Verticillin A inhibits colon cancer cell migration and invasion by targeting c-Met.

Verticillin A is a diketopiperazine compound which was previously isolated from Amanita flavorubescens Alk (containing parasitic fungi Hypomyces hyalines (Schw.) Tul.). Here, we initially found, by wound healing assay and Transwell assay in vitro, that verticillin A possesses an inhibitory effect against the migration and invasion of the human colon cancer cell. Subsequently, c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-Met) was identified as a molecular target of verticillin A by screening key genes related to cell migration. Verticillin A-mediated c-Met suppression is at the transcriptional level. Further study demonstrated that verticillin A suppressed c-MET phosphorylation and decreased c-MET protein level. In addition, verticillin A inhibited the phosphorylation of c-MET downstream molecules including rat sarcoma (Ras)-associated factor (Raf), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and protein kinase B (AKT). Overexpression of Erk partially reversed the verticillin A-mediated anti-metastasis action in the human colon cancer cell. More importantly, verticillin A also inhibited cancer cell metastasis in vivo. Thus, verticillin A can significantly inhibit the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells by targeting c-Met and inhibiting Ras/Raf/mitogen-activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK)/ERK signaling pathways. Therefore, we determined that verticillin A is a natural compound that can be further developed as an anti-metastatic drug in human cancers.

Taicrypnacids A and B, a Pair of C37 Heterodimeric Diterpenoid Stereoisomers from Taiwania cryptomerioides.

Two uncommon C37 heterodimeric diterpenoids, taicrypnacids A (1) and B (2), and a known labdane-type diterpenoid (3) were isolated from the leaves of Taiwania cryptomerioides. Several techniques, such as comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, chemical conversion, X-ray crystallography, and ECD data, were employed to define the structures. The two new compounds displayed cytotoxicity against human breast cancer (MCF-7), osteosarcoma (U-2 OS), and human colon carcinoma (HCT-116) cell lines, while the methyl ester 1a showed no activity. Compound 1 induced Ca2+-ROS pathway-mediated endoplasmic reticulum stress, and excessive stress led to cell death by activating apoptosis and autophagy.

Taiwanoids A-D, four dimeric diterpenoids featuring tetracyclic [7. 75, 9. 4. 05, 10. 08, 9] octodecane from Taiwania cryptomerioidesim.

Biogenesis-inspired chemical research of the leaves of Taiwania cryptomerioides afforded four unprecedented dimeric diterpenes, featuring a tetracyclic [7. 75, 9. 4. 05, 10. 08, 9] octodecane core: taiwanoids A-D (1-4). The structures of these compounds were determined on the basis of comprehensive spectral analysis, chemical conversions and X-ray crystallography. A possible biosynthetic pathway for compounds 1-4 was proposed. Compounds 2 and 3 exerted a 5.37 and 6.26-fold potentiation effect on bortezmib (BTZ) susceptibility at a tested concentration of 20 µM, respectively.

Clitocine potentiates TRAIL-mediated apoptosis in human colon cancer cells by promoting Mcl-1 degradation.

Among anti-cancer candidate drugs, TRAIL might be the most specific agent against cancer cells due to its low toxicity to normal cells. Unfortunately, cancer cells usually develop drug resistance to TRAIL, which is a major obstacle for its clinical application. One promising strategy is co-administrating with sensitizer to overcome cancer cells resistance to TRAIL. Clitocine, a natural amino nucleoside purified from wild mushroom, is recently demonstrated that can induce apoptosis in multidrug-resistant human cancer cells by targeting Mcl-1. In the present study,we found that pretreatment with clitocine dramatically enhances TRAIL lethality in its resistant human colon cancer cells by inducing apoptosis. More importantly, combination of clitocine and TRAIL also effectively inhibits xenograft growth and induces tumor cells apoptosis in athymic mice. The disruption of the binding between Mcl-1 and Bak as well as mitochondrial translocation of Bax mediated by clitocine are identified as the key underlying mechanisms, which leading to mitochondrial membrane permeabilization. Enforced exogenous Mcl-1 can effectively attenuate clitocine/TRAIL-induced apoptosis by suppressing the activation of intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Furthermore, clitocine regulates Mcl-1 expression at the posttranslational level as no obvious change is observed on mRNA level and proteasome inhibitor MG132 almost blocks the Mcl-1 suppression by clitocine. In fact, more ubiquitinated Mcl-1 was detected under clitocine treatment. Our findings indicate that clitocine is potentially an effective adjuvant agent in TRAIL-based cancer therapy.

[The determination and clinical application of inosine 5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase activity].

