Bovine milk ß-casein: Structure, properties, isolation, and targeted application of isolated products.

ß-Casein, an important protein found in bovine milk, has significant potential for application in the food, pharmaceutical, and other related industries. This review first introduces the composition, structure, and functional properties of ß-casein. It then reviews the techniques for isolating ß-casein. Chemical and enzymatic isolation methods result in inactivity of ß-casein and other components in the milk, and it is difficult to control the production conditions, limiting the utilization range of products. Physical technology not only achieves high product purity and activity but also effectively preserves the biological activity of the components. The isolated ß-casein needs to be utilized effectively and efficiently for various purity products in order to achieve optimal targeted application. Bovine ß-casein, which has a purity higher than or close to that of breast ß-casein, can be used in infant formulas. This is achieved by modifying its structure through dephosphorylation, resulting in a formula that closely mimics the composition of breast milk. Bovine ß-casein, which is lower in purity than breast ß-casein, can be maximized for the preparation of functional peptides and for use as natural carriers. The remaining byproducts can be utilized as food ingredients, emulsifiers, and carriers for encapsulating and delivering active substances. Thus, realizing the intensive processing and utilization of bovine ß-casein isolation. This review can promote the industrial production process of ß-casein, which is beneficial for the sustainable development of ß-casein as a food and material. It also provides valuable insights for the development of other active substances in milk.

A High Dose of Calcitriol Inhibits Glycolysis and M2 Macrophage Polarization in the Tumor Microenvironment by Repressing mTOR Activation: in vitro and Molecular Docking Studies.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Macrophages interact with tumor cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME), which plays a crucial role in tumor progression. Cancer cells also can instruct macrophages to facilitate the spread of cancer and the growth of tumors. Thus, modulating macrophages-cancer cells interaction in the TME may be therapeutically beneficial. Although calcitriol (an active form of vitamin D) has anticancer properties, its role in TME is unclear. This study examined the role of calcitriol in the regulation of macrophages and cancer cells in the TME and its influence on the proliferation of breast cancer cells. METHODS: We modeled the TME, in vitro, by collecting conditioned medium from cancer cells (CCM) and macrophages (MCM) and culturing each cell type separately with and without (control) a high-dose (0.5 µM) calcitriol (an active form of vitamin D). An MTT assay was used to examine cell viability. Apoptosis was detected using FITC (fluorescein isothiocyanate) annexin V apoptosis detection kit. Western blotting was used to separate and identify proteins. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to analyze gene expression. Molecular docking studies were performed to evaluate the binding type and interactions of calcitriol to the GLUT1 and mTORC1 ligand-binding sites. RESULTS: Calcitriol treatment suppressed the expression of genes and proteins implicated in glycolysis (GLUT1, HKII, LDHA), promoted cancer cell apoptosis, and reduced viability and Cyclin D1gene expression in MCM-induced breast cancer cells. Additionally, calcitriol treatment suppressed mTOR activation in MCM-induced breast cancer cells. Molecular docking studies further showed efficient binding of calcitriol with GLUT1 and mTORC1. Calcitriol also inhibited CCM-mediated induction of CD206 and increased TNFα gene expression in THP1-derived macrophages. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that calcitriol may impact breast cancer progression by inhibiting glycolysis and M2 macrophage polarization via regulating mTOR activation in the TME and warrants further investigation in vivo.

Parthenolide reverses the epithelial to mesenchymal transition process in breast cancer by targeting TGFbeta1: In vitro and in silico studies.

AIMS: Breast cancer metastasis is the leading cause of mortality among breast cancer patients. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a biological process that plays a fundamental role in facilitating breast cancer metastasis. The present study assessed the efficacy of parthenolide (PTL Tanacetum parthenium) on EMT and its underlying mechanisms in both lowly metastatic, estrogen-receptor positive, MCF-7 cells and highly metastatic, triple-negative MDA-MB-231 cells. MAIN METHODS: MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with PTL (2 µM and 5 µM). Cell viability was determined by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethy lthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay. Apoptosis was analyzed by the FITC (fluorescein isothiocyanate) annexin V apoptosis detection kit. The monolayer wound scratch assay was employed to evaluate cancer cell migration. Proteins were separated and identified by Western blotting. Gene expression was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. KEY FINDINGS: PTL treatment significantly reduced cell viability and migration while inducing apoptosis in both cell lines. Also, PTL treatment reverses the EMT process by decreasing the mesenchymal marker vimentin and increasing the epithelial marker E-cadherin compared to the control treatment. Importantly, PTL downregulates TWIST1 (a transcription factor and regulator of EMT) gene expression, concomitant with the reduction of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFß1) protein and gene expression in both cell lines. Additionally, molecular docking studies suggest that PTL may induce anticancer properties by targeting TGFß1 in both breast cancer cell lines. SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings provide insights into the therapeutic potential of PTL to mitigate EMT and breast cancer metastasis. These promising results demand in vivo studies.

