One Stone, Two Birds: A Peptide-Au(I) Infinite Coordination Supermolecule for the Confederate Physical and Biological Radiosensitization in Cancer Radiation Therapy.

Over half of cancer patients are subjected to radiotherapy, but owing to the deficient amount of reactive oxygen radicals (ROS) and DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), a fair number of them suffer from radiotherapy resistance and the subsequent short-term survival opportunity. To overcome it, many successes have been achieved in radiosensitizer discovery using physical strategy and/or biological strategy, but significant challenges remain regarding developing clinically translational radiosensitizers. Herein, a peptide-Au(I) infinite coordination supermolecule termed PAICS is developed that combined both physical and biological radiosensitization and possessed pharmaceutical characteristics including adequate circulatory stability, controllable drug release, tumor-prioritized accumulation, and the favorable body eliminability. As expected, monovalent gold ion endowed this supermolecule with high X-ray absorption and the subsequent radiosensitization. Furthermore, a peptide targeting CRM1, is assembled into the supermolecule, which successfully activates p53 and apoptosis pathway, thereby further sensitizing radiotherapy. As a result, PAICS showed superior ability for radiotherapy sensitization in vivo and maintained a favorable safety profile. Thus, the PAICS reported here will offer a feasible solution to simultaneously overcome both the pharmaceutical obstacles of physical and biological radiosensitizers and will enable the development of a class of nanomedicines for tumor radiotherapy sensitization.

All-In-One Biomimetic Nanoplatform Based on Hollow Polydopamine Nanoparticles for Synergistically Enhanced Radiotherapy of Colon Cancer.

Even though radiotherapy is the most important therapeutic strategy for colon cancer treatment, there is an enormous demand to improve radiosensitivity in solid tumor destruction. For this purpose, a biomimetic nanoplatform based on hollow polydopamine nanoparticles (HP) with homologous targeting and pH-responsive drug release properties is designed. In this work, HP is constructed by using a chelation competition-induced polymerization strategy and then modified with the cancer cell membrane. Hollow polydopamine integrated with Pt nanoparticles (Pt@HP) has a catalase-like activity, which can be used to trigger endogenous H2 O2 into O2 , relieving hypoxia of the tumor microenvironment (TME). With mesoporous shells and large cavities, Pt@HP shows efficient apoptin100-109 (AP) and verteporfin (VP) loading to form AVPt@HP@M. Under X-ray irradiation, AVPt@HP@M exerts a radiosensitization effect via multiple strategies, including relieving hypoxia (Pt NPs), enhancing tumor apoptosis (AP), and X-ray-induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) (VP). Further metabonomics analysis shows that the specific mechanism of the AVPt@HP@M is through influencing purine metabolism. Without appreciable systemic toxicity, this nanoplatform highlights a new strategy for effective radiosensitization and provides a reference for treating malignant tumors.

Integrative, genome-wide association study identifies chemicals associated with common women's malignancies.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer are three of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in women, and more cancer prevention research is urgently needed. METHODS: Summary data of a large genome-wide association study of female cancers were derived from the UK biobank. We performed a transcriptome-wide association study and a gene set enrichment analysis to identify correlations between chemical exposure and aberrant expression, repression, or mutation of genes related to cancer using the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. RESULTS: We identified five chemicals (NSC668394, glafenine, methylnitronitrosoguanidine, fenofibrate, and methylparaben) that were associated with the incidence of both breast cancer and cervical cancer. CONCLUSION: Using a transcriptome-wide association study and gene set enrichment analysis we identified environmental chemicals that are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer.

Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis for Identificating the Therapeutic Targets of Aspirin in Small Cell Lung Cancer.

