Curcumin Nanoformulation for Cervical Cancer Treatment.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide. Current standards of care for cervical cancer includes surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Conventional chemotherapy fails to elicit therapeutic responses and causes severe systemic toxicity.

Shikonin selectively induces apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells through the endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

Background: Despite the recent progress in screening and therapy, a majority of prostate cancer cases eventually attain hormone refractory and chemo-resistant attributes. Conventional chemotherapeutic strategies are effective at very high doses for only palliative management of these prostate cancers. Therefore chemo-sensitization of prostate cancer cells could be a promising strategy for increasing efficacy of the conventional chemotherapeutic agents in prostate cancer patients.

Ormeloxifene suppresses desmoplasia and enhances sensitivity of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer.

The management of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is extremely poor due to lack of an efficient therapy and development of chemoresistance to the current standard therapy, gemcitabine. Recent studies implicate the intimate reciprocal interactions between epithelia and underlying stroma due to paracrine Sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling in producing desmoplasia and chemoresistance in PDAC. Herein, we report for the first time that a nonsteroidal drug, ormeloxifene, has potent anticancer properties and depletes tumor-associated stromal tissue by inhibiting the SHH signaling pathway in PDAC.

Slit/Robo pathway: a promising therapeutic target for cancer.

Axon guidance molecules, slit glycoprotein (Slit) and Roundabout receptor (Robo), have implications in the regulation of physiological processes. Recent studies indicate that Slit and Robo also have important roles in tumorigenesis, cancer progression and metastasis. The Slit/Robo pathway can be considered a master regulator for multiple oncogenic signaling pathways.

Serum vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) as a biomarker in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy.

Background: To evaluate serum VEGF-A levels in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck (SCCHN) patients and relationships with response to therapy.

Materials And Methods: Serum VEGF-A levels in patients (n=72) treated with radiotherapy (RT) or radio-chemotherapy (RCT) and controls (n=40) were measured by ELISA.

Results: Serum VEGF-A levels of the SCCHN cases were significantly higher (p=0.

(6)-Gingerolinduced myeloid leukemia cell death is initiated by reactive oxygen species and activation of miR-27b expression.

The natural polyphenolic alkanone (6)-gingerol (6G) has established anti-inflammatory and antitumoral properties. However, its precise mechanism of action in myeloid leukemia cells is unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of 6G on myeloid leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo.

Anti-cancer potential of a novel SERM ormeloxifene.

Ormeloxifene is a non-steroidal Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM) that is used as an oral contraceptive. Recent studies have shown its potent anti-cancer activities in breast, head and neck, and chronic myeloid leukemia cells. Several in vivo and clinical studies have reported that ormeloxifene possesses an excellent therapeutic index and has been well-tolerated, without any haematological, biochemical or histopathological toxicity, even with chronic administration.

Anticancer siRNA delivery by new anticancer molecule: a novel combination strategy for cancer cell killing.

The present report describes development of a novel, bifunctional molecule possessing both selective antiproliferative activity and siRNA transfection ability. We synthesized a series of cationic lipo-benzamides and screened for in vitro anticancer activities against a panel of cancer and non-cancer cells. The molecule with a ten carbon chain-length (C10M) significantly inhibited proliferation of cancer cells via arresting the cell cycle predominantly in the G1 phase; but did not affect non-cancerous cells.

Centchroman inhibits proliferation of head and neck cancer cells through the modulation of PI3K/mTOR pathway.

Centchroman (CC; 67/20; INN: Ormeloxifene) is a non-steroidal antiestrogen extensively used as a female contraceptive in India. In the present study, we report the anti-proliferative effect of CC in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells. CC inhibited cell proliferation in a dose dependent manner at 24 h of treatment.

Expression of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, p-hydroxybenzoate-m-geranyltransferase and genes of phenylpropanoid pathway exhibits positive correlation with shikonins content in arnebia [Arnebia euchroma (Royle) Johnston].

Background: Geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP) and p-hydroxybenzoate (PHB) are the basic precursors involved in shikonins biosynthesis. GPP is derived from mevalonate (MVA) and/or 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway(s), depending upon the metabolite and the plant system under consideration. PHB, however, is synthesized by only phenylpropanoid (PP) pathway.

Neo-tanshinlactone inspired synthesis, in vitro evaluation of novel substituted benzocoumarin derivatives as potent anti-breast cancer agents.

A small library of novel benzocoumarin derivatives based on naturally occurring neo-tanshinlactone scaffold was constructed and their antiproliferative activities against breast cancer cells MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were evaluated. A number of derivatives showed good anti-breast cancer activity, in some cases higher to that of the reference compound tamoxifen. In particular, benzocoumarins Bc-5, Bc-8 and Bc-9 strongly inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cancer cell line with the IC(50) values of 3.