Inherited metabolic disorders arise from mutations in genes involved in the biogenesis, assembly, or activity of metabolic enzymes, leading to enzymatic deficiency and severe metabolic impairments. Metabolic enzymes are essential for the normal functioning of cells and are involved in the production of amino acids, fatty acids and nucleotides, which are essential for cell growth, division and survival. When the activity of metabolic enzymes is disrupted due to mutations or changes in expression levels, it can result in various metabolic disorders that have also been linked to cancer development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive type of breast cancer with a poor prognosis. Its management is challenging because of a lack of targeted therapies, increased metastatic potential, and high recurrence rates. Interest in using platinum agents such as carboplatin emerged from data suggesting frequent DNA repair defects in breast cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) are medical conditions that, by definition, are non-infectious and non-transmissible among people. Much of current NCDs are generally due to genetic, behavioral, and metabolic risk factors that often include excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity, and untreated elevated blood pressure, and share many common signal transduction pathways. Alterations in cell and physiological signaling and transcriptional control pathways have been well studied in several human NCDs, but these same pathways also regulate expression and function of the protein synthetic machinery and mRNA translation which have been less well investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aggressive nature of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) may be explained in part by the presence of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), a subpopulation of cells, which are involved in tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, recurrence, and therapy resistance. The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) pathway participates in the development and progression of BCSCs, but its role in TNBC remains unclear. Here, we report that extract (GLE), a medicinal mushroom with anticancer activity, acts on BCSCs and in TNBC pre-clinical animal tumor models by downregulating the STAT3 pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe high incidence of resistance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) targeted against EGFR and downstream pathways has increased the necessity to identify agents that may be combined with these therapies to provide a sustained response for breast cancer patients. Here, we investigate the therapeutic potential of Ganoderma lucidum extract (GLE) in breast cancer, focusing on the regulation of the EGFR signaling cascade when treated with the EGFR TKI, Erlotinib. SUM-149, or intrinsic Erlotinib resistant MDA-MB-231 cells, and a successfully developed Erlotinib resistant cell line, rSUM-149 were treated with increasing concentrations of Erlotinib, GLE, or their combination (Erlotinib/GLE) for 72h.
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