Securidaca-saponins are natural inhibitors of AKT, MCL-1, and BCL2L1 in cervical cancer cells

Natural products' antiangiogenic roles in gynecological cancer

Gynecological cancers pose a significant threat to women's health. Although the pathogenesis of gynecological cancer remains incompletely understood, angiogenesis is widely acknowledged as a fundamental pathological mechanism driving tumor cell growth, invasion, and metastasis. Targeting angiogenesis through natural products has emerged as a crucial strategy for treating gynecological cancer. In this review, we conducted comprehensive searches in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Science Direct, and CNKI databases from the first publication until May 2023 to identify natural products that target angiogenesis in gynecologic tumors. Our findings revealed 63 natural products with anti-angiogenic activity against gynecological cancer. These results underscore the significance of these natural products in augmenting their anticancer effects by modulating other factors within the tumor microenvironment via their impact on angiogenesis. This article focuses on exploring the potential of natural products in targeting blood vessels within gynecological cancer to provide novel research perspectives for targeted vascular therapy while laying a solid theoretical foundation for new drug development.

Human papillomavirus associated cervical lesion: pathogenesis and therapeutic interventions

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most prevalent sexually transmitted virus globally. Persistent high-risk HPV infection can result in cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer, with 70% of cervical cancer cases associated with high-risk types HPV16 and 18. HPV infection imposes a significant financial and psychological burden. Therefore, studying methods to eradicate HPV infection and halt the progression of precancerous lesions remains crucial. This review comprehensively explores the mechanisms underlying HPV-related cervical lesions, including the viral life cycle, immune factors, epithelial cell malignant transformation, and host and environmental contributing factors. Additionally, we provide a comprehensive overview of treatment methods for HPV-related cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer. Our focus is on immunotherapy, encompassing HPV therapeutic vaccines, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and advanced adoptive T cell therapy. Furthermore, we summarize the commonly employed drugs and other nonsurgical treatments currently utilized in clinical practice for managing HPV infection and associated cervical lesions. Gene editing technology is currently undergoing clinical research and, although not yet employed officially in clinical treatment of cervical lesions, numerous preclinical studies have substantiated its efficacy. Therefore, it holds promise as a precise treatment strategy for HPV-related cervical lesions.

The use of African medicinal plants in cancer management

Cancer is the third leading cause of premature death in sub-Saharan Africa. Cervical cancer has the highest number of incidences in sub-Saharan Africa due to high HIV prevalence (70% of global cases) in African countries which is linked to increasing the risk of developing cervical cancer, and the continuous high risk of being infected with Human papillomavirus In 2020, the risk of dying from cancer amongst women was higher in Eastern Africa (11%) than it was in Northern America (7.4%). Plants continue to provide unlimited pharmacological bioactive compounds that are used to manage various illnesses, including cancer. By reviewing the literature, we provide an inventory of African plants with reported anticancer activity and evidence supporting their use in cancer management. In this review, we report 23 plants that have been used for cancer management in Africa, where the anticancer extracts are usually prepared from barks, fruits, leaves, roots, and stems of these plants. Extensive information is reported about the bioactive compounds present in these plants as well as their potential activities against various forms of cancer. However, information on the anticancer properties of other African medicinal plants is insufficient. Therefore, there is a need to isolate and evaluate the anticancer potential of bioactive compounds from other African medicinal plants. Further studies on these plants will allow the elucidation of their anticancer mechanisms of action and allow the identification of phytochemicals that are responsible for their anticancer properties. Overall, this review provides consolidated and extensive information not only on diverse medicinal plants of Africa but on the different types of cancer that these plants are used to manage and the diverse mechanisms and pathways that are involved during cancer alleviation.

Medicinal Plants for Glioblastoma Treatment

Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, demonstrates the least life expectancy among all brain cancers. Because of the regulation of diverse signaling pathways in cancers, the chemotherapeutic approaches used to suppress their multiplication and spreading are restricted. Sensitivity towards chemotherapeutic agents has developed because of the pathological and drug-evading abilities of these diverse mechanisms. As a result, the identification and exploration of strategies or treatments, which can overcome such refractory obstacles to improve glioblastoma response to treatment as well as recovery, is essential. Medicinal herbs contain a wide variety of bioactive compounds, which could trigger aggressive brain cancers, regulate their anti-cancer mechanisms and immune responses to assist in cancer elimination, and cause cell death. Numerous tumor-causing proteins, which facilitate invasion as well as metastasis of cancer, tolerance of chemotherapies, and angiogenesis, are also inhibited by these phytochemicals. Such herbs remain valuable for glioblastoma prevention and its incidence by effectively being used as anti-glioma therapies. This review thus presents the latest findings on medicinal plants using which the extracts or bioactive components are being used against glioblastoma, their mechanism of functioning, pharmacological description as well as recent clinical studies conducted on them.

