scholarly journals Cardiac Glycoside Ouabain Exerts Anticancer Activity via Downregulation of STAT3

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Du ◽  
Lijun Jiang ◽  
Fuqiang Chen ◽  
Huantao Hu ◽  
Meijuan Zhou

Cardiac glycosides are plant-derived steroid-like compounds which have been used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Ouabain, a cardiotonic steroid and specific Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitor, has been rediscovered for its potential use in the treatment of cancer. However, the cellular targets and anticancer mechanism of ouabain in various cancers remain largely unexplored. In this study, we confirmed the cytotoxic effects of ouabain on several cancer cell lines. Further examination revealed the increase of apoptosis, intracellular ROS generation and DNA double-strand breaks induced by ouabain treatment. Besides, ouabain effectively suppressed STAT3 expression as well as phosphorylation in addition to block STAT3-mediated transcription and downstream target proteins. Interestingly, these inhibitory activities seemed to be independent of the Na+/K+-ATPase. Furthermore, we found that ouabain inhibited protein synthesis through regulation of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) and eIF4E binding protein 1 (4EBP1). Taken together, our study provided a novel molecular insight of anticancer activities of ouabain in human cancer cells, which could raise the hope of using cardiac glycosides for cancer therapeutics more rational.

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 433
Author(s):  
Bijesh George ◽  
P. Mukundan Pillai ◽  
Aswathy Mary Paul ◽  
Revikumar Amjesh ◽  
Kim Leitzel ◽  
...  

To define the growing significance of cellular targets and/or effectors of cancer drugs, we examined the fitness dependency of cellular targets and effectors of cancer drug targets across human cancer cells from 19 cancer types. We observed that the deletion of 35 out of 47 cellular effectors and/or targets of oncology drugs did not result in the expected loss of cell fitness in appropriate cancer types for which drugs targeting or utilizing these molecules for their actions were approved. Additionally, our analysis recognized 43 cellular molecules as fitness genes in several cancer types in which these drugs were not approved, and thus, providing clues for repurposing certain approved oncology drugs in such cancer types. For example, we found a widespread upregulation and fitness dependency of several components of the mevalonate and purine biosynthesis pathways (currently targeted by bisphosphonates, statins, and pemetrexed in certain cancers) and an association between the overexpression of these molecules and reduction in the overall survival duration of patients with breast and other hard-to-treat cancers, for which such drugs are not approved. In brief, the present analysis raised cautions about off-target and undesirable effects of certain oncology drugs in a subset of cancers where the intended cellular effectors of drug might not be good fitness genes and that this study offers a potential rationale for repurposing certain approved oncology drugs for targeted therapeutics in additional cancer types.


2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuyan Zhang ◽  
Dongli Li ◽  
Yue Liu ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Changyuan Zhang ◽  
...  

Three curcumin analogs(S1-S3) containing sulfone were investigated for their effects on human prostate cancer PC-3, colon cancer HT-29, lung cancer H1299 and pancreatic cancer BxPC-3 cells. The three compounds were approximately 16-to 96-fold more active than curcumin in these cell lines as determined by the MTT assay. The effects of these compounds on cell growth were further studied in prostate cancer PC-3 cells in both two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) cultures. S1-S3strongly inhibited the growth and induced cell death in PC-3 cells, and the effects of these compounds were associated with suppression of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-?B) transcriptional activity. Moreover, treatment of PC-3 cells with all three compounds caused a decrease in the level of phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (p-STAT3) (Tyr705),but not p-STAT3(Ser727). Only S1and S2decreased the presence of phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) in PC-3 cells. These curcumin analogs warrant further in vivo studies for anticancer activities in suitable animal models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Wasitta Rachakhom ◽  
Ratana Banjerdpongchai

