Bisindole-PBD regulates breast cancer cell proliferation via SIRT-p53 axis

Emerging role and therapeutic implications of p53 in intervertebral disc degeneration

Lower back pain (LBP) is a common degenerative musculoskeletal disease that imposes a huge economic burden on both individuals and society. With the aggravation of social aging, the incidence of LBP has increased globally. Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is the primary cause of LBP. Currently, IDD treatment strategies include physiotherapy, medication, and surgery; however, none can address the root cause by ending the degeneration of intervertebral discs (IVDs). However, in recent years, targeted therapy based on specific molecules has brought hope for treating IDD. The tumor suppressor gene p53 produces a transcription factor that regulates cell metabolism and survival. Recently, p53 was shown to play an important role in maintaining IVD microenvironment homeostasis by regulating IVD cell senescence, apoptosis, and metabolism by activating downstream target genes. This study reviews research progress regarding the potential role of p53 in IDD and discusses the challenges of targeting p53 in the treatment of IDD. This review will help to elucidate the pathogenesis of IDD and provide insights for the future development of precision treatments.

SIRT1/FOXO Signaling Pathway in Breast Cancer Progression and Metastasis

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women. The roles of the SIRT and FoxO proteins in tumor progression are known, but their roles in metastasis have not yet been clearly elucidated. In our study, we investigated the roles of SIRT and FoxO proteins their downstream pathways, proteins p21 and p53, in tumor progression and metastasis. We evaluated these proteins in vitro using metastatic 4TLM and 67NR cell lines, as well as their expression levels in tumor-bearing mice. In addition, the regulatory role of SIRT and FoxO proteins in different transduction cascades was examined by IPA core analysis, and clinicopathological evidence was investigated in the TCGA database. In primary tumors, the expression levels of SIRT1, p21, p53, E2F1 and FoxO proteins were higher in 67NR groups. In metastatic tissues, the expression levels of SIRT1, E2F1 and FoxO proteins were found to be enhanced, whereas the levels of p53 and p21 expression were noted to be reduced. IPA analysis also provided empirical evidence of the mechanistic involvement of SIRT and FoxO proteins in tumor progression and metastasis. In conclusion, SIRT1 was found to co-operate with FoxO proteins and to play a critical role in metastasis. Additional research is required to determine why overexpression of SIRT1 in metastatic tissues has oncogenic effects.

Systematic Analysis of the Lysine Crotonylome and Multiple Posttranslational Modification Analysis (Acetylation, Succinylation, and Crotonylation) in Candida albicans

Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that causes lethal fungal infections in immunocompromised patients. Lysine crotonylation is a newly discovered PTM (posttranslational modification) epigenetic type that may play a critical role in regulating gene expression. In this study, we used an antibody-enrichment approach along with LC-MS/MS to carry out a quantitative crotonylome analysis in C. albicans We found a total of 5,242 crotonylation sites and 1,584 crotonylated proteins among 9,038 proteins in this organism. Of these crotonylated proteins, a few unique crotonylated motifs are noted such as D and E in positions +1, +2, or +3 or K and R in positions +5 or +6, while A, E, F, G, P, W, and Y are in the -1 position or A, K, and R are found in positions -5, -6, -7, or -8. Functional analysis has shown that a majority of the crotonylated proteins are related to biosynthetic events and carbon metabolism. When combined with previously collected data on acetylation and succinylation, PPI (protein-protein interaction network) analysis reveals that proteins with functions in ribosomal biogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, nucleus activity, and proteasome formation are heavily modified by these three PTM types. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first crotonylome study carried out in C. albicans and is an important step to a better understanding of the biological and pathogenic impact of PTM in C. albicans IMPORTANCE C. albicans is a kind of pathogen of fungal infections that is found worldwide. Lysine crotonylation of proteins as a recently discovered PTM (posttranslational modification) may have a critical role in regulating cells. We first carried out large-scale analysis of crotonylated proteome and multiple PTM analysis (acetylation, succinylation, and crotonylation), then drew a diagram to show multiple PTM sites on histones in C. albicans of our study. This study about crotonylome in human pathogenic fungi is a milestone that first and deeply investigates the functional analysis of crotonylated proteins in C. albicans, which marks an important start for further research.

