Arsenic Prodrug-Mediated Tumor Microenvironment Modulation Platform for Synergetic Glioblastoma Therapy

Near Infrared-Activatable Biomimetic Nanoplatform for Tumor-Specific Drug Release, Penetration and Chemo-Photothermal Synergistic Therapy of Orthotopic Glioblastoma

Introduction

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a highly invasive and prognostically challenging brain cancer, poses a significant hurdle for current treatments due to the existence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the difficulty to maintain an effective drug accumulation in deep GBM lesions.

Methods

We present a biomimetic nanoplatform with angiopep-2-modified macrophage membrane, loaded with indocyanine green (ICG) templated self-assembly of SN38 (AM-NP), facilitating active tumor targeting and effective blood-brain barrier penetration through specific ligand-receptor interaction.

Results

Upon accumulation at tumor sites, these nanoparticles achieved high drug concentrations. Subsequent combination of laser irradiation and release of chemotherapy agent SN38 induced a synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy. Compared to bare nanoparticles (NPs) lacking cell membrane encapsulation, AM-NPs significantly suppressed tumor growth, markedly enhanced survival rates, and exhibited excellent biocompatibility with minimal side effects.

Conclusion

This NIR-activatable biomimetic camouflaging macrophage membrane-based nanoparticles enhanced drug delivery targeting ability through modifications of macrophage membranes and specific ligands. It simultaneously achieved synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy, enhancing treatment effectiveness. Compared to traditional treatment modalities, it provided a precise, efficient, and synergistic method that might have contributed to advancements in glioblastoma therapy.

Repression of YEATS2 induces cellular senescence in hepatocellular carcinoma and inhibits tumor growth

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) stands as the third leading cause of cancer-related fatalities globally. In this study, we observed a significant increase in the expression level of the YEATS2 gene in HCC patients, and it is negatively correlated with the patients' survival rate. While we have previously identified the association between YEATS2 and the survival of pancreatic cancer cells, the regulatory mechanisms and significance in HCC are still to be fully elucidated. Our study shows that knockdown (KD) of YEATS2 expression leads to DNA damage, which in turn results in an upregulation of γ-H2A.X expression and activation of the canonical senescence-related pathway p53/p21Cip1. Moreover, our transcriptomic analysis reveals that YEATS2 KD cells can enhance the expression of p21Cip1 via the c-Myc/miR-93-5p pathway, consequently fostering the senescence of HCC cells. The initiation of cellular senescence through dual-channel activation suggests that YEATS2 plays a pivotal regulatory role in the process of cell proliferation. Ultimately, our in vivo research utilizing a nude mouse tumor model revealed a notable decrease in both tumor volume and weight after the suppression of YEATS2 expression. This phenomenon is likely attributable to the attenuation of proliferative cell activity, coupled with a concurrent augmentation in the population of natural killer (NK) cells. In summary, our research results have supplemented the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of HCC cell proliferation and indicated that targeting YEATS2 may potentially inhibit liver tumor growth.

Exploring the Prospective of Curcumin-loaded Nanomedicine in Brain Cancer Therapy: An Overview of Recent Updates and Patented Nanoformulations

Cancer is a complex, one of the fatal non-communicable diseases, and its treatment has enormous challenges, with variable efficacy of traditional anti-cancer agents. By 2025, it is expected that 420 million additional cases of cancer will be diagnosed yearly. However, among various types of cancer, brain cancer treatment is most difficult due to the presence of blood-brain barriers. Nowadays, phytoconstituents are gaining popularity because of their biosafety and low toxicity to healthy cells. This article reviews various aspects related to curcumin for brain cancer therapeutics, including epidemiology, the role of nanotechnology, and various challenges for development and clinical trials. Furthermore, it elaborates on the prospects of curcumin for brain cancer therapeutics. In this article, our objective is to illuminate the anti-cancer potential of curcumin for brain cancer therapy. Moreover, it also explores how to defeat its constraints of clinical application because of poor bioavailability, stability, and rapid metabolism. This review also emphasizes the possibility of curcumin for the cure of brain cancer using cuttingedge biotechnological methods based on nanomedicine. This review further highlights the recent patents on curcumin-loaded nanoformulations for brain cancer. Overall, this article provides an overview of curcumin's potential in brain cancer therapy by considering challenges to be overwhelmed and future prospective. Moreover, this review summarizes the reported literature on the latest research related to the utility of curcumin in brain cancer therapy and aims to provide a reference for advanced investigation on brain cancer treatment.

