Anisomycin sensitizes non-small-cell lung cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents and epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor via suppressing PI3K/Akt/mTOR

Chemoresistance Mechanisms in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer-Opportunities for Drug Repurposing

Globally, lung cancer contributes significantly to the public health burden-associated mortality. As this form of cancer is insidious in nature, there is an inevitable diagnostic delay leading to chronic tumor development. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes 80-85% of all lung cancer cases, making this neoplasia form a prevalent subset of lung carcinoma. One of the most vital aspects for proper diagnosis, prognosis, and adequate therapy is the precise classification of non-small cell lung cancer based on biomarker expression profiling. This form of biomarker profiling has provided opportunities for improvements in patient stratification, mechanistic insights, and probable druggable targets. However, numerous patients have exhibited numerous toxic side effects, tumor relapse, and development of therapy-based chemoresistance. As a result of these exacting situations, there is a dire need for efficient and effective new cancer therapeutics. De novo drug development approach is a costly and tedious endeavor, with an increased attrition rate, attributed, in part, to toxicity-related issues. Drug repurposing, on the other hand, when combined with computer-assisted systems biology approach, provides alternatives to the discovery of new, efficacious, and safe drugs. Therefore, in this review, we focus on a comparison of the conventional therapy-based chemoresistance mechanisms with the repurposed anti-cancer drugs from three different classes-anti-parasitic, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics for cancer treatment with a primary focus on NSCLC therapeutics. Certainly, amalgamating these novel therapeutic approaches with that of the conventional drug regimen in NSCLC-affected patients will possibly complement/synergize the existing therapeutic modalities. This approach has tremendous translational significance, since it can combat drug resistance and cytotoxicity-based side effects and provides a relatively new strategy for possible application in therapy of individuals with NSCLC.

A drug repurposing method based on inhibition effect on gene regulatory network

Numerous computational drug repurposing methods have emerged as efficient alternatives to costly and time-consuming traditional drug discovery approaches. Some of these methods are based on the assumption that the candidate drug should have a reversal effect on disease-associated genes. However, such methods are not applicable in the case that there is limited overlap between disease-related genes and drug-perturbed genes. In this study, we proposed a novel Drug Repurposing method based on the Inhibition Effect on gene regulatory network (DRIE) to identify potential drugs for cancer treatment. DRIE integrated gene expression profile and gene regulatory network to calculate inhibition score by using the shortest path in the disease-specific network. The results on eleven datasets indicated the superior performance of DRIE when compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Case studies showed that our method effectively discovered novel drug-disease associations. Our findings demonstrated that the top-ranked drug candidates had been already validated by CTD database. Additionally, it clearly identified potential agents for three cancers (colorectal, breast, and lung cancer), which was beneficial when annotating drug-disease relationships in the CTD. This study proposed a novel framework for drug repurposing, which would be helpful for drug discovery and development.

Modulation of the p38 MAPK Pathway by Anisomycin Promotes Ferroptosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma through Phosphorylation of H3S10

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent malignant tumor worldwide. Ferroptosis is emerging as an effective target for tumor treatment as it has been shown to potentiate cell death in some malignancies. However, it remains unclear whether histone phosphorylation events, an epigenetic mechanism that regulates transcriptional expression, are involved in ferroptosis. Our study found that supplementation with anisomycin, an agonist of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), induced ferroptosis in HCC cells, and the phosphorylation of histone H3 on serine 10 (p-H3S10) was participated in anisomycin-induced ferroptosis. To investigate the anticancer effects of anisomycin-activated p38 MAPK in HCC, we analyzed cell viability, colony formation, cell death, and cell migration in Hep3B and HCCLM3 cells. The results showed that anisomycin could significantly suppress HCC cell colony formation and migration and induce HCC cell death. The hallmarks of ferroptosis, such as abnormal accumulation of iron and elevated levels of lipid peroxidation and malondialdehyde, were detected to confirm the ability of anisomycin to promote ferroptosis. Furthermore, coincubation with SB203580, an inhibitor of activated p38 MAPK, partially rescued anisomycin-induced ferroptosis. And the levels of p-p38 MAPK and p-H3S10 were successively increased by anisomycin treatment. The relationship between p-H3S10 and ferroptosis was revealed by ChIP sequencing. The reverse transcription PCR and immunofluorescence results showed that NCOA4 was upregulated both in mRNA and protein levels after anisomycin treatment. And by C11-BODIPY staining, we found that anisomycin-induced lipid reactive oxygen species was reduced after NCOA4 knockdown. In conclusion, the anisomycin-activated p38 MAPK promoted ferroptosis of HCC cells through H3S10 phosphorylation.

