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Xu J, Dong X, Huang DCS, Xu P, Zhao Q, Chen B. Current Advances and Future Strategies for BCL-2 Inhibitors: Potent Weapons against Cancers. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:4957. [PMID: 37894324 PMCID: PMC10605442 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15204957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Targeting the intrinsic apoptotic pathway regulated by B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) antiapoptotic proteins can overcome the evasion of apoptosis in cancer cells. BCL-2 inhibitors have evolved into an important means of treating cancers by inducing tumor cell apoptosis. As the most extensively investigated BCL-2 inhibitor, venetoclax is highly selective for BCL-2 and can effectively inhibit tumor survival. Its emergence and development have significantly influenced the therapeutic landscape of hematological malignancies, especially in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia, in which it has been clearly incorporated into the recommended treatment regimens. In addition, the considerable efficacy of venetoclax in combination with other agents has been demonstrated in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma and certain lymphomas. Although venetoclax plays a prominent antitumor role in preclinical experiments and clinical trials, large individual differences in treatment outcomes have been characterized in real-world patient populations, and reduced drug sensitivity will lead to disease recurrence or progression. The therapeutic efficacy may vary widely in patients with different molecular characteristics, and key genetic mutations potentially result in differential sensitivities to venetoclax. The identification and validation of more novel biomarkers are required to accurately predict the effectiveness of BCL-2 inhibition therapy. Furthermore, we summarize the recent research progress relating to the use of BCL-2 inhibitors in solid tumor treatment and demonstrate that a wealth of preclinical models have shown promising results through combination therapies. The applications of venetoclax in solid tumors warrant further clinical investigation to define its prospects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxuan Xu
- Department of Hematology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, China-Australia Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China; (J.X.); (X.D.); (P.X.)
| | - Xiaoqing Dong
- Department of Hematology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, China-Australia Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China; (J.X.); (X.D.); (P.X.)
| | - David C. S. Huang
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia;
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Peipei Xu
- Department of Hematology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, China-Australia Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China; (J.X.); (X.D.); (P.X.)
| | - Quan Zhao
- Department of Hematology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, China-Australia Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China; (J.X.); (X.D.); (P.X.)
| | - Bing Chen
- Department of Hematology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, China-Australia Institute of Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China; (J.X.); (X.D.); (P.X.)
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Guo L, Shao W, Zhou C, Yang H, Yang L, Cai Q, Wang J, Shi Y, Huang L, Zhang J. Neratinib for HER2-positive breast cancer with an overlooked option. Mol Med 2023; 29:134. [PMID: 37803271 PMCID: PMC10559443 DOI: 10.1186/s10020-023-00736-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression is associated with an increased risk of metastases especially those to the brain in patients with advanced breast cancer (BC). Neratinib as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor can prevent the transduction of HER1, HER2 and HER4 signaling pathways thus playing an anticancer effect. Moreover, neratinib has a certain efficacy to reverse drug resistance in patients with BC with previous HER2 monoclonal antibody or targeted drug resistance. Neratinib, as monotherapy and in combination with other therapies, has been tested in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and metastatic settings. Neratinib with high anticancer activity is indicated for the prolonged adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive early BC, or in combination with other drugs including trastuzumab, capecitabine, and paclitaxel for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive BC especially cancers with central nervous system (CNS) metastasis to reduce the risk of BC recurrence. This article reviewed the pharmacological profiles, efficacy, safety, tolerability, and current clinical trials pertaining to neratinib, with a particular focus on the use of neratinib in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) involving the CNS. We further discussed the use of neratinib for HER2-negative and HER2-mutant breast cancers, and mechanisms of resistance to neratinib. The current evidence suggests that neratinib has promising efficacy in patients with BC which is at least non-inferior compared to previous therapeutic regimens. The most common AE was diarrhea, and the incidence, severity and duration of neratinib-related grade 3 diarrhea can be reduced with loperamide. Of note, neratinib has the potential to effectively control and prevent brain metastasis in patients with advanced BC, providing a therapeutic strategy for HER2-positive BC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liting Guo
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China.
| | - Weiwei Shao
- Department of Pathology, The First People's Hospital of Yancheng City, Yancheng, China
| | - Chenfei Zhou
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Hui Yang
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Liu Yang
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Qu Cai
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Junqing Wang
- Department of General Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China.
| | - Yan Shi
- Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Seventh People's Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 358 Datong Road, Gaoqiao Town, Shanghai, 200137, China.
| | - Lei Huang
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China.
