Synergetic delivery of artesunate and isosorbide 5-mononitrate with reduction-sensitive polymer nanoparticles for ovarian cancer chemotherapy

Artesunate: A Review of Its Potential Therapeutic Effects and Mechanisms in Digestive Diseases

Artesunate (ART), an artemisinin-derived semi-synthetic sesquiterpene lactone distinguished by its unique endoperoxide group, has become a cornerstone of clinical antimalarial therapy. Recent research has demonstrated its broad pharmacological profile, including its potent antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, and anti-fibrotic properties. These discoveries have significantly broadened the therapeutic scope of ART and offer new perspectives for its potential use in treating gastrointestinal disorders. Mechanistically, ART exerts significant therapeutic effects against diverse gastrointestinal pathologies-such as gastric ulcers, ulcerative colitis (UC), hepatic fibrosis (HF), gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and colorectal cancer-via multimodal mechanisms, including cell cycle modulation, apoptosis induction, the suppression of tumor cell invasion and migration, proliferation inhibition, ferroptosis activation, and immune regulation. This review evaluates existing evidence on ART's therapeutic applications and molecular mechanisms in digestive diseases, intending to elucidate its clinical translation potential. ART emerges as a promising multi-target agent with significant prospects for improving the management of gastrointestinal disorders.

STING pathway activation with cisplatin polyprodrug nanoparticles for chemo-immunotherapy in ovarian cancer

Cisplatin serves as the cornerstone medication in ovarian cancer (OC) chemotherapy; however, numerous resistance factors exist, resulting in unsatisfactory clinical treatment outcomes. Concurrently, OC frequently establishes an immunosuppressive microenvironment, which further exacerbates the challenges of cisplatin chemotherapy. Hence, it is particularly significant to explore a therapeutic approach capable of overcoming cisplatin resistance while reversing the immunosuppressive microenvironment of OC. Here, we synthesized a novel cisplatin polyprodrug (PTP) containing thioketal units, which self-assembled with a stimulator of interferon genes (STING) small-molecule agonist (SR-717) to form redox-smart-responsive PTP@SR-717 nanoparticles (NPs), enabling synergistic chemo-immunotherapy. Specifically, PTP@SR-717 NPs enhanced the anti-tumor effect of cisplatin through three key mechanisms: (i) Pre-target factors: Enhancing intracellular cisplatin uptake and reducing GSH-mediated detoxification to promote platinum accumulation. (ii) On-target factors: Utilizing molecular damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) triggered by cisplatin to activate the STING pathway, thereby synergistically amplifying the STING-TBK1-IRF3 signaling and efficiently triggering an immune response. (iii) Post-target factors: Combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy to harness the immune system for tumor eradication. In conclusion, this study presents an effective approach to addressing the challenges associated with cisplatin in the clinical treatment of OC.

Artesunate disrupts ribosome RNA biogenesis and inhibits ovarian cancer growth by targeting FANCA

BACKGROUND

The dysregulation of ribosome biogenesis has been extensively identified in various cancers, making it emerge as a hallmark of malignant cells. This highlights the potential of targeting ribosome biogenesis as an effective approach for treating cancer patients. Although chemotherapy drugs including doxorubicin and cisplatin often target ribosome biogenesis to induce DNA damage or inhibit tumor cell proliferation, they are associated with significant side effects.

PURPOSE

This study aims to reveal the novel role of artesunate (ART), a well-known antimalarial drug, in suppressing ribosome RNA biogenesis in ovarian cancer.

METHODS

In this study, the inhibitory effects of ART on ovarian cancer were studied both in vitro and in vivo. The effects of ART on ribosome RNA biogenesis were detected by 5-ethynyl uridine staining, RT-qPCR, and western blotting. Drug affinity responsive target stability, mass spectrometry, molecular docking and western blotting were combined to identify ART molecular targets.