Anticancer activity of bisindole alkaloids derived from natural sources and synthetic bisindole hybrids

The bisindole moiety, as a versatile pharmacophore, is one of the widespread heterocycles in naturally occurring and synthetic bioactive compounds. The bisindole alkaloids derived from natural sources possess structural and mechanistic diversity, and they were found to be generally more active than monoindole alkaloids against various cancer cell lines. Moreover, some bisindole alkaloids such as the tubulin inhibitors, vinorelbine and vinblastine, have already been approved for cancer therapy, suggesting that bisindole alkaloids are a significant source of anticancer agents and lead hits. Bisindole hybrids have the potential to overcome drug resistance, enhance efficiency, and reduce severe side effects. The bisindole-lactam hybrid midostaurin has already been approved for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia who are FLT3 mutation-positive, highlighting the importance of bisindole hybrids in the development of novel anticancer agents. In this review, we present a brief account of the bisindole alkaloids derived from nature and of synthetic hybrids with potential anticancer activity developed in the recent 10 years.

Akt-targeted therapy as a promising strategy to overcome drug resistance in breast cancer - A comprehensive review from chemotherapy to immunotherapy

Breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer in women. Chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy has been used to treat breast cancer. Atezolizumab targeting the protein programmed cell death-ligand (PD-L1) in combination with paclitaxel was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), the most incurable type of breast cancer. However, the use of such drugs is restricted by genotype and is effective only for those TNBC patients expressing PD-L1. In addition, resistance to chemotherapy with drugs such as lapatinib, geftinib, and tamoxifen can develop. In this review, we address chemoresistance in breast cancer and discuss Akt as the master regulator of drug resistance and several oncogenic mechanisms in breast cancer. Akt not only directly interacts with the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathway to affect PD-L1 expression, but also has crosstalk with Notch and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways involved in cell migration and breast cancer stem cell integrity. In this review, we discuss the effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors on Akt activation as well as the mechanism of Akt signaling in drug resistance. Akt also has a crucial role in mitochondrial metabolism and migrates into mitochondria to remodel breast cancer cell metabolism while also functioning in responses to hypoxic conditions. The Akt inhibitors ipatasertib, capivasertib, uprosertib, and MK-2206 not only suppress cancer cell proliferation and metastasis, but may also inhibit cytokine regulation and PD-L1 expression. Ipatasertib and uprosertib are undergoing clinical investigation to treat TNBC. Inhibition of Akt and its regulators can be used to control breast cancer progression and also immunosuppression, while discovery of additional compounds that target Akt and its modulators could provide solutions to resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Recent Development in Indole Derivatives as Anticancer Agents for Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND

Breast Cancer (BC) is the second most common cause of cancer related deaths in women. Due to severe side effects and multidrug resistance, current therapies like hormonal therapy, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy become ineffective. Also, the existing drugs for BC treatment are associated with several drawbacks such as poor oral bioavailability, non-selectivity and poor pharmacodynamics properties. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of more effective and safer anti BC agents.

OBJECTIVE

This article explored in detail the possibilities of indole-based heterocyclic compounds as anticancer agents with breast cancer as their major target.

METHODS

Recent literature related to indole derivatives endowed with encouraging anti BC potential is reviewed. With special focus on BC, this review offers a detailed account of multiple mechanisms of action of various indole derivatives: aromatase inhibitor, tubulin inhibitor, microtubule inhibitor, targeting estrogen receptor, DNA-binding mechanism, induction of apoptosis, inhibition of PI3K/AkT/NFkB/mTOR, and HDAC inhibitors, by which these derivatives have shown promising anticancer potential.

RESULTS

Exhaustive literature survey indicated that indole derivatives are associated with properties of inducing apoptosis and disturbing tubulin assembly. Indoles are also associated with the inhibition of NFkB/mTOR/PI3K/AkT and regulation of estrogen-mediated activity. Furthermore, indole derivatives have been found to modulate critical targets such as topoisomerase and HDAC. These derivatives have shown significant activity against breast cancer cells.

CONCLUSION

In BC, indole derivatives seem to be quite competent and act through various mechanisms that are well established in case of BC. This review has shown that indole derivatives can further be explored for the betterment of BC chemotherapy. A lot of potential is still hidden which demands to be discovered for upgrading BC chemotherapy.

