Embryonic microenvironment suppresses YY1 and YY1-related genes in prostate cancer stem cells.

Yin yang 1 (YY1), a transcription factor, plays crucial roles in cell fate specification, differentiation, and pluripotency during embryonic development. It is also involved in tumorigenesis, drug resistance, metastasis, and relapse caused by cancer stem cells (CSCs), particularly in prostate cancer (PCa). Targeting YY1 could potentially eliminate prostate CSCs (PCSCs) and provide novel therapeutic approaches.

Microfluidic production of amiodarone loaded nanoparticles and application in drug repositioning in ovarian cancer.

Amiodarone repositioning in cancer treatment is promising, however toxicity limits seem to arise, constraining its exploitability. Notably, amiodarone has been investigated for the treatment of ovarian cancer, a tumour known for metastasizing within the peritoneal cavity. This is associated with an increase of fatty acid oxidation, which strongly depends on CPT1A, a transport protein which has been found overexpressed in ovarian cancer.

Advances in vaccine development for cancer prevention and treatment in Lynch Syndrome.

Lynch Syndrome (LS) is one of the most common hereditary cancer syndromes, and is caused by mutations in one of the four DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes, namely MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. Tumors developed by LS carriers display high levels of microsatellite instability, which leads to the accumulation of large numbers of mutations, among which frameshift insertion/deletions (indels) within microsatellite (MS) loci are the most common. As a result, MMR-deficient (MMRd) cells generate increased rates of tumor-specific neoantigens (neoAgs) that can be recognized by the immune system to activate cancer cell killing.

"Double hit" strategy: Removal of sialic acid from the dendritic cell surface and loading with CD44+/CD24-/low cell lysate inhibits tumor growth and metastasis by targeting breast cancer stem cells.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), which represent the root cause of resistance to conventional treatments, recurrence, and metastasis, constitute the critical point of failure in cancer treatments. Targeting CSCs with dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccines have been an effective strategy, but sialic acids on the surface of DCs limit the interaction with loaded antigens. We hypothesized that removal of sialic acid moieties on immature DCs (iDCs) could significantly affect DC-CSC-antigen loading, thereby leading to DC maturation and improving immune recognition and activity.

Microfluidic Organoids-on-a-Chip: Quantum Leap in Cancer Research.

Organ-like cell clusters, so-called organoids, which exhibit self-organized and similar organ functionality as the tissue of origin, have provided a whole new level of bioinspiration for ex vivo systems. Microfluidic organoid or organs-on-a-chip platforms are a new group of micro-engineered promising models that recapitulate 3D tissue structure and physiology and combines several advantages of current in vivo and in vitro models. Microfluidics technology is used in numerous applications since it allows us to control and manipulate fluid flows with a high degree of accuracy.

Cancer Extracellular Vesicles: Next-Generation Diagnostic and Drug Delivery Nanotools.

Nanosized extracellular vesicles (EVs) with dimensions ranging from 100 to 1000 nm are continuously secreted from different cells in their extracellular environment. They are able to encapsulate and transfer various biomolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, that play an essential role in cell‒cell communication, reflecting a novel method of extracellular cross-talk. Since EVs are present in large amounts in most bodily fluids, challengeable hypotheses are analyzed to unlock their potential roles.

New Psychoactive Substance 5-MeO-MiPT In vivo Acute Toxicity and Hystotoxicological Study.

Background: The hallucinogenic tryptamine analog 5-methoxy-N-methyl-N-isopropyltryptamine (5-MeO-MiPT) causes social problems worldwide. There are several studies on the metabolism; however, not more studies were found in the literature on acute toxicity.

Aims: To report the acute toxicity of 5-MeO-MiPT in mice, followed by quantitative toxicological analysis of blood and organs, hystotoxicological and immunohistochemical analysis of tissues and cells.

Ribosome biogenesis mediates antitumor activity of flavopiridol in CD44/CD24 breast cancer stem cells.

Flavopiridol is a synthetically produced flavonoid that potently inhibits the proliferation of human tumor cell lines. Flavopiridol exerts strong antitumor activity via several mechanisms, including the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and the modulation of transcriptional regulation. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of flavopiridol on a subpopulation of cluster of differentiation (CD)44/CD24 human breast cancer MCF7 stem cells.

Repression of the Notch pathway prevents liver damage in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice.

Introduction: Sunitinib is an oral inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor that is used to treat a variety of cancer. There are limited data regarding the effect of sunitinib on diabetes. In the liver, Notch signaling plays an important role in liver tissue development and homeostasis and its dysfunction is associated with liver pathol-ogies.

JAK/STAT pathway interacts with intercellular cell adhesion molecule (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM) while prostate cancer stem cells form tumor spheroids.

Purpose: JAK/STAT is an evolutionarily conserved pathway and very important for second messenger system. This pathway is important in malignant transformation and accumulated evidence indicates that this pathway is involved in tumorigenesis and progression of several cancers. It was possible to assume that activation of JAK/STAT pathway is associated with increase in the expressions of ICAM/1 and VCAM-1.

Enhanced G2/M Arrest, Caspase Related Apoptosis and Reduced E-Cadherin Dependent Intercellular Adhesion by Trabectedin in Prostate Cancer Stem Cells.

Trabectedin (Yondelis, ET-743) is a marine-derived tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloid. It is originally derived from the Caribbean marine tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata and currently produced synthetically. Trabectedin is active against a variety of tumor cell lines growing in culture.

Induced growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in CD133+/CD44+ prostate cancer stem cells by flavopiridol.

Flavopiridol is a flavone that inhibits several cyclin‑dependent kinases and exhibits potent growth‑inhibitory activity, apoptosis and G1‑phase arrest in a number of human tumor cell lines. Flavopiridol is currently undergoing investigation in human clinical trials. The present study focused on the effect of flavopiridol in cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and apoptosis in prostate cancer stem cells (CSCs).