Publications by authors named "Amir Reza Aref"

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is crucial for maintaining calcium balance, lipid biosynthesis, and protein folding. Disruptions in ER homeostasis, often due to the accumulation of misfolded or unfolded proteins, lead to ER stress, which plays a significant role in various diseases, especially cancer. Urological cancers, which account for high male mortality worldwide, pose a persistent challenge due to their incurability and tendency to develop drug resistance.

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  • Autophagy is a cellular process that breaks down and recycles components, playing a crucial role in maintaining cell health, but its disruption can lead to diseases like cancer.
  • In cancer, autophagy has a dual role; it can act as a tumor suppressor in early stages but may promote tumor growth later, influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
  • Targeting autophagy offers a promising approach to overcome chemoresistance in cancer treatment, but this is complicated due to its ability to both help and harm cancer cells, necessitating careful consideration in therapy strategies.
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  • Resistance to cancer treatments like chemotherapy and immunotherapy poses major challenges in effective patient care.
  • Redox homeostasis modification has shown promise in addressing this resistance by altering cellular signaling pathways.
  • The study highlights mechanisms such as increased antioxidant activity, drug efflux alterations, and enhanced DNA repair that enable tumor cells to survive treatments, suggesting that better insights into these processes could lead to improved therapy outcomes.
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  • Inflammation is crucial in cancer development, affecting processes like metastasis, angiogenesis, and tumor invasion, primarily through cytokine release in the tumor microenvironment.
  • The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a significant role in regulating inflammation and innate immunity by producing proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18, impacting various diseases and tumorigenesis differently across cancer types.
  • The review discusses the structure and function of the NLRP3 inflammasome and explores potential cancer treatment strategies by modulating NLRP3, including the use of nanoparticles and gene-targeted therapies.
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Head and neck cancers, including cancers of the mouth, throat, voice box, salivary glands, and nose, are a significant global health issue. Radiotherapy and surgery are commonly used treatments. However, due to treatment resistance and disease recurrence, new approaches such as immunotherapy are being explored.

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Targeting tumor angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels supporting cancer growth and spread, has been an intense focus for therapy development. However, benefits from anti-angiogenic drugs like bevacizumab have been limited by resistance stemming from activation of compensatory pathways. Recent immunotherapy advances have sparked interest in novel immunologic approaches that can induce more durable vascular pruning and overcome limitations of existing angiogenesis inhibitors.

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  • * When mitophagy doesn't work properly, it can lead to problems in how our bodies use energy, which can cause more serious health issues like cell death and nerve damage.
  • * Scientists are exploring how some plant-based compounds might help fix mitophagy and protect our cells, which could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes and its related problems.
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  • - Ferroptosis is a new type of cell death that happens when there's too much lipid peroxidation and iron in cells, leading to an accumulation of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS), which ultimately causes cell death.
  • - This process is linked to various diseases, particularly female cancers like breast and ovarian cancer, where non-coding RNAs (like microRNAs) play a role in regulating ferroptosis, impacting disease progression.
  • - Researchers are exploring how these non-coding RNAs could potentially be targeted in treatments to control ferroptosis in female cancers, though more research is still needed to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms.
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  • Nonviral vectors like liposomes are being researched for delivering genes specifically to cancer cells.
  • Liposomes are tiny bubbles made of fats that help protect and transport genetic materials, making them better than older methods that often missed their targets.
  • This review looks at how liposomes can improve gene therapy for cancer, what challenges they face, and what new ideas might make them even better in the future.
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One of the leading causes that complicate the treatment of some malignancies, including breast cancer, is tumor heterogeneity. In addition to inter-heterogeneity and intra-heterogeneity of tumors that reflect the differences between cancer cell characteristics, heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in tumor progression and could be considered an overlooked and a proper target for the effective selection of therapeutic approaches. Due to the difficulty of completely capturing tumor heterogeneity in conventional detection methods, Tumor-on-Chip (TOC) devices with culturing patient-derived spheroids could be an appropriate alternative.

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Breast and lung cancers are leading causes of death among patients, with their global mortality and morbidity rates increasing. Conventional treatments often prove inadequate due to resistance development. The alteration of molecular interactions may accelerate cancer progression and treatment resistance.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) serve as a crucial method for transferring information among cells, which is vital in multicellular organisms. Among these vesicles, exosomes are notable for their small size, ranging from 20 to 150 nm, and their role in cell-to-cell communication. They carry lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids between cells.