PURPOSE: We explored the mechanism of aspirin in SCLC by dissecting many publicly available databases. METHODS AND RESULTS: Firstly, 11 direct protein targets (DPTs) of aspirin were identified by DrugBank 5.0. Then protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and signaling pathways of aspirin DPTs were analyzed. We found that aspirin was linked with many kinds of cancer, and the most significant one is SCLC. Next, we classified the mutation of 4 aspirin DPTs in SCLC (IKBKB, NFKBIA, PTGS2 and TP53) using cBio Portal. Further, we identified top 50 overexpressed genes of SCLC by Oncomine, and the interconnected genes with the 4 aspirin DPTs in SCLC (IKBKB, NFKBIA, PTGS2 and TP53) by STRING. Lastly, we figured out 5 consistently genes as potential therapeutic targets of aspirin in SCLC. CONCLUSION: The integrated bioinformatical analysis could improve our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism about how aspirin working in SCLC. Integrated bioinformatical analysis may be considered as a new paradigm for guiding future studies about interaction in drugs and diseases.

Cocktail hepatocarcinoma therapy by a super-assembled nano-pill targeting XPO1 and ATR synergistically.

Intensive cancer treatment with drug combination is widely exploited in the clinic but suffers from inconsistent pharmacokinetics among different therapeutic agents. To overcome it, the emerging nanomedicine offers an unparalleled opportunity for encapsulating multiple drugs in a nano-carrier. Herein, a two-step super-assembled strategy was performed to unify the pharmacokinetics of a peptide and a small molecular compound. In this proof-of-concept study, the bioinformatics analysis firstly revealed the potential synergies towards hepatoma therapy for the associative inhibition of exportin 1 (XPO1) and ataxia telangiectasia mutated-Rad3-related (ATR), and then a super-assembled nano-pill (gold nano drug carrier loaded AZD6738 and 97-110 amino acids of apoptin (AP) (AA@G)) was constructed through camouflaging AZD6738 (ATR small-molecule inhibitor)-binding human serum albumin onto the AP-Au supramolecular nanoparticle. As expected, both in vitro and in vivo experiment results verified that the AA@G possessed extraordinary biocompatibility and enhanced therapeutic effect through inducing cell cycle arrest, promoting DNA damage and inhibiting DNA repair of hepatoma cell. This work not only provides a co-delivery strategy for intensive liver cancer treatment with the clinical translational potential, but develops a common approach to unify the pharmacokinetics of peptide and small-molecular compounds, thereby extending the scope of drugs for developing the advanced combination therapy.

Application of Radiosensitizers in Cancer Radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy (RT) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Although great success has been achieved on radiotherapy, there is still an intractable challenge to enhance radiation damage to tumor tissue and reduce side effects to healthy tissue. Radiosensitizers are chemicals or pharmaceutical agents that can enhance the killing effect on tumor cells by accelerating DNA damage and producing free radicals indirectly. In most cases, radiosensitizers have less effect on normal tissues. In recent years, several strategies have been exploited to develop radiosensitizers that are highly effective and have low toxicity. In this review, we first summarized the applications of radiosensitizers including small molecules, macromolecules, and nanomaterials, especially those that have been used in clinical trials. Second, the development states of radiosensitizers and the possible mechanisms to improve radiosensitizers sensibility are reviewed. Third, the challenges and prospects for clinical translation of radiosensitizers in oncotherapy are presented.

Identification of significant genes and therapeutic agents for breast cancer by integrated genomics.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in women; thus, more cancer prevention research is urgently needed. The aim of this study was to predict potential therapeutic agents for breast cancer and determine their molecular mechanisms using integrated bioinformatics. Summary data from a large genome-wide association study of breast cancer was derived from the UK Biobank. The gene expression profile of breast cancer was from the Oncomine database. We performed a network-wide association study and gene set enrichment analysis to identify the significant genes in breast cancer. Then, we performed Gene Ontology analysis using the STRING database and conducted Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis using Cytoscape software. We verified our results using the Gene Expression Profile Interactive Analysis, PROgeneV2, and Human Protein Atlas databases. Connectivity map analysis was used to identify small-molecule compounds that are potential therapeutic agents for breast cancer. We identified 10 significant genes in breast cancer based on the gene expression profile and genome-wide association study. A total of 65 small-molecule compounds were found to be potential therapeutic agents for breast cancer.

Promethazine inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells by suppressing the PI3K/AKT pathway.

