Investigating the Effects of Chordoma Cell-Derived Exosomes on the Tumorigenicity of Nucleus Pulposus Cells.

 Interaction of tumor cells with the surrounding environment is essential for tumor growth and progression that eventually leads to metastasis. Growing evidence shows that extracellular vesicles also known as exosomes play a crucial role in signaling between the tumor and its microenvironment. Tumor-derived exosomes have generally protumorigenic effects such as metastasis, hypoxia, angiogenesis, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

The investigation of diverse physiological and therapeutic impact of cellular-based products derived from human cumulus cells.

Particular somatic cells, namely cumulus cells (CCs) that support the oocyte maturation, fertility, and viability by providing the nutrients and energy to the oocyte envelop the mammalian oocyte. In this study, discarded human cumulus tissues were used to reveal the value of hyaluronic acid-rich CCs on several cellular events, including differentiation. Conditioned media, recovered from the primary culture of CCs, were introduced to the human nucleus pulposus cells (hNPCs) which were functionally distorted because of the loss of chondrogenecity.

Impact of silencing eEF2K expression on the malignant properties of chordoma.

Background: Eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase, eEF2K) is a calcium calmodulin dependent protein kinase that keeps the highest energy consuming cellular process of protein synthesis under check through negative regulation. eEF2K pauses global protein synthesis rates at the translational elongation step by phosphorylating its only kown substrate elongation factor 2 (eEF2), a unique translocase activity in ekaryotic cells enabling the polypeptide chain elongation. Therefore, eEF2K is thought to preserve cellular energy pools particularly upon acute development of cellular stress conditions such as nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, or infections.

Inhibition of Migration, Invasion and Drug Resistance of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Cells - Role of Snail, Slug and Twist and Small Molecule Inhibitors.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of epithelial to mesenchymal transition activating transcription factor silencing (EMT-ATF silencing) on migration, invasion, drug resistance and tumor-forming abilities of various pancreatic cancer cell lines. Additionally, the contribution of small molecule inhibitors of EMT (SD-208 and CX4945) to the effects of gene silencing was evaluated.

Methods: EMT activating transcription factors "Snail, Slug and Twist" were silenced by short hairpins on Panc-1, MIA PaCa-2, BxPC-3, and AsPC-1 pancreatic cancer cell lines.

Repurposing of Alexidine Dihydrochloride as an Apoptosis Initiator and Cell Cycle Inhibitor in Human Pancreatic Cancer.

Background: Highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy, pancreatic cancers are the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world. The absence of effective chemotherapeutics is leading researchers to develop novel drugs or repurpose existing chemicals. Alexidine Dihydrochloride (AD), an orally bioavailable bis-biguanide compound, is an apoptosis stimulating reagent.

Silencing Breast Cancer Genes Using Morpholino Embedded DNA-Tile-AuNPs Nanostructures.

There is an ongoing effort to increase the efficiency of gene delivery for the regulation of diseases-related genes. In this report, we demonstrate the efficiency of a DNA-based nanostructure to deliver morpholino antisense oligonucleotides for the upregulated genes in breast cancer as an alternative to the currently used delivery systems. A DNA-tile structure is constructed by embedding antisense oligonucleotides targeting the and genes.

The effect of TWIST silencing in metastatic chordoma cells.

Chordoma is a slowly growing and invasive bone tumor  with a tendency to metastasize locally in advanced stages.  It is essential to discover new therapeutics that target genes involved in the metastasis of chordoma. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) might robustly influence the metastasis of a tumor bulk.

Characterization of stem-like cells in a new astroblastoma cell line.

Cell lines established from tumors are the most commonly used models in cancer research, and their use in recent years has enabled a greater understanding of the biology of cancer and the means to develop effective treatment strategies. Astroblastomas are uncommon neuroepithelial tumors of glial origin, predominantly affecting young people, mainly teenagers and children, predominantly females. To date, only a single study has reported that astroblastomas contain a large number of neural stem-like cells, which had only a partial proliferation capacity and differentiation.

The molecular aspects of chordoma.

Chordomas are one of the rarest bone tumors, and they originate from remnants of embryonic notochord along the spine, more frequently at the skull base and sacrum. Although they are relatively slow growing and low grade, chordomas are highly recurrent, aggressive, locally invasive, and prone to metastasize to the lungs, bone, and the liver. Chordomas highly and generally show a dual epithelial-mesenchymal differentiation.

MicroRNA expression profiling reveals the potential function of microRNA-31 in chordomas.

Chordomas are rare bone tumors arising from remnants of the notochord. Molecular studies to determine the pathways involved in their pathogenesis and develop better treatments are limited. Alterations in microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in cancer.