Brain Microvascular Pericytes-More than Bystanders in Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis.

Brain tissue contains the highest number of perivascular pericytes compared to other organs. Pericytes are known to regulate brain perfusion and to play an important role within the neurovascular unit (NVU). The high phenotypic and functional plasticity of pericytes make this cell type a prime candidate to aid physiological adaptations but also propose pericytes as important modulators in diverse pathologies in the brain. This review highlights known phenotypes of pericytes in the brain, discusses the diverse markers for brain pericytes, and reviews current in vitro and in vivo experimental models to study pericyte function. Our current knowledge of pericyte phenotypes as it relates to metastatic growth patterns in breast cancer brain metastasis is presented as an example for the crosstalk between pericytes, endothelial cells, and metastatic cells. Future challenges lie in establishing methods for real-time monitoring of pericyte crosstalk to understand causal events in the brain metastatic process.

Slow Off-Rate Modified Aptamer (SOMAmer) Proteomic Analysis of Patient-Derived Malignant Glioma Identifies Distinct Cellular Proteomes.

Malignant gliomas derive from brain glial cells and represent >75% of primary brain tumors. This includes anaplastic astrocytoma (grade III; AS), the most common and fatal glioblastoma multiforme (grade IV; GBM), and oligodendroglioma (ODG). We have generated patient-derived AS, GBM, and ODG cell models to study disease mechanisms and test patient-centered therapeutic strategies. We have used an aptamer-based high-throughput SOMAscan® 1.3K assay to determine the proteomic profiles of 1307 different analytes. SOMAscan® proteomes of AS and GBM self-organized into closely adjacent proteomes which were clearly distinct from ODG proteomes. GBM self-organized into four proteomic clusters of which SOMAscan® cluster 4 proteome predicted a highly inter-connected proteomic network. Several up- and down-regulated proteins relevant to glioma were successfully validated in GBM cell isolates across different SOMAscan® clusters and in corresponding GBM tissues. Slow off-rate modified aptamer proteomics is an attractive analytical tool for rapid proteomic stratification of different malignant gliomas and identified cluster-specific SOMAscan® signatures and functionalities in patient GBM cells.

Tumor-Associated Macrophages as Multifaceted Regulators of Breast Tumor Growth.

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women of Western countries and is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. The breast tumor microenvironment contains immune cells, fibroblasts, adipocytes, mesenchymal stem cells, and extracellular matrix. Among these cells, macrophages or tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are the major components of the breast cancer microenvironment. TAMs facilitate metastasis of the breast tumor and are responsible for poor clinical outcomes. High TAM density was also found liable for the poor prognosis of breast cancer. These observations make altering TAM function a potential therapeutic target to treat breast cancer. The present review summarizes the origin of TAMs, mechanisms of macrophage recruitment and polarization in the tumor, and the contributions of TAMs in tumor progression. We have also discussed our current knowledge about TAM-targeted therapies and the roles of miRNAs and exosomes in re-educating TAM function.

VD3 and LXR agonist (T0901317) combination demonstrated greater potency in inhibiting cholesterol accumulation and inducing apoptosis via ABCA1-CHOP-BCL-2 cascade in MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Obesity is associated with hypercholesterolemia and is a global epidemic. Epidemiological and animal studies revealed cholesterol is an essential regulator of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer progression while inhibition of cholesterol accumulation was found to prevent breast tumor growth. Individually, vitamin D and LXR agonist T0901317 showed anticancer properties. The present study investigated the effects of vitamin D3 (VD3, calcitriol), LXR agonist (T0901317) and a combination of VD3 + T0901317 on cholesterol metabolism and cancer progression in ER+ breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. VD3 or T0901317 alone reduced cholesterol accumulation significantly in MCF-7 cells concomitant with an induction of ABCA1 protein and gene expression compared to the control treatment. Most importantly, VD3 + T0901317 combination showed higher effects in reducing cholesterol levels and increasing ABCA1 protein and gene expression compared to individual treatments. Importantly, VD3 + T0901317 combination showed higher effects in increasing apoptosis as measured by annexin apoptosis assay, cell viability and was associated with induction of CHOP protein and gene expression. Additionally, the VD3 + T0901317 exerted higher effects in reducing antiapoptotic BCL-2 while increased pro-apoptotic BAX gene expression compared to the individual treatments. The present results suggest that VD3 and T0901317 combination may have an important therapeutic application to prevent obesity and hyperlipidemia mediated ER+ breast cancer progression.

