Control the intracellular NF-κB activity by a sensor consisting of miRNA and decoy

Retraction

Zhao Y, Liu C, Zhang X, Yan X. Angelica polysaccharide alleviates TNF-α-induced MIN6 cell damage a through the up-regulation microRNA-143. BioFactors. 2022;49:200. https://doi.org/10.1002/biof.1588 This article, published online on 20 November 2019 in Wiley Online Library, has been retracted by agreement between the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Editor in Chief (Dr. Angelo Azzi), and Wiley Periodicals LLC. The retraction has been agreed following an investigation based on allegations raised by a third party. Evidence for image manipulation was found in figures 1, 2, 4, and 5. As a result, the conclusions of this article are considered to be invalid.

Ferroptosis assassinates tumor

In 2020, nearly 20 million peoples got cancer and nearly 10 million peoples died of cancer, indicating the cancer remains a great threat to human health and life. New therapies are still in urgent demand. We here develop a novel cancer therapy named Ferroptosis ASsassinates Tumor (FAST) by combining iron oxide nanoparticles with cancer-selective knockdown of seven key ferroptosis-resistant genes (FPN, LCN2, FTH1, FSP1, GPX4, SLC7A11, NRF2). We found that FAST had notable anti-tumor activity in a variety of cancer cells but little effect on normal cells. Especially, FAST eradicated three different types of tumors (leukemia, colon cancer, and lung metastatic melanoma) from over 50% of cancer mice, making the mice survive up to 250 days without tumor relapse. FAST also significantly inhibited and prevented the growth of spontaneous breast cancer and improved survival in mice. FAST showed high pan anti-tumor efficacy, high cancer specificity, and in vivo safety. FAST defines a new form of advanced nanomaterials, advanced combinatorial nanomaterials, by combining two kinds of nanomaterials, a chemical nanomaterial (iron oxide nanoparticles) and a biochemical nanomaterial (adeno-associated virus), which successfully turns a general iron nanomaterial into an unprecedented assassin to cancer.

Nanotechnology-integrated ferroptosis inducers: a sharp sword against tumor drug resistance

Presently, the biggest hurdle to cancer therapy is the inevitable emergence of drug resistance. Since conventional therapeutic schedules fall short of the expectations in curbing drug resistance, the development of novel drug resistance management strategies is critical. Extensive research over the last decade has revealed that the process of ferroptosis is correlated with cancer resistance; moreover, it has been demonstrated that ferroptosis inducers reverse drug resistance. To elucidate the development and promote the clinical transformation of ferroptosis strategies in cancer therapy, we first analyzed the roles of key ferroptosis-regulating molecules in the progression of drug resistance in-depth and then reviewed the design of ferroptosis-inducing strategies based on nanotechnology for overcoming drug resistance, including glutathione depletion, reactive oxygen species generation, iron donation, lipid peroxidation aggregation, and multiple-drug resistance-associated tumor cell destruction. Finally, the prospects and challenges of regulating ferroptosis as a therapeutic strategy for reversing cancer therapy resistance were evaluated. This review aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding for researchers to develop ferroptosis-inducing nanoplatforms that can overcome drug resistance.

Ferroptosis-based nano delivery systems targeted therapy for colorectal cancer: Insights and future perspectives

There are limited options for patients who develop liver metastasis from colorectal cancer (CRC), the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Emerging evidence has provided insights into iron deficiency and excess in CRC. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent form of programmed cell death characterized by aberrant iron and lipid metabolism, which play crucial roles in tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and treatment options. A better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism of ferroptosis has shed light on the current findings of ferroptosis-based nanodrug targeting strategies, such as driving ferroptosis in tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment, emerging combination therapy and against multidrug resistance. Furthermore, this review highlights the challenge and perspective of a ferroptosis-driven nanodrug delivery system for CRC-targeted therapy.

An AAV-Based NF-κB-Targeting Gene Therapy (rAAV-DMP-miR533) to Inflammatory Diseases

Background

The inflammatory diseases pose a great threat to human health. Variant anti-inflammatory agents have been therefore developed. However, the current anti-inflammatory drugs are still challenged by low response and side effects. There remain great unmet treatments to inflammatory diseases.

Methods

In this work, we fabricate a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV), rAAV-DMP-miR533, by packaging a DNA molecule DMP-miR533 into AAV, in which DMP is a NF-κB-activatable promoter composed of a NF-κB decoy and a minimal promoter and miR533 codes an artificial microRNA targeting NF-κB RELA. We evaluate the in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory effect of the virus with inflammatory cells and the mice of three typical inflammatory diseases including the dextran sulphate sodium-induced acute colitis, imiquimod-induced psoriasis, and collagen-induced arthritis.

Results

We found that rAAV-DMP-miR533 had marked anti-inflammatory effect in both cells and mice. In addition, rAAV-DMP-miR533 showed biosafety in mice.

Conclusion

This study thus provides a promising gene therapy to variant inflammatory diseases by directly targeting NF-κB, an established hub regulator of inflammation.

