Blocking Autophagy in M1 Macrophages Enhances Virus Replication and Eye Disease in Ocularly Infected Transgenic Mice.

Macrophages are one of the first innate immune infiltrates in the cornea of mice following ocular infection with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). Using gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) injections to polarize macrophages into M1 and M2, respectively, and in M1 and M2 conditional knockout mice, we have shown that M1 macrophages play an important role in suppressing both virus replication in the eye and eye disease in HSV-1-infected mice. Autophagy is also important in controlling HSV infection and integrity of infected cells.

Selinexor, a selective inhibitor of nuclear export, enhances the anti-tumor activity of olaparib in triple negative breast cancer regardless of BRCA1 mutation status.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a deadly disease with limited treatment options. Selinexor is a selective inhibitor of nuclear export that binds covalently to exportin 1 thereby reactivating tumor suppressor proteins and downregulating expression of oncogenes and DNA damage repair (DDR) proteins. Olaparib is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor approved for the treatment of patients with breast cancer harboring mutations.

CCR2+ migratory macrophages with M1 status are the early-responders in the cornea of HSV-1 infected mice.

Complex interactions between HSV-1 and infiltrating immune cells play important roles in establishing localized, acute virus replication as well as chronic latent infection. The extent and duration of initial virus replication are the key determinants of subsequent pathologic inflammatory responses and therefore, the accumulation of immune cell populations at this time point is a key target for prevention. Therefore, we evaluated the role of various immune cell infiltrates between 1 h and 28 days post-infection (PI) using mice infected with virulent HSV-1 strain McKrae without corneal scarification.

Co-targeting poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) in triple-negative breast cancer: Higher synergism in BRCA mutated cells.

Purpose: Despite similarities with BRCA-mutated breast cancers, triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) remain resistant to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors as single agents. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) can decrease expression of proteins involved in DNA repair. We thus hypothesized that a HDACi (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) or belinostat) could sensitize TNBC to the PARP inhibitor olaparib.

An M2 Rather than a T2 Response Contributes to Better Protection against Latency Reactivation following Ocular Infection of Naive Mice with a Recombinant Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Expressing Murine Interleukin-4.

We found previously that altering macrophage polarization toward M2 responses by injection of colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) was more effective in reducing both primary and latent infections in mice ocularly infected with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) than M1 polarization by gamma interferon (IFN-γ) injection. Cytokines can coordinately regulate macrophage and T helper (T) responses, with interleukin-4 (IL-4) inducing type 2 T (T2) as well as M2 responses and IFN-γ inducing T1 as well as M1 responses. We have now differentiated the contributions of these immune compartments to protection against latency reactivation and corneal scarring by comparing the effects of infection with recombinant HSV-1 in which the latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene was replaced with either the (HSV-IL-4) or (HSV-IFN-γ) gene using infection with the parental (LAT-negative) virus as a control.

Suppression of IL-12p70 formation by IL-2 or following macrophage depletion causes T-cell autoreactivity leading to CNS demyelination in HSV-1-infected mice.

We have established two mouse models of central nervous system (CNS) demyelination that differ from most other available models of multiple sclerosis (MS) in that they represent a mixture of viral and immune triggers. In the first model, ocular infection of different strains of mice with a recombinant HSV-1 that expresses murine IL-2 constitutively (HSV-IL-2) causes CNS demyelination. In the second model, depletion of macrophages causes CNS demyelination in mice that are ocularly infected with wild-type (WT) HSV-1.

Roles of M1 and M2 Macrophages in Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infectivity.

Macrophages are the predominant infiltrate in the corneas of mice that have been ocularly infected with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). However, very little is known about the relative roles of M1 (classically activated or polarized) and M2 (alternatively activated or polarized) macrophages in ocular HSV-1 infection. To better understand these relationships, we assessed the impact of directed M1 or M2 activation of RAW264.

Copy number analysis identifies tumor suppressive lncRNAs in human osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) has a high degree of chromosomal instability and total copy number (CN) changes. We examined 58 human OS samples including 40 primary tumors, 11 explants, and 7 cell lines using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays, and revealed that 70% of the samples had one or more recurrent CN-neutral loss of heterozygosity (CNN‑LOH) also known as uniparental disomy (UPD). Importantly, 17% of the samples showed prominent homozygous deletion of 3q13.

Genomic landscape of liposarcoma.

Liposarcoma (LPS) is the most common type of soft tissue sarcoma accounting for 20% of all adult sarcomas. Due to absence of clinically effective treatment options in inoperable situations and resistance to chemotherapeutics, a critical need exists to identify novel therapeutic targets. We analyzed LPS genomic landscape using SNP arrays, whole exome sequencing and targeted exome sequencing to uncover the genomic information for development of specific anti-cancer targets.