Inosine 5'-monophosphate dehydrogenase(IMPDH) is a rate-limiting enzyme in de novo biosynthesis of guanine and plays an important role in cell proliferation. In clinic, IMPDH inhibitors are mainly used in fields of anticancer, antiviral, anti-parasitic, and immunosuppressive chemotherapy. However, since there are usually great inter- and intra-individual variability between drug concentration and clinical effect of IMPDH inhibitors, the enzyme activity of IMPDH may be applied as a specific biomarker and combined with the pharmacokinetics (PK) monitoring to improve efficacy and safety of IMPDH inhibitors. This review aims to discuss the assay of IMPDH activity measurement and its clinical application in recent years and provide valuable insights and theoretical basis for the development of IMPDH inhibitors' pharmacodynamics monitoring.

Clitocine induces apoptosis and enhances the lethality of ABT-737 in human colon cancer cells by disrupting the interaction of Mcl-1 and Bak.

ABT-737 is a novel anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein inhibitor with high affinity to Bcl-2, Bcl-xl and Bcl-w but relatively low affinity to Mcl-1/A1. Therefore, high level Mcl-1 usually confers human tumor cell resistance to ABT-737. At the present study, we observed that clitocine can induce apoptosis in six tested human colon cancer cell lines accompanied by suppression of Mcl-1. More interestingly, clitocine significantly enhances the ABT-737-mediated lethality by inducing apoptosis. At the molecular level we determined Mcl-1 is the potential target through which clitocine can sensitize human colon cancer cells to ABT-737 induced apoptosis. Knocking-down of Mcl-1 is sufficient to increase cancer cell susceptibility to ABT-737 while its over-expression can significantly reverse this susceptibility. We also determined that clitocine may activate Bak by disrupting the interaction between Mcl-1 and Bak to induce mitochondrial membrane permeabilization. Furthermore, silence of Bak with the specific siRNA effectively attenuates the apoptosis induction by co-treatment of clitocine and ABT-737. Finally, clitocine in combination with ABT-737 significantly suppress the xenograft growth in animal model. Collectively, our studies suggest clitocine can induce apoptosis and potentiate ABT-737 lethality in human colon cancer cells by disrupting the interaction of Mcl-1 and Bak to trigger apoptosis.

Clitocine targets Mcl-1 to induce drug-resistant human cancer cell apoptosis in vitro and tumor growth inhibition in vivo.

Drug resistance is a major reason for therapy failure in cancer. Clitocine is a natural amino nucleoside isolated from mushroom and has been shown to inhibit cancer cell proliferation in vitro. In this study, we observed that clitocine can effectively induce drug-resistant human cancer cell apoptosis in vitro and inhibit tumor xenograft growth in vivo. Clitocine treatment inhibited drug-resistant human cancer cell growth in vitro in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Biochemical analysis revealed that clitocine-induced tumor growth inhibition is associated with activation of caspases 3, 8 and 9, PARP cleavage, cytochrome c release and Bax, Bak activation, suggesting that clitocine inhibits drug-resistant cancer cell growth through induction of apoptosis. Analysis of apoptosis regulatory genes indicated that Mcl-1 level was dramatically decreased after clitocine treatment. Over-expression of Mcl-1 reversed the activation of Bax and attenuated clitocine-induced apoptosis, suggesting that clitocine-induced apoptosis was at least partially by inducing Mcl-1 degradation to release Bax and Bak. Consistent with induction of apoptosis in vitro, clitocine significantly suppressed the drug-resistant hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft growth in vivo by inducing apoptosis as well as inhibiting cell proliferation. Taken together, our data demonstrated that clitocine is a potent Mcl-1 inhibitor that can effectively induce apoptosis to suppress drug-resistant human cancer cell growth both in vitro and in vivo, and thus holds great promise for further development as potentially a novel therapeutic agent to overcome drug resistance in cancer therapy.

Anticancer effects of imperatorin isolated from Angelica dahurica: induction of apoptosis in HepG2 cells through both death-receptor- and mitochondria-mediated pathways.

BACKGROUND: Imperatorin (IM) is a furanocoumarin isolated from the root of Angelica dahurica, which is reported to have anticonvulsant and anticancer effects. In this study, the antiproliferative effect of IM on 9 human cancer cell lines was examined, and human hepatoma HepG2 cells were chosen as the target for preferential killing by IM. Particularly, the mechanism of IM-induced apoptosis and in vivo animal effects were also studied. METHODS: Cell viability was measured using MTT assay, and apoptosis was detected by Hoechst staining, annexin V-PI staining, and DNA laddering assay. Mitochondrial membrane potential was detected by JC-1 staining. Western blot analysis was employed to detect the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. In addition, the in vivo anticancer effect of IM was examined in nude mice bearing HepG2 cells. RESULTS: IM inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells through apoptosis induction in a time- and dose-dependent manner by observation of the nuclear morphology, DNA fragmentation, phosphatidylserine externalization, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome c into cytosol, and activation of caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. As cell death could partly be prevented by the caspase-8 or caspase-9 inhibitor and was evidenced by the results of Western blot analysis, our results also suggest that IM-induced apoptosis is mediated through both death receptor and mitochondrial pathways. In the animal model, IM was found to effectively suppress tumor growth by 31.93 and 63.18% at dosages of 50 and 100 mg/kg, respectively, after treatment for 14 days. No significant weight loss or toxicity to the hosts was found. CONCLUSIONS: IM can function as a cancer suppressor by inducing apoptosis in HepG2 cells through both death-receptor- and mitochondria-mediated pathways. Furthermore, the in vivo antitumor activities of IM are significant with negligible weight loss and damage to the host.

