Diphthamide deficiency promotes association of eEF2 with p53 to induce p21 expression and neural crest defects.

Diphthamide is a modified histidine residue unique for eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2 (eEF2), a key ribosomal protein. Loss of this evolutionarily conserved modification causes developmental defects through unknown mechanisms. In a patient with compound heterozygous mutations in Diphthamide Biosynthesis 1 (DPH1) and impaired eEF2 diphthamide modification, we observe multiple defects in neural crest (NC)-derived tissues.

Cancer/testis-45A1 promotes cervical cancer cell tumorigenesis and drug resistance by activating oncogenic SRC and downstream signaling pathways.

Background: Cancer/testis antigen-45A1 (CT45A1) is overexpressed in various types of cancer but is not expressed in healthy women. The role of CT45A1 in cervical cancer has not yet been described in the literature.

Purpose: The aim of this research was to study the role of CT45A1 in cervical cancer progression and drug resistance, elucidate the mechanisms underlying CT45A1-mediated tumorigenesis and investigate CT45A1 as a biomarker for cervical cancer diagnosis, prognostic prediction, and targeted therapy.

Lycorine inhibits pancreatic cancer cell growth and neovascularization by inducing Notch1 degradation and downregulating key vasculogenic genes.

Pancreatic cancer is highly metastatic and lethal with an increasing incidence globally and a 5-year survival rate of only 8%. One of the factors contributing to the high mortality is the lack of effective drugs in the clinical setting. We speculated that effective compounds against pancreatic cancer exist in natural herbs and explored active small molecules among traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

The long non-coding RNA keratin-7 antisense acts as a new tumor suppressor to inhibit tumorigenesis and enhance apoptosis in lung and breast cancers.

Expression of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) keratin-7 antisense (KRT7-AS) is downregulated in various types of cancer; however, the impact of KRT7-AS deficiency on tumorigenesis and apoptosis is enigmatic. We aim to explore the influence of KRT7-AS in carcinogenesis and apoptosis. We found that KRT7-AS was deficient in breast and lung cancers, and low levels of KRT7-AS were a poor prognostic factor in breast cancer.

The Cancer/Testis Antigen CT45A1 Promotes Transcription of Oncogenic Gene in Breast Cancer Cells and Is Sensible Targets for Cancer Therapy.

Purpose: Invasive breast carcinomas (BRCAs) are highly lethal. The molecular mechanisms underlying progression of invasive BRCAs are unclear, and effective therapies are highly desired. The cancer-testis antigen CT45A1 promotes overexpression of pro-metastatic sulfatase-2 (SULF2) and breast cancer metastasis to the lungs, but its mechanisms are largely unknown.

Cancer/Testis Antigens as Biomarker and Target for the Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy of Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading type of malignant tumour among cancer-caused death worldwide, and the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer patients is only 18%. Various oncogenes are abnormally overexpressed in lung cancer, including cancer/testis antigens (CTAs), which are restrictively expressed in the male testis but are hardly expressed in other normal tissues, if at all. CTAs are aberrantly overexpressed in various types of cancer, with more than 60 CTAs abnormally overexpressed in lung cancer.

Triptonide effectively inhibits triple-negative breast cancer metastasis through concurrent degradation of Twist1 and Notch1 oncoproteins.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly metastatic and lethal. Due to a lack of druggable targets for this disease, there are no effective therapies in the clinic.

Methods: We used TNBC cells and xenografted mice as models to explore triptonide-mediated inhibition of TNBC metastasis and tumor growth.

Oncogenic cancer/testis antigens are a hallmarker of cancer and a sensible target for cancer immunotherapy.

Increasing evidence shows that numerous cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) are uniquely overexpressed in various types of cancer and most CTAs are oncogenic. Overexpression of oncogenic CTAs promotes carcinogenesis, cancer metastasis, and drug resistance. Oncogenic CTAs are generally associated with poor prognosis in cancer patients and are an important hallmark of cancer, making them a crucial target for cancer immunotherapy.

Activation of the tumor suppressive Hippo pathway by triptonide as a new strategy to potently inhibit aggressive melanoma cell metastasis.