- Medical Center on Aging of Ruijin Hospital, MCARJH, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
| | - Jun Zhang
- Department of Oncology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai, 200025, China
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Yeh SJ, Chen BS. Systems Medicine Design based on Systems Biology Approaches and Deep Neural Network for Gastric Cancer. IEEE/ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS 2022; 19:3019-3031. [PMID: 34232888 DOI: 10.1109/tcbb.2021.3095369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in the world. It is associated with the stimulation of microenvironment, aberrant epigenetic modification, and chronic inflammation. However, few researches discuss the GC molecular progression mechanisms from the perspective of the system level. In this study, we proposed a systems medicine design procedure to identify essential biomarkers and find corresponding drugs for GC. At first, we did big database mining to construct candidate protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) and candidate gene regulation network (GRN). Second, by leveraging the next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, we performed system modeling and applied system identification and model selection to obtain real genome-wide genetic and epigenetic networks (GWGENs). To make the real GWGENs easy to analyze, the principal network projection method was used to extract the core signaling pathways denoted by KEGG pathways. Subsequently, based on the identified biomarkers, we trained a deep neural network of drug-target interaction (DeepDTI) with supervised learning and filtered our candidate drugs considering drug regulation ability and drug sensitivity. With the proposed systematic strategy, we not only shed the light on the progression of GC but also suggested potential multiple-molecule drugs efficiently.
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Chen C, Gao H, Su X. Autophagy-related signaling pathways are involved in cancer (Review). Exp Ther Med 2021; 22:710. [PMID: 34007319 PMCID: PMC8120650 DOI: 10.3892/etm.2021.10142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2020] [Accepted: 10/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Autophagy is a self-digestion process in cells that can maintain energy homeostasis under normal circumstances. However, misfolded proteins, damaged mitochondria and other unwanted components in cells can be decomposed and reused via autophagy in some specific cases (including hypoxic stress, low energy states or nutrient deprivation). Therefore, autophagy serves a positive role in cell survival and growth. However, excessive autophagy may lead to apoptosis. Furthermore, abnormal autophagy may lead to carcinogenesis and promote tumorigenesis in normal cells. In tumor cells, autophagy may provide the energy required for excessive proliferation, promote the growth of cancer cells, and evade apoptosis caused by certain treatments, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, resulting in increased treatment resistance and drug resistance. On the other hand, autophagy leads to an insufficient nutrient supply in cancer cells and the destruction of energy homeostasis, thereby inducing cancer cell apoptosis. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of the double-edged sword of autophagy is crucial for the treatment of cancer. The present review summarizes the signaling pathways and key factors involved in autophagy and cancer to provide possible strategies for treating tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caixia Chen
- Clinical Medicine Research Center, The Affiliated Hospital, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010050, P.R. China
| | - Hui Gao
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Cancer Hospital, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010020, P.R. China
| | - Xiulan Su
- Clinical Medicine Research Center, The Affiliated Hospital, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010050, P.R. China
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Mele L, Del Vecchio V, Liccardo D, Prisco C, Schwerdtfeger M, Robinson N, Desiderio V, Tirino V, Papaccio G, La Noce M. The role of autophagy in resistance to targeted therapies. Cancer Treat Rev 2020; 88:102043. [PMID: 32505806 DOI: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2020.102043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 05/22/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Autophagy is a self-degradative cellular process, involved in stress response such as starvation, hypoxia, and oxidative stress. This mechanism balances macro-molecule recycling to regulate cell homeostasis. In cancer, autophagy play a role in the development and progression, while several studies describe it as one of the key processes in drug resistance. In the last years, in addition to standard anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapies and irradiation, targeted therapy became one of the most adopted strategies in clinical practices, mainly due to high specificity and reduced side effects. However, similar to standard treatments, drug resistance is the main challenge in most patients. Here, we summarize recent studies that investigated the role of autophagy in drug resistance after targeted therapy in different types of cancers. We highlight positive results and limitations of pre-clinical and clinical studies in which autophagy inhibitors are used in combination with targeted therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luigi Mele
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
| | - Vitale Del Vecchio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
| | - Davide Liccardo
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
| | - Claudia Prisco
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy; The John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Melanie Schwerdtfeger
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy; Department of Medicine IV -Division of Clinical Pharmacology-University of Munich, Germany
| | - Nirmal Robinson
- Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology and University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Vincenzo Desiderio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
| | - Virginia Tirino
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
| | - Gianpaolo Papaccio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy.
