Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in lung cancer

The potential therapeutic role of curcumin in osteoporosis treatment: based on multiple signaling pathways

Osteoporosis is a common chronic metabolic bone disease caused by disturbances in normal bone metabolism and an imbalance between osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Osteoporosis is characterized by a decrease in bone mass and bone density, leading to increased bone fragility. Osteoporosis is usually treated with medications and surgical methods, but these methods often produce certain side effects. Therefore, the use of traditional herbal ingredients for the treatment of osteoporosis has become a focus of attention and a hot topic in recent years. Curcumin, widely distributed among herbs such as turmeric, tulip, and curcuma longa, contains phenolic, terpenoid, and flavonoid components. Modern pharmacological studies have confirmed that curcumin has a variety of functions including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In addition, curcumin positively regulates the differentiation and promotes the proliferation of osteoblasts, which play a crucial role in bone formation. Multiple studies have shown that curcumin is effective in the treatment of osteoporosis as it interacts with a variety of signaling pathway targets, thereby interfering with the formation of osteoblasts and osteoclasts and regulating the development of osteoporosis. This review summarized the key signaling pathways and their mechanisms of action of curcumin in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and analyzed their characteristics and their relationship with osteoporosis and curcumin. This not only proves the medicinal value of curcumin as a traditional herbal ingredient but also further elucidates the molecular mechanism of curcumin's anti-osteoporosis effect, providing new perspectives for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis through multiple pathways.

Tracing unknown tumor origins with a biological-pathway-based transformer model

Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) represents metastatic cancer where the primary site remains unidentified despite standard diagnostic procedures. To determine the tumor origin in such cases, we developed BPformer, a deep learning method integrating the transformer model with prior knowledge of biological pathways. Trained on transcriptomes from 10,410 primary tumors across 32 cancer types, BPformer achieved remarkable accuracy rates of 94%, 92%, and 89% in primary tumors and primary and metastatic sites of metastatic tumors, respectively, surpassing existing methods. Additionally, BPformer was validated in a retrospective study, demonstrating consistency with tumor sites diagnosed through immunohistochemistry and histopathology. Furthermore, BPformer was able to rank pathways based on their contribution to tumor origin identification, which helped to classify oncogenic signaling pathways into those that are highly conservative among different cancers versus those that are highly variable depending on their origins.

3,3',5,5'-Tetramethoxybiphenyl-4,4'diol triggers oxidative stress, metabolic changes, and apoptosis-like process by reducing the PI3K/AKT/NF-κB pathway in the NCI-H460 lung cancer cell line

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in men and women worldwide. Current treatments have limited efficacy, cause significant side effects, and cells can develop drug resistance. New therapeutic strategies are needed to discover alternative anticancer agents with high efficacy and low-toxicity. TMBP, a biphenyl obtained by laccase-biotransformation of 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, possesses antitumor activity against A549 adenocarcinoma cells. Without causing damage to sheep erythrocytes and mouse peritoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice. In addition to being classified as a good oral drug according to in-silico studies. This study evaluated the in-vitro cytotoxic effect of TMBP on lung-cancer cell-line NCI-H460 and reports mechanisms on immunomodulation and cell death. TMBP treatment (12.5-200 μM) inhibited cell proliferation at 24, 48, and 72 h. After 24-h treatment, TMBP at IC50 (154 μM) induced various morphological and ultrastructural changes in NCI-H460, reduced migration and immunofluorescence staining of N-cadherin and β-catenin, induced increased reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide with reduced superoxide radical-anion, increased superoxide dismutase activity and reduced glutathione reductase. Treatment also caused metabolic stress, reduced glucose-uptake, intracellular lactate dehydrogenase and lactate levels, mitochondrial depolarization, increased lipid droplets, and autophagic vacuoles. TMBP induced cell-cycle arrest in the G2/M phase, death by apoptosis, increased caspase-3/7, and reduced STAT-3 immunofluorescence staining. The anticancer effect was accompanied by decreasing PI3K, AKT, ARG-1, and NF-κB levels, and increasing iNOS. These results suggest its potential as a candidate for use in future lung anticancer drug design studies.