Calomelanone, 2 ′ ,6 ′ -dihydroxy-4,4 ′ -dimethoxydihydrochalcone, possesses anticancer activities. This study was conducted to investigate the cytotoxic effect of calomelanone, a dihydrochalcone analogue, on human cancer cells and its associated mechanisms. The cytotoxic effect of calomelanone was measured by MTT assay. Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide and DiOC6 staining that employed flow cytometry were used to determine the mode of cell death and reduction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP), respectively. Caspase activities were measured using specific substrates and colorimetric analysis. The expression levels of Bcl-2 family proteins were determined by immunoblotting. Reactive oxygen species were also measured using 2 ′ ,7 ′ -dihydrodichlorofluorescein diacetate and dihydroethidium (fluorescence dyes). Calomelanone was found to be toxic towards various human cancer cells, including acute promyelocytic HL-60 and monocytic leukemic U937 cells, in a dose-dependent manner at 24 h and human hepatocellular HepG2 cells at 48 h. However, the proliferation of HepG2 cells increased at 24 h. Calomelanone was found to induce apoptosis in HL-60 and U937 at 24 h and HepG2 apoptosis at 48 h via the intrinsic pathway by inducing MTP disruption. This compound also induced caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 activities. Calomelanone upregulated proapoptotic Bax and Bak and downregulated antiapoptotic Bcl-xL proteins in HepG2 cells. Moreover, signaling was also associated with oxidative stress in HepG2 cells. Calomelanone induced autophagy at 24 h of treatment, which was evidenced by staining with monodansylcadaverine (MDC) to represent autophagic flux. This was associated with a decrease of Akt (survival pathway) and an upregulation of Atg5 (the marker of autophagy). Thus, calomelanone induced apoptosis/regulated cell death in HL-60, U937, and HepG2 cells. However, it also induced autophagy in HepG2 depending on duration, dose, and type of cells. Thus, calomelanone could be used as a potential anticancer agent for cancer treatment. Nevertheless, acute and chronic toxicity should be further investigated in animals before conducting investigations in human patients.


Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Iván González-Chavarría ◽  
Felix Duprat ◽  
Francisco J. Roa ◽  
Nery Jara ◽  
Jorge R. Toledo ◽  
...  

Maytenus disticha (Hook F.), belonging to the Celastraceae family, is an evergreen shrub, native of the central southern mountains of Chile. Previous studies demonstrated that the total extract of M. disticha (MD) has an acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity along with growth regulatory and insecticidal activities. β-Dihydroagarofurans sesquiterpenes are the most active components in the plant. However, its activity in cancer has not been analyzed yet. Here, we demonstrate that MD has a cytotoxic activity on breast (MCF-7), lung (PC9), and prostate (C4-2B) human cancer cells with an IC50 (µg/mL) of 40, 4.7, and 5 µg/mL, respectively, an increasing Bax/Bcl2 ratio, and inducing a mitochondrial membrane depolarization. The β-dihydroagarofuran-type sesquiterpene (MD-6), dihydromyricetin (MD-9), and dihydromyricetin-3-O-β-glucoside (MD-10) were isolated as the major compounds from MD extracts. From these compounds, only MD-6 showed cytotoxic activity on MCF-7, PC9, and C4-2B with an IC50 of 31.02, 17.58, and 42.19 µM, respectively. Furthermore, the MD-6 increases cell ROS generation, and MD and MD-6 induce a mitochondrial superoxide generation and apoptosis on MCF-7, PC9, and C4-2B, which suggests that the cytotoxic effect of MD is mediated in part by the β-dihydroagarofuran-type that induces apoptosis by a mitochondrial dysfunction.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijesh George ◽  
P. Mukundan Pillai ◽  
Aswathy Mary Paul ◽  
Kim Leitzel ◽  
Suhail M. Ali ◽  
...  

