Antitumor efficacy of sequential treatment with docetaxel and 5-fluorouracil against human oral cancer cells

Isocorydine Exerts Anticancer Activity by Disrupting the Energy Metabolism and Filamentous Actin Structures of Oral Squamous Carcinoma Cells

Isocorydine (ICD) exhibits strong antitumor effects on numerous human cell lines. However, the anticancer activity of ICD against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not been reported. The anticancer activity, migration and invasion ability, and changes in the cytoskeleton morphology and mechanical properties of ICD in OSCC were determined. Changes in the contents of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), ATP, and mitochondrial respiratory chain complex enzymes Ⅰ-Ⅳ in cancer cells were studied. ICD significantly inhibited the proliferation of oral tongue squamous cells (Cal-27), with an IC50 of 0.61 mM after 24 h of treatment. The invasion, migration, and adhesion of cancer cells were decreased, and cytoskeletal actin was deformed and depolymerized. In comparison to an untreated group, the activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex enzymes I-IV were significantly decreased by 50.72%, 27.39%, 77.27%, and 73.89%, respectively. The ROS production increased, the MMP decreased by 43.65%, and the ATP content decreased to 17.1 ± 0.001 (mmol/mL); ultimately, the apoptosis rate of cancer cells increased up to 10.57% after 24 h of action. These findings suggest that ICD exerted an obvious anticancer activity against OSCC and may inhibit Cal-27 proliferation and growth by causing mitochondrial dysfunction and interrupting cellular energy.

Association of rs9679162 Genetic Polymorphism and Aberrant Expression of Polypeptide N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 14 (GALNT14) in Head and Neck Cancer

Simple Summary

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was performed before surgery. Because the tumor itself and the surrounding vascular bed were not damaged, the chemotherapy we performed could have good drug delivery. After the operation, the volume of the tumor can be reduced to facilitate surgery or radiotherapy. However, neoadjuvant chemotherapy also delays the patient’s time to receive main therapy. The physician must make sure that it has a good response and does not allow disease progression in the patient during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Therefore, predicting the treatment response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy can shorten the treatment time, reduce the harm of chemotherapy side effects, and avoid the occurrence of drug resistance. The results of this study showed that GALNT14-rs9679162 and mRNA expression were associated with post-treatment survival in head and neck cancer. It can be used as an indicator to predict the treatment response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Abstract

The polypeptide N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 14 (GALNT14) rs9679162 and mRNA expression were associated with treatment outcome in various cancers. However, the relation of GALNT14 and head and neck cancer were nuclear. A total of 199 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) were collected in this study, including oral SCC (OSCC), oropharyngeal SCC (OPSCC), laryngeal SCC (LSCC), and others. The DNA and RNA of cancer tissues were extracted using the TRI Reagent method. The rs9679162 was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing methods in 199 DNA specimens, and the mRNA expression was analyzed using quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) methods in 68 paired RNA specimens of non-cancerous matched tissues (NCMT) and tumor tissues. The results showed that the genotype of TT, TG, and GG appeared at 30%, 44%, and 26%, respectively. Non-TT genotype or G alleotype were associated with alcohol, betel nut, and cigarette using among patients with OSCC, and it also affected the treatment and survival of patients with OSCC and LSCC. High GALNT14 mRNA expression levels increased lymphatic metastasis of patients with HNSCC, and treatment and survival in patients with OPSCC. Overall, the GALNT14-rs9679162 genotype and mRNA expression level can be used as indicators of HNSCC treatment prognosis.

Chemotherapeutic potential of hesperetin for cancer treatment, with mechanistic insights: A comprehensive review

BACKGROUND

Cancer has become a significant concern in the medical sector with increasing disease complexity. Although some available conventional treatments are still a blessing for cancer patients, short-and long-term adverse effects and poor efficiency make it more difficult to treat cancer patients, demonstrating the need for new potent and selective anticancer drugs. In search of potent anticancer agents, naturally occurring compounds have always been admired due to their structural diversity, where Hesperetin (HSP) may be one of the potent candidates.

PURPOSE

We aimed to summarize all sources, pharmacological properties, anticancer activities of HSP against numerous cancers types through targeting multiple pathological processes, mechanism of HSP on sensitizing the current anti-cancer agents and other phytochemicals, overcoming resistance pattern and determining absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADME/Tox).

METHODS

Information was retrieved from PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar based on some key points like Hesperetin, cancer name, anticancer resistance, nanoformulation, and ADME/Tox was determined by in silico approaches.

