scholarly journals Indole hydrazide compound ZJQ-24 inhibits angiogenesis and induces apoptosis cell death through abrogation of AKT/mTOR pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Liu ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Jianqiang Zhang ◽  
Dan Liu ◽  
Yafeng Bao ◽  
...  

Abstract Angiogenesis and the activation of AKT/mTOR pathway are crucial for hepatocarcinoma development and progression, the activation of mTORC1/2 and relevant substrates have been confirmed in clinical hepatocarcinoma samples. Therefore, AKT/mTOR pathway represents the major targets for anti-cancer drugs development. Here, we investigated the anti-proliferative activity and mechanisms of ZJQ-24 in hepatocellular carcinoma, both in vivo and in vitro. A hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft model showed that ZJQ-24 significantly inhibited tumor growth with few side effects. MTT assays, flow cytometric analysis, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry identified that ZJQ-24 effectively suppressed hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation via G2/M phase arrest and caspase-dependent apoptosis but had no cytotoxic on normal cells. Furthermore, ZJQ-24 significantly blocked AKT/mTOR signaling by down-regulation of mTORC1 molecules, including phospho-p70S6K (Thr389) and phospho-4EBP-1 (Ser65, Thr37/46, Thr70) and phospho-AKT (Ser473) in HCC cells. It is very important that the ZJQ-24 did not induce the mTORC1-depdent PI3K/Akt feedback activation through JNK excitation. Moreover, ZJQ-24 inhibited the cap-dependent translation initiation by impairing the assembly of the eIF4E/eIF4G complex. Immunohistochemistry further confirmed ZJQ-24 inhibited the tumor growth through suppression of VEGF and AKT/mTOR pathways in vivo. Thus, the present study is the first to illustrate that ZJQ-24 triggers antiangiogenic activity and apoptosis via inhibiting the AKT/mTOR pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, providing basic scientific evidence that ZJQ-24 shows great potential function as inhibitor of angiogenesis and tumor growth in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BMC Cancer ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chensheng Qiu ◽  
Weiliang Su ◽  
Nana Shen ◽  
Xiaoying Qi ◽  
Xiaolin Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background MNAT1 (menage a trois 1, MAT1), a cyclin-dependent kinase-activating kinase (CAK) complex, highly expressed in diverse cancers and was involved in cancer molecular pathogenesis. However, its deliverance profile and biological function in osteosarcoma (OS) remain unclear. Methods The expression of MNAT1 in OS was detected by western blot (WB) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The potential relationship between MNAT1 molecular level expression and OS clinical expectations were analyzed according to tissues microarray (TMA). Proliferation potential of OS cells was evaluated in vitro based on CCK8 and OS cells colony formation assays, while OS cells transwell and in situ tissue source wound healing assays were employed to analyze the OS cells invasion and migration ability in vitro. A nude mouse xenograft model was used to detect tumor growth in vivo. In addition, ordinary bioinformatics analysis and experimental correlation verification were performed to investigate the underlying regulation mechanism of OS by MNAT1. Results In this research, we found and confirmed that MNAT1 was markedly over-expressed in OS tissue derived in situ, also, highly MNAT1 expression was closely associated with bad clinical expectations. Functional studies had shown that MNAT1 silencing could weaken the invasion, migration and proliferation of OS cells in vitro, and inhibit OS tumor growth in vivo. Mechanism study indicated that MNAT1 contributed to the progression of OS via the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. We further verified that the MNAT1 was required in the regulation of OS chemo-sensitivity to cisplatin (DDP). Conclusions Taken together, the data of the present study demonstrate a novel molecular mechanism of MNAT1 involved in the formation of DDP resistance of OS cells.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 3041
Author(s):  
Sonia Simón Serrano ◽  
Michele Tavecchio ◽  
Alvar Grönberg ◽  
Wondossen Sime ◽  
Mohamed Jemaà ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary liver cancer, is usually diagnosed in its late state. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as sorafenib and regorafenib are one of the few treatment options approved for advanced HCC and only prolong the patient’s life expectancy by a few months. Therefore, there is a need for novel effective treatments. Cyclophilins are intracellular proteins that catalyze the cis/trans isomerization of peptide bonds at proline residues. Cyclophilins are known to be overexpressed in HCC, affecting therapy resistance and cell proliferation. In the present study, we explored the potential of cyclophilin inhibitors as new therapeutic options for HCC in vitro and in vivo. Our results showed that the novel cyclophilin inhibitor, NV651, was able to significantly decrease proliferation in a diverse set of HCC cell lines. The exposure of HCC cells to NV651 caused an accumulation of cells during mitosis and consequent accumulation in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. NV651 reduced tumor growth in vivo using an HCC xenograft model without affecting the body weights of the animals. The safety aspects of NV651 were also confirmed in primary human hepatocytes without any cytotoxic effects. Based on the results obtained in this study, we propose NV651 as a potential treatment strategy for HCC.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 300-300
Author(s):  
K. I. Batarseh

