Breast cancer is a public health concern worldwide, characterized by increasing incidence and mortality rates, requiring novel and effective therapeutic strategies. Curcumin is a bioactive compound extracted from turmeric with several pharmacological activities. Curcumin is a multifaceted anticancer agent through mechanisms including the modulation of signaling pathways, inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, and production of reactive oxygen species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastric cancer is an aggressive and multifactorial disease. () is identified as a significant etiological factor in gastric cancer. Although only a fraction of patients infected with progresses to gastric cancer, bacterial infection is critical in the pathology and development of this malignancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, making the development of novel, more effective therapies imperative to alleviate patient suffering. Metabolic switching is a hallmark of cancer cells that facilitates metastasis. Cancer cells obtain most of their energy and intermediate metabolites, which are required to proliferate and metastasize, through aerobic glycolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Endocrinol (Lausanne)
February 2024
About 8-12% of couples experience infertility, with male infertility being the cause in 50% of cases. Several congenital and acquired conditions, including chronic diseases and their treatments, can contribute to male infertility. Prostate cancer incidence increases annually by roughly 3%, leading to an increment in cancer treatments that have adverse effects on male fertility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial dysfunction is an interesting therapeutic target to help reduce cancer deaths, and the use of bioactive compounds has emerged as a novel and safe approach to solve this problem. Here, we discuss the information available related to phlorotannins, a type of polyphenol present in brown seaweeds that reportedly functions as antioxidants/pro-oxidants and anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorigenic agents. Specifically, available evidence indicates that dieckol and phloroglucinol promote mitochondrial membrane depolarization and mitochondria-dependent apoptosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages lead to exacerbated inflammation and oxidative stress. Patients with CKD in stage 5 need renal hemodialysis (HD) to remove toxins and waste products. However, this renal replacement therapy is inefficient in controlling inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rabbits are sensitive to dietary cholesterol and rapidly develop hypercholesterolemia, leading to prominent subfertility. Sterol regulatory element-binding protein isoform 2 drives the intracellular cholesterol pathway in many tissues, including the testicles. Its abnormal regulation could be the mainly responsible for the failure of suppressing cholesterol synthesis in a cholesterol-enriched environment, ultimately leading to testicular and seminal alterations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity has emerged as a major public health concern with a staggering 39% worldwide prevalence as of 2021. Given the magnitude of the problem and considering its association with chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, it does not come as a surprise that obesity is now considered one of the major risk factors for the development of several chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and cancer. Adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity has taken center stage in understanding how changes in its components, particularly adipocytes and macrophages, participate in such processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer cells often display impaired mitochondrial function, reduced oxidative phosphorylation, and augmented aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect) to fulfill their bioenergetic and biosynthetic needs. Caveolin-1 (CAV1) is a scaffolding protein that promotes cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis in a manner dependent on CAV1 phosphorylation on tyrosine-14 (pY14). Here, we show that CAV1 expression increased glycolysis rates, while mitochondrial respiration was reduced by inhibition of the mitochondrial complex IV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvances in our understanding of cancer biology have contributed to generating different treatments to improve the survival of cancer patients. However, although initially most of the therapies are effective, relapse and recurrence occur in a large percentage of these cases after the treatment, and patients then die subsequently due to the development of therapy resistance in residual cancer cells. A large spectrum of molecular and cellular mechanisms have been identified as important contributors to therapy resistance, and more recently the inflammatory tumor microenvironment (TME) has been ascribed an important function as a source of signals generated by the TME that modulate cellular processes in the tumor cells, such as to favor the acquisition of therapy resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMale fertility has been shown to be dependent on cholesterol homeostasis. This lipid is essential for testosterone synthesis and spermatogenesis, but its levels must be maintained in an optimal range for proper testicular function. In particular, sperm cells' development is very sensitive to high cholesterol levels, noticeably during acrosomal formation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn advanced stages of cancer disease, caveolin-1 (CAV1) expression increases and correlates with increased migratory and invasive capacity of the respective tumor cells. Previous findings from our laboratory revealed that specific ECM-integrin interactions and tyrosine-14 phosphorylation of CAV1 are required for CAV1-enhanced melanoma cell migration, invasion and metastasis in vivo. In this context, CAV1 phosphorylation on tyrosine-14 mediated by non-receptor Src-family tyrosine kinases seems to be important; however, the effect of Src-family kinase inhibitors on CAV1-enhanced metastasis in vivo has not been studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF) expression has been described in many organs as showing neurotrophic, anti-angiogenic, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and pro-cell survival properties. However, references to its activity in the male reproductive system are scarce. We aimed to characterize the expression of PEDF in the male reproductive tract of Wistar rats by using RT-PCR, western blot and immunostaining and also evaluate the effect of flutamide in PEDF expression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-fat diet is associated with hypercholesterolemia and seminal alterations in White New Zealand rabbits. We have previously reported disorders in the development of the manchette-acrosome complex during spermiogenesis and decreased testicular efficiency in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. On the other hand, olive oil incorporated into the diet improves cholesterolemia and semen parameters affected in hypercholesterolemic rabbits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypercholesterolemia is a marker for several adult chronic diseases. Recently we demonstrated that sub/infertility is also associated to Hypercholesterolemia in rabbits. Seminal alterations included: abnormal sperm morphology, decreased sperm number and declined percentage of motile sperm, among others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFat increment (0.05% cholesterol, chol) in standard diet promoted a significant increase in serum and sperm membrane chol, which ultimately altered membrane-coupled sperm specific functions: osmotic resistance, acrosomal reaction, and sperm capacitation in White New Zealand rabbits. These changes were also associated with a reduction in motility percentage and appearance of abnormal sperm morphology.
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