Cutting-Edge Therapies for Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer remains a formidable global health challenge that necessitates inventive strategies to improve its therapeutic outcomes. The conventional treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, have demonstrated limitations in achieving sustained responses. Therefore, exploring novel approaches encompasses a range of interventions that show promise in enhancing the outcomes for patients with advanced or refractory cases of lung cancer. These groundbreaking interventions can potentially overcome cancer resistance and offer personalized solutions. Despite the rapid evolution of emerging lung cancer therapies, persistent challenges such as resistance, toxicity, and patient selection underscore the need for continued development. Consequently, the landscape of lung cancer therapy is transforming with the introduction of precision medicine, immunotherapy, and innovative therapeutic modalities. Additionally, a multifaceted approach involving combination therapies integrating targeted agents, immunotherapies, or traditional cytotoxic treatments addresses the heterogeneity of lung cancer while minimizing its adverse effects. This review provides a brief overview of the latest emerging therapies that are reshaping the landscape of lung cancer treatment. As these novel treatments progress through clinical trials are integrated into standard care, the potential for more effective, targeted, and personalized lung cancer therapies comes into focus, instilling renewed hope for patients facing challenging diagnoses.

Leveraging Genomic and Bioinformatic Analysis to Enhance Drug Repositioning for Dermatomyositis.

Dermatomyositis (DM) is an autoimmune disease that is classified as a type of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, which affects human skin and muscles. The most common clinical symptoms of DM are muscle weakness, rash, and scaly skin. There is currently no cure for DM. Genetic factors are known to play a pivotal role in DM progression, but few have utilized this information geared toward drug discovery for the disease. Here, we exploited genomic variation associated with DM and integrated this with genomic and bioinformatic analyses to discover new drug candidates. We first integrated genome-wide association study (GWAS) and phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) catalogs to identify disease-associated genomic variants. Biological risk genes for DM were prioritized using strict functional annotations, further identifying candidate drug targets based on druggable genes from databases. Overall, we analyzed 1239 variants associated with DM and obtained 43 drugs that overlapped with 13 target genes (JAK2, FCGR3B, CD4, CD3D, LCK, CD2, CD3E, FCGR3A, CD3G, IFNAR1, CD247, JAK1, IFNAR2). Six drugs clinically investigated for DM, as well as eight drugs under pre-clinical investigation, are candidate drugs that could be repositioned for DM. Further studies are necessary to validate potential biomarkers for novel DM therapeutics from our findings.

Non-coding RNA and lung cancer progression.

Lung cancer (LC) is a major killer disease globally. This situation is further supported by yearly increase in new LC cases and its poor 5-year survival which is less than 15%. Although a large percentage of LC cases have been attributed to smoking, a considerable amount of nonsmokers also develops this disease, thereby suggesting a genetic and/or epigenetic undertone to LC development. Several growth-related genes such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as well as tumor suppressor genes such as p53 have been implicated in LC pathogenesis and progression. Likewise, the genome only contains approximately 1% of coding regions. Hence, noncoding portion of the genome such as noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) has been studied and discovered to play a cogent role in LC pathogenesis. More precisely, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) have been studied for decades. Posttranscriptional gene modulation function of miRNAs is well established and characterized. Likewise, the antagonizing interaction between lncRNAs and miRNAs had also been proven to further control gene expression during healthy and disease conditions like LC. More recently, renewed attention toward circular RNAs [circular RNAs (circRNAs)] study showed that circRNAs can also sponge miRNAs to modulate gene expressions too. Hence, miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs seem to function within a circuit to optimally determine which gene is needed to be upregulated or downregulated in biological system. Therefore, this review will discuss important ncRNAs, namely miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA in LC progression. Paracrine effect of exosomal ncRNA will be also reviewed. In addition, the prospect of these ncRNAs in enhancing better LC treatment will be highlighted as well.