300 Background: A small (molecular weight of 275) and novel pharmaceutically silver (I)-tartaric acid complex given the title name aliargentumycine was recently synthesized and the results on its in vitro cytotoxicity and mechanism of action on solid and hematopoietic malignancies were reported. Here the therapeutic potential of aliargentumycine on hepatocellular carcinoma was investigated. Methods: The in vitro and in vivo antitumor activities of aliargentumycine were studied on human HepG-2 xenograft model grown subcutaneously in female immunodeficient mice. Aliargentumycine was administered intratumorally, intravenously and orally twice a week at various concentrations. Results: The IC50 of aliargentumycine was found to be 1.49 ± 0.067 mg/ml, which is comparable to the value of 1.04 ± 0.07 mg/ml for doxorubicin, and almost half the value of 2.87 ± 1.02 mg/ml for sorafenib tosylate. The in vivo results demonstrated excellent statistically significant antitumor activities for the intratumoral, intravenous and oral routes of administration with Pi.t. < 0.00001, Pi.v. < 0.005 and Pp.o. < 0.003, respectively. Some animals showed complete tumor remission (tumor-free), and no tumor re-growth was observed even after treatment was stopped. Nonlinear regression on the data revealed that aliargentumycine results in significant tumor growth delay. All treated animals did not show any commonly observed signs of toxicity, including no body weight loss (p > 0.05). Mantel-Cox statistical tests revealed that there were significant tumor growth delays (p < 0.05) and survival advantages (p < 0.05). Conclusions: These promising findings might have great therapeutic potential on the future clinical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma using aliargentumycine. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia M. Saraiva ◽  
Carlha Gutiérrez-Lovera ◽  
Jeannette Martínez-Val ◽  
Sainza Lores ◽  
Belén L. Bouzo ◽  
...  