AbstractTo define the growing significance of cellular targets of targeted cancer drugs, we examined the fitness dependency of cancer drug targets across human cancer cells in a CRISPR-Cas9 fitness screening dataset wherein cellular genes were selectively knocked out before assaying for their fitness dependency in cancer cell lines representing 19 cancer types. We observed that the deletion of 35 out of 47 fitness targets of oncology drugs did not result in the expected loss of cell fitness in appropriate cancer types for which drugs targeting these molecules were approved. This raised the possibility of undesirable off-target effects of these drugs in such cancers. Additionally, our analysis recognized 43 drug targets which were fitness genes observed in several cancer types as candidate targets for repurposing approved oncology drugs in cancer types in which these drugs were not approved. For example, we found the widespread upregulation and fitness dependency of the components of the mevalonate and purine biosynthesis pathways (currently targeted by bisphosphonates, statins, and pemetrexed in certain cancers) and an association between the overexpression of these targets and reduction in the overall survival duration of patients with breast and other hard-to-treat cancers, for which these drugs are not approved. In brief, the present analysis raised cautions about off-target and undesirable effects of certain oncology drugs in a subset of cancers where the intended drug targets are not fitness genes. The study also offers a rationale for repurposing approved oncology drugs for cancer types that have significant fitness dependency on cellular targets of such approved drugs.


Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko Kozuka-Hata ◽  
Aya Kitamura ◽  
Tomoko Hiroki ◽  
Aiko Aizawa ◽  
Kouhei Tsumoto ◽  
...  

Post-translational modifications are known to be widely involved in the regulation of various biological processes, through the extensive diversification of each protein function at the cellular network level. In order to unveil the system-wide function of the protein lysine modification in cancer cell signaling, we performed global acetylation and ubiquitination proteome analyses of human cancer cells, based on high-resolution nanoflow liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, in combination with the efficient biochemical enrichment of target modified peptides. Our large-scale proteomic analysis enabled us to identify more than 5000 kinds of ubiquitinated sites and 1600 kinds of acetylated sites, from representative human cancer cell lines, leading to the identification of approximately 900 novel lysine modification sites in total. Very interestingly, 236 lysine residues derived from 141 proteins were found to be modified with both ubiquitination and acetylation. As a consequence of the subsequent motif extraction analyses, glutamic acid (E) was found to be highly enriched at the position (−1) for the lysine acetylation sites, whereas the same amino acid was relatively dispersed along the neighboring residues of the lysine ubiquitination sites. Our pathway analysis also indicated that the protein translational control pathways, such as the eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (EIF2) and the ubiquitin signaling pathways, were highly enriched in both of the acetylation and ubiquitination proteome data at the network level. This report provides the first integrative description of the protein acetylation and ubiquitination-oriented systematic regulation in human cancer cells.


2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsutoshi Sato ◽  
Masaharu Nishikino ◽  
Tetsuya Kawachi ◽  
Takashi Shimokawa ◽  
Takashi Imai ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 946-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaik I. Khalivulla ◽  
Arifullah Mohammed ◽  
Kuttulebbai N.S. Sirajudeen ◽  
Mannur I. Shaik ◽  
Weibing Ye ◽  
...  

Background: Typhonium is the largest genus in the Araceae family (~70 species), distributed in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia. Typhonium is well-known for its ethnopharmacological uses, and Southeast Asians consider it as an alternative medicine to treat cancer. This review elucidated the confirmed chemical structures of the isolated compounds of Typhonium and emphasized on their anticancer activities against various human cancer cells. Methods: Among several species, Typhonium blumei, T. flagelliforme, T. divaricatum and T. giganteum were extensively studied due to the presence of a class of secondary metabolites. All the available reports on Typhonium were included and discussed in this article. Results: Until now several groups of compounds, namely amino acids (1, 2), cinnamic acid (3), fatty acids (4-14), glycerol derivatives (15-18) and cerebrosides (19-34), flavonoids (35), hydantoins (36-38), lignin monomers (39-44), nucleobases (45-48), pheophorbides (49-52), phthalate (53), terpene and steroids (54-59) and vitamins (60, 61) were isolated and characterized from Typhonium. These phytochemicals were investigated for their anticancer properties, and results confirmed the promising growth inhibitory effect and anticancer activities against human lung, breast, prostate and colon cancer cells. The anticancer activity of these compounds appears to be mediated through the induction of apoptotic cell death. These phytochemicals further reported to exhibit other pharmacological efficacies, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-allergic, neuroprotective and hepato-protective properties. Conclusion: This is the first review to summarize the anticancer properties of all isolated compounds of Typhonium genus with confirmed chemical structures. Further advanced studies are necessary to establish the detailed signaling pathways that are involved in the anticancer property of the compounds.


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