| 11. |
- D'Arcy, Pádraig, et al.
(författare)
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Inhibition of proteasome deubiquitinating activity as a novel cancer therapy
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature Medicine. - Stockholm : Karolinska Institutet, Dept of Oncology-Pathology. - 1546-170X .- 1078-8956.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ubiquitin-tagged substrates are degraded by the 26S proteasome, which is a multisubunit complex comprising a proteolytic 20S core particle capped by 19S regulatory particles. The approval of bortezomib for the treatment of multiple myeloma validated the 20S core particle as an anticancer drug target. Here we describe the small molecule b-AP15 as a previously unidentified class of proteasome inhibitor that abrogates the deubiquitinating activity of the 19S regulatory particle. b-AP15 inhibited the activity of two 19S regulatory-particle-associated deubiquitinases, ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase 5 (UCHL5) and ubiquitin-specific peptidase 14 (USP14), resulting in accumulation of polyubiquitin. b-AP15 induced tumor cell apoptosis that was insensitive to TP53 status and overexpression of the apoptosis inhibitor BCL2. We show that treatment with b-AP15 inhibited tumor progression in four different in vivo solid tumor models and inhibited organ infiltration in an acute myeloid leukemia model. Our results show that the deubiquitinating activity of the 19S regulatory particle is a new anticancer drug target.
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| 12. |
- D'Arcy, Padraig, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular Pathways : Translational Potential of Deubiquitinases as Drug Targets
- 2014
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Ingår i: Clinical Cancer Research. - 1078-0432 .- 1557-3265. ; 20:15, s. 3908-3914
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is the main system for controlled protein degradation and a key regulator of fundamental cellular processes. The dependency of cancer cells on a functioning UPS coupled with the clinical success of bortezomib for the treatment of multiple myeloma have made the UPS an obvious target for drug development. Deubiquitinases (DUB) are components of the UPS that encompass a diverse family of ubiquitin isopeptidases that catalyze the removal of ubiquitin moieties from target proteins or from polyubiquitin chains, resulting in altered signaling or changes in protein stability. Increasing evidence has implicated deregulation of DUB activity in the initiation and progression of cancer. The altered pattern of DUB expression observed in many tumors can potentially serve as a clinical marker for predicting disease outcome and therapy response. The finding of DUB overexpression in tumor cells suggests that they may serve as novel targets for the development of anticancer therapies. Several specific and broad-spectrum DUB inhibitors are shown to have antitumor activity in preclinical in vivo models with low levels of systemic toxicity. Future studies will hopefully establish the clinical potential for DUB inhibitors as a strategy to treat cancer.
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| 13. |
- De Petris, Luigi, et al.
(författare)
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Diagnostic and prognostic role of plasma levels of two forms of cytokeratin 18 in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Journal of Cancer. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-8049 .- 1879-0852. ; 47:1, s. 131-137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PURPOSE:Cytokeratin 18 (CK18) can be used as a serum biomarker for carcinoma cell death, whereas caspase-cleaved (ccCK18) fragments reflect tumour apoptosis. We explored the potential diagnostic and prognostic role of circulating CK18 and ccCK18 in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in comparison with Cyfra 21.1, a fragment of cytokeratin 19.METHODS:Subject cohorts consisted of 200 healthy blood donors (HBD), 113 patients with benign lung diseases (BLD) and 179 NSCLC cases. Plasma levels of ccCK18, total CK18 and Cyfra 21.1 were determined with ELISA assays.RESULTS:Plasma levels of ccCK18 and total CK18 were higher in the NSCLC group compared to the HBD and BLD cohorts (p<0.0001). Using a cut-off of 104 U/L for ccCK18 and 302 U/L for total CK18 (95% specificity in the HBD group) the diagnostic accuracy of both CK18 forms to distinguish between NSCLC and BLD cases was 56%, whereas it was 94% for Cyfra 21.1. Multivariate survival analysis showed that total CK18 was a stronger prognostic factor than both ccCK18 and Cyfra 21.1 (HR 0.64 for low versus high total CK18 levels, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.50-0.82; p=0.0004) in the entire NSCLC cohort and in 78 patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease treated with chemoradiotherapy or first-line chemotherapy (HR 0.70 95% CI 0.52-0.94; p=0.018).CONCLUSIONS:Cyfra 21.1 is a useful diagnostic biomarker for NSCLC. Total CK18 shows a promising potential as prognostic marker in NSCLC patients, independently of the therapeutical intervention. In contrast, ccCK18 was not of prognostic value in NSCLC, suggesting that tumour necrosis is of particular importance in this disease.
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| 14. |
- Emmings, Edith, et al.