Discovery of DEBIC to correlate P-selectin inhibition and DNA intercalation in cancer therapy and complicated thrombosis

Arterial thrombosis is one of the major complications of cancer and can seriously worsen the prognosis of the patients. These clinical findings encouraged this paper to correlate P-selectin inhibition and DNA intercalation in cancer therapy and complicated thrombosis. By designing and docking 12 derivatives of bisindole- 2-carboxylic acids into the active sites of P-selectin and d(CGATCG)2 9 derivatives were assigned to receive in vivo anti-tumor assay, and finally provided dimethyl 2,2'-[(2,2'-(ethane-1,1-diyl)bis(1H-indole-3,2-diyl)]diacetate (DEBIC) to receive assays. DEBIC intercalated DNA and inhibited proliferation of tumor cells but not non-tumor cells. It slowed tumor growth of S180 mice at a dose of 0.36 μmol/kg, and slowed tumor growth of A549 bearing BABL/C mice at a dose of 8.9 μmol/kg. DEBIC was also found to inhibit arterial thrombosis by down regulating P-selectin effectively at a dose of 0.36 μmol/kg.

SIRT1 promotes formation of breast cancer through modulating Akt activity

The silent information regulation factor 1 (sirtuin Type 1, SIRT1), as a kind of NAD⁺ dependent class III histone deacetylation enzyme, has been found to be involved in tumor proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. The roles of SIRTl in breast cancer is multifaceted depending on its substrate from upstream or downstream signaling pathway. In this study, we sought to make clear the regulating effects of SIRT1 in breast cancer cells, and to explore the underlying mechanisms through which SIRT1 regulates breast cancer. First, our results showed that SIRT1 was significantly up-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cells, which correlated with histological grade, tumor size, as well as lymph node metastasis. Then we established SIRT1-overexpressed and SIRT1- knockdown breast cancer cell lines to investigate the functions of SIRT1 in regulating colony formation, cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell apoptosis and migration. We found that overexpression of SIRT1 significantly promoted breast cancer growth both in vitro and in vivo, whereas knockdown of SIRT1 inhibited these phenotypes. Furthermore, SIRT1 was found to interact with Akt directly, consequently promoting the activity of Akt in breast cancer cells in vitro and positively correlating with expression of Akt, P-Akt, in breast cancer tissues in vivo. Down regulation the activity of Akt partially weakened the proliferative effect mediated by SIRT1. Taken together, our results demonstrated SIRT1's tumor promotion function and potential mechanisms in breast cancer, thus providing valuable therapeutic targets for breast cancer.

The Potential Roles of Long Noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) in Glioblastoma Development

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) may contribute to the initiation and progression of tumor. In this study, we first systematically compared lncRNA and mRNA expression between glioblastoma and paired normal brain tissues using microarray data. We found 27 lncRNA and 82 mRNA significantly upregulated in glioblastoma, as well as 198 lncRNA and 285 mRNA significantly downregulated in glioblastoma. We identified 138 coexpressed lncRNA-mRNA pairs from these differentially expressed lncRNA and genes. Subsequent pathway analysis of the lncRNA-paired genes indicated that EphrinB-EPHB, p75-mediated signaling, TNFα/NF-κB, and ErbB2/ErbB3 signaling pathways might be altered in glioblastoma. Specifically, lncRNA RAMP2-AS1 had significant decrease of expression in glioblastoma tissues and showed coexpressional relationship with NOTCH3, an important tumor promoter in many neoplastic diseases. Our follow up experiment indicated that (i) an overexpression of RAMP2-AS1 reduced glioblastoma cell proliferation in vitro and also reduced glioblastoma xenograft tumors in vivo; (ii) NOTCH3 and RAMP2-AS1 coexpression rescued the inhibitory action of RAMP2-AS1 in glioblastoma cells; and (iii) RNA pull-down assay revealed a direct interaction of RAMP2-AS1 with DHC10, which may consequently inhibit, as we hypothesize, the expression of NOTCH3 and its downstream signaling molecule HES1 in glioblastoma. Taken together, our data revealed that lncRNA expression profile in glioblastoma tissue was significantly altered; and RAMP2-AS1 might play a tumor suppressive role in glioblastoma through an indirect inhibition of NOTCH3 Our results provided some insights into understanding the key roles of lncRNA-mRNA coregulation in human glioblastoma and the mechanisms responsible for glioblastoma progression and pathogenesis. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(12); 2977-86. ©2016 AACR.

