Altered membrane rigidity via enhanced endogenous cholesterol synthesis drives cancer cell resistance to destruxins.

Destruxins, secondary metabolites of entomopathogenic fungi, exert a wide variety of interesting characteristics ranging from antiviral to anticancer effects. Although their mode of action was evaluated previously, the molecular mechanisms of resistance development are unknown. Hence, we have established destruxin-resistant sublines of HCT116 colon carcinoma cells by selection with the most prevalent derivatives, destruxin (dtx)A, dtxB and dtxE.

The Natural Fungal Metabolite Beauvericin Exerts Anticancer Activity In Vivo: A Pre-Clinical Pilot Study.

Recently, in vitro anti-cancer properties of beauvericin, a fungal metabolite were shown in various cancer cell lines. In this study, we assessed the specificity of this effect by comparing beauvericin cytotoxicity in malignant versus non-malignant cells. Moreover, we tested in vivo anticancer effects of beauvericin by treating BALB/c and CB-17/SCID mice bearing murine CT-26 or human KB-3-1-grafted tumors, respectively.

Mouse tissue distribution and persistence of the food-born fusariotoxins Enniatin B and Beauvericin.

The fusariotoxins Enniatin B (Enn B) and Beauvericin (Bea) have recently aroused interest as food contaminants and as potential anticancer drugs. However, limited data are available about their toxic profile. Aim of this study was to investigate their pharmacological behavior in vivo and their persistence in mice.

Disruptive environmental chemicals and cellular mechanisms that confer resistance to cell death.

Cell death is a process of dying within biological cells that are ceasing to function. This process is essential in regulating organism development, tissue homeostasis, and to eliminate cells in the body that are irreparably damaged. In general, dysfunction in normal cellular death is tightly linked to cancer progression.

Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: the challenge ahead.

Lifestyle factors are responsible for a considerable portion of cancer incidence worldwide, but credible estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) suggest that the fraction of cancers attributable to toxic environmental exposures is between 7% and 19%. To explore the hypothesis that low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals in the environment may be combining to contribute to environmental carcinogenesis, we reviewed 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer, multiple priority target sites for disruption in each area and prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets, this included dose-response characterizations, evidence of low-dose effects and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis.

The naturally born fusariotoxin enniatin B and sorafenib exert synergistic activity against cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo.

During the last decades substantial progress has been made in developing systemic cancer therapy. However, tumors are frequently intrinsically resistant against structurally and mechanistically unrelated drugs. Thus, it is of predominant interest to overcome drug resistance and to encourage the research for novel chemotherapeutic approaches.