Pistol Ribozyme-Driven Catalytic Spherical Nucleic Acid Integrates Gene and Chemotherapy for Enhanced Cancer Therapy.

Gene-targeted therapies are revolutionizing cancer treatment due to their high specificity and low toxicity. Among these, ribozymes hold promise as independent gene therapy agents capable of directly cleaving target mRNAs. The pistol ribozyme, discovered in 2015, stands out for its compact structure and robust cleavage activity, making it a promising candidate for RNA silencing under physiological conditions.

High-dose vitamin C suppresses the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells via inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Purpose: Vitamin C (VC) is a kind of essential nutrient in the body regarded as a canonical antioxidant during the past hundred years. However, the anti-cancer effect of VC is controversial. Our study is trying to clarify the relationship between VC dosage and breast cancer metastasis.

Role of p38 MAPK in enhanced human cancer cells killing by the combination of aspirin and ABT-737.

Regular use of aspirin after diagnosis is associated with longer survival among patients with mutated-PIK3CA colorectal cancer, but not among patients with wild-type PIK3CA cancer. In this study, we showed that clinically achievable concentrations of aspirin and ABT-737 in combination could induce a synergistic growth arrest in several human PIK3CA wild-type cancer cells. In addition, our results also demonstrated that long-term combination treatment with aspirin and ABT-737 could synergistically induce apoptosis both in A549 and H1299 cells.

Enhanced antitumor activity by the combination of dasatinib and combretastatin A-4 in vitro and in vivo.

The present study showed that the combination of dasatinib and combretastatin A-4 (CA-4) exhibited synergistic cytotoxicity in multiple types of cancer, including ovarian, hepatocellular, lung and prostate carcinoma. The enhanced apoptosis induced by dasatinib plus CA-4 was accompanied by a greater extent of mitochondrial depolarization, caspase-3 activation and PARP cleavage in HO-8910 cells. Furthermore, elevated expression of Mcl-1 led to a reduced apoptosis induced by dasatinib plus CA-4, highlighting that downregulated Mcl-1 was necessary for the potentiating effect of dasatinib to CA-4-triggered apoptosis.

In vitro anti-cancer activity of chamaejasmenin B and neochamaejasmin C isolated from the root of Stellera chamaejasme L.

Aim: To examine the anti-cancer effects of chamaejasmenin B and neochamaejasmin C, two biflavonones isolated from the root of Stellera chamaejasme L (known as the traditional Chinese herb Rui Xiang Lang Du) in vitro.

Methods: Human liver carcinoma cell lines (HepG2 and SMMC-7721), a human non-small cell lung cancer cell line (A549), human osteosarcoma cell lines (MG63, U2OS, and KHOS), a human colon cancer cell line (HCT-116) and a human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) were used. The anti-proliferative effects of the compounds were measured using SRB cytotoxicity assay.