SIRT3 and SIRT4 double-genes remodeled the mitochondrial network to induce hepatocellular carcinoma cell line differentiation and suppress malignant phenotypes.

Tumor cells with damaged mitochondria undergo metabolic reprogramming, but gene therapy targeting mitochondria has not been comprehensively reported. In this study, plasmids targeting the normal hepatocyte cell line (L-O2) and hepatocellular carcinoma cell line were generated using three genes SIRT3, SIRT4, and SIRT5. These deacetylases play a variety of regulatory roles in cancer and are related to mitochondrial function.

Establishment of a novel system for the culture and expansion of hepatic stem-like cancer cells.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major primary liver malignancy in adults. Despite the progress made, the outcome of the treatment to this disease is less than satisfactory as the post therapy tumor recurrence is almost inevitable. Accumulating pieces of evidence have suggested that the recurrence is due to the existence of a subpopulation of the HCC cells that possess the properties of stem cells and are resistant to radiation and chemotherapy.

Anticancer activity of oncolytic adenoviruses carrying p53 is augmented by 11R in gallbladder cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a rare disease associated with an extremely poor patient prognosis, and occasionally, aberrant expression of p53 is present. Considering that p53 is one of the most widely studied tumor‑suppressor genes, we used a cell-penetrating peptide, 11R, to enhance the transferring efficiency of the oncolytic adenovirus carrying the p53 gene by constructing SG7605-11R-p53, a gene-viral therapy system which has higher specificity, enhanced safety, and efficacy. After infection with SG7605-11R-p53 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1 PFU/cell in vitro, the survival rate of EH-GB1 cells was lower than 50%, and that of EH-GB2 cells was lower than 40%, while the survival rate was higher than 90% for BJ human fibroblast cells, demonstrating that SG7605-11R-p53 has potent specific cytotoxicity against GBC cells.

Characterization of two novel cell lines with distinct heterogeneity derived from a single human bile duct carcinoma.

Background: Intratumoral heterogeneity reflects subclonal diversity and accounts for a variety of clinically defined phenotypes including the development of drug resistance and recurrence. However, intratumoral heterogeneity of bile duct carcinoma (BDC) is rarely studied.

Methods: Two highly heterogeneous cell lines named EH-CA1a and EH-CA1b were established from a primary tumor tissue of a pathologically proven BDC.