RESULT

HSP is a phytoestrogen present in citrus fruits in a high concentration (several hundred mg/kg) and exhibited anti-cancer activities through interfering at several pathways. HSP can suppress tumor formation by targeting several cellular proteins such as cell cycle regulatory, apoptosis, metastatic, tyrosine kinase, growth factor receptor, estrogen metabolism, and antioxidant-related protein.HSP has shown remarkable synergistic properties in combination therapy and has been reported to overcome multidrug cancer resistance drugs, leading to an improved defensive mechanism. These anticancer activities of HSP may be due to proper structural chemistry.

CONCLUSION

Overall, HSP showed potential anticancer activities against all cancer and possess better pharmacokinetic properties. So this phytochemical alone or combination with other agents can be an effective alternative drug for cancer treatment.

Current Omics Trends in Personalised Head and Neck Cancer Chemoradiotherapy

Chemoradiotherapy remains the most common management of locally advanced head and neck cancer. While both treatment components have greatly developed over the years, the quality of life and long-term survival of patients undergoing treatment for head and neck malignancies are still poor. Research in head and neck oncology is equally focused on the improvement of tumour response to treatment and on the limitation of normal tissue toxicity. In this regard, personalised therapy through a multi-omics approach targeting patient management from diagnosis to treatment shows promising results. The aim of this paper is to discuss the latest results regarding the personalised approach to chemoradiotherapy of head and neck cancer by gathering the findings of the newest omics, involving radiotherapy (dosiomics), chemotherapy (pharmacomics), and medical imaging for treatment monitoring (radiomics). The incorporation of these omics into head and neck cancer management offers multiple viewpoints to treatment that represent the foundation of personalised therapy.

Danshen extract circumvents drug resistance and represses cell growth in human oral cancer cells

BACKGROUND

Danshen is a common traditional Chinese medicine used to treat neoplastic and chronic inflammatory diseases in China. However, the effects of Danshen on human oral cancer cells remain relatively unknown. This study investigated the antiproliferative effects of a Danshen extract on human oral cancer SAS, SCC25, OEC-M1, and KB drug-resistant cell lines and elucidated the possible underlying mechanism.

METHODS

We investigated the anticancer potential of the Danshen extract in human oral cancer cell lines and an in vivo oral cancer xenograft mouse model. The expression of apoptosis-related molecules was evaluated through Western blotting, and the concentration of in vivo apoptotic markers was measured using immunohistochemical staining. The antitumor effects of 5-fluorouracil and the Danshen extract were compared.

RESULTS

Cell proliferation assays revealed that the Danshen extract strongly inhibited oral cancer cell proliferation. Cell morphology studies revealed that the Danshen extract inhibited the growth of SAS, SCC25, and OEC-M1 cells by inducing apoptosis. The Flow cytometric analysis indicated that the Danshen extract induced cell cycle G0/G1 arrest. Immunoblotting analysis for the expression of active caspase-3 and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein indicated that Danshen extract-induced apoptosis in human oral cancer SAS cells was mediated through the caspase pathway. Moreover, the Danshen extract significantly inhibited growth in the SAS xenograft mouse model. Furthermore, the Danshen extract circumvented drug resistance in KB drug-resistant oral cancer cells.

CONCLUSION

The study results suggest that the Danshen extract could be a potential anticancer agent in oral cancer treatment.

Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Modeling of Schedule-Dependent Interaction between Docetaxel and Cabozantinib in Human Prostate Cancer Xenograft Models

In this work, a semimechanistic pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model to quantitatively describe the antitumor activity of docetaxel (Doc) and cabozantinib (Cab) under monotherapy, concurrent therapy, interval therapy, and different sequential therapy in mouse xenograft models of castration-resistant prostate cancer was developed and evaluated. The pharmacokinetics (PK) of Doc and Cab when administered separately and simultaneously were investigated in nude mice, and PD study was conducted in tumor-bearing mice treated with different dosing schedules. The PK interaction between Doc and Cab was expressed by adding the effect of Cab on the clearance of Doc in the PK model. And the PD interaction between the two drugs was demonstrated by the developed PK/PD model through the combination index "φ" Our results showed that the concurrent therapy and Doc followed by Cab (Doc ∼ Cab) sequential therapy exhibited better tumor inhibitory efficacy than monotherapy. The Cab followed by Doc (Cab ∼ Doc) sequential schedule was less effective than monotherapy, and the interval therapy did not enhance the antitumor efficacy compared with the concurrent therapy. The parameter φ estimated from the PK/PD model quantitatively characterized the action between Doc and Cab. There was no significant PD interaction between Doc and Cab in both the concurrent schedule and the interval schedule, whereas the effect of the two drugs in the "Doc ∼ Cab" and "Cab ∼ Doc" sequential schedule was synergistic and antagonistic, respectively. The proposed model properly described the antitumor effects of Doc and Cab under different treatment schedules and could be used for dose optimization through model-based simulation.