Expression and gene regulation network of TYMS and BCL2L1 in colorectal cancer based on data mining

Background

The purpose of this study was to study the role of thymidylate synthetase (TYMS) and B-cell lymphoma-2 like 1 (BCL2L1) in the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer and its potential regulatory mechanism.

Methods

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were analyzed to examine the expression and prognostic value of TYMS and BCL2L1 in colorectal cancer. C-BioPortal analysis was used to detect the TYMS and BCL2L1 alterations. Through The Human Protein Atlas (THPA), the TYMS and BCL2L1 protein levels were also assessed. The protein protein interaction (PPI) network was built using GeneMANIA analysis, while co-expression genes correlated with TYMS and BCL2L1 were identified using LinkedOmics analysis. Finally, we collected clinical samples to verify the expressions of TYMS and BCL2L1 in colorectal cancer.

Results

TYMS and BCL2L1 were up-regulated, and TYMS and BCL2L1 genomic alterations were not associated with the occurrence of colorectal cancer. TYMS and BCL2L1 were significantly connected with the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. The genes interacted with TYMS and BCL2L1 were linked to functional networks involving pathway of apoptosis, apoptosis-multiple species, colorectal cancer, platinum drug resistance and p53 signaling pathway. qRT-PCR verification results of TYMS were consistent with the result of TCGA and GEO analysis.

Conclusions

This study display that data mining can efficiently provide information on expression of TYMS and BCL2L1, correlated genes of TYMS and BCL2L1, core pathways and potential functional networks in colorectal cancer, suggesting that TYMS and BCL2L1 may become new prognostic and therapeutic targets for colorectal cancer.

Countrywide Survey of Plants Used for Liver Disease Management by Traditional Healers in Burkina Faso

Liver disease is highly prevalent in Africa, especially in the western African country Burkina Faso, due to the presence of multiple biological and chemical aggressors of the liver. Furthermore, diagnosis and appropriate care for liver disease are uneven and usually insufficient. This drives local communities to turn to folk medicine based on medicinal plants from healers. Small scale, ethnopharmacological studies on reputed hepatoprotective plants have been carried out in defined regions worldwide, but so far, no study has been carried out on a countrywide scale. Therefore, we have explored traditional healers’ practices in all thirteen regions of Burkina Faso. We interviewed 575 healers and we compiled a database with 2,006 plant entries. Here, we report results on liver nosology, liver pathologies, medicinal plants used for liver disease, and traditional practices through the lens of Burkinabe healers. Our goal was to give a full inventory of medicinal plants used to treat liver disease and to determine if there was consensus on the use of specific plants for specific symptoms. Analysis of the medicinal plants in use across the whole country provides local communities with a wider evidence base to determine which plants may be more effective in treating liver disease and could provide the scientific community, with a shortlist of plants suitable for chemical and pharmacological investigation to validate the plants’ therapeutic role.

Natural Compounds in Sex Hormone-Dependent Cancers: The Role of Triterpenes as Therapeutic Agents

Sex hormone-dependent cancers currently contribute to the high number of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The study and elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of these tumors was a double-edged sword, leading to the expansion and development of new treatment options, with the cost of triggering more aggressive, therapy resistant relapses. The interaction of androgen, estrogen and progesterone hormones with specific receptors (AR, ER, PR) has emerged as a key player in the development and progression of breast, ovarian, prostate and endometrium cancers. Sex hormone-dependent cancers share a common and rather unique carcinogenesis mechanism involving the active role of endogenous and exogenous sex hormones to maintain high mitotic rates and increased cell proliferation thus increasing the probability of aberrant gene occurrence and accumulation highly correlated with abnormal cell division and the occurrence of malignant phenotypes. Cancer related hormone therapy has evolved, currently being associated with the blockade of other signaling pathways often associated with carcinogenesis and tumor progression in cancers, with promising results. However, despite the established developments, there are still several shortcomings to be addressed. Triterpenes are natural occurring secondary metabolites biosynthesized by various pathways starting from squalene cyclization. Due to their versatile therapeutic potential, including the extensively researched antiproliferative effect, these compounds are most definitely a cornerstone in the research and development of new natural/semisynthetic anticancer therapies. The present work thoroughly describes the ongoing research related to the antitumor activity of triterpenes in sex hormone-dependent cancers. Also, the current review highlights both the biological activity of various triterpenoid compounds and their featured mechanisms of action correlated with important chemical structural features.