AIM: To elucidate the potential effect of promethazine on colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and the underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Targets of the drug promethazine (PMTZ) were identified by DrugBank and comparative toxicogenomic databases (CTD), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis was performed with STRING software. The effects of PMTZ were predicted to be associated with the PI3K/AKT pathway. Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK-8) assays were used to evaluate the effects of different concentrations of PMTZ on the proliferation of various types of CRC cells. Flow cytometry and Western blotting analyses were used to detect the degree of CRC cell apoptosis and the expression of the apoptosis-related proteins Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 after PMTZ treatment. The expression levels of PI3K/AKT pathway-related proteins [PI3K, AKT, phosphorylated (P)-PI3K and p-AKT] in CRC cells treated with PMTZ were analyzed by Western blotting. RESULTS: PMTZ inhibited the proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of CRC cells and suppressed the activation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in a dose-dependent manner. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: PMTZ may suppress the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of CRC cells by inhibiting the PI3K/ AKT signaling pathway. This study reported, for the first time, the function of PMTZ in CRC cells and the underlying mechanism and further confirmed the potential antitumor effects of phenothiazine. The combination of bioinformatics analyses and experiments provides informative evidence for the reuse of drugs and the development of new drugs.

Integrating Genome-Wide Association Studies and Gene Expression Profiles With Chemical-Genes Interaction Networks to Identify Chemicals Associated With Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and has the second highest mortality rate in global cancer. Exploring the associations between chemicals and CRC has great significance in prophylaxis and therapy of tumor diseases. This study aims to explore the relationships between CRC and environmental chemicals on genetic basis by bioinformatics analysis. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) datasets for CRC were obtained from the UK Biobank. The GWAS data for colon cancer (category C18) includes 2,581 individuals and 449,683 controls, while that of rectal cancer (category C20) includes 1,244 individuals and 451,020 controls. In addition, we derived CRC gene expression datasets from the NCBI-GEO (GSE106582). The chemicals related gene sets were acquired from the comparative toxicogenomics database (CTD). Transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) analysis was applied to CRC GWAS summary data and calculated the expression association testing statistics by FUSION software. We performed chemicals related gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) by integrating GWAS summary data, mRNA expression profiles of CRC and the CTD chemical-gene interaction networks to identify relationships between chemicals and genes of CRC. We observed several significant correlations between chemicals and CRC. Meanwhile, we also detected 5 common chemicals between colon and rectal cancer, including methylnitronitrosoguanidine, isoniazid, PD 0325901, sulindac sulfide, and importazole. Our study performed TWAS and GSEA analysis, linked prior knowledge to newly generated data and thereby helped identifying chemicals related to tumor genes, which provides new clues for revealing the associations between environmental chemicals and cancer.

Tamoxifen induces fatty liver disease in breast cancer through the MAPK8/FoxO pathway.

BACKGROUND: Prevention of metabolic complications of long-term adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancers remained a challenge. We aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism in the development of tamoxifen (TAM)-induced fatty liver in both estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and ER-negative breast cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS: First, the direct protein targets (DPTs) of TAM were identified using DrugBank5.1.7. We found that mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 (MAPK8) was one DPT of TAM. We identified significant genes in breast cancer and fatty liver disease (FLD) using the MalaCards human disease database. Next, we analyzed the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways of those significant genes in breast cancer and FLD using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING). We found that overlapping KEGG pathways in these two diseases were MAPK signaling pathway, Forkhead box O (FoxO) signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, the KEGG Mapper showed that the MAPK signaling pathway was related to the FoxO signaling pathway. Finally, the functional relevance of breast cancer and TAM-induced FLD was validated by Western blot analysis. We verified that TAM may induce fatty liver in breast cancer through the MAPK8/FoxO signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: Bioinformatics analysis combined with conventional experiments may improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying side effects of cancer drugs, thereby making this method a new paradigm for guiding future studies on this issue.

Propranolol selectively inhibits cervical cancer cell growth by suppressing the cGMP/PKG pathway.

