Homoharringtonine demonstrates a cytotoxic effect against triple-negative breast cancer cell lines and acts synergistically with paclitaxel

Homoharringtonine: updated insights into its efficacy in hematological malignancies, diverse cancers and other biomedical applications

HHT has emerged as a notable compound in the realm of cancer treatment, particularly for hematological malignancies. Its multifaceted pharmacological properties extend beyond traditional applications, warranting an extensive review of its mechanisms and efficacy. This review aims to synthesize comprehensive insights into the efficacy of HHT in treating hematological malignancies, diverse cancers, and other biomedical applications. It focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms, therapeutic potential, and broader applications of HHT. A comprehensive search for peer-reviewed papers was conducted across various academic databases, including ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scopus, American Chemical Society, Google Scholar, PubMed/MedLine, and Wiley. The review highlights HHT's diverse mechanisms of action, ranging from its role in leukemia treatment to its emerging applications in managing other cancers and various biomedical conditions. It underscores HHT's influence on cellular processes, its efficacy in clinical settings, and its potential to alter pathological pathways. HHT demonstrates significant promise in treating various hematological malignancies and cancers, offering a multifaceted approach to disease management. Its ability to impact various physiological pathways opens new avenues for therapeutic applications. This review provides a consolidated foundation for future research and clinical applications of HHT in diverse medical fields.

Homoharringtonine induces apoptosis of mammary carcinoma cells by inhibiting the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway

Mammary tumour is the most common type of tumour in dogs, especially in unneutered female dogs. Homoharringtonine (HHT) is a natural alkaloid that can be used to treat various types of human tumour. However, the inhibitory effect and mechanism of HHT on canine mammary carcinomas (CMC) remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effect of HHT on CMC in vitro and determine its underlying molecular mechanism. The effects of HHT on the cytotoxicity of CMC U27 cells were evaluated by the cell counting kit-8, wound healing, and Transwell assays. HHT-induced apoptosis of U27 cells was detected by JC-1 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay. Moreover, the gene expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) were analysed using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and the protein expression of protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) and mitochondrial apoptosis proteins were determined by western blotting. Furthermore, mammary tumour-bearing mouse models were established using 4T1 cells to evaluate the therapeutic effect of HHT. It was found that HHT could significantly down-regulated the protein expression of p-AKT, p-mTOR, and Bcl-2, and up-regulated the protein expression of P53, Bax, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved caspase-9. In addition, HHT significantly suppressed both tumour volume and mass in mammary tumour mice. In conclusion, HHT damages CMC cells by inhibiting the AKT/mTOR signalling pathway and inducing mitochondrial apoptosis. Such findings lay a theoretical foundation for the clinical treatment of CMC and provide more options for clinical medication.

The Regulatory Network of CREB3L1 and Its Roles in Physiological and Pathological Conditions

CREB3 subfamily belongs to the bZIP transcription factor family and comprises five members. Normally they are located on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes and proteolytically activated through RIP (regulated intramembrane proteolysis) on Golgi apparatus to liberate the N-terminus to serve as transcription factors. CREB3L1 acting as one of them transcriptionally regulates the expressions of target genes and exhibits distinct functions from the other members of CREB3 family in eukaryotes. Physiologically, CREB3L1 involves in the regulation of bone morphogenesis, neurogenesis, neuroendocrine, secretory cell differentiation, and angiogenesis. Pathologically, CREB3L1 implicates in the modulation of osteogenesis imperfecta, low grade fibro myxoid sarcoma (LGFMS), sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF), glioma, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, and tissue fibrosis. This review summarizes the upstream and downstream regulatory network of CREB3L1 and thoroughly presents our current understanding of CREB3L1 research progress in both physiological and pathological conditions with special focus on the novel findings of CREB3L1 in cancers.

Regulatory mechanisms of the cAMP-responsive element binding protein 3 (CREB3) family in cancers

The CREB3 family of proteins, encompassing CREB3 and its four homologs (CREB3L1, CREB3L2, CREB3L3, and CREB3L4), exerts pivotal control over cellular protein metabolism in response to unfolded protein reactions. Under conditions of endoplasmic reticulum stress, activation of the CREB3 family occurs through regulated intramembrane proteolysis within the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Perturbations in the function and expression of the CREB3 family have been closely associated with the development of diverse diseases, with a particular emphasis on cancer. Recent investigations have shed light on the indispensable role played by CREB3 family members in modulating the onset and progression of various human cancers. This comprehensive review endeavors to provide an in-depth examination of the involvement of CREB3 family members in distinct human cancer types, accentuating their significance in the pathogenesis of cancer and the manifestation of malignant phenotypes.

XMR: an explainable multimodal neural network for drug response prediction

Introduction: Existing large-scale preclinical cancer drug response databases provide us with a great opportunity to identify and predict potentially effective drugs to combat cancers. Deep learning models built on these databases have been developed and applied to tackle the cancer drug-response prediction task. Their prediction has been demonstrated to significantly outperform traditional machine learning methods. However, due to the "black box" characteristic, biologically faithful explanations are hardly derived from these deep learning models. Interpretable deep learning models that rely on visible neural networks (VNNs) have been proposed to provide biological justification for the predicted outcomes. However, their performance does not meet the expectation to be applied in clinical practice. Methods: In this paper, we develop an XMR model, an eXplainable Multimodal neural network for drug Response prediction. XMR is a new compact multimodal neural network consisting of two sub-networks: a visible neural network for learning genomic features and a graph neural network (GNN) for learning drugs' structural features. Both sub-networks are integrated into a multimodal fusion layer to model the drug response for the given gene mutations and the drug's molecular structures. Furthermore, a pruning approach is applied to provide better interpretations of the XMR model. We use five pathway hierarchies (cell cycle, DNA repair, diseases, signal transduction, and metabolism), which are obtained from the Reactome Pathway Database, as the architecture of VNN for our XMR model to predict drug responses of triple negative breast cancer. Results: We find that our model outperforms other state-of-the-art interpretable deep learning models in terms of predictive performance. In addition, our model can provide biological insights into explaining drug responses for triple-negative breast cancer. Discussion: Overall, combining both VNN and GNN in a multimodal fusion layer, XMR captures key genomic and molecular features and offers reasonable interpretability in biology, thereby better predicting drug responses in cancer patients. Our model would also benefit personalized cancer therapy in the future.

Extensive review on breast cancer its etiology, progression, prognostic markers, and treatment

As the most frequent and vulnerable malignancy among women, breast cancer universally manifests a formidable healthcare challenge. From a biological and molecular perspective, it is a heterogenous disease and is stratified based on the etiological factors driving breast carcinogenesis. Notably, genetic predispositions and epigenetic impacts often constitute the heterogeneity of this disease. Typically, breast cancer is classified intrinsically into histological subtypes in clinical landscapes. These stratifications empower physicians to tailor precise treatments among the spectrum of breast cancer therapeutics. In this pursuit, numerous prognostic algorithms are extensively characterized, drastically changing how breast cancer is portrayed. Therefore, it is a basic requisite to comprehend the multidisciplinary rationales of breast cancer to assist the evolution of novel therapeutic strategies. This review aims at highlighting the molecular and genetic grounds of cancer additionally with therapeutic and phytotherapeutic context. Substantially, it also renders researchers with an insight into the breast cancer cell lines as a model paradigm for breast cancer research interventions.