Advances on pharmacology and toxicology of aconitine

Aconitum alkaloids are considered to be the characteristic bioactive ingredients of Aconitum species, which are widely applied to the treatment of diverse diseases, and aconitine (AC) is found in most Aconitum plants. Research evidence shows that low-dose AC has a good therapeutic potential in heart failure, myocardial infarction, neuroinflammatory diseases, rheumatic diseases, and tumors, which has become one of the hotspots in global research in recent years. However, the cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity of AC have also attracted extensive attention. Excessive use of AC always induces ventricular tachyarrhythmia and heart arrest, even can be potentially lethal. Therefore, AC cannot simply be regarded as a good medicine or a toxicant, but its underlying curative and toxic properties remained chaos. In order to dig the unique pharmacological value of AC while preventing its toxicity, the pharmacological activities and toxic effects of AC were summarized in this paper, providing new insight into the safe and effective use of AC in clinical practice.

Anisomycin inhibits angiogenesis, growth, and survival of triple-negative breast cancer through mitochondrial dysfunction, AMPK activation, and mTOR inhibition

Aberrant upregulation of mitochondrial biogenesis is observed in breast cancer and holds potential therapeutic option. In our work, we showed that inhibition of mitochondrial function by anisomycin is effective against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Anisomycin inhibits growth and induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in a panel of TNBC cell lines. Of note, anisomycin at a tolerable dose remarkably suppresses growth of TNBC in mice. In addition, anisomycin effectively targets breast cancer angiogenesis through inhibiting capillary network formation, migration, proliferation, and survival. Mechanistic studies show that although anisomycin activates p38 and JNK, their activations are not required for anisomycin's action. In contrast, anisomycin inhibits mitochondrial respiration, and decreases mitochondrial membrane potential and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) level. The inhibitory effect of anisomycin is significantly reversed in mitochondria respiration-deficient ρ0 cells. As a consequence, anisomycin activates AMPK and inhibits mammalian target-of-rapamycin signaling pathways. Our work demonstrated that anisomycin is a useful addition to the treatment armamentarium for TNBC.

Repurposing Ivermectin to augment chemotherapy's efficacy in osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND

Osteosarcoma is the most frequent malignant bone malignancy and the current treatments are ineffective. Ivermectin, an anti-protozoal drug, has been shown to have anti-cancer activity. This work investigated the potential of repurposing ivermectin to augment chemotherapy's efficacy in osteosarcoma.

METHODS

Proliferation, migration and apoptosis assays were performed in ivermectin-treated osteosarcoma cells. Combination studies were performed. Osteosarcoma xenograft mouse model was established to investigate the in vivo efficacy of ivermectin. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial superoxide, membrane potential, ATP, 8-OHdG level, protein carbonylation and lipid peroxidation were determined after ivermectin treatment.

RESULTS

Ivermectin was effective and acted synergistically with doxorubicin in osteosarcoma cells regardless of cellular origin and genetic profiling. This was achieved through suppressing inhibiting growth and migration, and inducing caspase-dependent apoptosis. Ivermectin also significantly inhibited osteosarcoma growth in vivo and its combination with doxorubicin resulted in much greater efficacy than doxorubicin alone. Importantly, the effective dose of ivermectin was clinically feasible and did not cause significant toxicity in mice. Mechanistical analysis showed that ivermectin induced oxidative stress and damage, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that ivermectin has utility in treating patients with osteosarcoma, especially those resistant to chemotherapy.