Mechanism of Synsepalum dulcificum Daniell. Inhibiting Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Objective: Synsepalum dulcificum Daniell. (SD) is a natural plant fruit and is famous for containing miraculin. It has been reported that SD can be used as an adjuvant treatment to correct patients' loss of taste during the antitumor process, but the effect of SD itself as an antitumor is not clear. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of action of SD on lung adenocarcinoma using network pharmacology. Materials and Methods. The components of SD were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and then the compounds that affect tumor immunity of SD were screened and the related targets were predicted by TCMIO database. At the same time, the results were associated with lung adenocarcinoma targets included in the MalaCards and CTD databases, so as to construct a compound-target action network diagram and explore the mechanism of SD in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma. In in vitro experiments, cell viability was determined and western blotting was used to detect the related expression of action targets to determine the therapeutic effect of SD. Results. In this experiment, 335 chemical components were identified in SD, and 107 components were related to tumor immunity. After screening by ADME, it was found that 11 compounds might be inhaled into the human body and affect the growth of lung adenocarcinoma. In vitro experiments showed that SD could inhibit the growth of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. SD could reduce the expression of PCNA (P < 0.05) and significantly increase the expression of Caspase-3 (P < 0.05). The results of further experiments showed that SD could significantly reduce the phosphorylation of EGFR (P < 0.05), and SD could also effectively inhibit the expression of JAK and STAT3 phosphorylation (P < 0.01) and inhibit the expression of PI3K and AKT phosphorylation (P < 0.01). Conclusion. SD can inhibit the growth of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and the potential mechanism was found to be the inhibition of EGFR/JAK/STAT3 and EGFR/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and the substance basis for SD to exert antitumor effect may be catechin, taxifolin, betaine, epigallocatechin gallate, erucamide, guanosine, kaempferol, lanosterol, morin, oleanolic acid, and quercetin.

Nuclear heat shock protein 110 expression is associated with poor prognosis and hyperthermo-chemotherapy resistance in gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis.

AIM: To investigate the significance of heat shock protein 110 (HSP110) in gastric cancer (GC) patients with peritoneal metastasis undergoing hyperthermo-chemotherapy. METHODS: Primary GC patients (n = 14) with peritoneal metastasis or positive peritoneal lavage cytology who underwent distal or total gastrectomy between April 2000 and December 2011 were enrolled in this study. The patients underwent postoperative intraperitoneal hyperthermo-chemotherapy using a Thermotron RF-8 heating device two weeks after surgery. We analyzed nuclear HSP110 expression in surgically resected tumors using immunohistochemistry. Additionally, the effect of HSP110 suppression on hyptherthermo-chemosensitivity was assessed in vitro in the MKN45 GC cell line using the HSP inhibitor KNK437. RESULTS: HSP110 immnohistochemical staining in 14 GC patients showed that five (35.7%) samples belonged to the low expression group, and nine (64.3%) samples belonged to the high expression group. Progression-free survival was significantly shorter in the HSP110 high-expression group than in the low-expression group (P = 0.0313). However, no significant relationships were identified between HSP110 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients. Furthermore, high HSP110 expression was not an independent prognostic factor in GC patients with peritoneal metastasis (P = 0.0625). HSP110 expression in MKN45 cells was suppressed by KNK437 at the hyperthermic temperature of 43 °C in vitro. Comparison of MKN45 cell proliferation in the presence and absence of KNK437 at 43 °C, revealed that proliferation was significantly decreased when HSP110 was inhibited by KNK437. Additionally, HSP110 suppression via HSP inhibitor treatment increased cellular sensitivity to hyperthermo-chemotherapy in vitro. CONCLUSION: The expression of nuclear HSP110 in GC patients might be a new marker of chemosensitivity and a therapeutic target for patients who are tolerant to existing hyperthermo-chemotherapies.

Nuclear PRMT1 expression is associated with poor prognosis and chemosensitivity in gastric cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Metastatic and refractory gastric cancer (GC) are associated with a poor prognosis; therefore, the identification of prognostic factors and chemosensitivity markers is extremely important. Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) may play a role in chemosensitivity/apoptosis induction via activation of the tumor suppressor forkhead box O1 (FOXO1). The purpose of this study was to clarify the expression of and relationship between PRMT1 and FOXO1 to evaluate the applicability of PRMT1 as a prognostic marker and a therapeutic tool in GC. METHODS: We investigated the clinical and functional significance of PRMT1 and FOXO1 in 195 clinical GC samples using immunohistochemistry. We performed suppression analysis of PRMT1 using small interfering RNA to determine the biological roles of PRMT1 in chemosensitivity. RESULTS: PRMT1 and FOXO1 in GC samples were predominantly expressed in the nucleus. Patients with lower PRMT1 expression (n = 131) had suppressed nuclear accumulation of FOXO1, higher recurrence after adjuvant chemotherapy, and poorer prognosis than those with higher PRMT1 expression (n = 64). PRMT1 downregulation in GC cells by RNA interference inhibited cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil sensitivity. The expression of phosphorylated FOXO1 and phosphorylated BCL-2 antagonist of cell death was upregulated in PRMT1 small interfering RNA groups. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the evaluation of PRMT1 expression in GC is a useful predictor of poor prognosis and recurrence after adjuvant chemotherapy. Moreover, these data suggest that PRMT1 is a promising therapeutic tool for overcoming refractory GC.