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Urological cancers, including prostate, bladder, and renal cancers, are significant causes of death and negatively impact the quality of life for patients. The development and progression of these cancers are linked to the dysregulation of molecular pathways. c-Myc, recognized as an oncogene, exhibits abnormal levels in various types of tumors, and current evidence supports the therapeutic targeting of c-Myc in cancer treatment.

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The non-coding RNAs comprise a large part of human genome lack of capacity in encoding functional proteins. Among various members of non-coding RNAs, the circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been of importance in the pathogenesis of human diseases, especially cancer. The circRNAs have a unique closed loop structure and due to their stability, they are potential diagnostic and prognostic factors in cancer.

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The combination of peptides and nanoparticles in cancer therapy has shown synergistic results. Nanoparticle functionalization with peptides can increase their targeting ability towards tumor cells. In some cases, the peptides can develop self-assembled nanoparticles, in combination with drugs, for targeted cancer therapy.

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Macrophages are phagocytic cells with important physiological functions, including the digestion of cellular debris, foreign substances, and microbes, as well as tissue development and homeostasis. The tumor microenvironment (TME) shapes the aggressiveness of cancer, and the biological and cellular interactions in this complicated space can determine carcinogenesis. TME can determine the progression, biological behavior, and therapy resistance of human cancers.

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Cancer immunotherapy and vaccine development have significantly improved the fight against cancers. Despite these advancements, challenges remain, particularly in the clinical delivery of immunomodulatory compounds. The tumor microenvironment (TME), comprising macrophages, fibroblasts, and immune cells, plays a crucial role in immune response modulation.

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Advances in cancer immunotherapy over the last decade have led to the development of several agents that affect immune checkpoints. Inhibitory receptors expressed on T cells that negatively regulate the immune response include cytotoxic T‑lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), which have been studied more than similar receptors. Inhibition of these proteins and other immune checkpoints can stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells, and prevent the tumor from escaping the immune response.

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Despite the challenges posed by drug resistance and side effects, chemotherapy remains a pivotal strategy in cancer treatment. A key issue in this context is macroautophagy (commonly known as autophagy), a dysregulated cell death mechanism often observed during chemotherapy. Autophagy plays a cytoprotective role by maintaining cellular homeostasis and recycling organelles, and emerging evidence points to its significant role in promoting cancer progression.

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Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complicated molecular process that governs cellular shape and function changes throughout tissue development and embryogenesis. In addition, EMT contributes to the development and spread of tumors. Expanding and degrading the surrounding microenvironment, cells undergoing EMT move away from the main location.

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The emergence of RNA modifications has recently been considered as critical post-transcriptional regulations which governed gene expression. -methyladenosine (mA) modification is the most abundant type of RNA modification which is mediated by three distinct classes of proteins called mA writers, readers, and erasers. Accumulating evidence has been made in understanding the role of mA modification of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in cancer.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) and gastric cancer (GC), are the two most common cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, and are serious health concerns worldwide. The discovery of more effective biomarkers for early diagnosis, and improved patient prognosis is important. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), can regulate cellular processes such as apoptosis and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) leading to progression and resistance of GC and CRC tumors.

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A high number of cancer patients around the world rely on gemcitabine (GEM) for chemotherapy. During local metastasis of cancers, surgery is beneficial for therapy, but dissemination in distant organs leads to using chemotherapy alone or in combination with surgery to prevent cancer recurrence. Therapy failure can be observed as a result of GEM resistance, threatening life of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients.

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  • * Despite their potential, siRNAs face challenges such as poor cellular uptake, unintended effects on non-target genes, and degradation in the bloodstream, limiting their effectiveness as therapies.
  • * The research focuses on developing advanced nanocarriers to improve siRNA delivery, addressing issues like release from endosomes and evaluating various strategies and clinical progress for siRNA-based cancer treatments.
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Hydrogels represent intricate three-dimensional polymeric structures, renowned for their compatibility with living systems and their ability to naturally degrade. These networks stand as promising and viable foundations for a range of biomedical uses. The practical feasibility of employing hydrogels in clinical trials has been well-demonstrated.

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