RESULTS

Ovarian cancer cells treated with ART exhibited significant reduction in nascent rRNA synthesis, accompanied by a remarkable down-regulation of pre-rRNA and mature rRNA expression. The inhibitory effect of ART on ribosome biogenesis subsequently impaired cell proliferation, cell migration and invasion, and induced apoptosis. In eukaryotes, ribosome RNA synthesis primarily occurs in the nucleus, involving processes such as rDNA transcription, pre-rRNA splicing and the assembly of ribosome precursors with ribosomal proteins, other closely-related proteins and small nucleolar RNAs. We observed that ART inhibited the nuclear translocation of FANCA through binding to FANCA protein, consequently leading to the inhibition of ribosome RNA synthesis. Moreover, knockdown of FANCA in ovarian tumor cells resulted in reduced rRNA transcription, suppressed cell proliferation and migration, and induced apoptosis which might be mediated through the inhibition of mTOR/RPS6 activity. In vivo studies using xenograft tumors in nude mice demonstrated that ART repressed the growth of established ovarian cancer tumors. Additionally, ART treatment significantly altered FANCA protein level in these tumors, especially suppressed its nuclear localization.

CONCLUSION

These findings establish ART as a potent inhibitor of ribosome biogenesis, presenting a promising therapeutic avenue for ovarian tumors with high FANCA expression or for cancer patients exhibiting abnormal activation of the mTOR-RPS6 pathway.

Artesunate: A potential drug for the prevention and treatment from hepatitis to hepatocellular carcinoma

Liver cancer represents a multifactorial, multistage, and intricately progressive malignancy. Over the past decade, artesunate (ART), initially renowned for its anti-malarial efficacy, has been the focus of over 3000 studies uncovering its diverse pharmacological actions, including anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, metabolic regulatory, anti-fibrotic, and anti-cancer properties. This review highlights ART's role in the multistep progression from hepatitis to cancer and its underlying regulatory mechanisms, revealing signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and ferroptosis (a novel form of programmed cell death) as promising therapeutic targets. ART demonstrates efficacy in inhibiting hepatitis virus infections, modulating inflammation, and facilitating recovery from inflammatory processes. During stages of hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis, ART reverses fibrotic and cirrhotic changes by suppressing hepatic stellate cell activity, regulating inflammatory pathways, inhibiting hematopoietic stem cell proliferation, and inducing ferroptosis. Additionally, ART hinders hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis, induces apoptosis and autophagy, combats drug resistance, and enhances chemosensitivity. Collectively, ART exhibits multi-step actions across multiple targets and signaling pathways, highlighting its potential as a clinical candidate for the prevention and treatment of liver cancer, from hepatitis and hepatic fibrosis to advanced HCC.

Highly Efficient Synergistic Chemotherapy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Targeted Ovarian Cancer Therapy Using Hyaluronic Acid-Coated Coordination Polymer Nanoparticles

The diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer (OC) are still a grand challenge, more than 70% of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage with a dismal prognosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown superior results to other examinations in preoperative assessment, while cisplatin-based chemotherapy is the first-line treatment for OC. However, few previous studies have brought together the two rapidly expanding fields. Here a technique is presented using cisplatin prodrug (Pt-COOH), Fe3+, and natural polyphenols (Gossypol) to construct the nanoparticles (HA@PFG NPs) that have a stable structure, controllable drug release behavior, and high drug loading capacity. The acidic pH values in tumor sites facilitate the release of Fe3+, Pt-COOH, and Gossypol from HA@PFG NPs. Pt-COOH with GSH consumption and cisplatin-based chemotherapy plus Gossypol with pro-apoptotic effects displays a synergistic effect for killing tumor cells. Furthermore, the release of Fe3+ at the tumor sites promotes ferroptosis and enables MRI imaging of OC. In the patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) model, HA@PFG NPs alleviate the tumor activity. RNA sequencing analysis reveals that HA@PFG NPs ameliorate OC symptoms mainly through IL-6 signal pathways. This work combines MRI imaging with cisplatin-based chemotherapy, which holds great promise for OC diagnosis and synergistic therapy.

Anti-tumor mechanism of artesunate

Artesunate (ART) is a classic antimalarial drug with high efficiency, low toxicity and tolerance. It has been shown to be safe and has good anti-tumor effect. Existing clinical studies have shown that the anti-tumor mechanisms of ART mainly include inducing apoptosis and autophagy of tumor cells, affecting tumor microenvironment, regulating immune response, overcoming drug resistance, as well as inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. ART has been proven to fight against lung cancer, hepatocarcinoma, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, malignant melanoma, oral squamous cell carcinoma, bladder cancer, prostate cancer and other neoplasms. In this review, we highlight the effects of ART on various tumors with an emphasis on its anti-tumor mechanism, which is helpful to propose the potential research directions of ART and expand its clinical application.

