synthesis and anti-breast cancer properties of butyric ester tethered dihydroartemisinin-isatin hybrids

Fifteen novel butyric ester tethered dihydroartemisinin-isatin hybrids 4a-d and 5a-k were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for cytotoxicity against four human breast cancer cell lines, including MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7/ADR and MDA-MB-231/ADR using the MTT method. A significant part of them were active against the four tested cancer cell lines, and the representative hybrid 5b (IC₅₀: 1.27 µM) was 14.88 -> 78.74 times more active than adriamycin (IC₅₀: 18.90 µM), DHA (IC₅₀: 28.28 µM) and ART (IC₅₀: > 100 µM) against MCF-7 breast cancer cells, whereas hybrid 5c (IC₅₀: 2.39 and 3.95 µM) was superior to adriamycin (IC₅₀: 3.38 and >100 µM), DHA (IC₅₀: 48.80 and 82.78 µM) and ART (IC₅₀: >100 and >100 µM) against MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-231/ADR breast cancer cell lines. Moreover, the selected hybrids (IC₅₀: >100 µM) displayed non-cytotoxicity towards normal MCF-10A breast cells, and the SI values of hybrids 5b,c were >78.74 and >41.84 respectively, demonstrating their excellent selectivity and safety profiles. Accordingly, hybrids 5b,c could serve as promising anti-breast cancer candidates and deserved further preclinical evaluations.

Cuproptosis Combined with lncRNAs Predicts the Prognosis and Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC), the most common cancer in women, is caused by the uncontrolled proliferation of mammary epithelial cells under the action of a variety of carcinogenic factors. Cuproptosis-related targets have been found to be closely associated with breast cancer development. TCGA obtained 1226 tumor samples, 1073 clinical data, and 37 lncRNAs during univariate Cox multivariate analysis. We used nonnegative matrix factoring (NMF) agglomeration to spot thirty-three potential molecular subsets with totally different cuproptosis-related lncRNA expression patterns. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) formula and variable Cox multivariate analysis were not used to construct the best prognostic model. The variations in neoplasm mutation burden and factor gene ontology (GO) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) within the high- and low-risk teams were analyzed, and therefore, the potential mechanism of the development of carcinoma was analyzed. We created a prognostic profile consisting of nineteen cuproptosis-related genes (NFE2L2, LIPT1, LIPT2, DLD, etc.) and their connected targets. The correlation between tumor mutational burden (TMB) and clinical manifestations of tumors demonstrates the importance of high- and low-expression bunch data on the incidence of clinical manifestations of tumors. The area under the curve (AUC) shows moderate prophetic power for copper mortality. GO enrichment analysis showed that immunorelated responses were enriched. Correlation analysis of immune cells showed that pathology could play an important role in the prevalence and prognosis of tumors, and there were variations in immune cells between the probable and low-risk groups. Our study suggests that the prognostic characteristic genes associated with cuproptosis can be used as new biomarkers to predict the prognosis of breast cancer patients. In addition, we found that immunotherapy may play a key role in breast cancer treatment regimens. Levels of immune-associated cells and pathways vary significantly among risk groups of breast cancer patients.

Proactive Immunotherapeutic Approaches against Inflammatory Breast Cancer May Improve Patient Outcomes

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is highly metastatic at the onset of the disease with no IBC-specific treatments, resulting in dismal patient survival. IBC treatment is a clear unmet clinical need. This commentary highlights findings from a recent seminal approach in which pembrolizumab, a checkpoint inhibitor against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), was provided to a triple-negative IBC patient as a neoadjuvant immune therapy combined with anthracycline-taxane-based chemotherapy. We highlight the findings of the case report and offer a perspective on taking a proactive approach to deploy approved immune checkpoint inhibitors. On the basis of our recently published research study, we propose in situ vaccination with direct injection of immunostimulatory agents into the tumor as an option to improve outcomes safely, effectively, and economically for IBC patients.