The contribution of cholesterol and epigenetic changes to the pathophysiology of breast cancer.

Breast cancer​ is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in women. Accumulating evidence suggests that cholesterol plays an important role in the development of breast cancer. Even though the mechanistic link between these two factors is not well understood, one possibility is that dysregulated cholesterol metabolism may affect lipid raft and membrane fluidity and can promote tumor development. Current studies have shown oxysterol 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-HC) as a critical regulator of cholesterol and breast cancer pathogenesis. This is supported by the significantly higher expression of CYP27A1 (cytochrome P450, family 27, subfamily A, polypeptide 1) in breast cancers. This enzyme is responsible for 27-HC synthesis from cholesterol. It has been shown that 27-HC can not only increase the proliferation of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer cells but also stimulate tumor growth and metastasis in several breast cancer models. This phenomenon is surprising since 27-HC and other oxysterols generally reduce intracellular cholesterol levels by activating the liver X receptors (LXRs). Resolving this paradox will elucidate molecular pathways by which cholesterol, ER, and LXR are connected to breast cancer. These findings will also provide the rationale for evaluating pharmaceutical approaches that manipulate cholesterol or 27-HC synthesis in order to mitigate the impact of cholesterol on breast cancer pathophysiology. In addition to cholesterol, epigenetic changes including non-coding RNAs, and microRNAs, DNA methylation, and histone modifications, have all been shown to control tumorigenesis. The purpose of this review is to discuss the link between altered cholesterol metabolism and epigenetic modification during breast cancer progression.

Vitamin D3 decreases glycolysis and invasiveness, and increases cellular stiffness in breast cancer cells.

Breast cancer is one of the major causes of death in the USA. Cancer cells, including breast, have high glycolysis rates to meet their energy demands for survival and growth. Vitamin D3 (VD3) is important for many important physiological processes such as bone mineralization, but its anticancer role is yet to be proven. We find that VD3 treatment significantly down-regulates glycolytic enzymes and genes and decreases glucose uptake - for both lowly metastatic MCF-7 and highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 (MB231) breast cancer cells. VD3 also significantly decreases cell viability by inducing apoptosis - consistent with decreased expression of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which regulates glycolysis and cancer cell survival, and increases 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation. These changes accompany a significant reduction of cell migration and increased cell stiffness, presumably a consequence of reversal of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition resulting in increased E-cadherin, and F-actin, and reduced vimentin expression. High levels of cytoskeletal and cortical F-actin may cause high cell stiffness. VD3-induced mechanical changes are stronger in highly metastatic MB231 than in lowly metastatic MCF-7 cells. Our results suggest therapeutic and preventive roles of VD3 in breast cancer.

Prevalence of CYP2C19 alleles, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variation of clopidogrel and prasugrel in Bangladeshi population.

The extent to which cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C19 genotype influences the effectiveness of clopidogrel remains uncertain due to considerable heterogeneity between studies. We used the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method for genotyping loss of function (LOF) allele, CYP2C19*2 and gain of function (GOF) allele, CYP2C19*17 in 163 patients undergoing PCI and 165 healthy volunteers from an ethnically distinctive Bangladeshi population. Thirty-eight patients took prasugrel and 125 patients took clopidogrel among whom 30 patients had their clopidogrel active metabolites (CAM) determined by LC-MS/MS 1-1.5 h after clopidogrel intake. All patients who underwent PCI had their P2Y12 per cent inhibition (PRI) measured by VerifyNow System. The impact of different genotypes on CAM and PRI were also determined. We did not find significant variation of CYP2C19*2 (P > 0.05) and CYP2C9*17 (P > 0.05) alleles among healthy volunteers and patients. CAM concentration as well as PRI by clopidogrel varied significantly (P < 0.05) based on genotypic variation of CYP2C19*2 and CYP2C19*17 individually. Such influence was not observed in case of prasugrel. Genotypic variation did not impact PRI but as a whole PRI by prasugrel was better than that of clopidogrel (P < 0.05). Due to presence of both of alleles the effect on PRI by clopidogrel could not be predicted, effectively indicating possible involvement of other factors. Genotype guided clopidogrel dose adjustment would be beneficial and therefore we propose mandatory genotyping before clopidogrel dosing. Prasugrel proved to be less affected by genotypic variability, but due to lack of sufficient long-term toxicity data, caution would be adopted before substituting clopidogrel.