Targeted Osmotic Lysis: A Novel Approach to Targeted Cancer Therapies

Bioinspired Membrane-Based Cancer Vaccines for Immunotherapy: Progress and Perspectives

Cancer vaccines hold promise for tumor immunotherapy, with their success hinging on effective systems to boost anti-tumor immunity. Biological membranes are not only a delivery vehicle but also a source of antigens and adjuvants, garnering growing interest in vaccine research. This review starts with an introduction to the composition and mechanisms of cancer vaccines and describes the sources, advantages/disadvantages, engineering strategies, and applications of these membrane-based platforms for cancer vaccine development. This review also offers a critical analysis and discusses the further direction of the vaccine platform in view of clinical translation for tumor immunotherapy.

The Selective in vitro Cytotoxicity of Spirulina-Derived Nanoparticles: A Novel Biomimetic Approach to Cancer Therapy

Introduction

Cancer treatment often involves significant side effects, necessitating the need for more selective therapies. Spirulina-derived nanoparticles (sNPs) have shown promise as a targeted anticancer strategy.

Methods

This study evaluated the cytotoxic effects of sNPs on cancer cell lines TR-146 (buccal), Caco-2 and HT-29 (colorectal), and MCF-7 (breast), compared to the non-cancerous MCF-10A cells. Cytotoxicity was assessed using the XTT assay at concentrations of 25-500 mg/mL over 3-48 hours. Cellular uptake was quantified via fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and fluorescence microscopy, and endocytic inhibitors were used to investigate the uptake mechanism.

Results

sNPs induced 30-80% mortality in cancer cells, while non-cancerous MCF-10A cells exhibited negligible mortality (<5%). Male-derived Caco-2 cells were more sensitive to sNPs than female-derived HT-29 cells, suggesting potential sex-based differences. FACS analysis showed 100% cellular uptake in all cancer cells, with TR-146 exhibiting the highest fluorescence intensity. Endocytosis inhibition studies revealed that caveolae-mediated endocytosis played a significant role in sNP uptake, particularly in TR-146 and Caco-2 cells.

Discussion

These findings demonstrate the potential of sNPs as selective and potent anticancer agents, warranting further research to optimize their clinical application.

A Novel Size-Based Centrifugal Microfluidic Design to Enrich and Magnetically Isolate Circulating Tumor Cells from Blood Cells through Biocompatible Magnetite-Arginine Nanoparticles

This paper presents a novel centrifugal microfluidic approach (so-called lab-on-a-CD) for magnetic circulating tumor cell (CTC) separation from the other healthy cells according to their physical and acquired chemical properties. This study enhances the efficiency of CTC isolation, crucial for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. CTCs are cells that break away from primary tumors and travel through the bloodstream; however, isolating CTCs from blood cells is difficult due to their low numbers and diverse characteristics. The proposed microfluidic device consists of two sections: a passive section that uses inertial force and bifurcation law to sort CTCs into different streamlines based on size and shape and an active section that uses magnetic forces along with Dean drag, inertial, and centrifugal forces to capture magnetized CTCs at the downstream of the microchannel. The authors designed, simulated, fabricated, and tested the device with cultured cancer cells and human cells. We also proposed a cost-effective method to mitigate the surface roughness and smooth surfaces created by micromachines and a unique pulsatile technique for flow control to improve separation efficiency. The possibility of a device with fewer layers to improve the leaks and alignment concerns was also demonstrated. The fabricated device could quickly handle a large volume of samples and achieve a high separation efficiency (93%) of CTCs at an optimal angular velocity. The paper shows the feasibility and potential of the proposed centrifugal microfluidic approach to satisfy the pumping, cell sorting, and separating functions for CTC separation.

Cancer as a Channelopathy—Appreciation of Complimentary Pathways Provides a Different Perspective for Developing Treatments

Simple Summary

While improvements in technology have improved our ability to treat many forms of cancer when diagnosed at an early stage of the disease, the ability to improve survival and quality of life for patients with late stage disease has been limited, largely due to the ability of cancer cells to evade destruction when treatments block preferred paths for survival. Here, we review the role that ions and ion channels play in normal cell function, the development of disease and their role in the life and death of a cell. It is hoped that viewing cancer from the perspective of altered ion channel expression and ion balance may provide a novel approach for developing more effective treatments for this devastating disease.

Abstract

Life depends upon the ability of cells to evaluate and adapt to a constantly changing environment and to maintain internal stability to allow essential biochemical reactions to occur. Ions and ion channels play a crucial role in this process and are essential for survival. Alterations in the expression of the transmembrane proteins responsible for maintaining ion balance that occur as a result of mutations in the genetic code or in response to iatrogenically induced changes in the extracellular environment is a characteristic feature of oncogenesis and identifies cancer as one of a constellation of diseases known as channelopathies. The classification of cancer as a channelopathy provides a different perspective for viewing the disease. Potentially, it may expand opportunities for developing novel ways to affect or reverse the deleterious changes that underlie establishing and sustaining disease and developing tolerance to therapeutic attempts at treatment. The role of ions and ion channels and their interactions in the cell’s ability to maintain ionic balance, homeostasis, and survival are reviewed and possible approaches that mitigate gain or loss of ion channel function to contribute to new or enhance existing cancer therapies are discussed.

Editorial of the Special Issue “Targeted Therapies for Cancer”

Cancer, the second leading cause of death worldwide, continues to represent an impressive challenge for researchers and clinicians [...]