Gene interfered-ferroptosis therapy for cancers

Although some effective therapies have been available for cancer, it still poses a great threat to human health and life due to its drug resistance and low response in patients. Here, we develop a ferroptosis-based therapy by combining iron nanoparticles and cancer-specific gene interference. The expression of two iron metabolic genes (FPN and LCN2) was selectively knocked down in cancer cells by Cas13a or microRNA controlled by a NF-κB-specific promoter. Cells were simultaneously treated by iron nanoparticles. As a result, a significant ferroptosis was induced in a wide variety of cancer cells. However, the same treatment had little effect on normal cells. By transferring genes with adeno-associated virus and iron nanoparticles, the significant tumor growth inhibition and durable cure were obtained in mice with the therapy. In this work, we thus show a cancer therapy based on gene interference-enhanced ferroptosis.

Improved therapeutic strategies are needed as drug resistance limits the therapeutic efficacy of several clinically approved cancer therapeutics. Here, the authors report a ferroptosis-based therapy using a combination of iron nanoparticles with gene interference to knockdown iron metabolic genes, FPN and LCN2.

CRISPR-Cas13 System as a Promising and Versatile Tool for Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy, and Research

Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in targeted cancer therapy. In precision oncology, molecular profiling of cancer patients enables the use of targeted cancer therapeutics. However, current diagnostic methods for molecular analysis of cancer are costly and require sophisticated equipment. Moreover, targeted cancer therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule drugs may cause off-target effects and they are available for only a minority of cancer driver proteins. Therefore, there is still a need for versatile, efficient, and precise tools for cancer diagnostics and targeted cancer treatment. In recent years, the CRISPR-based genome and transcriptome engineering toolbox has expanded rapidly. Particularly, the RNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas13 system has unique biochemical properties, making Cas13 a promising tool for cancer diagnosis, therapy, and research. Cas13-based diagnostic methods allow early detection and monitoring of cancer markers from liquid biopsy samples without the need for complex instrumentation. In addition, Cas13 can be used for targeted cancer therapy through degrading and manipulating cancer-associated transcripts with high efficiency and specificity. Moreover, Cas13-mediated programmable RNA manipulation tools offer invaluable opportunities for cancer research, identification of drug-resistance mechanisms, and discovery of novel therapeutic targets. Here, we review and discuss the current use and potential applications of the CRISPR-Cas13 system in cancer diagnosis, therapy, and research. Thus, researchers will gain a deep understanding of CRISPR-Cas13 technologies, which have the potential to be used as next-generation cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

Stable Cells with NF-κB-ZsGreen Fused Genes Created by TALEN Editing and Homology Directed Repair for Screening Anti-inflammation Drugs

Background

NF-κB is a sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factor that plays key roles in inflammation and cancer. It is well known that NF-κB is over-activated in these diseases. NF-κB inhibitors are therefore developed as promising drugs for these diseases. However, finding NF-κB inhibitors is dependent on effective screening platforms.

Methods

For providing an easy and visualizable tool for screening NF-κB inhibitors, and other NF-κB-related studies, this study edited all five genes of NF-κB family (RELA, RELB, CREL, NF-κB1, NF-κB2) in three different cell lines (293T, HepG2, and PANC1) with both TALEN and CRISPR. The edited NF-κB genes were repaired by homology-dependent repair using a linear homologous donor containing ZsGreen coding sequence. The edit efficiency was thus directly evaluated by detecting cellular fluorescence. The editing efficiency was also confirmed by PCR detection of NF-κB-ZsGreen fused genes.

Results

It was found that all genes were more efficiently edited by TALEN in all cells than CRISPR. The positive cells were then isolated from the TALEN-edited cell pool by flow cytometry. The purified positive cells were finally evaluated by regulating NF-κB activity with a known NF-κB inhibitor, BAY 11-7082, and an NF-κB-targeting artificial microRNA, miR533. The results revealed that all the labeled NF-κB genes responded well to the two kinds of NF-κB activity regulators in all cell lines.

Conclusion

This study thus obtained 15 cell lines with NF-κB-ZsGreen fused genes, which provide an easy and visualizable tool for screening NF-κB inhibitors and other NF-κB-related studies.

A New Tool for CRISPR-Cas13a-Based Cancer Gene Therapy

Cas13a has already been successfully applied to virus detection. However, as a new gene interference tool, its potential in cancer treatment was not fully explored until now. This study constructed a new Cas13a expression vector, decoy minimal promoter-Cas13a-U6-guide RNA (DMP-Cas13a-U6-gRNA [DCUg]), by controlling the Cas13a and gRNA expression with a nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-specific promoter and U6 promoter, respectively. DCUg could specifically and effectively knock down the expression of reporter genes in the 293T and HepG2 cells. DCUg could also similarly knock down the expression of endogenous oncogenes (TERT, EZH2, and RelA) at both mRNA and protein levels in a human hepatoma cell HepG2, which led to significant apoptosis and growth inhibition. In contrast, the same transfection did not affect the target gene expression, cell apoptosis, and growth of a human normal liver cell HL7702. Finally, DCUg targeting these oncogenes was packaged into adeno-associated virus (AAV) and treated four cells (HepG2, HL7702, WEHI-3, and Hepa1-6) and tumor-bearing mice. As results, the recombinant AAV significantly inhibited the growth of three cancer cells (HepG2, Hepa1-6, and WEHI-3) in vitro and the xenografted Hepa1-6 and WEHI-3 tumors in mice. This study therefore developed a new tool for the CRISPR-Cas13a-based cancer gene therapy.