Targeting the E2F1/Rb/HDAC1 axis with the small molecule HR488B effectively inhibits colorectal cancer growth

Colorectal cancer (CRC), the third most common cancer worldwide, remains highly lethal as the disease only becomes symptomatic at an advanced stage. Growing evidence suggests that histone deacetylases (HDACs), a group of epigenetic enzymes overexpressed in precancerous lesions of CRC, may represent promising molecular targets for CRC treatment. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) have gradually become powerful anti-cancer agents targeting epigenetic modulation and have been widely used in the clinical treatment of hematologic malignancies, while only few studies on the benefit of HDACis in the treatment of CRC. In the present study, we designed a series of small-molecule Thiazole-based HDACis, among which HR488B bound to HDAC1 with a high affinity and exerted effective anti-CRC activity both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we revealed that HR488B specifically suppressed the growth of CRC cells by inducing cell cycle G0/G1 arrest and apoptosis via causing mitochondrial dysfunction, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and DNA damage accumulation. Importantly, we noticed that HR488B significantly decreased the expression of the E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1), which was crucial for the inhibitory effect of HR488B on CRC. Mechanistically, HR488B obviously decreased the phosphorylation level of the retinoblastoma protein (Rb), and subsequently prevented the release of E2F1 from the E2F1/Rb/HDAC1 complex, which ultimately suppressed the growth of CRC cells. Overall, our study suggests that HR488B, a novel and efficient HDAC1 inhibitor, may be a potential candidate for CRC therapy in the future. Furthermore, targeting the E2F1/Rb/HDAC1 axis with HR488B provides a promising therapeutic avenue for CRC.

Nanomedicine Strategies in Conquering and Utilizing the Cancer Hypoxia Environment

Cancer with a complex pathological process is a major disease to human welfare. Due to the imbalance between oxygen (O2) supply and consumption, hypoxia is a natural characteristic of most solid tumors and an important obstacle for cancer therapy, which is closely related to tumor proliferation, metastasis, and invasion. Various strategies to exploit the feature of tumor hypoxia have been developed in the past decade, which can be used to alleviate tumor hypoxia, or utilize the hypoxia for targeted delivery and diagnostic imaging. The strategies to alleviate tumor hypoxia include delivering O2, in situ O2 generation, reprogramming the tumor vascular system, decreasing O2 consumption, and inhibiting HIF-1 related pathways. On the other side, hypoxia can also be utilized for hypoxia-responsive chemical construction and hypoxia-active prodrug-based strategies. Taking advantage of hypoxia in the tumor region, a number of methods have been applied to identify and keep track of changes in tumor hypoxia. Herein, we thoroughly review the recent progress of nanomedicine strategies in both conquering and utilizing hypoxia to combat cancer and put forward the prospect of emerging nanomaterials for future clinical transformation, which hopes to provide perspectives in nanomaterials design.

The Role of Purine Metabolism-Related Genes PPAT and IMPDH1 in the Carcinogenesis of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Based on Metabonomic and Bioinformatic Analyses

