Suppression of the Proliferation of Huh7 Hepatoma Cells Involving the Downregulation of Mutant p53 Protein and Inactivation of the STAT 3 Pathway with Ailanthoidol

Exploration of antimicrobial and anticancer activities of L-amino acid oxidase from Egyptian Naja haje venom

Hepatocellular carcinoma and bacterial resistance are major health burdens nowadays. Thus, providing new therapies that overcome that resistance is of great interest, particularly those derived from nature rather than chemotherapeutics to avoid cytotoxicity on normal cells. Venomous animals are among the natural sources that assisted in the discovery of novel therapeutic regimens. L-amino acid oxidase Nh-LAAO (140 kDa), purified from Egyptian Naja haje venom by a successive two-step chromatography protocol, has an optimal pH and temperature of 8 and 37 °C. Under standard assay conditions, Nh-LAAO exhibited the highest specificity toward L-Arg, L-Met and L-Leu, with Km and Vmax values of 3.5 mM and 10.4 μmol/min/ml, respectively. Among the metal ions, Ca+2, Na+, and K+ ions are activators, whereas Fe+2 inhibited LAAO activity. PMSF and EDTA slightly inhibited the Nh-LAAO activity. In addition, Nh-LAAO showed antibacterial and antifungal activities, particularly against Gentamicin-resistant P. aeruginosa and E. coli strains with MIC of 18 ± 2 μg/ml, as well as F. proliferatum and A. parasiticus among the selected human pathogenic strains. Furthermore, Nh-LAAO exhibited anti-proliferative activity against cancer HepG2 and Huh7 cells with IC50 of 79.37 and 60.11 μg/ml, respectively, with no detectable effect on normal WI-38 cells. Consequently, the apoptosis % of the HepG2 and Huh7 cells were 12 ± 1 and 34.5 ± 2.5 %, respectively, upon Nh-LAAO treatment. Further, the Nh-LAAO arrested the HepG2 and Huh7 cell cycles in the G0/G1 phase. Thus, the powerful selective cytotoxicity of L-amino acid oxidase opens up the possibility as a good candidate for clinical cancer therapy.

Biogenic silver nanoparticles' antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity on human hepatocarcinoma cells (Huh-7)

Exploring diverse synthetic pathways for nanomaterial synthesis has emerged as a promising direction. For example, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are synthesized using different approaches yielding nanomaterials with distinct morphological, physical and biological properties. Hence, the present study reports the biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles using the aqueous secretome of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (AgNP@Fo) and orange peel extract (AgNP@OR). The physical and morphological properties of synthesized nanoparticles were similar, with AgNP@Fo measuring 56.43 ± 19.18 nm and AgNP@OR measuring 39.97 ± 19.72 nm in size. The zeta potentials for the nanoparticles were low, -26.8 ± 7.55 and -26.2 ± 2.87 mV for AgNP@Fo and AgNP@OR, respectively, demonstrating a similar negative charge. The spherical morphologies of both nanoparticles were evidenced by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). However, despite their similar physical and morphological properties, AgNPs demonstrated different bioactivities. We evaluated and compared the antimicrobial efficacy of these nanoparticles against a range of bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli. The AgNP@Fo showed Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.84 to 1.68 μg mL-1 and were around ten times more potent compared to AgNP@OR. The anticancer activities of both nanoparticles were investigated using human hepatocarcinoma cells (Huh-7), where AgNP@Fo exhibited around 20 times higher cytotoxicity than AgNP@OR with an IC50 value of 0.545 μmol L-1. Anticancer effects were demonstrated by the MTT, confirmed by the calcein-AM assay and fluorescence imaging. This study establishes solid groundwork for future exploration of molecular interactions of nanoparticles synthesized through distinct biosynthetic routes, particularly within bacterial and cancerous cell environments.

Hepatitis B doubly spliced protein (HBDSP) promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cell apoptosis via ETS1/GATA2/YY1-mediated p53 transcription

IMPORTANCE

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) spliced variants are associated with viral persistence or pathogenicity. Hepatitis B doubly spliced protein (HBDSP), which has been previously reported as a pleiotropic transactivator protein, can potentially serve as an HBV virulence factor. However, the underlying mechanisms of HBDSP in HBV-associated liver diseases remain to be elucidated. In this study, we revealed that HBDSP promotes cellular apoptosis and induces wt-p53-dependent apoptotic signaling pathway in wt-p53 hepatocellular cells by transactivating p53 transcription, and increases the release of HBV progeny. Therefore, HBDSP may promote the HBV particles release through wt-p53-dependent hepatocellular apoptosis. Our findings suggest that blocking HBDSP-induced wt-p53-dependent apoptosis might have therapeutic values for chronic hepatitis B.

