Publications by authors named "Sina Taefehshokr"

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite advancements, the underlying mechanisms controlling CRC's etiology remain unclear, and reliable biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment are still lacking. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increasingly recognized for their role in cancer progression, though many remain unidentified and their functions poorly understood.

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Although cancer immunotherapy has taken center stage in mainstream oncology inducing complete and long-lasting tumor regression, only a subset of patients receiving treatment respond and others relapse after an initial response. Different tumor types respond differently, and even in cancer types that respond (hot tumors), we still observe tumors that are unresponsive (cold tumors), suggesting the presence of resistance. Hence, the development of intrinsic or acquired resistance is a big challenge for the cancer immunotherapy field.

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Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among women, and it remains the main challenge despite improved treatments. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a small non-coding family of RNAs that play an indispensable role in regulating major physiological processes, including differentiation, proliferation, invasion, migration, cell cycle regulation, stem cell maintenance apoptosis, and organ development. The dysregulation of these tiny molecules is associated with various human malignancies.

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Over the past decade, there have been remarkable advances in understanding the signaling pathways involved in cancer development. It is well-established that cancer is caused by the dysregulation of cellular pathways involved in proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell metabolism, migration, cell polarity, and differentiation. Besides, growing evidence indicates that extracellular matrix signaling, cell surface proteoglycans, and angiogenesis can contribute to cancer development.

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Colorectal cancer (CC) is an important human malignancy with high cancer related death worldwide. The chemotherapy using doxorubicin hydrochloride is one of the most common cancer therapeutic methods. However, drug resistance lowers the treatment efficacy in CC patients.

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Characterized by remarkable levels of aggression and malignancy, BC remains one of the leading causes of death in females world wide. Accordingly, significant efforts have been made to develop early diagnostic tools, increase treatment efficacy, and improve patient prognosis. Hopefully, many of the molecular mechanisms underlying BC have been detected and show promising targeting potential.

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Cancer cells are able to undergo aerobic glycolysis and metabolize glucose to lactate instead of oxidative phosphorylation, which is known as Warburg effect. Accumulating evidence has revealed that microRNAs regulate cancer cell metabolism, which manifest a higher rate of glucose metabolism. Various signaling pathways along with glycolytic enzymes are responsible for the emergence of glycolytic dependence.

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The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first identified in December 2019 in China, and has led to thousands of mortalities globally each day. While the innate immune response serves as the first line of defense, viral clearance requires activation of adaptive immunity, which employs B and T cells to provide sanitizing immunity. SARS-CoV-2 has a potent arsenal of mechanisms used to counter this adaptive immune response through processes, such as T cells depletion and T cell exhaustion.

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The ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 infection achieved pandemic status on March 11, 2020. As of September 8, 2020 it has caused over 890,000 mortalities world-wide. Coronaviral infections are enabled by potent immunoevasory mechanisms that target multiple aspects of innate immunity, with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) able to induce a cytokine storm, impair interferon responses, and suppress antigen presentation on both MHC class I and class II.

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Cancer is the major cause of death worldwide in countries of all income levels. The Hippo signaling pathway is a Drosophila kinase gene that was identified to regulate organ size, cell regeneration, and contribute to tumorigenesis. A huge variety of extrinsic and intrinsic signals regulate the Hippo signaling pathway.

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Coxiella burnetii, the agent of Q fever, is recognized as a worldwide zoonosis a wide host and potentially complex reservoir systems. Infected ruminants are the main source of infection for humans, but cats also represent a potential source of infection. The prevalence of C burnetii in cats in Iran is unknown and the risks of transmission to humans are undetermined.

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Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal B-cell malignancy characterized by the accumulation of neoplastic proliferation of a plasma cell in the bone marrow that produces a monoclonal immunoglobulin. The immune checkpoint inhibitors against programmed death-1/programmed death-1 ligand and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 axis have demonstrated appropriate anticancer activity in several solid tumors and liquid cancers, and are rapidly transforming the practice of medical oncology. However, in a high percentage of patients, the efficacy of immune checkpoints blockade remains limited due to innate or primary resistance.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Cancer remains a significant challenge in healthcare, with ongoing struggles to find effective treatments, particularly against issues like angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) and metastasis (the spread of cancer).
  • - The emergence of resistance to anti-angiogenesis drugs has complicated treatment, with a phenomenon called vascular mimicry (VM) allowing cancer cells to evade these therapies and contribute to poor patient outcomes.
  • - Researchers are focusing on understanding the mechanisms behind VM, exploring key signaling pathways and potential agents that could help counteract this resistance in order to improve treatment effectiveness and prognosis for cancer patients.
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Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the world. Genetic polymorphisms in Interleukin (IL) genes are one of the most important risk factors in BC. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of rs1946518 C/A polymorphism in the promoter region of the IL-18 gene and BC risk in Iranian women.

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Melatonin is a physiological hormone produced by the pineal gland. In recent decades, enormous investigations showed that melatonin can prompt apoptosis in cancer cells and inhibit tumor metastasis and angiogenesis in variety of malignancies such as ovarian, melanoma, colon, and breast cancer; therefore, its possible therapeutic usage in cancer treatment was confirmed. CSCs, which has received much attention from researchers in past decades, are major challenges in the treatment of cancer.

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Background And Purpose: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and leading causes of death in the women worldwide. The evidence shows efficacy of apatinib against breast cancer. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of apatinib on apoptosis, cell cycle, and Mitogen‑Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathways in the breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cell line.

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Immunotherapy is a promising field, which enhances and harnesses the powers of the host immune system against cancer and in recent years, has become a major application of the fundamental research of cancer immunology. Cancer immunotherapy is often more targeted than non-specific therapy approaches, including radiotherapy or chemotherapy, as the immune system can be trained to remember cancer cells, highlighting a durable approach that can be maintained after the treatment completion. Immunotherapy functions by directing the immune system to attack the tumour cells via targeting tumour antigens, also enhancing the existing anti-tumour immune responses.

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Purpose: The microRNA (miR)-31 and miR-143 are pleiotropic anti-metastatic miRs, with an expression that decreases significantly in metastatic breast cancer cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of miR-31 and miR-143 inhibition on metastasis and invasion in both MDA-MB231, MDA-MB468 as well as the MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines and 5-week old female mice.

Methods: Following the cloning of miR-31 and miR-143 into vectors, their expressions were determined before treatment with constructs of miR-31 and miR-143 in cancer cell lines and normal breast cells.

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Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a heterogeneous disease with three or more consecutive abortions before 20 weeks of pregnancy. Recently, inflammatory factors such as interleukins (IL) have been found to be a significant factor in the RPL. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between RPL and IL-10 (rs1800896), IL-18 (rs1946518) and IL-33 (rs1929992) genes polymorphisms in Iranian women.

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Background Human β-defensins (hBD2 and hBD3) are small cationic antimicrobial peptides of innate immune system which can act as a barrier against the majority of pathogens, contributing to the host immune defence. Objective The aim of study is to determine whether hBD2 and hBD3 play a role in development and proliferation of human effector CD4 T cells or not. Furthermore, if enhanced proliferation is observed in the presence of hBD2 and hBD3, these data will demonstrate whether chemokine receptor type 6 (CCR6) is required to be present for this activity to occur.

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The immune system is evolved to defend the body against pathogens and is composed of thousands of complicated and intertwined pathways, which are highly controlled by processes such as transcription and repression of cellular genes. Sometimes the immune system malfunctions and a break down in self-tolerance occurs. This lead to the inability to distinguish between self and non-self and cause attacks on host tissues, a condition also known as autoimmunity, which can result in chronic debilitating diseases.

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