Exploring the Anticancer Potential of Essential Oil Monoterpenes Alone and in Combination against Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and has the highest mortality rate worldwide despite the remarkable advances in its treatment. Essential Oil (OMEO) has been shown to be effective against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, decreasing their viability and colony growth in vitro, as well as inhibiting tumor growth in chick embryo chorioallantoic membranes (CAM) and nude mice in vivo. OMEO is mainly composed of four monoterpenes, namely terpinen-4-ol, sabinene hydrate, α-terpinene, and -terpinene.

PD-1 Independent Role of PD-L1 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Progression.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of breast malignancy characterized by a high proliferative rate and metastatic potential leading to treatment failure, relapse, and poor prognosis. Therefore, efforts are continuously being devoted to understanding its biology and identifying new potential targets. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immunosuppressive protein that inactivates T cells by binding to the inhibitory receptor programmed death-1 (PD-1).

Origanum majorana essential oil decreases lung tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.

Current targeted- and immuno-therapies have prolonged the overall survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients by few months in a small percentage of patients responding to these treatments. This situation has prompted us to investigate the anticancer potential of the Origanum majorana Essential Oil (OMEO). In this pre-clinical study and using two major human NSCLC, namely A549 and LNM35, we demonstrated that OMEO significantly decreases the viability of these cells and the growth of their pre-formed colonies in vitro in a concentration-dependent manner and partly via the induction of caspase 3/7-dependent cell death and downregulation of survivin.

Butein and Frondoside-A Combination Exhibits Additive Anti-Cancer Effects on Tumor Cell Viability, Colony Growth, and Invasion and Synergism on Endothelial Cell Migration.

Despite the significant advances in targeted- and immuno-therapies, lung and breast cancer are at the top list of cancer incidence and mortality worldwide as of 2020. Combination therapy consisting of a mixture of different drugs taken at once is currently the main approach in cancer management. Natural compounds are extensively investigated for their promising anti-cancer potential.

Role of flavonoids in thrombotic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory diseases.

The failure of mechanisms of natural anti-coagulation either due to genetic impairment or due to severe external injuries may result in a condition called thrombosis. This is believed to be the primary cause for a variety of life-threatening conditions such as: heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, thrombophlebitis, and deep venous thrombosis (DVT). The growing number of these incidents requires an alternative anti-coagulant or anti-thrombotic agent that has minimal side effects and improved efficiency.

Interplay between Epigenetics, Expression of Estrogen Receptor- α, HER2/ERBB2 and Sensitivity of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells to Hormonal Therapy.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells are resistant to hormonal/targeted therapies. This study aims to investigate epigenetic differences between TNBC and other types of breast cancer and the effect of epigenetic modulation on the response of TNBC cells to hormonal therapy. Thus, we investigated (i) the expression of different epigenetic markers, (ii) the effect of epigenetic modifying agents on the expression of ERα and HER2/ERBB2 and (iii) the effect on the response to tamoxifen in four breast cancer cell lines with different hormonal receptor status.

Inhibition of SHP2 by new compounds induces differential effects on RAS/RAF/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways in different cancer cell types.

Kinases and phosphatases are important players in growth signaling and are involved in cancer development. For development of targeted cancer therapy, attention is given to kinases rather than phosphatases inhibitors. Src homology region 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase2 (SHP2) is overexpressed in different types of cancers.