Systematic Analysis of the Lysine Acetylome in Candida albicans

Candida albicans (C. albicans) is a worldwide cause of fungal infectious diseases. As a general post-translational modification (PTM), lysine acetylation of proteins play an important regulatory role in almost every cell. In our research, we used a high-resolution proteomic technique (LC-MS/MS) to present the comprehensive analysis of the acetylome in C. albicans. In general, we detected 477 acetylated proteins among all 9038 proteins (5.28%) in C. albicans, which had 1073 specific acetylated sites. The bioinformatics analysis of the acetylome showed a significant role in the regulation of metabolism. To be more precise, proteins involved in carbon metabolism and biosynthesis were the underlying objectives of acetylation. Besides, through the study of the acetylome, we found a universal rule in acetylated motifs: the +4, +5, or +6 position, which is an alkaline residue with a long side chain (K or R), and the +1 or +2 position, which is a residue with a long side chain (Y, H, W, or F). To the best of our knowledge, all screening acetylated histone sites of this study have not been previously reported. Moreover, protein-protein interaction network (PPI) study demonstrated that a variety of connections in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, and the ribosome were modulated by acetylation and phosphorylation, but the phosphorylated proteins in oxidative phosphorylation PPI network were not abundant, which indicated that acetylation may have a more significant effect than phosphorylation on oxidative phosphorylation. This is the first study of the acetylome in human pathogenic fungi, providing an important starting point for the in-depth discovery of the functional analysis of acetylated proteins in such fungal pathogens.

Nicotinamide Mononucleotide Adenylyl Transferase 2: A Promising Diagnostic and Therapeutic Target for Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers all over the world. It is essential to search for more effective diagnostic and therapeutic methods for CRC. Abnormal nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) metabolism has been considered as a characteristic of cancer cells. In this study, nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferases (NMNATs) as well as p53-mediated cancer signaling pathways were investigated in patients with colorectal cancer. The CRC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were obtained from 95 untreated colorectal cancer patients and were stained for expression of nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferase 2 (NMNAT2) and p53. The survival rate was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. The multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted as well. Our data demonstrated that expression of NMNAT2 and p53 was significantly higher in CRC tissues, while NMNAT2 expression is in correlation with the invasive depth of tumors and TNM stage. Significant positive correlation was found between the expression of NMNAT2 and the expression of p53. However, NMNAT2 expression was not a statistically significant prognostic factor for overall survival. In conclusion, our results indicated that NMNAT2 might participate in tumorigenesis of CRC in a p53-dependent manner and NMNAT2 expression might be a potential therapeutic target for CRC.

A novel bisindole-PBD conjugate inhibits angiogenesis by regulating STAT3 and VEGF in breast cancer cells

AIMS

Breast cancer is highly resistant to chemotherapeutic approach and hence, alternative strategies have been developed to fight against this heterogeneous group of disease. In particular, many studies have demonstrated about various drugs for the treatment of breast cancer. In our study, we assessed the anti-angiogenenic activities of Bisindole-PBD (5b) in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines.

MAIN METHODS

In vitro Endothelial Cell (HUVEC) Tube Formation Assay was performed to show inhibitory role of 5b along with its role upon wound healing process in breast cancer cells in vitro. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) was also done to examine the expression of VEGF in response to 5b in breast cancer cells and in HUVEC cells. siRNA transfection study explored STAT3 mediated VEGF transcription in breast cancer cells MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. CAM assay was performed to see the role of 5b on vessel formation in chicken embryo.

KEY FINDINGS

From in vitro data we have demonstrated that 5b played a role in regulation of breast cancer cell proliferation by inhibiting angiogenesis. Test drug 5b suppressed the expression VEGF at both transcriptional and post transcriptional levels. Apart from this, there was significant down regulation in STAT3 level after drug treatment, which was found to be involved in the VEGF transcription. Metastasis related MMP-2 and MMP-9 expressions were also modulated by 5b. In vivo study by Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane (CAM) Assay also showed anti-angiogenesis role of the test drug which was consistent with the in vitro data.

SIGNIFICANCE

Altogether, our data demonstrated 5b as potent small molecule with anti-angiogenic activities.