Salinomycin and dichloroacetate synergistically inhibit Lewis lung carcinoma cell proliferation, tumor growth and metastasis

Dichloroacetate and Salinomycin as Therapeutic Agents in Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality worldwide. Despite the available treatment options, a majority of cancer patients develop drug resistance, indicating the need for alternative approaches. Repurposed drugs, such as antiglycolytic and anti-microbial agents, have gained substantial attention as potential alternative strategies against different disease pathophysiologies, including lung cancer. To that end, multiple studies have suggested that the antiglycolytic dichloroacetate (DCA) and the antibiotic salinomycin (SAL) possess promising anticarcinogenic activity, attributed to their abilities to target the key metabolic enzymes, ion transport, and oncogenic signaling pathways involved in regulating cancer cell behavior, including cell survival and proliferation. We used the following searches and selection criteria. (1) Biosis and PubMed were used with the search terms dichloroacetate; salinomycin; dichloroacetate as an anticancer agent; salinomycin as an anticancer agent; dichloroacetate side effects; salinomycin side effects; salinomycin combination therapy; dichloroacetate combination therapy; and dichloroacetate or salinomycin in combination with other agents, including chemotherapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. (2) The exclusion criteria included not being related to the mechanisms of DCA and SAL or not focusing on their anticancer properties. (3) All the literature was sourced from peer-reviewed journals within a timeframe of 1989 to 2024. Importantly, experimental studies have demonstrated that both DCA and SAL exert promising anticarcinogenic properties, as well as having synergistic effects in combination with other therapeutic agents, against multiple cancer models. The goal of this review is to highlight the mechanistic workings and efficacy of DCA and SAL as monotherapies, and their combination with other therapeutic agents in various cancer models, with a major emphasis on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment.

Nonthermal plasma boosted dichloroacetate induces metabolic shifts to combat glioblastoma CSCs via oxidative stress

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains a formidable clinical challenge, with cancer stem cells (CSCs) contributing to treatment resistance and tumor recurrence. Conventional treatments often fail to eradicate these CSCs characterized by enhanced resistance to standard therapies through metabolic plasticity making them key targets for novel treatment approaches. Addressing this challenge, this study introduces a novel combination therapy of dichloroacetate (DCA), a metabolic modulator and nonthermal plasma to induce oxidative stress in glioblastomas. Our results demonstrate that DCA and nonthermal plasma (NTP) synergistically increase ROS production, resulting in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and mitochondrial reprogramming, key factors in the initiation of programmed cell death. Furthermore, the combination downregulated key stemness markers indicating effective CSCs suppression. Upregulation of pro-apoptotic proteins and downregulation of anti-apoptotic factors highlight the induction of apoptosis in glioma stem cells. This study provides compelling evidence that the combination of DCA and NTP offers a novel and effective strategy for targeting glioma CSCs by inducing oxidative and metabolic stress, underscoring potential therapeutic advancements in glioblastoma treatment.

Unlocking the Gateway: The Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of the p53 Family Driven by the Nuclear Pores and Its Implication for the Therapeutic Approach in Cancer

The p53 family remains a captivating focus of an extensive number of current studies. Accumulating evidence indicates that p53 abnormalities rank among the most prevalent in cancer. Given the numerous existing studies, which mostly focus on the mutations, expression profiles, and functional perturbations exhibited by members of the p53 family across diverse malignancies, this review will concentrate more on less explored facets regarding p53 activation and stabilization by the nuclear pore complex (NPC) in cancer, drawing on several studies. p53 integrates a broad spectrum of signals and is subject to diverse regulatory mechanisms to enact the necessary cellular response. It is widely acknowledged that each stage of p53 regulation, from synthesis to degradation, significantly influences its functionality in executing specific tasks. Over recent decades, a large body of data has established that mechanisms of regulation, closely linked with protein activation and stabilization, involve intricate interactions with various cellular components. These often transcend canonical regulatory pathways. This new knowledge has expanded from the regulation of genes themselves to epigenomics and proteomics, whereby interaction partners increase in number and complexity compared with earlier paradigms. Specifically, studies have recently shown the involvement of the NPC protein in such complex interactions, underscoring the further complexity of p53 regulation. Furthermore, we also discuss therapeutic strategies based on recent developments in this field in combination with established targeted therapies.

Targeting Telomerase Enhances Cytotoxicity of Salinomycin in Cancer Cells

Salinomycin exhibits significant systemic adverse reactions such as tachycardia and myoglobinuria in mammals, which hinders its application as a drug for human cancers. Although many strategies aimed at increasing salinomycin's toxicity to cancer cells have been identified to allow a lower dose of salinomycin to be used, they often cause normal cell damage by themselves. Thus, it is urgent to find more effective methods to increase salinomycin's toxicity to cancer cells with little influences on normal cells. Telomerase, which is expressed highly in most cancer cells rather than normal somatic cells, plays central roles in cancer cell fate regulation. Targeting telomerase represents a potential method for enhancing salinomycin's cytotoxicity to cancer cells with little effects on normal cells. Herein, we improve the toxicity of salinomycin against cancer cells by telomerase inhibition BIBR1532 (BIBR), which binds to the active site of telomerase reverse transcriptase. We find that a non-toxic dose of BIBR can enhance cytotoxicity of salinomycin in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, BIBR enhances mammosphere formation inhibition mediated by salinomycin in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Further studies show that BIBR enhances tumor growth inhibition induced by salinomycin in vivo. To our knowledge, this is the first example that targeting telomerase improves anti-cancer effects of salinomycin.

