NF-κB as a regulator of cancer metastasis and therapy response: A focus on epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Metastasis of tumor cells is a complex challenge and significantly diminishes the overall survival and prognosis of cancer patients. The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a well-known mechanism responsible for the invasiveness of tumor cells. A number of molecular pathways can regulate the EMT mechanism in cancer cells and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) is one of them. The nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 can induce the transcription of several genes involved in EMT induction. The present review describes NF-κB and EMT interaction in cancer cells and their association in cancer progression. Due to the oncogenic role NF-κB signaling, its activation enhances metastasis of tumor cells via EMT induction. This has been confirmed in various cancers including brain, breast, lung and gastric cancers, among others. The ZEB1/2, transforming growth factor-ß, and Slug as inducers of EMT undergo upregulation by NF-κB to promote metastasis of tumor cells. After EMT induction driven by NF-κB, a significant decrease occurs in E-cadherin levels, while N-cadherin and vimentin levels undergo an increase. The noncoding RNAs can potentially also function as upstream mediators and modulate NF-κB/EMT axis in cancers. Moreover, NF-κB/EMT axis is involved in mediating drug resistance in tumor cells. Thus, suppressing NF-κB/EMT axis can also promote the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents.

The impact of education through nurse-led telephone follow-up (telenursing) on the quality of life of COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: The widespread prevalence of COVID-19 has disrupted the social life, physical function, and daily activities of patients, leading to reduced quality of their lives. Because of the nature of this disease and its comprehensive impact on patients' lives, a follow-up based on the conditions of these patients is necessary. This study was conducted to determine the impact of nurse education and telephone follow-up (telenursing) on the quality of life of COVID-19 patients. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study included 120 COVID-19 patients discharged from 22nd-Bahman Hospital in Khaf city and was conducted over 6 months from July 20, 2020, to December 20, 2020. The participants were selected by convenience sampling method and were assigned into two matching groups. The training was delivered through telenursing based on the quality of life criteria for 1 month in the intervention group. The controls did not receive any intervention. Both groups completed the 36-item SF health survey before and 1 month after the intervention. RESULTS: The two groups were not significantly different regarding the quality of life mean scores at baseline (p = 0.61). However, after the intervention, the mean and standard deviation of the total life quality score was significantly different between the control and intervention groups (63.62 ± 3.93 versus 72.62 ± 3.51, p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Telenursing improves the life quality of COVID-19 patients. Through appropriate policies, health managers may put on the agenda the implementation of telenursing for COVID-19 patients.

STAT3 signaling in prostate cancer progression and therapy resistance: An oncogenic pathway with diverse functions.

The categorization of cancers demonstrates that prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men and it causes high death annually. Prostate cancer patients are diagnosed mainly via biomarkers such as PSA test and patients show poor prognosis. Prostate cancer cells rapidly diffuse into different parts of body and their metastasis is also a reason for death. Current therapies for prostate cancer patients include chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy as well as targeted therapy. The progression of prostate cancer cells is regulated by different factors that STAT3 signaling is among them. Growth factors and cytokines such as IL-6 can induce STAT3 signaling and it shows carcinogenic impact. Activation of STAT3 signaling occurs in prostate cancer and it promotes malignant behavior of tumor cells. Induction of STAT3 signaling increases glycolysis and proliferation of prostate cancer cells and prevents apoptosis. Furthermore, STAT3 signaling induces EMT mechanism in increasing cancer metastasis. Activation of STAT3 signaling stimulates drug resistance and the limitation of current works is lack of experiment related to role of STAT3 signaling in radio-resistance in prostate tumor. Calcitriol, capsazepine and ß-elemonic are among the compounds capable of targeting STAT3 signaling and its inhibition in prostate cancer therapy. In addition to natural products, small molecules targeting STAT3 signaling have been developed in prostate cancer therapy.

Non-coding RNAs in EMT regulation: Association with tumor progression and therapy response.

RNA molecules lacking capacity in protein translation, are known as non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Growth, differentiation and migration are influenced by ncRNAs in cells. The abnormal expression of ncRNAs contributes to development of diseases, especially cancer. On the other hand, EMT is a vital mechanism for cancer invasion and diffusion in body. In this manuscript, role of ncRNAs in EMT regulation and subsequent effect on cancer progression is investigated. The miRNAs regulate EMT by affecting signaling pathways including PI3K/Akt and PTEN to modulate cancer metastasis. Furthermore, miRNA and EMT interaction has close association with drug sensitivity of tumor cells. LncRNAs can affect EMT via targeting ZEB1/2, Twist and Snail among others and similarly, based on the impact on EMT, sensitivity of cancer cells to therapy increases or decreases. CircRNAs regulate both drug sensitivity and metastasis of cancers by affecting EMT mechanism. Noteworthy, circRNAs and lncRNAs are capable of sponging miRNAs in modulating EMT mechanism. Exosomes belong to extracellular vesicles with low size that can be secreted by cells in transferring genetic materials. The transfer of ncRNAs by exosomes is performed and they can also regulate EMT in cancer progression. Finally, ncRNAs regulating EMT mechanism are used for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.