miRNA Combinatorics and its Role in Cell State Control—A Probabilistic Approach

A hallmark of cancer evolution is that the tumor may change its cell identity and improve its survival and fitness. Drastic change in microRNA (miRNA) composition and quantities accompany such dynamic processes. Cancer samples are composed of cells’ mixtures of varying stages of cancerous progress. Therefore, cell-specific molecular profiling represents cellular averaging. In this study, we consider the degree to which altering miRNAs composition shifts cell behavior. We used COMICS, an iterative framework that simulates the stochastic events of miRNA-mRNA pairing, using a probabilistic approach. COMICS simulates the likelihood that cells change their transcriptome following many iterations (100 k). Results of COMICS from the human cell line (HeLa) confirmed that most genes are resistant to miRNA regulation. However, COMICS results suggest that the composition of the abundant miRNAs dictates the nature of the cells (across three cell lines) regardless of its actual mRNA steady-state. In silico perturbations of cell lines (i.e., by overexpressing miRNAs) allowed to classify genes according to their sensitivity and resilience to any combination of miRNA perturbations. Our results expose an overlooked quantitative dimension for a set of genes and miRNA regulation in living cells. The immediate implication is that even relatively modest overexpression of specific miRNAs may shift cell identity and impact cancer evolution.

The effect of Chaihu-shugan-san on cytotoxicity induction and PDGF gene expression in cervical cancer cell line HeLa in the presence of paclitaxel +cisplatin

Chaihu-shugan-san, as a traditional Chinese herbal formula, is composed of seven different herbs. This medicine can treat cancer due to its antioxidant compounds. In this study, the effect of Chaihu-shugan-san was considered on cytotoxicity induction and PDGF gene expression in cervical cancer cell line HeLa at different concentrations and at different times, by the MTT method. Paclitaxel + cisplatin were used as a control in this study. The expression of the PDGF gene was quantitatively evaluated in treated cells by real-time PCR, and a generalized linear model was used to evaluate the effect of the medicine, and Duncan's multiple range tests were used to evaluate the data. The results of the MTT test showed that Chaihu-shugan-san had antitumor properties in different concentrations, but there was a significant difference between this medicine and paclitaxel +cisplatin. Also, examination of gene expression showed that this medicine reduced the expression of the PDGF gene in the HeLa cancer cell line (P ? 0.04). Therefore, Chaihu-shugan-san could be suggested as an effective factor in preventing the growth of cervical cancer cells and controlling angiogenic factors that play an important role in the metastasis of cancerous tumors.

The Extensive and Expensive Impacts of HEp-2 [HeLa], Intestine 407 [HeLa], and Other False Cell Lines in Journal Publications

Cell lines are essential models for biomedical research. However, they have a common and important problem that needs to be addressed. Cell lines can be misidentified, meaning that they no longer correspond to the donor from whom the cells were first obtained. This problem may arise due to cross-contamination: the accidental introduction of cells from another culture. The contaminant, which is often a rapidly dividing cell line, will overgrow and replace the original culture. The end result is a false cell line, also known as a misidentified or imposter cell line. False cell lines may come from an entirely different species, tissue, or cell type than the original donor. If undetected, false cell lines produce unreliable and irreproducible results that pollute the biomedical literature and threaten the development of reliable drug discovery and meaningful patient treatments. The goal of this study was to ascertain how widespread this problem is and how it affects the literature, as well as to estimate how much funding has been used to produce pools of scientific literature of questionable value. We focus on HEp-2 [HeLa] and Intestine 407 [HeLa], two false cell lines that are widely used in the scientific literature but were shown to be cross-contaminated in 1967. These two cell lines have been used in 8497 and 1397 published articles and extensively described as laryngeal cancer and normal intestine, respectively, rather than their true identity: the cervical cancer cell line HeLa. Discussed are tools, approaches, and resources that can address this issue—both retrospectively and prospectively.

D-A systems based on oxazolone-coumarin triazoles as solid-state emitters and inhibitors of human cervical cancer cells (HeLa)

A collection of solid-state emitters based on Oxazolone-Coumarin Triazoles with the potential to induce apoptosis in human cervical cancer cell line HeLa is reported. These new classes of fluorescent inhibitors...

Chromene–triazole-pyrimidine based chemosensor therapeutics for the in vivo and in vitro detection of Fe3+ ions

MCR and click synthesis of selective and sensitive Fe3+ sensors that can interact with CDK2 proteins and cytotoxicity against the human cervical cancer cell line HeLa is developed.