Ecteinascidin synthetic analogues: a new class of selective inhibitors of transcription, exerting immunogenic cell death in refractory malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly chemo-refractory and immune-evasive tumor that presents a median overall survival of 12-14 months when treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. New anti-tumor therapies as well as the concomitant reactivation of immune destruction are urgently needed to treat patients with this tumor. The aim of this work is to investigate the potential effect of ecteinascidin derivatives as lurbinectedin as new first-line treatment option in MPM, alone and in combination with immunotherapy.

Blood-brain barrier permeability increases with the differentiation of glioblastoma cells in vitro.

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive tumor, difficult to treat pharmacologically because of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is rich in ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and tight junction (TJ) proteins. The BBB is disrupted within GBM bulk, but it is competent in brain-adjacent-to-tumor areas, where eventual GBM foci can trigger tumor relapse. How GBM cells influence the permeability of BBB is poorly investigated.

Increasing membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids sensitizes non-small cell lung cancer to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy.

Immune checkpoints inhibitors (ICIs) as anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 have been approved as first-line treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but only 25 % of patients achieve durable response. We previously unveiled that estrogen receptor α transcriptionally up-regulates PD-L1 and aromatase inhibitors such as letrozole increase the efficacy of pembrolizumab. Here we investigated if letrozole may have additional immune-sensitizing mechanisms.

A novel combinatory treatment against a CDDP-resistant non-small cell lung cancer based on a Ruthenium(II)-cyclopentadienyl compound.

The therapeutic approach to many solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is mainly based on the use of platinum-containing anticancer agents and is often characterized by acquired or intrinsic resistance to the drug. Therefore, the search for safer and more effective drugs is still an open challenge. Two organometallic ruthenium(II)-cyclopentadienyl compounds [Ru(η-CHCHO)(Mebipy)(PPh)] (RT150) and [Ru(η-CHCHOH)(Mebipy)(PPh)][CFSO] (RT151) were tested against a panel of cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cell lines and xenografts.