AbstractTriple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is known for being very aggressive, heterogeneous and highly metastatic. The standard of care treatment is still chemotherapy, with adjacent toxicity and low efficacy, highlighting the need for alternative and more effective therapeutic strategies. Edelfosine, an alkyl-lysophospholipid, has proved to be a promising therapy for several cancer types, upon delivery in lipid nanoparticles. Therefore, the objective of this work was to explore the potential of edelfosine for the treatment of TNBC. Edelfosine nanoemulsions (ET-NEs) composed by edelfosine, Miglyol 812 and phosphatidylcholine as excipients, due to their good safety profile, presented an average size of about 120 nm and a neutral zeta potential, and were stable in biorelevant media. The ability of ET-NEs to interrupt tumor growth in TNBC was demonstrated both in vitro, using a highly aggressive and invasive TNBC cell line, and in vivo, using zebrafish embryos. Importantly, ET-NEs were able to penetrate through the skin barrier of MDA-MB 231 xenografted zebrafish embryos, into the yolk sac, leading to an effective decrease of highly aggressive and invasive tumoral cells’ proliferation. Altogether the results demonstrate the potential of ET-NEs for the development of new therapeutic approaches for TNBC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yarong Guo ◽  
Bao Chai ◽  
Junmei Jia ◽  
Mudan Yang ◽  
Yanjun Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Dysregulation of KLF7 participates in the development of various cancers, but it is unclear whether there is a link between HCC and aberrant expression of KLF7. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of KLF7 in proliferation and migration of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Methods CCK8, colony growth, transwell, cell cycle analysis and apoptosis detection were performed to explore the effect of KLF7, VPS35 and Ccdc85c on cell function in vitro. Xenografted tumor growth was used to assess in vivo role of KLF7. Chip-qPCR and luciferase reporter assays were applied to check whether KLF7 regulated VPS35 at transcriptional manner. Co-IP assay was performed to detect the interaction between VPS35 and Ccdc85c. Immunohistochemical staining and qRT-PCR analysis were performed in human HCC sampels to study the clinical significance of KLF7, VPS35 and β-catenin. Results Firstly, KLF7 was highly expressed in human HCC samples and correlated with patients’ differentiation and metastasis status. KLF7 overexpression contributed to cell proliferation and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. KLF7 transcriptional activation of VPS35 was necessary for HCC tumor growth and metastasis. Further, co-IP studies revealed that VPS35 could interact with Ccdc85c in HCC cells. Rescue assay confirmed that overexpression of VPS35 and knockdown of Ccdc85c abolished the VPS35-medicated promotion effect on cell proliferation and invasion. Finally, KLF7/VPS35 axis regulated Ccdc85c, which involved in activation of β-catenin signaling pathway, confirmed using β-catenin inhibitor, GK974. Functional studies suggested that downregulation of Ccdc85c partly reversed the capacity of cell proliferation and invasion in HCC cells, which was regulated by VPS35 upregulation. Lastly, there was a positive correlation among KLF7, VPS35 and active-β-catenin in human HCC patients. Conclusion We demonstrated that KLF7/VPS35 axis promoted HCC cell progression by activating Ccdc85c-medicated β-catenin pathway. Targeting this signal axis might be a potential treatment strategy for HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuli Li ◽  
Tinglei Huang ◽  
Yao Tang ◽  
Qingli Li ◽  
Jianzheng Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractUtidelone (UTD1), a novel microtubule stabilizing agent, is an epothilone B analogue which was produced by genetic engineering. UTD1 has exhibited broad antitumor activity in multiple solid tumors. However, its activity and mechanism in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain to be studied. In this study, UTD1 dramatically inhibited CRC cell proliferation (with 0.38 µg/ml, 0.77 µg/ml IC50 in RKO and HCT116, respectively) in vitro. Immunofluorescence staining showed that UTD1 induced the formation of microtubule bundling and asters in RKO cells. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that UTD1 induced cell cycle to arrest in G2/M phase, subsequent apoptosis. Significantly, UTD1 exhibited stronger effect on inducing apoptosis than paclitaxel and 5-FU, especially in HCT15 cells which is ABCB1 high-expression. UTD1 exposure cleaved caspase-3 and poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, released cytochrome c, increased the production of active oxygen and activated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), suggesting ROS/JNK pathway was involved in this process. Moreover, UTD1 inhibited tumor growth and was more effective and safer compared with paclitaxel and 5-FU in RKO xenograft in nude mice. Taken together, our findings first indicate that UDT1 inhibits tumor growth in CRC xenograft model and may be a promising agent for CRC treatment.


Author(s):  
Gege Shu ◽  
Huizhao Su ◽  
Zhiqian Wang ◽  
Shihui Lai ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has an extremely poor prognosis due to the development of chemoresistance, coupled with inherently increased stemness properties. Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are key regulators for tumor cell stemness and chemosensitivity. Currently the relevance between LINC00680 and tumor progression was still largely unknown, with only one study showing its significance in glioblastoma. The study herein was aimed at identifying the role of LINC00680 in the regulation HCC stemness and chemosensitivity. Methods QRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of LINC00680, miR-568 and AKT3 in tissue specimen and cell lines. Gain- or loss-of function assays were applied to access the function of LINC00680 in HCC cells, including cell proliferation and stemness properties. HCC stemness and chemosensitivity were determined by sphere formation, cell viability and colony formation. Luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), and RNA pull-down assays were performed to examine the interaction between LINC00680 and miR-568 as well as that between miR-568 and AKT3. A nude mouse xenograft model was established for the in vivo study. Results We found that LINC00680 was remarkably upregulated in HCC tissues. Patients with high level of LINC00680 had poorer prognosis. LINC00680 overexpression significantly enhanced HCC cell stemness and decreased in vitro and in vivo chemosensitivity to 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), whereas LINC00680 knockdown led to opposite results. Mechanism study revealed that LINC00680 regulated HCC stemness and chemosensitivity through sponging miR-568, thereby expediting the expression of AKT3, which further activated its downstream signaling molecules, including mTOR, elF4EBP1, and p70S6K. Conclusion LINC00680 promotes HCC stemness properties and decreases chemosensitivity through sponging miR-568 to activate AKT3, suggesting that LINC00680 might be a potentially important HCC diagnosis marker and therapeutic target.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Chen ◽  
Xiao-Wei Zhou ◽  
Ai-Jun Zhang ◽  
Kang He