Metastatic melanoma has a very high mortality rate despite the availability of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy; therefore, more effective therapeutics are needed. The Hippo pathway plays an inhibitory role in melanoma progression, but the tumor suppressors Salvador homolog-1 (SAV1) and large tumor suppressor 1 (LATS1) in this pathway are down-regulated in melanoma. As a result, the downstream oncogenic Yes-associated protein (YAP) is active, resulting in uncontrolled melanoma growth and metastasis.

Correction of the tumor suppressor Salvador homolog-1 deficiency in tumors by lycorine as a new strategy in lung cancer therapy.

Salvador homolog-1 (SAV1) is a tumor suppressor required for activation of the tumor-suppressive Hippo pathway and inhibition of tumorigenesis. SAV1 is defective in several cancer types. SAV1 deficiency in cells promotes tumorigenesis and cancer metastasis, and is closely associated with poor prognosis for cancer patients.

Correction: The lipogenic LXR-SREBF1 signaling pathway controls cancer cell DNA repair and apoptosis and is a vulnerable point of malignant tumors for cancer therapy.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The lipogenic LXR-SREBF1 signaling pathway controls cancer cell DNA repair and apoptosis and is a vulnerable point of malignant tumors for cancer therapy.

Cancer cells are defective in DNA repair, so they experience increased DNA strand breaks, genome instability, gene mutagenesis, and tumorigenicity; however, multiple classic DNA repair genes and pathways are strongly activated in malignant tumor cells to compensate for the DNA repair deficiency and gain an apoptosis resistance. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon in cancer are unclear. We speculate that a key DNA repair gene or signaling pathway in cancer has not yet been recognized.

Triptonide effectively suppresses gastric tumor growth and metastasis through inhibition of the oncogenic Notch1 and NF-κB signaling pathways.

Gastric cancer ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The uncontrolled tumor growth and robust metastasis are key factors to cause the cancer patient death. Mechanistically, aberrant activation of Notch and NF-κB signaling pathways plays pivotal roles in the initiation and metastasis of gastric cancer.

The CXCL12-CXCR4 Signaling Axis Plays a Key Role in Cancer Metastasis and is a Potential Target for Developing Novel Therapeutics against Metastatic Cancer.

Metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients; there is currently no effective treatment for cancer metastasis. This is primarily due to our insufficient understanding of the metastatic mechanisms in cancer. An increasing number of studies have shown that the C-X-C motif chemokine Ligand 12 (CXCL12) is overexpressed in various tissues and organs.

Selective activation of tumor-suppressive MAPKP signaling pathway by triptonide effectively inhibits pancreatic cancer cell tumorigenicity and tumor growth.

The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK, 1K) family members ERK, JNK, and p38 play a divergent role in either promoting tumorigenesis or tumor-suppression. Activation of ERK and JNK promotes tumorigenesis; whereas, escalation of p38 inhibits carcinogenesis. As these three MAPK members are controlled by the common up-stream MAPK signaling proteins which consist of MAPK kinases (2K) and MAPK kinase kinases (3K), how to selectively actuate tumor-suppressive p38, not concurrently stimulate tumorigenic ERK and JNK, in cancer cells is a challenge for cancer researchers, and a new opportunity for novel anti-cancer drug discovery.

Ectopic expression of human airway trypsin-like protease 4 in acute myeloid leukemia promotes cancer cell invasion and tumor growth.

Transmembrane serine proteases have been implicated in the development and progression of solid and hematological cancers. Human airway trypsin-like protease 4 (HAT-L4) is a transmembrane serine protease expressed in epithelial cells and exocrine glands. In the skin, HAT-L4 is important for normal epidermal barrier function.

Triptonide inhibits lung cancer cell tumorigenicity by selectively attenuating the Shh-Gli1 signaling pathway.

Lung cancer is a leading lethal disease with a 5-year survival rate of only 16%. Inadequate potent anti-cancer drugs appear to be a bottleneck in the treatment of lung cancer; hence, how to develop effective anti-lung cancer therapeutics is an urgent problem. In this study, we aim to explore a novel compound with potent anti-lung cancer effect and study its anti-cancer mechanisms.

Lycorine inhibits melanoma cell migration and metastasis mainly through reducing intracellular levels of β-catenin and matrix metallopeptidase 9.