Simplified Synthesis of Renieramycin T Derivatives to Target Cancer Stem Cells via β-Catenin Proteasomal Degradation in Human Lung Cancer

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) found within cancer tissue play a pivotal role in its resistance to therapy and its potential to metastasize, contributing to elevated mortality rates among patients. Significant strides in understanding the molecular foundations of CSCs have led to preclinical investigations and clinical trials focused on CSC regulator β-catenin signaling targeted interventions in malignancies. As part of the ongoing advancements in marine-organism-derived compound development, it was observed that among the six analogs of Renieramycin T (RT), a potential lead alkaloid from the blue sponge Xestospongia sp., the compound DH_32, displayed the most robust anti-cancer activity in lung cancer A549, H23, and H292 cells. In various lung cancer cell lines, DH_32 exhibited the highest efficacy, with IC50 values of 4.06 ± 0.24 μM, 2.07 ± 0.11 μM, and 1.46 ± 0.06 μM in A549, H23, and H292 cells, respectively. In contrast, parental RT compounds had IC50 values of 5.76 ± 0.23 μM, 2.93 ± 0.07 μM, and 1.52 ± 0.05 μM in the same order. Furthermore, at a dosage of 25 nM, DH_32 showed a stronger ability to inhibit colony formation compared to the lead compound, RT. DH_32 was capable of inducing apoptosis in lung cancer cells, as demonstrated by increased PARP cleavage and reduced levels of the proapoptotic protein Bcl2. Our discovery confirms that DH_32 treatment of lung cancer cells led to a reduced level of CD133, which is associated with the suppression of stem-cell-related transcription factors like OCT4. Moreover, DH_32 significantly suppressed the ability of tumor spheroids to form compared to the original RT compound. Additionally, DH_32 inhibited CSCs by promoting the degradation of β-catenin through ubiquitin-proteasomal pathways. In computational molecular docking, a high-affinity interaction was observed between DH_32 (grid score = -35.559 kcal/mol) and β-catenin, indicating a stronger binding interaction compared to the reference compound R9Q (grid score = -29.044 kcal/mol). In summary, DH_32, a newly developed derivative of the right-half analog of RT, effectively inhibited the initiation of lung cancer spheroids and the self-renewal of lung cancer cells through the upstream process of β-catenin ubiquitin-proteasomal degradation.

Regulation and therapeutic potentials of microRNAs to non-small cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for 80%-85% of total cases and leading to millions of deaths worldwide. Drug resistance is the primary cause of treatment failure in NSCLC, which urges scientists to develop advanced approaches for NSCLC treatment. Among novel approaches, the miRNA-based method has emerged as a potential approach as it allows researchers to modulate target gene expression. Subsequently, cell behaviors are altered, which leads to the death and the depletion of cancer cells. It has been reported that miRNAs possess the capacity to regulate multiple genes that are involved in various signaling pathways, including the phosphoinositide 3-kinase, receptor tyrosine kinase/rat sarcoma virus/mitogen-activated protein kinase, wingless/integrated, retinoblastoma, p53, transforming growth factor β, and nuclear factor-kappa B pathways. Dysregulation of these signaling pathways in NSCLC results in abnormal cell proliferation, tissue invasion, and drug resistance while inhibiting apoptosis. Thus, understanding the roles of miRNAs in regulating these signaling pathways may enable the development of novel NSCLC treatment therapies. However, a comprehensive review of potential miRNAs in NSCLC treatment has been lacking. Therefore, this review aims to fill the gap by summarizing the up-to-date information on miRNAs regarding their targets, impact on cancer-associated pathways, and prospective outcomes in treating NSCLC. We also discuss current technologies for delivering miRNAs to the target cells, including virus-based, non-viral, and emerging extracellular vesicle-based delivery systems. This knowledge will support future studies to develop an innovative miRNA-based therapy and select a suitable carrier to treat NSCLC effectively.