Induction of p53-independent apoptosis by ectopic expression of HOXA5 in human liposarcomas.

Dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS) is a highly malignant subtype of human liposarcoma (LPS), whose genomic profile is characterized by chromosomal amplification at 12q13-q22. miR-26a-2 is one of the most frequently amplified genes in the region, and inhibition of its downstream target genes likely contributes to LPS tumorigenesis. Our previous study of LPS predicted homeobox protein A5 (HOXA5) as a target of miR-26a-2, and here we explored further the function of HOXA5, and its relationship with miR-26a-2 in DDLPS cells.

Synergistic effect of JQ1 and rapamycin for treatment of human osteosarcoma.

Bromodomain and extra terminal domain (BET) proteins are important epigenetic regulators facilitating the transcription of genes in chromatin areas linked to acetylated histones. JQ1, a BET protein inhibitor, has antiproliferative activity against many cancers, mainly through inhibition of c-MYC and upregulation of p21. In this research, we investigated the use of JQ1 for human osteosarcoma (OS) treatment.

Growth inhibition of pancreatic cancer cells by histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat through suppression of multiple pathways including HIF, NFkB, and mTOR signaling in vitro and in vivo.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a devastating disease with few therapeutic options. Histone deacetylase inhibitors are a novel therapeutic approach to cancer treatment; and two new pan-histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), belinostat and panobinostat, are undergoing clinical trials for advanced hematologic malignancies, non-small cell lung cancers and advanced ovarian epithelial cancers. We found that belinostat and panobinostat potently inhibited, in a dose-dependent manner, the growth of six (AsPc1, BxPc3, Panc0327, Panc0403, Panc1005, MiaPaCa2) of 14 human pancreatic cancer cell lines.

The triterpenoid cucurbitacin B augments the antiproliferative activity of chemotherapy in human breast cancer.

Despite recent advances in therapy, breast cancer remains the second most common cause of death from malignancy in women. Chemotherapy plays a major role in breast cancer management, and combining chemotherapeutic agents with nonchemotherapeutic agents is of considerable clinical interest. Cucurbitacins are triterpenes compounds found in plants of the Cucurbitaceae family, reported to have anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities.

Synergistic effect of low-dose cucurbitacin B and low-dose methotrexate for treatment of human osteosarcoma.

We investigated the use of cucurbitacin B, a plant-derived tetracyclic triterpenoid, as a single agent or in combination with methotrexate (MTX) for human osteosarcoma (OS) treatment. Cucurbitacin B showed antiproliferative activity against seven human OS cell lines in vitro accompanying G2/M cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and inhibition of ERK, Akt, and mTOR proteins. Cucurbitacin B in combination with MTX synergistically inhibited OS cell growth in vitro.

Cucurbitacin B, a novel in vivo potentiator of gemcitabine with low toxicity in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Background And Purpose: Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy, and improvement in systemic therapy is necessary to treat this frequently encountered metastatic disease. The current targeted agents used in combination with gemcitabine improved objective response rates, but with little or no improvements in survival and also increased toxicities in pancreatic cancer patients. Recently, we showed that the triterpenoid cucurbitacin B inhibited tumour growth in pancreatic cancer cells by inhibition of the JAK/STAT pathway, and synergistically increased antiproliferative effects of gemcitabine in vitro.

Cucurbitacin: ancient compound shedding new light on cancer treatment.

Cucurbitacins and their derivatives are triterpenoids found in medicinal plants known for their diverse pharmacological and biological activities, including anticancer effects, throughout human history. Although initial attention to cucurbitacin as a potential anticancer drug withered for decades, recent discoveries showing that cucurbitacin is a strong STAT3 (Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription-3) inhibitor have reclaimed the attention of the drug industry one more time. There is increasing evidence showing that some cucurbitacins not only inhibit the JAK-STAT pathway, but also affect other signaling pathways, such as the MAPK pathway, which are also known to be important for cancer cell proliferation and survival.

Prevalence and prognostic impact of allelic imbalances associated with leukemic transformation of Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) including polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and primary myelofibrosis show an inherent tendency for transformation into leukemia (MPN-blast phase), which is hypothesized to be accompanied by acquisition of additional genomic lesions. We, therefore, examined chromosomal abnormalities by high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in 88 MPN patients, as well as 71 cases with MPN-blast phase, and correlated these findings with their clinical parameters. Frequent genomic alterations were found in MPN after leukemic transformation with up to 3-fold more genomic changes per sample compared with samples in chronic phase (P < .