Expression patterns of CD168 correlate with the stage and grade of squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck

Transcriptome profile of Haemaphysalis longicornis (Acari: Ixodidae) exposed to Cymbopogon citratus essential oil and citronellal suggest a cytotoxic mode of action involving mitochondrial Ca2+ overload and depolarization

Haemaphysalis longicornis is an ixodid tick species of medical and veterinary importance. Investigation into the acaricidal activities of botanicals have increased recently but information about their molecular mechanism of action is scarce. Here, RNA-seq analysis of the ticks exposed to Cymbopogon citratus essential oil and citronellal was performed and the responsive genes were identified. More than 6.39 G clean reads with Q₂₀ ≥ 94.88% were obtained for each H. longicornis sample, with an average GC content of 50.94%. Using the Trinity method, 166,710 unigenes with a mean length of 869 bp and a maximum contig length of 29,156 bp were obtained. The upregulation of genes was concentration-dependent in most of the treated groups. Many genes responsive to C. citratus oil and citronellal were stress-related and they include genes associated with adrenergic signaling/calcium channels, cGMP-PKG signaling, apoptosis, focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, mTOR signaling pathway, and longevity regulating pathway. The upregulation of genes (CACNAID, ADCY9, TPM1, and MYH6) associated with calcium channels suggests a neurotoxic mode of action, whereas, the upregulation of apoptosis-associated genes (CYC, DRONC, CASP7, CASP9, BCL2L1, bcl-xL, etc.) suggests a cytotoxic mode of action. The metabolism of C. citratus essential oil generates oxidative stress which increases the intra-mitochondrial free Ca²⁺ and triggers the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that culminates to mitochondrial depolarization, ATP depletion, and either necrotic or apoptotic death. The neurotoxic and cytotoxic effects exhibited by the monoterpenes in H. longicornis is vital and could be exploited for the advancement of acaricide development and eco-friendly tick control.

Overexpression of CD168 is related to poor prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVES

Receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA)-mediated motility (RHAMM) is also known as CD168. This study proposed to elucidate the prognostic and clinicopathological significance of CD168 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Immune staining of a human tissue microarray and Western blot were used to reveal the expression level of CD168 in OSCC. Correlations between clinicopathological indexes and CD168 expression in OSCC patients were assessed.

RESULTS

Increased expression of CD168 was detected in OSCC tissues. High expression of CD168 indicated worse survival of patients (p < .05). Furthermore, high expression of CD168 was related to pathological grade in OSCC (p < .05). CD168 expression was positively related to programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing protein 6 (CMTM6), B7 homology 4 protein (B7-H4), CD44, CD133, and Slug expression in OSCC.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed the overexpression of CD168 in OSCC and shed light on the prognostic significance of CD168 expression in OSCC patients.

Nano-delivery system targeting to cancer stem cell cluster of differentiation biomarkers

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are one of the most important origins of cancer progression and metastasis. CSCs have unique self-renewal properties and diverse cell membrane receptors that induced the resistance to the conventional chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, the therapeutic removal of CSCs could result in the cancer cure with lack of recurrence and metastasis. In this regard, targeting CSCs in accordance to their specific biomarkers is a talented attitude in cancer therapy. Various CSCs surface biomarkers have been described, which some of them exhibited similarities on different cancer cell types, while the others are cancer specific and have just been reported on one or a few types of cancers. In this review, the importance of CSCs in cancer development and therapeutic response has been stated. Different CSCs cluster of differentiation (CD) biomarkers and their specific function and applications in the treatment of cancers have been discussed, Special attention has been made on targeted nano-delivery systems. In this regard, several examples have been illustrated concerning specific natural and artificial ligands against CSCs CD biomarkers that could be decorated on various nanoparticulated drug delivery systems to enhance therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic agents or anticancer gene therapy. The outlook of CSCs biomarkers discovery and therapeutic/diagnostic applications was discussed.