AIM: To observe the effect of propranolol in cervical cancer and investigate the mechanism of the effect． METHODS AND RESULTS: We found 5 direct protein targets (DPTs) of propranolol (PRO) by DrugBank5.0 firstly. Next, we analyzed protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways of PRO DPTs and the result showed that PRO was linked with cGMP/PKG pathway. Then, we recognized the top 38 upexpressed genes of cervical cancer (CC) based original microarray datasets (GSE7803, GSE9750, GSE39001 and GSE63514). Further, we analyzed the biological process with the 38 overexpressed genes by STRING. We found some of overexpressed genes of CC participated in GMP biosynthetic process. Lastly, the function of PRO in CC was validated by MTT assay, Western blotting, flow cytometry and colony formation assay methods. We verified PRO can suppress cGMP/PKG pathway then inhibits CC cell growth. CONCLUSION: The bioinformatical analysis combine with traditional experiment can help us understanding potential molecular mechanism about how PRO acting in CC. This method is a new paradigm which can guide future researches about mechanism in existing diseases and drugs.

SPOP regulates the DNA damage response and lung adenocarcinoma cell response to radiation.

Speckle-type POZ protein (SPOP) plays an important role in maintaining genome stability. Disability or mutation of the SPOP gene has been reported to contribute to prostate cancer incidence and prognosis. However, the functions of SPOP in lung cancer remain poorly understood, especially in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Here, we found that SPOP affects the LUAD cell response to radiation by regulating the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway. SPOP is widely expressed in lung cancer cell lines, and SPOP protein levels are upregulated when cells experience DNA damage. SPOP knockdown affects DDR repair kinetics, apoptosis and cell cycle checkpoints that are induced by IR (ionizing radiation). Furthermore, we found that SPOP positively regulates the expression of DDR factors Rad51 and Ku80. Taken together, these data indicate the essential roles of SPOP in the DDR signaling pathways and LUAD cell response to radiation.

Evaluation of the target genes of arsenic trioxide in pancreatic cancer by bioinformatics analysis.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential network of arsenic trioxide (ATO) target genes in pancreatic cancer. The DrugBank, STITCH, cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier plotter and Oncomine websites were used to analyze the association of ATO and its target genes with pancreatic cancer. Initially, 19 ATO target genes were identified, along with their associated protein-protein interaction networks and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. ATO was found to be associated with multiple types of cancer, and the most common solid cancer was pancreatic cancer. A total of 6 ATO target genes (namely AKT1, CCND1, CDKN2A, IKBKB, MAPK1 and MAPK3) were found to be associated with pancreatic cancer. Next, the mutation information of the 6 ATO target genes in pancreatic cancer was collected. A total of 20 ATO interacting genes were identified, which were mainly involved in hepatitis B, prostate cancer, pathways in cancer, glioma and chronic myeloid leukemia. Finally, the genes CCND1 and MAPK1 were detected to be prognostic factors in patients with pancreatic cancer. In conclusion, bioinformatics analysis may help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the involvement of ATO in pancreatic cancer, enabling more effective treatment of this disease.

Transcriptome-wide association study identifies multiple genes and pathways associated with pancreatic cancer.

AIM: To identify novel candidate genes for pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We performed a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) analysis of pancreatic cancer (PC). GWAS summary data were driven from the published studies of PC, totally involving 558 542 SNPs in 1896 individuals with pancreatic cancer and 1939 healthy controls. FUSION software was applied to the PC GWAS summary data for tissue-related TWAS analysis, including whole blood, peripheral blood, adipose, and pancreas. The functional relevance of identified genes with PC was further validated by Oncomine, STRING, and CluePedia tool. RESULTS: Transcriptome-wide association study analysis identified 19 genes significantly associated with PC, such as LRP5L (P value = 5.21 × 10-5 ), SOX4 (P value = 3.2 × 10-4 ), and EGLN3 (P value = 6.2 × 10-3 ). KEGG pathway enrichment analysis detected several PC-associated pathways, such as One carbon pool by folate (P value = 1.60 × 10-16 ), Cell cycle (P value = 1.27 × 10-7 ), TGF-beta signaling pathway (P value = 4.64 × 10-6 ). Further comparing the 19 genes with previously identified overexpressed genes in PC patients found one overlapped gene SOX4. CONCLUSION: We identified some novel candidate genes and pathways associated with PC. Our results provide novel clues for the genetic mechanism studies of pancreatic cancer.