HSF1 blockade-induced tumor thermotolerance abolishment is mediated by JNK-dependent caspase-3 activation.

We previously blocked the heat shock transcription factor 1 function with a dominant-negative mutant (mHSF1) in breast cancer cell line Bcap37, and found that mHSF1 sensitizes Bcap37 cells to hyperthermia by promoting the apoptotic process. Here we studied the mechanism of this abolishing process and how thermotolerance develops in Bcap37 cells. The results indicated that mHSF1 abolished acquired or intrinsic thermotolerance in Bcap37 cells by enhancing JNK and caspase-3 pathways, two stress-induced apoptotic pathways, after hyperthermia, and interference with either one of them attenuated hyperthermia-induced apoptosis.

An armed oncolytic adenovirus system, ZD55-gene, demonstrating potent antitumoral efficacy.

ONYX-015 is an attractive therapeutic adenovirus for cancer because it can selectively replicate in tumor cells and kill them. To date, clinical trials of this adenovirus have demonstrated marked safety but not potent enough when it was used alone. In this paper, we put forward a novel concept of Gene-ViroTherapy strategy and in this way, we constructed an armed therapeutic oncolytic adenovirus system, ZD55-gene, which is not only deleted of E1B 55-kD gene similar to ONYX-015, but also armed with foreign antitumor gene.

Current strategies and future directions of antiangiogenic tumor therapy.

Neovascularization is a prerequisite for progressive growth of most tumors and their metastases. Therefore, inhibition of angiogenesis could be one of the most promising strategies that might lead to the development of novel anticancer therapy. New blood vessels forming in tumors can be avoided by interfering the process of angiogenesis through suppressing the proangiogenic signal or augmenting the antiangiogenic factors.