Multi-Omic Biomarkers Improve Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodule Malignancy Risk Assessment

The clinical management of patients with indeterminate pulmonary nodules is associated with unintended harm to patients and better methods are required to more precisely quantify lung cancer risk in this group. Here, we combine multiple noninvasive approaches to more accurately identify lung cancer in indeterminate pulmonary nodules. We analyzed 94 quantitative radiomic imaging features and 41 qualitative semantic imaging variables with molecular biomarkers from blood derived from an antibody-based microarray platform that determines protein, cancer-specific glycan, and autoantibody-antigen complex content with high sensitivity. From these datasets, we created a PSR (plasma, semantic, radiomic) risk prediction model comprising nine blood-based and imaging biomarkers with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) of 0.964 that when tested in a second, independent cohort yielded an AUROC of 0.846. Incorporating known clinical risk factors (age, gender, and smoking pack years) for lung cancer into the PSR model improved the AUROC to 0.897 in the second cohort and was more accurate than a well-characterized clinical risk prediction model (AUROC = 0.802). Our findings support the use of a multi-omics approach to guide the clinical management of indeterminate pulmonary nodules.

Anticancer Potential of Natural Chalcones: In Vitro and In Vivo Evidence

There is no doubt that significant progress has been made in tumor therapy in the past decades. However, the discovery of new molecules with potential antitumor properties still remains one of the most significant challenges in the field of anticancer therapy. Nature, especially plants, is a rich source of phytochemicals with pleiotropic biological activities. Among a plethora of phytochemicals, chalcones, the bioprecursors of flavonoid and isoflavonoids synthesis in higher plants, have attracted attention due to the broad spectrum of biological activities with potential clinical applications. Regarding the antiproliferative and anticancer effects of chalcones, multiple mechanisms of action including cell cycle arrest, induction of different forms of cell death and modulation of various signaling pathways have been documented. This review summarizes current knowledge related to mechanisms of antiproliferative and anticancer effects of natural chalcones in different types of malignancies including breast cancers, cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung cancers, renal and bladder cancers, and melanoma.

SOX1 Functions as a Tumor Suppressor by Repressing HES1 in Lung Cancer

The development of lung cancer is a complex process that involves many genetic and epigenetic changes. Sex-determining region Y (SRY)-box (SOX) genes encode a family of proteins that are involved in the regulation of embryonic development and cell fate determination. SOX1 is hypermethylated in human cancers. However, the role of SOX1 in the development of lung cancer is unclear. We used quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP), quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, and web tools to confirm the frequent epigenetic silencing of SOX1 in lung cancer. Stable overexpression of SOX1 repressed cell proliferation, anchorage-independent growth, and invasion in vitro as well as cancer growth and metastasis in a xenograft mouse model. Knockdown of SOX1 by the withdrawal of doxycycline partly restored the malignant phenotype of inducible SOX1-expressing NSCLC cells. Next, we discovered the potential downstream pathways of SOX1 using RNA-seq analysis and identified HES1 as a direct target of SOX1 using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-PCR. Furthermore, we performed phenotypic rescue experiments to prove that overexpression of HES1-FLAG in SOX1-expressing H1299 cells partly reversed the tumor-suppressive effect. Taken together, these data demonstrated that SOX1 acts as a tumor suppressor by directly inhibiting HES1 during the development of NSCLC.