Identification of estrogen response-associated STRA6+ granulosa cells within high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma by single-cell sequencing

Background

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is a pathologic subtype of ovarian cancer (OC) with a more lethal prognosis. Extensive heterogeneity results in HGSOC being more susceptible to treatment resistance and adverse treatment effects. Revealing the heterogeneity involved is crucial.

Methods

We downloaded the single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA) data from GEO database and performed a scRNA analysis for cell landscape of HGSOC by using the Seurat package. The highly expressed genes were uploaded into the DAVID and KEGG database for enrichment analysis, and the AUCell package was used to calculate cancer-associated hallmark score. The SCENIC analysis was used for key regulons, the estrogen response enrichment scores in TCGA-OV RNA-seq dataset were calculated by using the GSVA package. Besides, the expression of STRA6 and IRF1 and the cell invasion and migration in si-STRA6 OC cells were detected by using the quantitative reverse transcription (qRT)-PCR method and Transwell assay respectively.

Results

We successfully constructed a single-cell atlas of HGSOC and delineated the heterogeneity of epithelial cells therein. There were five epithelial cell subpopulations, GLDC + Epithelial cells, PEG3+ leydig cells, STRA6+ granulosa cells, POLE2+ Epithelial cells, and AURKA + Epithelial cells. STRA6+ granulosa cells have the potential to promote tumor growth as well as the highest estrogen response early activity through the biological pathways analysis of highly expressed genes and estrogen response score of ssGSEA. We found that IRF1 and STRA6 expression was remarkably upregulated in the OC cancer cell line HEY. Silencing of STRA6 markedly decreased the invasion and migration ability of the OC cancer cell line HEY.

Conclusion

There is extreme heterogeneity of epithelial cells in HGSOC, and STRA6+ granulosa cells may be able to promote cancer progression. Our findings are benefit to the heterogeneity identification of HGSOC and develop targeted therapy strategy for HGSOC patients.

Cytoprotective Role of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Cancer Chemoresistance: Focus on Antioxidant, Antiapoptotic, and Pro-Autophagy Properties

Chemoresistance remains the foremost challenge in cancer therapy. Targeting reactive oxygen species (ROS) manipulation is a promising strategy in cancer treatment since tumor cells present high levels of intracellular ROS, which makes them more vulnerable to further ROS elevation than normal cells. Nevertheless, dynamic redox evolution and adaptation of tumor cells are capable of counteracting therapy-induced oxidative stress, which leads to chemoresistance. Hence, exploring the cytoprotective mechanisms of tumor cells is urgently needed to overcome chemoresistance. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a rate-limiting enzyme of heme degradation, acts as a crucial antioxidant defense and cytoprotective molecule in response to cellular stress. Recently, emerging evidence indicated that ROS detoxification and oxidative stress tolerance owing to the antioxidant function of HO-1 contribute to chemoresistance in various cancers. Enhanced HO-1 expression or enzymatic activity was revealed to promote apoptosis resistance and activate protective autophagy, which also involved in the development of chemoresistance. Moreover, inhibition of HO-1 in multiple cancers was identified to reversing chemoresistance or improving chemosensitivity. Here, we summarize the most recent advances regarding the antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and pro-autophagy properties of HO-1 in mediating chemoresistance, highlighting HO-1 as a novel target for overcoming chemoresistance and improving the prognosis of cancer patients.

In Vitro Drug Repurposing: Focus on Vasodilators

Drug repurposing aims to identify new therapeutic uses for drugs that have already been approved for other conditions. This approach can save time and resources compared to traditional drug development, as the safety and efficacy of the repurposed drug have already been established. In the context of cancer, drug repurposing can lead to the discovery of new treatments that can target specific cancer cell lines and improve patient outcomes. Vasodilators are a class of drugs that have been shown to have the potential to influence various types of cancer. These medications work by relaxing the smooth muscle of blood vessels, increasing blood flow to tumors, and improving the delivery of chemotherapy drugs. Additionally, vasodilators have been found to have antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects on cancer cells, making them a promising target for drug repurposing. Research on vasodilators for cancer treatment has already shown promising results in preclinical and clinical studies. However, additionally research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms of action of vasodilators in cancer and determine the optimal dosing and combination therapy for patients. In this review, we aim to explore the molecular mechanisms of action of vasodilators in cancer cell lines and the current state of research on their repurposing as a treatment option. With the goal of minimizing the effort and resources required for traditional drug development, we hope to shed light on the potential of vasodilators as a viable therapeutic strategy for cancer patients.