STAT3 blockade enhances the efficacy of conventional chemotherapeutic agents by eradicating head neck stemloid cancer cell

Signaling transducer and activator 3 (STAT3) and cancer stem cells (CSCs) have garnered huge attention as a therapeutic focus, based on evidence that they may represent an etiologic root of tumor initiation and radio-chemoresistance. Here, we investigated the high phosphorylation status of STAT3 (p-STAT3) and its correlation with self-renewal markers in head neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Over-expression of p-STAT3 was found to have increased in post chemotherapy HNSCC tissue. We showed that blockade of p-STAT3 eliminated both bulk tumor and side population (SP) cells with characteristics of CSCs in vitro. Inhibition of p-STAT3 using small molecule S3I-201 significantly delayed tumorigenesis of spontaneous HNSCC in mice. Combining blockade of p-STAT3 with cytotoxic drugs cisplatin, docetaxel, 5-fluorouracil (TPF) enhanced the antitumor effect in vitro and in vivo with decreased tumor sphere formation and SP cells. Taken together, our results advocate blockade of p-STAT3 in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs enhance efficacy by improving CSCs eradication in HNSCC.

Blocking TNF-α inhibits angiogenesis and growth of IFIT2-depleted metastatic oral squamous cell carcinoma cells

Our previous study demonstrated that the depletion of interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2 (IFIT2) promoted metastasis and was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Our current study explores the major downstream signaling involved in IFIT2 depletion-induced OSCC metastasis. To this end, we used two cell lines (designated sh-control-xeno and sh-IFIT2-xeno) derived from human OSCC xenografts expressing sh-control and sh-IFIT2, respectively, and one metastatic OSCC subline (sh-IFIT2-meta) from an IFIT2-depleted metastatic tumor. We found that the sh-IFIT2-meta cells proliferated more slowly than the sh-control-xeno cells but exhibited higher migration and chemoresistance. Using microarray technology and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, we found that TNF-α was one of the major downstream targets in IFIT2-depleted OSCC cells. Quantitative real-time PCR, western blotting, and ELISA results confirmed that TNF-α was upregulated in the sh-IFIT2-meta cells. Blocking TNF-α abolished the angiogenic activity induced by the sh-IFIT2-meta cells. Furthermore, the human-specific TNF-α antibody golimumab significantly inhibited in vivo angiogenesis, tumor growth and metastasis of sh-IFIT2-meta cells. These results demonstrate that IFIT2 depletion results in TNF-α upregulation, leading to angiogenesis and metastasis of OSCC cells.

Results of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy With Docetaxel and 5-Fluorouracil Followed by Esophagectomy to Treat Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer

BACKGROUND

Esophageal cancer is most frequently treated with platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT). We previously described a phase I study of definitive CRT with docetaxel (DOC) and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) in patients with advanced esophageal cancer. This regimen had low toxicity and was effective without platinating agents. The present study aims to determine the antitumor effects of neoadjuvant CRT with DOC and 5FU and surgical outcomes.

METHODS

We reviewed data from 38 patients with locally advanced cancer of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction who underwent trimodality therapy comprising neoadjuvant CRT with DOC and 5FU followed by esophagectomy between 2003 and 2008.

RESULTS

Esophagitis was the most common toxicity associated with neoadjuvant CRT (grade 3; 26.3%), and hematologic toxicity was mild. Transthoracic esophagectomy and pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy proceeded in 36 (94.7%) and 2 (5.3%) patients, respectively, and 35 (92.1%) underwent R0 resection. Five (13.2%) patients had complete pathologic responses (pCR) of the primary tumor, and 23 (60.5%) had pathologic reductions of over two-thirds of the primary tumor. The T or N status was also down-staged in 26 (68.4%) patients. Overall postoperative morbidity developed in 21 (55.3%) patients, and mortality due to postoperative morbidity was zero. The 5-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates were 39.5% and 44.7%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The rates of neoadjuvant CRT toxicity and postoperative complications were acceptable, and the complete resection rate and survival data were favorable. This regimen is promising as neoadjuvant CRT for esophageal cancer and very useful as an alternative regimen for treating patients with esophageal cancer who cannot tolerate cisplatin.