A New Wave of Targeting 'Undruggable' Wnt Signaling for Cancer Therapy: Challenges and Opportunities

Aberrant Wnt signaling activation is frequently observed in many cancers. The mutation acquisition of Wnt signaling leads to tumorigenesis, whereas the inhibition of Wnt signaling robustly suppresses tumor development in various in vivo models. Based on the excellent preclinical effect of targeting Wnt signaling, over the past 40 years, numerous Wnt-targeted therapies have been investigated for cancer treatment. However, Wnt signaling-targeting drugs are still not clinically available. A major obstacle to Wnt targeting is the concomitant side effects during treatment due to the pleiotropic role of Wnt signaling in development, tissue homeostasis, and stem cells. Additionally, the complexity of the Wnt signaling cascades across different cancer contexts hinders the development of optimized targeted therapies. Although the therapeutic targeting of Wnt signaling remains challenging, alternative strategies have been continuously developed alongside technological advances. In this review, we give an overview of current Wnt targeting strategies and discuss recent promising trials that have the potential to be clinically realized based on their mechanism of action. Furthermore, we highlight new waves of Wnt targeting that combine recently developed technologies such as PROTAC/molecular glue, antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), and anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASO), which may provide us with new opportunities to target 'undruggable' Wnt signaling.

Delineating the tumour-regulatory roles of EYA4

Eyes absent homolog 4 (EYA4) is a protein that regulates many vital cellular processes and organogenesis pathways. It possesses phosphatase, hydrolase, and transcriptional activation functions. Mutations in the Eya4 gene can cause sensorineural hearing loss and heart disease. In most non-nervous system cancers such as those of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), hematological and respiratory systems, EYA4 acts as a putative tumor suppressor. However, in nervous system tumors such as glioma, astrocytoma, and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), it plays a putative tumor-promoting role. EYA4 interacts with various signaling proteins of the PI3K/AKT, JNK/cJUN, Wnt/GSK-3β, and cell cycle pathways to exert its tumor-promoting or tumor-suppressing effect. The tissue expression level and methylation profiles of Eya4 can help predict the prognosis and anti-cancer treatment response among cancer patients. Targeting and altering Eya4 expression and activity could be a potential therapeutic strategy to suppress carcinogenesis. In conclusion, EYA4 may have both putative tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing roles in different human cancers and has the potential to serve as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic agent in various cancer types.

Proteomic Markers for Mechanobiological Properties of Metastatic Cancer Cells

The major cause (more than 90%) of all cancer-related deaths is metastasis, thus its prediction can critically affect the survival rate. Metastases are currently predicted by lymph-node status, tumor size, histopathology and genetic testing; however, all these are not infallible, and obtaining results may require weeks. The identification of new potential prognostic factors will be an important source of risk information for the practicing oncologist, potentially leading to enhanced patient care through the proactive optimization of treatment strategies. Recently, the new mechanobiology-related techniques, independent of genetics, based on the mechanical invasiveness of cancer cells (microfluidic, gel indentation assays, migration assays etc.), demonstrated a high success rate for the detection of tumor cell metastasis propensity. However, they are still far away from clinical implementation due to complexity. Hence, the exploration of novel markers related to the mechanobiological properties of tumor cells may have a direct impact on the prognosis of metastasis. Our concise review deepens our knowledge of the factors that regulate cancer cell mechanotype and invasion, and incites further studies to develop therapeutics that target multiple mechanisms of invasion for improved clinical benefit. It may open a new clinical dimension that will improve cancer prognosis and increase the effectiveness of tumor therapies.

Transcriptome-Based Traits of Radioresistant Sublines of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Radioresistance is a major obstacle for the successful therapy of many cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To elucidate the mechanism of radioresistance of NSCLC cells and to identify key molecules conferring radioresistance, the radioresistant subclones of p53 wild-type A549 and p53-deficient H1299 cell cultures were established. The transcriptional changes between parental and radioresistant NSCLC cells were investigated by RNA-seq. In total, expression levels of 36,596 genes were measured. Changes in the activation of intracellular molecular pathways of cells surviving irradiation relative to parental cells were quantified using the Oncobox bioinformatics platform. Following 30 rounds of 2 Gy irradiation, a total of 322 genes were differentially expressed between p53 wild-type radioresistant A549IR and parental A549 cells. For the p53-deficient (H1299) NSCLC cells, the parental and irradiated populations differed in the expression of 1628 genes and 1616 pathways. The expression of genes associated with radioresistance reflects the complex biological processes involved in clinical cancer cell eradication and might serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC treatment.