In this study, we investigated the role of tumor microenvironment and serum differential metabolites in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) carcinogenesis, providing new evidence for ICC treatment. Serum samples from healthy individuals and ICC patients were collected for metabolomic analysis. The purine metabolites such as inosine, guanosine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine were increased in patient serum. TCGA database samples were collected, and the correlation between purine metabolism-related genes and ICC clinical features was analyzed using R language to obtain the differential genes including PPAT, PFAS, ATIC, and IMPDH2. High PPAT expression was associated with poor ICC prognosis. A PPAT silencing model in HCCC-9810 cells was constructed. The cell phenotype was examined by qRT-PCR, CCK-8, transwell, and flow cytometry, showing a decrease in IMPDH1 expression, colony and invasive cells numbers, and an increase in apoptosis. Guanosine reversed IMPDH1 expression in HCCC-9810 cells, promoting the secretion of inflammatory factors IL-6, IL-8, OPN, VEGF, and VCAM-1 and intensifying epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progression in the cells. In nude mice, the IMPDH1 inhibitory drug MMF inhibited tumor growth and reduced the expression of tumor stem cell characteristic markers CD133 and SOX2. Guanosine accelerated the malignant progression of ICC inhibition of purine metabolism-related genes, PPAT and IMPDH2, suppressed the malignant phenotype in HCCC-9810 cells, and inhibited tumor growth.

Nanoparticles Containing Oxaliplatin and the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

BACKGROUND

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a highly widespread malignancy and ranks as the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality.

OBJECTIVE

Cancer patients, including those with CRC, who undergo chemotherapy, are often treated with platinum- based anticancer drugs such as oxaliplatin (OXA). Nevertheless, the administration of OXA is associated with a range of gastrointestinal problems, neuropathy, and respiratory tract infections. Hence, it is necessary to devise a potential strategy that can effectively tackle these aforementioned challenges. The use of nanocarriers has shown great potential in cancer treatment due to their ability to minimize side effects, target drugs directly to cancer cells, and improve drug efficacy. Furthermore, numerous studies have been published regarding the therapeutic efficacy of nanoparticles in the management of colorectal cancer.

METHODS

In this review, we present the most relevant nanostructures used for OXA encapsulation in recent years, such as solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, polysaccharides, proteins, silica nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, and synthetic polymer-carriers. Additionally, the paper provides a summary of the disadvantages and limits associated with nanoparticles.

RESULTS

The use of different carriers for the delivery of oxaliplatin increased the efficiency and reduced the side effects of the drug. It has been observed that the majority of research investigations have focused on liposomes and polysaccharides.

CONCLUSION

This potentially auspicious method has the potential to enhance results and enhance the quality of life for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. However, additional investigation is required to ascertain the most suitable medium for the transportation of oxaliplatin and to assess its efficacy through clinical trials.

A Novel Cuproptosis-Related Prognostic Model and the Hub Gene FDX1 Predict the Prognosis and Correlate with Immune Infiltration in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a common malignancy of the urological system with poor prognosis. Cuproptosis is a recently discovered novel manner of cell death, and the hub gene FDX1 could promote cuproptosis. However, the potential roles of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) and FDX1 for predicting prognosis, the immune microenvironment, and therapeutic response have been poorly studied in ccRCC. In the present study, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data were downloaded. CRGs were subjected to prognosis analysis, and three of them were used to construct the prognostic model by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. The CRGs prognostic model showed excellent performance. Moreover, based on the risk score of the model, the nomogram was developed to predict 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival. Furthermore, the hub gene of cuproptosis, FDX1, was an independent prognostic biomarker in multivariate Cox regression analysis. The pan-cancer analysis showed that FDX1 was significantly downregulated and closely related to prognosis in ccRCC among 33 cancer types. Lower FDX1 was also correlated with worse clinicopathologic features. The lower expression of FDX1 in ccRCC was verified in the external database and our own database, which may be caused by DNA methylation. We further demonstrated that the tumor mutational burden (TMB) and immune cell infiltration were related to the expression of FDX1. Immune response and drug sensitivity analysis revealed that immunotherapy or elesclomol may have a favorable treatment effect in the high FDX1 expression group and sunitinib or axitinib may work better in the low FDX1 expression group. In conclusion, we constructed a CRGs prognostic model and revealed that FDX1 could serve as a prognostic biomarker and predict therapeutic response in ccRCC. The study will provide a novel, precise, and individual treatment strategy for ccRCC patients.