2-(4-Benzyloxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-5-(carbethoxyethylene)-7-methoxy-benzofuran, a Benzofuran Derivative, Suppresses Metastasis Effects in P53-Mutant Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

2-(4-Benzyloxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-5-(carbethoxyethylene)-7-methoxy-benzofuran (BMBF), a benzofuran derivative, is an intermediate found in the process of total synthesis of ailanthoidol. Benzofuran derivatives are a class of compounds that possess various biological and pharmacological activities. The present study explored the anti-metastasis effects of BMBF in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our preliminary findings indicate that BMBF suppresses the proliferation and changes the morphology of Huh7-an HCC cell line with a mutated p53 gene (Y220C). According to a scratching motility assay, non-cytotoxic concentrations of BMBF significantly inhibited the motility and migration in Huh7 cells. BMBF upregulated the expression of E-cadherin and downregulated the expression of vimentin, Slug, and MMP9, which are associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis in Huh7 cells. BMBF decreased the expression of integrin α7, deactivated its downstream signal FAK/AKT, and inhibited p53 protein levels. Cell transfection with p53 siRNA resulted in the prevention of cell invasion because of the reduction in integrin α7, Slug, and MMP-9 in Huh7 cells. BMBF had anti-metastatic effects in PLC/PRF/5-an HCC cell line with R249S, a mutated p53 gene. Our findings indicate that BMBF has anti-metastatic effects in downregulating p53 and mediating the suppression of integrin α7, EMT, and MMP-9 in HCC cells with a mutated p53 gene.

Anticancer therapeutic potential of benzofuran scaffolds

Benzofuran moiety is the main component of many biologically active natural and synthetic heterocycles. These heterocycles have unique therapeutic potentials and are involved in various clinical drugs. The reported results confirmed the extraordinary inhibitory potency of such benzofurans against a panel of human cancer cell lines compared with a wide array of reference anticancer drugs. Several publications about the anticancer potencies of benzofuran-based heterocycles were encountered. The recent developments of anticancer activities of both natural and synthetic benzofuran scaffolds during 2019-2022 are thoroughly covered. Many of the described benzofurans are promising candidates for development as anticancer agents based on their outstanding inhibitory potency against a panel of human cancer cells compared with reference anticancer drugs. These findings encourage medicinal chemists to explore new areas to improve human health and reduce suffering.

To investigate the prognostic factors of stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer based on P53 mutation and tumor budding

BACKGROUND

P53 is a tumor suppressor and genome guardian factor, and tumor budding is a key link in tumor metastasis. The purpose of this study was to investigate P53 mutation and tumor budding in stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer, to explore the correlation with clinicopathological features, and to reveal the independent prognostic factors of gastric cancer.

METHODS

The data of 588 patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer who underwent radical surgical resection from April 2015 to December 2016 in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University were retrospectively analyzed and followed up. Immunohistochemistry Envision method was used to conduct P53 staining for paraffin-embedded gastric cancer tissues, and ITBCC recommended tumor budding evaluation method was used to count tumor budding in gastric cancer tissues. The factors affecting the prognosis of gastric cancer were analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 209 cases (35.54%) of P53 wild-type and 379 cases (64.46 %) of P53 mutant in 588 patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer. P53 mutation rate were closely correlated with Lauren classification (χ² =8.152, p = 0.017), degree of differentiation (χ² =10.495, p = 0.004), number of lymph node metastasis (χ² =25.550, p < 0.001), and clinical stage (χ² =7.617, p = 0.016). Tumor budding were closely correlated with Lauren classification (χ² =194.533, p < 0.001), degree of tissue differentiation (χ² =22.719, p < 0.001), depth of tumor invasion (χ² =19.204, p = 0.004), number of lymph node metastasis (χ² =22.555, p = 0.001), clinical stage (χ² =10.769, p = 0.005), and vascular tumors bolt (χ² =12.478, p = 0.002). The higher the tumor budding grade was, the higher the P53 mutation rate was (χ² =12.933, p = 0.002). Lauren classification (p < 0.001), degree of tissue differentiation (p = 0.005), vascular tumors bolt (p < 0.001) and P53 mutation (p = 0.006) were independent influencing factors for 5-year survival of patients with stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ gastric cancer.

CONCLUSION

P53 mutation status is an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients and a promising cancer treatment target. Tumor budding is a very reliable independent prognostic parameter with important clinical value and should be routinely reported as a biomarker.