Cinnamides as selective small-molecule inhibitors of a cellular model of breast cancer stem cells

Multitargeting in cardioprotection: An example of biaromatic compounds

A multitarget drug design approach is actively developing in modern medicinal chemistry and pharmacology, especially with regard to multifactorial diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. A detailed study of many well-known drugs developed within the single-target approach also often reveals additional mechanisms of their real pharmacological action. One of the multitarget drug design approaches can be the identification of the basic pharmacophore models corresponding to a wide range of the required target ligands. Among such models in the group of cardioprotectors is the linked biaromatic system. This review develops the concept of a "basic pharmacophore" using the biaromatic pharmacophore of cardioprotectors as an example. It presents an analysis of possible biological targets for compounds corresponding to the biaromatic pharmacophore and an analysis of the spectrum of biological targets for the five most known and most studied cardioprotective drugs corresponding to this model, and their involvement in the biological effects of these drugs.

Cinnamic acid hybrids as anticancer agents: A mini-review

Cancer, as a long-lasting and dramatic disease, affects almost one-third of human beings globally. Chemotherapeutics play an important role in cancer treatment, but multidrug resistance and severe adverse effects have already become the main causes of failure in tumor chemotherapy. Therefore, it is an urgent need to develop novel chemotherapeutics. Cinnamic acid contains a ubiquitous α,β-unsaturated acid moiety presenting potential therapeutic effects in the treatment of cancer as these derivatives could act on cancer cells by diverse mechanisms of action. Accordingly, cinnamic acid derivatives are critical scaffolds in discovering novel anticancer agents. This review provides a comprehensive overview of cinnamic acid hybrids as anticancer agents. The structure-activity relationship, as well as the mechanisms of action, are also discussed, covering articles published from 2012 to 2021.

Manganese(I) Catalyzed α-Alkenylation of Amides Using Alcohols with Liberation of Hydrogen and Water

Herein, unprecedented manganese-catalyzed direct α-alkenylation of amides using alcohols is reported. Aryl amides are reacted with diverse primary alcohols, which provided the α,β-unsaturated amides in moderate to good yields with excellent selectivity. Mechanistic studies indicate that Mn(I) catalyst oxidizes the alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes and also plays an important role in efficient C═C bond formation through aldol condensation. This selective olefination is facilitated by metal-ligand cooperation by the aromatization-dearomatization process operating in the catalytic system. Biorenewable alcohols are used as alkenylation reagents for the challenging α-alkenylation of amides with the highly abundant base metal manganese as a catalyst, which results in water and dihydrogen as the only byproduct, making this catalytic transformation attractive, sustainable, and environmentally benign.

Cinnamamide: An insight into the pharmacological advances and structure-activity relationships

The cinnamamide (cinnamic acid amide and cinnamide) is a privileged scaffold present widely in a number of natural products. The scaffold acts as a useful template for designing and arriving at newly drug-like molecules with potential pharmacological activity. An attempt has been made to review the extensive occurrence of cinnamamide scaffold in many lead compounds reported for treating various diseases, their binding interactions with the therapeutic targets as well as mechanism of action and their structure-activity relationships. The discoveries of cinnamamide systems and some examples of unusual cinnamamides having an aromatic, aliphatic, and heterocyclic or other rings condensed to the basic cinnamamide structure also have been extensively covered in this review.

Precision Medicine for CRC Patients in the Veteran Population: State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Research Directions

Colorectal cancer (CRC) accounts for ~9% of all cancers in the Veteran population, a fact which has focused a great deal of the attention of the VA's research and development efforts. A field-based meeting of CRC experts was convened to discuss both challenges and opportunities in precision medicine for CRC. This group, designated as the VA Colorectal Cancer Cell-genomics Consortium (VA4C), discussed advances in CRC biology, biomarkers, and imaging for early detection and prevention. There was also a discussion of precision treatment involving fluorescence-guided surgery, targeted chemotherapies and immunotherapies, and personalized cancer treatment approaches. The overarching goal was to identify modalities that might ultimately lead to personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment. This review summarizes the findings of this VA field-based meeting, in which much of the current knowledge on CRC prescreening and treatment was discussed. It was concluded that there is a need and an opportunity to identify new targets for both the prevention of CRC and the development of effective therapies for advanced disease. Also, developing methods integrating genomic testing with tumoroid-based clinical drug response might lead to more accurate diagnosis and prognostication and more effective personalized treatment of CRC.