| | - Marcella La Noce
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "L. Vanvitelli" Naples, Italy
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Oudenaarden CRL, van de Ven RAH, Derksen PWB. Re-inforcing the cell death army in the fight against breast cancer. J Cell Sci 2018; 131:131/16/jcs212563. [DOI: 10.1242/jcs.212563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Metastatic breast cancer is responsible for most breast cancer-related deaths. Disseminated cancer cells have developed an intrinsic ability to resist anchorage-dependent apoptosis (anoikis). Anoikis is caused by the absence of cellular adhesion, a process that underpins lumen formation and maintenance during mammary gland development and homeostasis. In healthy cells, anoikis is mostly governed by B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL2) protein family members. Metastatic cancer cells, however, have often developed autocrine BCL2-dependent resistance mechanisms to counteract anoikis. In this Review, we discuss how a pro-apoptotic subgroup of the BCL2 protein family, known as the BH3-only proteins, controls apoptosis and anoikis during mammary gland homeostasis and to what extent their inhibition confers tumor suppressive functions in metastatic breast cancer. Specifically, the role of the two pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins BCL2-modifying factor (BMF) and BCL2-interacting mediator of cell death (BIM) will be discussed here. We assess current developments in treatment that focus on mimicking the function of the BH3-only proteins to induce apoptosis, and consider their applicability to restore normal apoptotic responses in anchorage-independent disseminating tumor cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara R. L. Oudenaarden
- UMC Utrecht, Department of Pathology, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584CX Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Lund University, Department of Experimental Oncology, Scheelevägen 2, 22363 Lund, Sweden
| | - Robert A. H. van de Ven
- UMC Utrecht, Department of Pathology, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584CX Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology, 250 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Patrick W. B. Derksen
- UMC Utrecht, Department of Pathology, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584CX Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Lin H, Wang Y, Lai H, Li X, Chen T. Iron(II)-Polypyridyl Complexes Inhibit the Growth of Glioblastoma Tumor and Enhance TRAIL-Induced Cell Apoptosis. Chem Asian J 2018; 13:2730-2738. [PMID: 29963768 DOI: 10.1002/asia.201800862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2018] [Revised: 06/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
A promising cancer-targeting agent for the induction of apoptosis in tumor necrosis factor (TNF) proteins, the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) ligand, has found limited applications in the treatment of cancer cells, owing to its resistance by cancer cell lines. Therefore, the rational design of anticancer agents that could sensitize cancer cells towards TRAIL is of great significance. Herein, we report that synthetic iron(II)-polypyridyl complexes are capable of inhibiting the proliferation of glioblastoma cancer cells and efficiently enhancing TRAIL-induced cell apoptosis. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that the synthesized complexes induced cancer-cell apoptosis through triggering the activation of p38 and p53 and inhibiting the activation of ERK. Moreover, uPA and MMP-2/MMP-9, among the most important metastatic regulatory proteins, were also found to be significantly alerted after the treatment. Furthermore, we also found that tumor growth in nude mice was significantly inhibited by iron complex Fe2 through the induction of apoptosis without clear systematic toxicity, as indicated by histological analysis. Taken together, this study provides evidence for the further development of metal-based anticancer agents and chemosensitizers of TRAIL for the treatment of human glioblastoma cancer cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Lin
- The First Affiliated Hospital, and, Department of Chemistry, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, P. R. China
| | - Yifan Wang
- The First Affiliated Hospital, and, Department of Chemistry, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, P. R. China
| | - Haoqiang Lai
- The First Affiliated Hospital, and, Department of Chemistry, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, P. R. China
| | - Xiaoling Li
- Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, P. R. China
| | - Tianfeng Chen
- The First Affiliated Hospital, and, Department of Chemistry, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, P. R. China
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