Abstract Background: Alpha actinins (ACTNs) are major cytoskeletal proteins and exhibit many non-muscle functions. Emerging evidence have uncovered the regulatory role of ACTNs in tumorigenesis, however, the expression pattern, biological functions, and underlying mechanism of ACTN1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unexplored.Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis of a HCC tissue microarray (n = 157) was performed to determine the expression pattern and prognostic value of ACTN1 in HCC. In vitro loss-of-function study in HCC cells were carried out to investigate ACTN1 knockdown on cell proliferation. In vivo subcutaneous xenograft model and intrahepatic transplantation model were generated to decipher the contribution of ACTN1 in the tumor growth of HCC. Gene set enrichment analysis, quantitative real-time PCR, Co-immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence and western blotting were performed to identify the underlying molecular mechanism.Results: It was found that ACTN1 was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and closely related to llpha-fetoprotein level, tumor thrombus, tumor size, TNM stage and patient prognoses. Knockdown of ACTN1 suppressed in vitro cell proliferation and in vivo tumor growth of HCC cells. Mechanistically, knockdown of ACTN1 increased Hippo signaling pathway activity and decrease Rho GTPases activities. Mechanistically, ACTN1 could competitively interact with MOB1 and decrease the phosphorylation of LATS1 and YAP. The growth-promoting effect induced by ACTN1 was significantly abrogated by pharmacological inhibition of YAP with verteporfin or super-TDU.Conclusions: ACTN1 is highly expressed in HCC tissues and acts as a tumor promoter by suppressing Hippo signaling via physical interaction with MOB1. ACTN1 may serve as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC.


Author(s):  
Xiong Shu ◽  
Pan-Pan Zhan ◽  
Li-Xin Sun ◽  
Long Yu ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
...  

BackgroundFocusing on antiangiogenesis may provide promising choices for treatment of gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to investigate the mechanistic role of BCAT1 in the pathogenesis of GC, particularly in angiogenesis.MethodsBioinformatics and clinical samples analysis were used to investigate the expression and potential mechanism of BCAT1 in GC. BGC823 cells with BCAT1 overexpression or silencing were induced by lentiviral transduction. Cell phenotypes and angiogenesis were evaluated. The relevant proteins were quantized by Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, or immunofluorescence. Xenograft models were constructed to confirm the role of BCAT1 in vivo.ResultsBCAT1 was overexpressed in GC patients and associated with lower survival. BCAT1 expression was correlated with proliferation-, invasion-, or angiogenesis-related markers expression and pathways. Silencing BCAT1 expression suppressed cell viability, colony formation, cycle progression, invasion, and angiogenesis of BGC823 cells, as well as the tumor growth of xenograft models, whereas overexpressing BCAT1 had the opposite results both in vitro and in vivo. Bioinformatics analysis and Western blotting demonstrated that BCAT1 activated the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. The addition of LY294002 reversed the tumor growth induced by BCAT1 overexpression, further verifying this mechanism.ConclusionBCAT1 might act as an oncogene by facilitating proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis through activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. This finding could aid the optimization of antiangiogenesis strategies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
Guoxiang Lin ◽  
Kaihua Chen ◽  
Fangzhu Wan ◽  
Yongchu Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important pro-angiogenic factor. VEGF was reported to promote the occurrence of autophagy, which enhanced to the radioresistance of tumors. The purpose of our study was to investigate the influence of VEGF silencing on the radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma radioresistant cell line CNE-2R and the underlying mechanisms.Methods: The radiosensitivity of CNE-2R cells after silencing VEGF was detected by cell counting kit 8 (CCK-8) and clonogenic assay, cell cycle and apoptosis was subjected to flow cytometry. DNA damage and autophagy were observed by immunofluorescence and western blotting. The interaction between VEGF and mTOR was confirmed by western blotting and co-immunoprecipitation analysis. In vivo, the effect of VEGF on radiosensitivity of NPC cells was investigated through xenograft model, furthermore, immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay were used to further verify the relationship between autophagy and radiosensitivity in NPC after VEGF depletion.Results: Downregulation of VEGF significantly inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis of CNE-2R cells after radiotherapy in vitro and in vivo. In addition, VEGF knockdown not only decreased autophagy level, but also delayed the DNA damage repair in CNE-2R cells after irradiation. Mechanistically, silencing VEGF suppressed autophagy through the activation of mTOR pathway.Conclusion: VEGF depletion increased radiosensitivity of NPC radioresistant cell CNE-2R by suppressing autophagy via the activation of mTOR pathway.


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