Targeting cancer stem cell pathways for lung cancer therapy

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The unique properties of cancer stem cells (CSCs) make lung cancer untargetable for quite an extended period. The functional mechanism of this cell type has been illustrated step by step. However, the outcomes of lung cancer patients are still lower than expected clinically. The attempts made by scientists to make challenge history against stemness maintenance of lung cancer cells and their druggable targets are worth elucidating.

RECENT FINDINGS

Many agents, including the Bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) and AMG 119 targeting DLL3-positive cells, are a tremendous breakthrough in the preclinical and clinical treatment of SCLC. More studies focus on targeting CSCs to overcome TKI resistance in NSCLC. The combo targeting of CSC and the immune microenvironment can favor the treatment of lung cancer patients.

SUMMARY

The current review elucidates the characteristics and related regulating pathways of lung CSCs from essential to preclinical research. We retrospectively introduce an update on the clinical development of therapeutics targeting CSC-associated developmental signaling pathways and discuss the opportunities to target CSC-immune interactions in lung cancer.

CK2 and the Hallmarks of Cancer

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Casein kinase 2 (CK2) is commonly dysregulated in cancer, impacting diverse molecular pathways. CK2 is a highly conserved serine/threonine kinase, constitutively active and ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotes. With over 500 known substrates and being estimated to be responsible for up to 10% of the human phosphoproteome, it is of significant importance. A broad spectrum of diverse types of cancer cells has been already shown to rely on disturbed CK2 levels for their survival. The hallmarks of cancer provide a rationale for understanding cancer's common traits. They constitute the maintenance of proliferative signaling, evasion of growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling of replicative immortality, induction of angiogenesis, the activation of invasion and metastasis, as well as avoidance of immune destruction and dysregulation of cellular energetics. In this work, we have compiled evidence from the literature suggesting that CK2 modulates all hallmarks of cancer, thereby promoting oncogenesis and operating as a cancer driver by creating a cellular environment favorable to neoplasia.

Gene-gene interaction of AhRwith and within the Wntcascade affects susceptibility to lung cancer

BACKGROUND

Aberrant Wnt signalling, regulating cell development and stemness, influences the development of many cancer types. The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates tumorigenesis of environmental pollutants. Complex interaction patterns of genes assigned to AhR/Wnt-signalling were recently associated with lung cancer susceptibility.

AIM

To assess the association and predictive ability of AhR/Wnt-genes with lung cancer in cases and controls of European descent.

METHODS

Odds ratios (OR) were estimated for genomic variants assigned to the Wnt agonist and the antagonistic genes DKK2, DKK3, DKK4, FRZB, SFRP4 and Axin2. Logistic regression models with variable selection were trained, validated and tested to predict lung cancer, at which other previously identified SNPs that have been robustly associated with lung cancer risk could also enter the model. Furthermore, decision trees were created to investigate variant × variant interaction. All analyses were performed for overall lung cancer and for subgroups.

RESULTS

No genome-wide significant association of AhR/Wnt-genes with overall lung cancer was observed, but within the subgroups of ever smokers (e.g., maker rs2722278 SFRP4; OR  = 1.20; 95% CI 1.13-1.27; p  = 5.6 × 10-10) and never smokers (e.g., maker rs1133683 Axin2; OR  = 1.27; 95% CI 1.19-1.35; p  = 1.0 × 10-12). Although predictability is poor, AhR/Wnt-variants are unexpectedly overrepresented in optimized prediction scores for overall lung cancer and for small cell lung cancer. Remarkably, the score for never-smokers contained solely two AhR/Wnt-variants. The optimal decision tree for never smokers consists of 7 AhR/Wnt-variants and only two lung cancer variants.

CONCLUSIONS

The role of variants belonging to Wnt/AhR-pathways in lung cancer susceptibility may be underrated in main-effects association analysis. Complex interaction patterns in individuals of European descent have moderate predictive capacity for lung cancer or subgroups thereof, especially in never smokers.