Identification of Core Genes Involved in the Progression of Cervical Cancer Using an Integrative mRNA Analysis

In spite of being a preventable disease, cervical cancer (CC) remains at high incidence, and it has a significant mortality rate. Although hijacking of the host cellular pathway is fundamental for developing a better understanding of the human papillomavirus (HPV) pathogenesis, a major obstacle is identifying the central molecular targets involved in HPV-driven CC. The aim of this study is to investigate transcriptomic patterns of HPV-infected and normal tissues to identify novel prognostic markers. Analyses of functional enrichment and interaction networks reveal that altered genes are mainly involved in cell cycle, DNA damage, and regulated cell-to-cell signaling. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data has suggested that patients with unfavorable prognostics are more likely to have DNA repair defects attributed, in most cases, to the presence of HPV. However, further studies are needed to fully unravel the molecular mechanisms of such genes involved in CC.

Activities of Some Medicinal Plants on the Proliferation and Invasion of Brain Tumor Cell Lines

Cancer is a debilitating disease that is on the increase in both developed and developing countries. Anticancer drugs are often expensive, have narrow spectrum of activities, and are associated with toxicities and side effects such as myelosuppression, immunosuppression, gastrointestinal disturbance, alopecia, skin toxicity, and hepatotoxicity. Plants have been the major source of anticancer drugs both in orthodox and traditional medicine. Many of the plants claimed by the traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) to be effective in the treatment of cancer are yet to be evaluated scientifically. In this work, five medicinal plants used by TMPs in Borno State, Nigeria, were tested against two brain tumor cell lines. Ethanol extracts of Securidaca longepedunculata, Andira inermis subsp. rooseveltii, Annona senegalensis, Carissa edulis, and Parinari polyandra were used. U87 and U231 brain tumor cell lines were used for proliferation assay, U251 cell line was used for the invasion assay in collagen V coated inserts, and U87 cell line was used for the western blot detection of cleaved Poly-ADP-Ribose-Polymerase (PARP). The result revealed that all tested extracts significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the proliferation of U87 and U231 cell lines with the respective IC₅₀ values ranging between 8 and 20 μg/ml for S. longepedunculata and 100 and 90 μg/ml for P. polyandra. The five extracts significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the invasion of U251 cell line at the concentration of 10 μg/ml (S. longepedunculata), 20 μg/ml (A. inermis), 50 μg/ml (A. senegalensis), 50 μg/ml (C. edulis), and 50 μg/ml (P. polyandra). Securidaca longepedunculata extract induced the cleavage of PARP. It was concluded that these medicinal plants have antiproliferative and anti-invasive activities and possess good prospects as source of anticancer agents especially S. longepedunculata which induced apoptosis in U87 cell line.

Circular RNA CDR1as Exerts Oncogenic Properties Partially through Regulating MicroRNA 641 in Cholangiocarcinoma

It has been found that the circular RNA (circRNA) CDR1as is upregulated in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) tissues. In this study, we tried to explore the roles of CDR1as in CCA. CDR1as was overexpressed or knocked down in human CCA cells to assess the effects of CDR1as on cell behaviors and tumor xenograft growth. In vitro, the CDR1as level was significantly increased in CCA cell lines. The results showed that CDR1as promoted the cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and activation of the AKT3/mTOR pathway in CCA cells. Moreover, miR-641, a predicted target microRNA (miRNA) of CDR1as, could partially reverse the effects of CDR1as on cell behaviors in CCA cells. Furthermore, CDR1as improved tumor xenograft growth, and it could be attenuated by miR-641 in vivo Additionally, CDR1as expression was inversely correlated with miR-641 in CCA cells, and miR-641 could directly bind with CDR1as and its target genes, the AKT3 and mTOR genes. Mechanistically, CDR1as could bind with miR-641 and accelerate miR-641 degradation, which possibly leads to the upregulation of the relative mRNA levels of AKT3 and mTOR in RBE cells. In conclusion, our findings indicated that CDR1as might exert oncogenic properties, at least partially, by regulating miR-641 in CCA. CDR1as and miR-641 could be considered therapeutic targets for CCA.

