Gastrointestinal stromal tumors - quantitative detection of the Ki-67, TPX2, TOP2A, and hTERT telomerase subunit mRNA levels to determine proliferation activity and a potential for aggressive biological behavior

Combating relapsed and refractory Mantle cell lymphoma with novel therapeutic armamentarium: Recent advances and clinical prospects

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare, aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), accounting for 5% of all cases. Due to its virulence factor, it is an incurable disease and keeps relapsing despite an intensive treatment regimen. Advancements in research and drug discovery have shifted the treatment strategy from conventional chemotherapy to targeted agents and immunotherapies. The establishment of the role of Bruton tyrosine kinase led to the development of ibrutinib, a first-generation BTK inhibitor, and its successors. A conditioning regimen based immunotherapeutic agent like ibritumumob, has also demonstrated a viable response with a favorable toxicity profile. Brexucabtagene Autoleucel, the only approved CAR T-cell therapy, has proven advantageous for relapsed/refractory MCL in both children and adults. This article reviews certain therapies that could help update the current approach and summarizes a few miscellaneous agents, which, seldom studied in trials, could alleviate the regression observed in traditional therapies. DATA AVAILABILITY: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Nanoparticle-Based Follistatin Messenger RNA Therapy for Reprogramming Metastatic Ovarian Cancer and Ameliorating Cancer-Associated Cachexia

This study presents the first messenger RNA (mRNA) therapy for metastatic ovarian cancer and cachexia-induced muscle wasting based on lipid nanoparticles that deliver follistatin (FST) mRNA predominantly to cancer clusters following intraperitoneal administration. The secreted FST protein, endogenously synthesized from delivered mRNA, efficiently reduces elevated activin A levels associated with aggressive ovarian cancer and associated cachexia. By altering the cancer cell phenotype, mRNA treatment prevents malignant ascites, delays cancer progression, induces the formation of solid tumors, and preserves muscle mass in cancer-bearing mice by inhibiting negative regulators of muscle mass. Finally, mRNA therapy provides synergistic effects in combination with cisplatin, increasing the survival of mice and counteracting muscle atrophy induced by chemotherapy and cancer-associated cachexia. The treated mice develop few nonadherent tumors that are easily resected from the peritoneum. Clinically, this nanomedicine-based mRNA therapy can facilitate complete cytoreduction, target resistance, improve resilience during aggressive chemotherapy, and improve survival in advanced ovarian cancer.

iTRAQ‑based proteomics analysis of the therapeutic effects of combined anticancer bioactive peptides and oxaliplatin on gastric cancer cells

The combination of chemotherapeutic modalities may be more effective in treating gastric cancer compared with any modality alone. Previous studies have demonstrated that the combination of anticancer bioactive peptides (ACBP) and oxaliplatin (OXA) significantly inhibited the growth of the gastric cancer cell line MKN-45, promoted the apoptosis of MKN-45 cells, and caused an irreversible arrest of the MKN-45 cell cycle in the G2/M phase. In the present study, an isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based quantitative proteomics technique was used to determine the effect of ACBP-OXA treatment on the proteomics profile of MKN-45 cells. Notably, a total of 6,210 proteins were detected. Proteins with a >1.2-fold change in expression (either up- or downregulation) and P<0.05 were considered to be differentially expressed. A total of 256 differentially expressed proteins were identified through alignments with different groups. Compared with the control group, MKN-45 cells treated with ACBP, OXA and ACBP-OXA exhibited 17 (10 up- and 7 downregulated), 111 (27 up- and 84 downregulated) and 128 (53 up- and 75 downregulated) differentially expressed proteins, respectively. Of the 256 differentially expressed proteins, 6 (TPX2, NUSAP1, TOP2A, YAP, MKi-67 and GPC4) were verified by the parallel reaction monitoring method, which revealed that TPX2, NUSAP1, TOP2A, YAP, MKi-67 and GPC4 expression decreased with ACBP-OXA treatment. The cellular localization, functional annotation and biological pathways of differentially expressed proteins were examined by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis. The results indicated that ACBP-OXA may act through the ribosome or the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway, and the AMPK signaling pathway may be an important mediator of the inhibitory effects of ACBP-OXA on MKN-45 gastric cancer cells. In summary, iTRAQ-based proteomics analysis of the effect of ACBP-OXA on MKN-45 cells may guide future therapeutic strategies for gastric cancer. In addition, the present study may help provide new insights into the therapeutic role of combined ACBP and OXA in gastric cancer.