Augmentation of danusertib's anticancer activity against melanoma by blockage of autophagy

Repurposed Drugs in Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the major causes of death worldwide, ranking as the fifth most incident cancer in 2020 and the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality. The majority of GC patients are in an advanced stage at the time of diagnosis, presenting a poor prognosis and outcome. Current GC treatment approaches involve endoscopic detection, gastrectomy and chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy in an adjuvant or neoadjuvant setting. Drug development approaches demand extreme effort to identify molecular mechanisms of action of new drug candidates. Drug repurposing is based on the research of new therapeutic indications of drugs approved for other pathologies. In this review, we explore GC and the different drugs repurposed for this disease.

The new horizon of biomarker in melanoma patients: A study based on autophagy-related long non-coding RNA

Autophagy-related long non-coding RNAs (arlncRNAs) play a crucial role in the pathogenesis and development of the tumor. However, there is a lack of systematic analysis of arlncRNAs in melanoma patients.Melanoma data for analysis were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. By establishing a co-expression network of autophagy-related mRNAs-lncRNAs, we identified arlncRNAs in melanoma patients. We evaluated the prognostic value of arlncRNAs by univariate and multivariate Cox analysis and constructed an arlncRNAs risk model. Patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups based on the arlncRNAs risk score. This model was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier (K-M) analysis, univariate-multivariate Cox regression analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Characteristics of autophagy genes and co-expressive tendency were analyzed by principal component analysis and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) functional annotation.Nine arlncRNAs (USP30-AS1, LINC00665, PCED1B-AS1, LINC00324, LINC01871, ZEB1-AS1, LINC01527, AC018553.1, and HLA-DQB1-AS1) were identified to be related to the prognosis of melanoma patients. Otherwise, the 9 arlncRNAs constituted an arlncRNAs prognostic risk model. K-M analysis and ROC curve analysis showed that the arlncRNAs risk model has good discrimination. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that arlncRNAs risk model was an independent prognostic factor in melanoma patients. Principal component analysis and GSEA functional annotation showed different autophagy and carcinogenic status in the high- and low-risk groups.This novel arlncRNAs risk model plays an essential role in predicting of the prognosis of melanoma patients. The model reveals new prognosis-related biomarkers for autophagy, promotes precision medicine, and provides a lurking target for melanoma's autophagy-related treatment.

Aurora Kinase B Inhibition: A Potential Therapeutic Strategy for Cancer

Aurora kinase B (AURKB) is a mitotic serine/threonine protein kinase that belongs to the aurora kinase family along with aurora kinase A (AURKA) and aurora kinase C (AURKC). AURKB is a member of the chromosomal passenger protein complex and plays a role in cell cycle progression. Deregulation of AURKB is observed in several tumors and its overexpression is frequently linked to tumor cell invasion, metastasis and drug resistance. AURKB has emerged as an attractive drug target leading to the development of small molecule inhibitors. This review summarizes recent findings pertaining to the role of AURKB in tumor development, therapy related drug resistance, and its inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for cancer. We discuss AURKB inhibitors that are in preclinical and clinical development and combination studies of AURKB inhibition with other therapeutic strategies.

Gelatine nanostructured lipid carrier encapsulated FGF15 inhibits autophagy and improves recovery in spinal cord injury

Gelatine nanostructured lipid carriers (GNLs) have attracted increasing attention due to their biodegradable status and capacity to capture various biologically active compounds. Many studies demonstrated that fibroblast growth factor therapies after spinal cord injury (SCI) can be used in the future for the recovery of neurons. In this study, the therapeutic effects of GNL-encapsulated fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15) and FGF15 were compared in SCI. The FGF15-GNLs had 88.17 ± 1.22% encapsulation efficiency and 4.82 ± 0.12% loading capacity. The effects of FGF15-GNLs and FGF15 were assessed based on the Basso–Beattie–Bresnahan (BBB) locomotion scale, inclined plane test and footprint analysis. Immunofluorescent staining was used to identify the expression of autophagy-associated proteins, GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) and neurofilament 200 (NF200). FGF15-GNLs use enhanced the repair after SCI compared to the effect of FGF15. The suppression of autophagy-associated proteins LC3-II and beclin-1, and p62 enhancement by FGF15-GNLs treatment were more pronounced. Thus, the effects of FGF15-GNLs on the recovery after SCI are related to the inhibition of autophagy and glial scar, and promotion of nerve regeneration in SCI.