Stopping the fat: Repurposing an antidepressant for cancer treatment

MTFR2-Mediated Fission Drives Fatty Acid and Mitochondrial Co-Transfer from Hepatic Stellate Cells to Tumor Cells Fueling Oncogenesis

The tumor margin of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a critical zone where cancer cells invade the surrounding stroma, exhibiting unique and more invasive metabolic and migratory features compared to the tumor center, driving tumor expansion beyond the primary lesion. Studies have shown that at this critical interface, HCC cells primarily rely on fatty acid oxidation to meet their energy demands, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study demonstrates that activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) at the tumor margin play a pivotal role in sustaining the metabolic needs of HCC cells. Specifically, it is discovered that mitochondrial fission regulator 2 (MTFR2) in HSCs interacts with dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1, a known mitochondrial fission machinery), preventing its lysosomal degradation, which in turn promotes mitochondrial fission. This MTFR2-driven mitochondrial fission enhances the transfer of both fatty acids and mitochondria to HCC cells, supplying essential metabolic substrates and reinforcing the mitochondrial machinery critical for tumor growth. The findings suggest that targeting MTFR2-driven mitochondrial fission may offer a novel therapeutic avenue for interfering with the metabolic crosstalk between tumor cells and the stromal niche.

A cellular senescence-related signature for predicting prognosis, immunotherapy response, and candidate drugs in patients treated with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE)

BACKGROUND

Cellular senescence is essential to TME development, progression, and remodeling. Few studies have examined cellular senescence in HCC after TACE. Investigating the relationship between cellular senescence, post-TACE prognosis, the TME, and immune treatment responses is crucial.

METHODS

We analyzed the GSE104580 dataset to identify DEGs. A cellular senescence-related signature was developed using LASSO Cox regression in the GSE14520 dataset and validated in the ICGC dataset. High- and low-risk subgroups were compared using GSVA and GSEA. Correlation studies were conducted to explore the relationship between the prognostic model, immune infiltration, immunotherapy response, and drug sensitivity.

RESULTS

A cellular senescence-related signature comprising FOXM1, CDK1, CHEK1, and SERPINE1 was created and validated. High-risk patients showed significantly lower OS than low-risk patients. High-risk patients had carcinogenetic pathways activated, immunosuppressive cells infiltrated, and immunomodulatory genes overexpressed. They also showed higher sensitivity to EPZ004777_1237 and MK-2206_1053 and potential benefits from GSK-3 inhibitor IX, nortriptyline, lestaurtinib, and JNK-9L.

CONCLUSIONS

This study constructed a cellular senescence-related signature that could be used to predict HCC patients' responses to and prognosis after TACE treatment, aiding in the development of personalized treatment plans.

Nebivolol, an antihypertensive agent, has new application in inhibiting melanoma

Repurposing existing drugs for cancer therapy has become an important strategy because of its advantages, such as cost reduction, effect and safety. The present study was designed to investigate the antimelanoma effect and possible mechanisms of action of nebivolol, which is an approved and widely prescribed antihypertensive agent. In this study, we explored the effect of nebivolol on cell proliferation and cell activity in melanoma in vitro and the potential antimelanoma mechanism of nebivolol through a series of experiments, including the analysis of the effects with regard to cell apoptosis and metastasis. Furthermore, we evaluated the antimelanoma effect on xenograft tumor models and inspected the antimelanoma mechanism of nebivolol in vivo using immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence staining assays. As results in this work, in vitro , nebivolol possessed a strong activity for suppression proliferation and cell cycle arrest on melanoma. Moreover, nebivolol significantly induced cell apoptosis in melanoma through a mitochondrial-mediated endogenous apoptosis pathway. Additionally, nebivolol inhibited melanoma cell metastasis. More importantly, nebivolol exhibited significantly effective melanoma xenograft models in vivo , which related to the mechanism of apoptosis induction, proliferation inhibition, metastasis blocking and angiogenesis arrest. Overall, the data of the present study recommend that nebivolol holds great potential in application as a novel agent for the treatment of melanoma.