3,5-Dimethyl-H-furo[3,2-g]chromen-7-one as a potential anticancer drug by inducing p53-dependent apoptosis in human hepatoma HepG2 cells.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Coumarins are natural compounds found in many plants that possess medical value by itself and its modified derivatives. METHOD: Six novel coumarin derivatives were synthesized and examined for their potential anticancer cytotoxicity. RESULT: Among the 6 derivatives, 3,5-dimethyl-(7)H-furo[3,2-g]chromen-7-one (DMFC) presented the strongest cytotoxicity against human hepatoma HepG2 cells in vitro with an IC(50) value of 8.46 ± 0.28 µM in a 48-hour treatment. Further experiments revealed that DMFC induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells through both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways in a p53-dependent manner. Mechanistically, DMFC activated caspases 3, 8 and 9, depolarized mitochondrial membrane potential and induced cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor release. DMFC-induced apoptosis was also characterized by DNA fragmentation, phosphatidylserine externalization and sub-G1 peak in DNA histograms. Moreover, both caspase 8 and 9 inhibitors suppressed the apoptosis induced by DMFC. Western blot analyses revealed that DMFC also significantly increased the expression levels of p53, Fas death receptor, Fas-associated death domain protein and proapoptotic Bcl-2 family members such as Bax, Bad and tBid, as well as decreased the levels of pro-survival members such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl. CONCLUSION: DMFC is potentially an effective therapeutic agent in liver cancer therapy.

Synthesis and antiproliferative activities of novel 5'-Schiff-base group substituted psoralen derivatives.

It was found that psoralen derivative could perform a Friedel-Crafts acylation smoothly with acetic anhydride to give 5'-acetylpsoralen in a 73% yield. In the presence of boron trifluoride etherate, 5'-acetylpsoralen reacted with both aromatic amines and aliphatic amine smoothly to afford 5'-Schiff-base group substituted psoralen derivatives in 72%-92% yields. The novel synthetic method has the advantages of cheap materials, mild reaction conditions, good yields and high regioselectivity in the Friedel-Crafts acylation. Cell viability assay by MTT demonstrates that some of the psoralen derivatives 6 have antiproliferative activities.

Suillin from the mushroom Suillus placidus as potent apoptosis inducer in human hepatoma HepG2 cells.

During the search of new anti-cancer agent from high fungi, the ethyl acetate extract of the mushroom Suillus placidus was found to exhibit a significant cytotoxic activity against human hepatoma HepG2 cells. With bioassay-guided fractionation, a cytotoxic component suillin was isolated from the extract. The anti-cancer effect of suillin was subsequently examined in 8 human cancer cell lines by using MTT assay. It is of interest to note that human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells, Hep3B cells, and SK-Hep-1) were preferentially killed by suillin with an IC(50) of approximately 2microM in a 48h treatment. Mechanistically. suillin was found for the first time to induce apoptosis in HepG2 cells as characterized by DNA fragmentation, phosphatidyl-serine (PS) externalization, activation of caspase-3, -8, -9, depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential, as well as release of cytochrome c into the cytosol. Moreover, the apoptosis induced by suillin was suppressed by both caspase-8 and -9 inhibitors. Western blot analysis revealed significant increases in the protein levels of Fas death receptor, adaptor FADD protein, pro-apoptotic protein Bad and a decline of Bid. These results suggest that the induction of apoptosis by suillin is through both death receptor and mitochondrial pathways. Taken together, our results suggest that suillin might be an effective agent to treat liver cancer.

Cloning and characterization of a glucose 6-phosphate/phosphate translocator from Oryza sativa.

Plastids of nongreen tissues import carbon as a source of biosynthetic pathways and energy, and glucose 6-phosphate is the preferred hexose phosphate taken up by nongreen plastids. A cDNA clone encoding glucose 6-phosphate/phosphate translocator (GPT) was isolated from a cDNA library of immature seeds of rice and named as OsGPT. The cDNA has one uninterrupted open reading frame encoding a 42 kDa polypeptide possessing transit peptide consisting of 70 amino acid residues. The OsGPT gene maps on chromosome 8 of rice and is linked to the quantitative trait locus for 1000-grain weight. The expression of OsCPT is mainly restricted to heterotrophic tissues. These results suggest that glucose 6-phosphate imported via GPT can be used for starch biosynthesis in rice nongreen plastids.