Pharmacological and immunological targeting of tumor mesenchymalization

Controlling the spread of carcinoma cells to distant organs is the foremost challenge in cancer treatment, as metastatic disease is generally resistant to therapy and is ultimately incurable for the majority of patients. The plasticity of tumor cell phenotype, in which the behaviors and functions of individual tumor cells differ markedly depending upon intrinsic and extrinsic factors, is now known to be a central mechanism in cancer progression. Our expanding knowledge of epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypic states in tumor cells, and the dynamic nature of the transitions between these phenotypes has created new opportunities to intervene to better control the behavior of tumor cells. There are now a variety of innovative pharmacological approaches to preferentially target tumor cells that have acquired mesenchymal features, including cytotoxic agents that directly kill these cells, and inhibitors that block or revert the process of mesenchymalization. Furthermore, novel immunological strategies have been developed to engage the immune system in seeking out and destroying mesenchymalized tumor cells. This review highlights the relevance of phenotypic plasticity in tumor biology, and discusses recently developed pharmacological and immunological means of targeting this phenomenon.

Cancer Stem Cells: Cellular Plasticity, Niche, and its Clinical Relevance

Cancer handles an estimated 7.6 million deaths worldwide per annum. A recent theory focuses on the role Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) in driving tumorigenesis and disease progression. This theory hypothesizes that a population of the tumor cell with similar functional and phenotypic characteristics as normal tissue stem cells are responsible for formation and advancement of many human cancers. The CSCs subpopulation can differentiate into non-CSC tumor cells and promote phenotypic and functional heterogeneity within the tumor. The presence of CSCs has been reported in a number of human cancers including blood, breast, brain, colon, lung, pancreas prostate and liver. Although the origin of CSCs remains a mystery, recent reports suggest that the phenotypic characteristics of CSCs may be plastic and are influenced by the microenvironment specific for the individual tumor. Such factors unique to each tumor preserve the dynamic balance between CSCs to non-CSCs cell fate, as well as maintain the proper equilibrium. Alternating such equilibrium via dedifferentiation can result in aggressiveness, as CSCs are considered to be more resistant to the conventional cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. Understanding how the tumoral microenvironment affects the plasticity driven CSC niche will be critical for developing a more effective treatment for cancer by eliminating its aggressive and recurring nature that now is believed to be perpetuated by CSCs.

Synthetic, non-saccharide, glycosaminoglycan mimetics selectively target colon cancer stem cells

Selective targeting of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) is a paradigm-shifting approach. We hypothesized that CSCs can be targeted by interfering with functions of sulfated glycosaminoglycans, which play key roles in cancer cell growth, invasion and metastasis. We developed a tandem, dual screen strategy involving (1) assessing inhibition of monolayer versus spheroid growth and (2) assessing inhibition of primary versus secondary spheroid growth to identify G2.2, a unique sulfated nonsaccharide GAG mimetic (NSGM) from a focused library of 53 molecules, as a selective inhibitor of colon CSCs. The NSGM down-regulated several CSC markers through regulation of gene transcription, while closely related, inactive NSGMs G1.4 and G4.1 demonstrated no such changes. G2.2's effects on CSCs were mediated, in part, through induction of apoptosis and inhibition of self-renewal factors. Overall, this work presents the proof-of-principle that CSCs can be selectively targeted through novel NSGMs, which are likely to advance fundamental understanding on CSCs while also aiding development of novel therapeutic agents.

ABC transporters in CSCs membranes as a novel target for treating tumor relapse

CSCs are responsible for the high rate of recurrence and chemoresistance of different types of cancer. The current antineoplastic agents able to inhibit bulk replicating cancer cells and radiation treatment are not efficacious toward CSCs since this subpopulation has several intrinsic mechanisms of resistance. Among these mechanisms, the expression of ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters family and the activation of different signaling pathways (such as Wnt/β-catenin signaling, Hedgehog, Notch, Akt/PKB) are reported. Therefore, considering ABC transporters expression on CSCs membranes, compounds able to modulate MDR could induce cytotoxicity in these cells disclosing an exciting and alternative strategy for targeting CSCs in tumor therapy. The next challenge in the cure of cancer relapse may be a multimodal strategy, an approach where specific CSCs targeting drugs exert simultaneously the ability to circumvent tumor drug resistance (ABC transporters modulation) and cytotoxic activity toward CSCs and the corresponding differentiated tumor cells. The efficacy of suggested multimodal strategy could be probed by using several scaffolds active toward MDR pumps on CSCs isolated by tumor specimens.