Interferon-beta inhibits human glioma stem cell growth by modulating immune response and cell cycle related signaling pathways.

Malignant Glioma is characterized by strong self-renewal potential and immature differentiation potential. The main reason is that malignant glioma holds key cluster cells, glioma stem cells (GSCs). GSCs contribute to tumorigenesis, tumor progression, recurrence, and treatment resistance. Interferon-beta (IFN-ß) is well known for its anti-proliferative efficacy in diverse cancers. IFN-ß also displayed potent antitumor effects in malignant glioma. IFN-ß affect both GSCs and Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the treatment of gliomas. However, the functional comparison, similar or different effects of IFN-ß on GSCs and NSCs are rarely reported. Here, we studied the similarities and differences of the responses to IFN-ß between human GSCs and normal NSCs. We found that IFN-ß preferentially inhibited GSCs over NSCs. The cell body and nucleus size of GSCs increased after IFN-ß treatment, and the genomic analysis revealed the enrichment of the upregulated immune response, cell adhesion genes and down regulated cell cycle, ribosome pathways. Several typical cyclin genes, including cyclin A2 (CCNA2), cyclin B1 (CCNB1), cyclin B2 (CCNB2), and cyclin D1 (CCND1), were significantly downregulated in GSCs after IFN-ß stimulation. We also found that continuous IFN-ß stimulation after passage further enhanced the inhibitory effect. Our study revealed how genetic diversity resulted in differential effects in response to IFN-ß treatment. These results may contribute to improve the applications of IFN-ß in anti-cancer immunotherapy. In addition, these results may also help to design more effective pharmacological strategies to target cancer stem cells while protecting normal neural stem cells.

A Fast and Efficient Approach to Obtaining High-Purity Glioma Stem Cell Culture.

Glioma is the most common and malignant primary brain tumor. Patients with malignant glioma usually have a poor prognosis due to drug resistance and disease relapse. Cancer stem cells contribute to glioma initiation, progression, resistance, and relapse. Hence, quick identification and efficient understanding of glioma stem cells (GSCs) are of profound importance for therapeutic strategies and outcomes. Ideally, therapeutic approaches will only kill cancer stem cells without harming normal neural stem cells (NSCs) that can inhibit GSCs and are often beneficial. It is key to identify the differences between cancer stem cells and normal NSCs. However, reports detailing an efficient and uniform protocol are scarce, as are comparisons between normal neural and cancer stem cells. Here, we compared different protocols and developed a fast and efficient approach to obtaining high-purity glioma stem cell by tracking observation and optimizing culture conditions. We examined the proliferative and differentiative properties confirming the identities of the GSCs with relevant markers such as Ki67, SRY-box containing gene 2, an intermediate filament protein member nestin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and s100 calcium-binding protein (s100-beta). Finally, we identified distinct expression differences between GSCs and normal NSCs including cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and tumor protein p53. This study comprehensively describes the features of GSCs, their properties, and regulatory genes with expression differences between them and normal stem cells. Effective approaches to quickly obtaining high-quality GSCs from patients should have the potential to not only help understand the diseases and the resistances but also enable target drug screening and personalized medicine for brain tumor treatment.

Cardenolides from the leaves of Nerium oleander.

Six new cardenolides (1-6), including three 14-hydroxylated cardenolides and three 14-carbonylated cardenolides were isolated from the dried aerial parts of Nerium oleander Linn in addition to twenty-seven known compounds (7-33). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic evidences and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds 1, 4, 7-10 and 13 exhibited significant cytotoxicity against four colon cancer cell lines (HCT116, HT29, SW620, RKO), one gastric cancer cell line (GT) and one cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) in vitro.

ent-Abietane Lactones from Euphorbia.

Extracted from Euphorbia, ent-Abietane lactones can be classified into several categories, such as Jolkinolides and Helioscopinolides, according to their structural features. The study of ent- Abietane lactones could date back to 1972, when Jolkinolide A and B were first isolated from Euphorbia jolkini Boiss. Since then, many other ent-Abietane lactones have been extracted from different species of Euphorbia. Their bio-activities include anti-tumor activity, anti-inflammatory activity as well as anti-bacterial activity. Among them, derivatives of Jolkinolide B draw the most attention for their high anti-tumor activity. There are many studies focus on the syntheses of Jolkinolides. In 1989, the first and efficient synthesis of Jolkinolides was accomplished by Katsumura et al. Their strategy to construct the last ring of Jolkinolides contributes a lot to the following studies. In the following thirty years, there are also other semi-syntheses of Jolkinolides conducted, basing on different starting materials. In this review, we will give a brief clarification of ent-Abietane lactones, as well as their bio-activities and syntheses.

Synthesis of new ent-labdane diterpene derivatives from andrographolide and evaluation on cytotoxic activities.

There are many reports for andrographolide modification regarding antitumor effects. Transformation of the five-membered lactone ring to furan aromatic ring still results in compounds with good cytotoxicity. To determine further the importance of the five-membered lactone ring and to obtain better lead compounds, we transformed the five-membered lactone ring in andrographolide. New types of ent-labdane diterpene derivatives were made, whose cytotoxic activities were measured in vitro. Preliminary SAR was summarized and two compounds, 7 and 26, with good cytotoxic activity were obtained, which have the potential to be developed into new antitumor drugs.