Metastatic melanoma accounts for 60% of death for skin cancer. Although great efforts have been made to treat the disease, effective drugs against metastatic melanoma still lack at the clinical setting. In the current study, we found that lycorine, a small molecule of isoquinoline alkaloid, significantly suppressed melanoma cell migration and invasion in vitro, and decreased the metastasis of melanoma cells to lung tissues in tumor-bearing mice, resulting in significant prolongation of the survival of the mice without obvious toxicity.

Atorvastatin enhances endothelial adherens junctions through promoting VE-PTP gene transcription and reducing VE-cadherin-Y731 phosphorylation.

Vascular endothelial protein tyrosine phosphatase (VE-PTP) is essential for endothelial cells (ECs) adherens junction and vascular homeostasis; however, the regulatory mechanism of VE-PTP transcription is unknown, and a drug able to promote VE-PTP expression in ECs has not yet been reported in the literature. In this study, we used human ECs as a model to explore small molecule compounds able to promote VE-PTP expression, and found that atorvastatin, a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor widely used in the clinic to treat hypercholesterolemia-related cardiovascular diseases, strongly promoted VE-PTP transcription in ECs through activating the VE-PTP promoter and upregulating the expression of the transcription factor, specificity protein 1 (SP1). Additionally, atorvastatin markedly reduced VE-cadherin-Y731 phosphorylation induced by cigarette smoke extract and significantly enhanced stability of endothelial adherens junctions.

Triptonide potently suppresses pancreatic cancer cell-mediated vasculogenic mimicry by inhibiting expression of VE-cadherin and chemokine ligand 2 genes.

Various aggressive cancers, including pancreatic cancer, produce functional blood vessels by neovascularization. Tumor vasculogenic mimicry (VM) promotes cancer progression and is closely associated with the poor prognosis of the cancer patients. Therefore, tumor VM is a sensible target for novel anti-cancer drug discovery.

An alternative conformation of human TrpRS suggests a role of zinc in activating non-enzymatic function.

Tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (TrpRS) in vertebrates contains a N-terminal extension in front of the catalytic core. Proteolytic removal of the N-terminal 93 amino acids gives rise to T2-TrpRS, which has potent anti-angiogenic activity mediated through its extracellular interaction with VE-cadherin. Zinc has been shown to have anti-angiogenic effects and can bind to human TrpRS.

Triptonide acts as a novel potent anti-lymphoma agent with low toxicity mainly through inhibition of proto-oncogene Lyn transcription and suppression of Lyn signal pathway.

Lyn is a proto-oncogene overexpressed and constitutively activated in lymphoma, and plays an important role in lymphoma initiation and malignant progression. Hence, the oncogenic Lyn has recently been targeted for novel anti-lymphoma drug discovery; however, the effective Lyn-targeted drug for lymphoma treatment with low toxicity is absent in the clinical setting. The goal of this study is to explore powerful and low toxic Lyn-targeted anti-lymphoma agent.

MicroRNA-27b functions as a new inhibitor of ovarian cancer-mediated vasculogenic mimicry through suppression of expression.

Aggressive cancer cells gain robust tumor vascular mimicry (VM) capability that promotes tumor growth and metastasis. is aberrantly overexpressed in vasculogenic cancer cells and regarded as a master gene of tumor VM. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in modulating tumor angiogenesis and cancer metastasis, the miRNA that targets expression in cancer cells to inhibit tumor cell-mediated VM is enigmatic.

Cigarette smoke extracts induce overexpression of the proto-oncogenic gene interleukin-13 receptor α2 through activation of the PKA-CREB signaling pathway to trigger malignant transformation of lung vascular endothelial cells and angiogenesis.

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer. Tumor-associated endothelial cells (TAECs) play important roles in tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. However, whether cigarette smoking can trigger genesis of lung TAECs has not been reported yet.

Targeting of multiple senescence-promoting genes and signaling pathways by triptonide induces complete senescence of acute myeloid leukemia cells.

Leukemia cells aberrantly overexpress senescence-suppression telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and down-regulate key senescence-promoting genes to escape complete senescence, resulting in immortalization and malignant progression. Accordingly, induction of complete senescence is a sensible strategy for anti-leukemia therapy. However, effective senescence-based anti-leukemia drugs with low toxicity are currently lacking.