Downregulation of thymidylate synthase with arsenic trioxide in lung adenocarcinoma

Thymidylate synthase (TYMS) is an important chemotherapeutic target in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been shown to suppress TYMS in a colonic cancer model. We examined the effects of TYMS suppression by ATO in lung adenocarcinoma. A panel of 4 lung adenocarcinoma cell lines was used to determine the effects of ATO treatment on cell viability, TYMS expression (protein and mRNA), E2F1 protein expression and TYMS activity. TYMS knockdown and overexpression were performed. Tumor growth inhibition in vivo was studied using a nude mouse xenograft model. ATO showed antiproliferative effects with clinically achievable concentrations (around 1.1-6.9 µM) in 4 lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Downregulation of TYMS protein and mRNA expression, reduced TYMS activity, and suppressed E2F1 expression were demonstrated in lung adenocarcinoma with ATO. Cell viability was reduced by 15-50% with TYMS knockdown. Overexpression of TYMS led to a 2.7-fold increase in IC50 value with ATO treatment in H358 cells, but not in H23 cells. Using a xenograft model with H358 cell line, relative tumor volume was reduced to 44% that of the control following 8 days of treatment with 7.5 mg/kg ATO, and associated with significant downregulation of TYMS protein expression. In conclusion, ATO has potent in vitro and in vivo activity in lung adenocarcinoma, and is partially mediated by transcriptional downregulation of TYMS.

Induction of G₂/M arrest, caspase activation and apoptosis by α-santonin derivatives in HL-60 cells

Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are natural products with a variety of biological activities. Previously, we demonstrated the cytotoxic effects of three new α-santonin derivatives on different tumor cell lines with low toxic effects upon peripheral human leukocytes. Here, we evaluated the mechanism of action triggered by these derivatives. HL-60 cell cycle determined after 24h treatment revealed a significant inhibition on cell-cycle progression and leading to an increasing of cells in G2/M [7.6% and 9.0% for compound 3% and 9.0% and 8.6% for compound 4 (1 and 2 μM, respectively)]. However, after 48 h exposure, all compounds caused G2/M reduction and a significant DNA fragmentation. Compounds 2, 3 and 4 were able to induce apoptosis on leukemia cells, which was corroborated by phosphatidyserine externalization and activation of caspases-3 and -7 after 24h exposure. None of the derivatives analyzed caused depolarization of mitochondrial membrane within 24h of incubation, suggesting the involvement of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in the death process. The antiproliferative action of these compounds is related to the DNA synthesis inhibition and cell cycle arrest, which probably lead to apoptosis activation. Therefore, these santonin derivatives are promising lead candidates for development of new cytotoxic agents.

Neoadjuvant therapy with weekly docetaxel and cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil continuous infusion, and concurrent radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer produced a high percentage of long-lasting pathological complete response: a phase 2 study

BACKGROUND

This phase 2 study was aimed at defining the pathological response rate of a neoadjuvant schedule including weekly docetaxel and cisplatin, continuous infusion (c.i.) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and concomitant radiotherapy (RT) in untreated stage II-III adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of mid-distal thoracic esophagus.

METHODS

The schedule consisted of a first phase of chemotherapy alone and of a second phase of concurrent chemoradiation. Doses were as follows: docetaxel 35 mg/m(2) and cisplatin 25 mg/m(2) on days 1, 8, 15, 29, 36, 43, 50, and 57 plus 5-FU c.i. (180 mg/m(2) on days 1-21 and 150 mg/m(2) on days 29-63); RT (50 Gy) started at day 29. Surgery was planned 6 to 8 weeks after the completion of chemoradiation.

RESULTS

A total of 74 patients were enrolled; pathological complete remission (pCR) was found in 47% (35 of 74) and near pCR (microfoci of tumor cells on the primary tumor without lymph nodal metastases) (pnCR) in 15% of the patients (11 of 74). Grade 3-4 neutropenia, nonhematological toxicity, and toxic deaths occurred in 13.5%, 32.4%, and 4% of the patients, respectively. Median follow-up was 55 months (range, 3-108 months). Median survival of all 74 patients was 55 months, whereas it was not reached in the pCR subset. The 3- and 5-year survival rates were, respectively, 83% and 77% for pCR, 73% and 44% for pnCR, and 21% and 14% for Residual Tumor subsets (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that 1) this intensive weekly schedule produced a high pathological response rate, 2) responders had high and long-term durable survival rates.