Regulation of ATR-CHK1 signaling by ubiquitination of CLASPIN

New metal complexes of 1H-benzimidazole-2-yl hydrazones: Cytostatic, proapoptotic and modulatory activity on kinase signaling pathways

The copper complexes of two 1H-benzimidazole-2-yl hydrazones were obtained by complexation with copper chloride. The molecular structure of the complexes was studied by microchemical analysis, SEM-EDX, IR and micro-Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations. It was found that both ligands form 1:1 complexes with the copper, where the Cu ions are coordinated by N-atom from the benzimidazole ring, N-atom of the azomethine bond, O-atom from the ortho-OH group of the aromatic ring and one chlorine atom. The coordination process significantly affected their cytotoxicity profile. The conversion of 2-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-1-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)hydrazine 1.1. into a Cu complex 2.1. led to a 2.4-fold increase in its antileukemic activity against AR-230 cells and an 8-fold increase in the cytostatic activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The growth-inhibitory effect of the Cu complex of 2-(2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzylidene)-1-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)hydrazine 2.2. on the MCF-7 cells was comparable to that of the respective ligand, however lacked towards the leukemic AR-230 cell population. Regarding their cytotoxic potential towards CCL-1 cells, both Cu complexes exhibited a weaker selectivity pattern as compared to their ligands. The proapoptotic and modulatory activity of 1.1 and 2.1. on key kinase signaling pathways was further studied in the ER + breast cancer (MCF-7) and bcr-abl + leukemic (AR-230) in vitro tumor models in a comparative manner to the reference drugs tamoxifen and imatinib, respectively. Inhibition of the JAK/STAT signaling pathway was outlined as a prominent mechanism in the antileukemic activity against the Ph + AR-230 in vitro model, whereas recruitment and activation of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway was established in the MCF-7 cells.

The Interaction between CLSPN Gene Polymorphisms and Alcohol Consumption Contributes to Oral Cancer Progression

Most disease single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are regulatory and approximately half of heritability is occupied by the top 1% of genes, with the gene-level structure varying with the number of variants associated with the most common alleles. Cancer occurrence and progression are significantly affected by Claspin (CLSPN) gene polymorphism present in the population, which alters the expression, function, and regulation of the gene. CLSPN genotypes are associated with oral cancer, but the literature on this association is limited. As a result, the goal of this study is to investigate the correlation between CLSPN genotypes and oral cancers' development. This study will explore the presence of four CLSPN SNPs including rs12058760, rs16822339, rs535638 and rs7520495 gene polymorphisms, and analyze the expression of these genes in 304 cancer-free controls and 402 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cases. Attempts have been made to obtain insight into the role of CLSPN gene polymorphisms in oral cancer through the analysis of this study. We demonstrated that the OSCC risk of individuals with four CLSPN SNPs relative to the wild type did not differ significantly from that of the wild type when the polymorphisms are analyzed according to individual habits. We further studied the mechanism by which CLSPN polymorphisms affect the progression of clinicopathological features in OSCC patients. The results of the degree of cell differentiation showed that compared with patients of rs7520495 SNP carrying the CC genotype, the incidence of poor cell differentiation in patients carrying the CC + GG genotype was higher (AOR: 1.998-fold; 95% CI, 1.127-3.545; p = 0.018). In particular, patients with the G genotype of rs7520495 had increased poor cell differentiation compared with patients with the C genotype (AOR: 4.736-fold; 95% CI, 1.306-17.178; p = 0.018), especially in the drinking group. On the basis of our analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset, we found that higher CLSPN levels were associated with poorer cell differentiation in oral cancers. In this study, we provide the first evidence showing that CLSPN SNPs contribute to oral cancer. Whether or not rs7520495 can be used as a confirmatory factor in the future is uncertain, but it seems likely that it can be used as an important factor in predicting recurrence, response to treatment and medication toxicity to patients with oral cancer.