Non-destructive monitoring of 3D cell cultures: new technologies and applications

3D cell cultures are becoming the new standard for cell-based in vitro research, due to their higher transferrability toward in vivo biology. The lack of established techniques for the non-destructive quantification of relevant variables, however, constitutes a major barrier to the adoption of these technologies, as it increases the resources needed for the experimentation and reduces its accuracy. In this review, we aim at addressing this limitation by providing an overview of different non-destructive approaches for the evaluation of biological features commonly quantified in a number of studies and applications. In this regard, we will cover cell viability, gene expression, population distribution, cell morphology and interactions between the cells and the environment. This analysis is expected to promote the use of the showcased technologies, together with the further development of these and other monitoring methods for 3D cell cultures. Overall, an extensive technology shift is required, in order for monolayer cultures to be superseded, but the potential benefit derived from an increased accuracy of in vitro studies, justifies the effort and the investment.

Dichloroacetate attenuates the stemness of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via promoting nucleus-cytoplasm translocation of YAP

The antitumor effects of dichloroacetate (DCA) have been widely explored, however, its roles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression are still unclear. In the current work, we found that DCA had little effects on HCC cell viability, but could attenuate the stemness of HCC cells, which is evident by decreasing the tumor sphere-formation ability, ALDH activity and the expression of stemness critical regulators. Mechanistic studies based on RNA-sequencing data showed that DCA activated the Hippo pathway. Furthermore, we indicated that DCA promoted the nucleus-cytoplasm translocation of YAP, but not TAZ, another critical executor of Hippo pathway. Moreover, suppressing of Hippo pathway using XMU-MP-1, an inhibitor of Hippo pathway, partially abrogated DCA-induced inhibitory effects on HCC cell stemness. This work suggests that DCA might be a potential inhibitor for HCC progression.

Dichloroacetate attenuates the stemness of colorectal cancer cells via trigerring ferroptosis through sequestering iron in lysosomes

Colorectal cancer stem cell (CSC) has been regarded to be the root of colorectal cancer progression. However, there is still no effective therapeutic method targeting colorectal CSC in clinical application. Here, we investigated the effects of dichloroacetate (DCA) on colorectal cancer cell stemness. We showed that DCA could reduce colorectal cancer cell stemness in a dose-dependent manner, which is evident by the decreased expression of stemness markers, tumor cell sphere-formation and cell migration ability. In addition, it was found that DCA trigerred the ferroptosis of colorectal CSC, which is characterized as the upregulation of iron concentration, lipid peroxides, and glutathione level, and decreased cell viability. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that DCA could sequester iron in lysosome and thus trigger ferroptosis, which is necessary for DCA-mediated attenuation on colorectal cancer cell stemness. Taken together, this work suggests that DCA might be a colorectal CSC-killer.

Cancer cell metabolism: Rewiring the mitochondrial hub

To adapt to tumoral environment conditions or even to escape chemotherapy, cells rapidly reprogram their metabolism to handle adversities and survive. Given the rapid rise of studies uncovering novel insights and therapeutic opportunities based on the role of mitochondria in tumor metabolic programing and therapeutics, this review summarizes most significant developments in the field. Taking in mind the key role of mitochondria on carcinogenesis and tumor progression due to their involvement on tumor plasticity, metabolic remodeling, and signaling re-wiring, those organelles are also potential therapeutic targets. Among other topics, we address the recent data intersecting mitochondria as of prognostic value and staging in cancer, by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) determination, and current inhibitors developments targeting mtDNA, OXPHOS machinery and metabolic pathways. We contribute for a holistic view of the role of mitochondria metabolism and directed therapeutics to understand tumor metabolism, to circumvent therapy resistance, and to control tumor development.

Targeting EMT in Cancer with Repurposed Metabolic Inhibitors

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) determines the most lethal features of cancer, metastasis formation and chemoresistance, and therefore represents an attractive target in oncology. However, direct targeting of EMT effector molecules is, in most cases, pharmacologically challenging. Since emerging research has highlighted the distinct metabolic circuits involved in EMT, we propose the use of metabolism-specific inhibitors, FDA approved or under clinical trials, as a drug repurposing approach to target EMT in cancer. Metabolism-inhibiting drugs could be coupled with standard chemo- or immunotherapy to combat EMT-driven resistant and aggressive cancers.