Synedrella nodiflora (Linn.) Gaertn. inhibits inflammatory responses through the regulation of Syk in RAW 264.7 macrophages

Synedrella nodiflora (Linn.) Gaertn. (S. nodiflora) has long been used for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including liver disease, asthma, rheumatism and earache, in tropical countries throughout America, Asia and Africa. However, the biological effects of S. nodiflora have not been extensively studied at the molecular level. Notably, it remains unclear how S. nodiflora exerts anti-inflammatory activity. In the present study, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of a methanol extract of S. nodiflora (MSN) in RAW 264.7 macrophages activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was investigated. Non-cytotoxic concentrations of MSN (≤400 µg/ml) decreased the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which resulted in a decrease in nitric oxide and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) production. The mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α was reduced upon MSN treatment. In addition, the activation of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) and Akt was suppressed by MSN. Taken together, these findings recommend the traditional medicinal application of S. nodiflora in the treatment of several inflammation-associated diseases and indicate the possibility of MSN as a novel therapeutic reagent of inflammation-related diseases.

LINC02595 promotes tumor progression in colorectal cancer by inhibiting miR-203b-3p activity and facilitating BCL2L1 expression

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent tumors worldwide. Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been recognized as key regulators in postgenomic biology. Numerous lncRNAs have been identified as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of lncRNAs in CRC progression are not fully understood. Differentially expressed lncRNAs and messenger RNAs were investigated using a microarray approach in five paired primary CRC tumor tissues and the corresponding nontumor tissues and confirmed in an additional 116 paired tissues and 21 inflammatory bowel disease tissues and 15 adjacent normal tissues by a quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. We also performed comprehensive transcriptome profiling analysis on Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets. We identified LINC02595 and evaluated its clinical significance as a plasma biomarker. The function of LINC02595 was evaluated using a panel of in vivo and vitro assays, including cell counting kit‐8, colony formation, cell cycle, apoptosis, RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization, luciferase reporter, immunohistochemistry, and CRC xenografts. We found that LINC02595 is upregulated in tumor tissues and blood samples of patients with CRC and CRC cell lines. Functional research found that LINC02595 promotes CRC cell growth, influences the cell cycle, and reduces apoptosis in vitro and vivo. Mechanistically, LINC02595 promoted BCL2‐like 1 (BCL2L1) expression through miR‐203b‐3p sponging. Our research demonstrated that LINC02595 is an oncogene in CRC and established the presence of a LINC02595‐miR‐203b‐BCL2L1 axis in CRC, which might provide a new diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic targets for the treatment of this disease.

PKI-587 enhances chemosensitivity of oxaliplatin in hepatocellular carcinoma through suppressing DNA damage repair pathway (NHEJ and HR) and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

Oxaliplatin resistance limits its effectiveness in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Abnormal activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway has been associated with decreased survival of HCC patients, anti-apoptosis after chemotherapeutic drug-induced DNA damage, and chemoresistance. In this research, we evaluated the effect of the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, PKI-587, on the sensitivity of oxaliplatin in HCC. Two HCC cell lines (HepG2 and SK-Hep1) were used to analyze PKI-587 for DNA damage response, cell proliferation, clonogenic survival, cell cycle and apoptosis after oxaliplatin treatment. A HepG2 tumor-bearing model was used to assess the in vivo effects of the combination of the two compounds. In HCC cells, oxaliplatin stably activated the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, including up-regulation of p-Akt (Ser473), p-mTOR (Ser2448), p-mTOR (Ser2481), p-elF4EBP1, and p-S6K1, and activated the DNA damage repair pathways (non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR)), up-regulation of p-DNAPKcs (Ser2056), p-ATM (Ser1981), and p-ATR (Ser428), which were attenuated by PKI-587. Compared with oxaliplatin alone, the combination of PKI-587 and oxaliplatin increased the number of γ-H2AX/cells, decreased proliferation of cells, and an increased the percentage of G0/G1 phase cells and apoptotic cells. In vivo, the combination of oxaliplatin with PKI-587 inhibited tumor growth. Anti-tumor effects were associated with induction of mitochondrial apoptosis and inhibition of phosphorylation of mTOR, Akt and γ-H2AX. We conclude that PKI-587 enhances chemosensitivity of oxaliplatin in HCC through suppressing the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling pathway and inhibiting the DNA damage repair pathway. The combination of PKI-587 and oxaliplatin appears to be a promising regimen for the treatment of HCC.