(författare)
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Targeting Mitochondria for Treatment of Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Molecular Sciences. - : MDPI. - 1661-6596 .- 1422-0067. ; 20:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancy in the Western world. This is due, in part, to the fact that despite standard treatment of surgery and platinum/paclitaxel most patients recur with ultimately chemoresistant disease. Ovarian cancer is a unique form of solid tumor that develops, metastasizes and recurs in the same space, the abdominal cavity, which becomes a unique microenvironment characterized by ascites, hypoxia and low glucose levels. It is under these conditions that cancer cells adapt and switch to mitochondrial respiration, which becomes crucial to their survival, and therefore an ideal metabolic target for chemoresistant ovarian cancer. Importantly, independent of microenvironmental factors, mitochondria spatial redistribution has been associated to both tumor metastasis and chemoresistance in ovarian cancer while specific sets of genetic mutations have been shown to cause aberrant dependence on mitochondrial pathways in the most aggressive ovarian cancer subtypes. In this review we summarize on targeting mitochondria for treatment of chemoresistant ovarian cancer and current state of understanding of the role of mitochondria respiration in ovarian cancer. We feel this is an important and timely topic given that ovarian cancer remains the deadliest of the gynecological diseases, and that the mitochondrial pathway has recently emerged as critical in sustaining solid tumor progression.
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| 15. |
- Eriksson, Ida, 1985-
(författare)
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Dealing with damaged lysosomes : Impact of lysosomal membrane stability in health and disease
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The lysosome is the main unit for degradation and plays important roles in various cellular processes, such as nutrient sensing, cholesterol regulation and cell death. Consequently, altered lysosomal function contributes to, or even causes, several diseases. Lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) and release of lysosomal content to the cytosol can induce cell death, and is implicated in inflammation and neuronal decline in several neurodegenerative diseases. It has also emerged as a potential target in cancer therapy. Due to the detrimental effects of LMP, cells harbor several mechanisms to protect and prevent lysosomal membrane damage. The aim of this thesis was to elucidate how lysosomal membrane stability and repair mechanisms affect cell death and survival. We find that lysosomal cholesterol is upregulated in response to an increased load of reactive oxygen species in a Parkinson’s disease cell model, and that augmented cholesterol protects from LMP. However, cholesterol also induces accumulation of α-synuclein and inhibits lysosome-mediated degradation, which can destabilize the lysosomal membrane and accelerate the course of disease. Further, we demonstrate that lysosomal membrane damage is counteracted by a calcium-dependent repair mechanism to prevent LMP. Lysosomes damaged beyond repair are instead sequestered in an autophagosome and degraded by intact lysosomes in a process called lysophagy. As a result, small vesicles containing lysosomal membrane proteins are generated, which we believe are used to restore lysosomal function. We show that malignant cells are more sensitive to LMP, and that they differ in their activation of damage-response mechanisms compared to normal cells. Moreover, in malignant cells, the intracellular position of the lysosomes determines the susceptibility to lysosomal damage. Peripherally located lysosomes are less sensitive, and by relocating lysosomes to the perinuclear area in the cell, we can sensitize lysosomes to LMP induction. In summary, this thesis demonstrates the importance of damage-response mechanisms to protect from lysosomal membrane damage and maintain cellular function. It also indicates that targeting of lysosomal stability and repair is a potential therapeutic strategy in both neurodegenerative diseases and in cancer.
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| 16. |
- Eriksson, Mathilda, et al.
(författare)
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Utilization of a right-handed coiled-coil protein from archaebacterium Staphylothermus marinus as a carrier for cisplatin
- 2009
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Ingår i: Anticancer Research. - 0250-7005 .- 1791-7530. ; 29:1, s. 11-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The nano-sized right-handed coiled-coil (RHCC) protein, originating from the archaebacterium Staphylothermus marinus, is stable at high salt concentrations, high temperatures, high pressures and extremes of pH. Its crystal structure reveals four hydrophobic cavities which can incorporate heavy metals. Nano-sized compounds have been used to carry cytotoxic drugs to tumours, avoiding delivery to healthy tissue, in part due to enhanced permeability in tumour blood vessels (enhanced permeability and retention effect). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The ability of RHCC to carry the platinum-containing chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin to cells, while retaining the cytotoxic potential was tested both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: RHCC was able to bind and enter cells in vitro and was not severely toxic or immunogenic in mice. Moreover, RHCC incorporated cisplatin, without inhibiting the cytotoxic potential of the drug against tumour cell lines in vitro or in vivo. CONCLUSION: RHCC can be used as a carrier of cisplatin without abrogating the effect of the drug.
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| 17. |
- Fayad, W., et al.
(författare)
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A systematic multicellular spheroids screening approach lead to the identification of antineoplastic activity in three different plant extracts from the Egyptian flora
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science. - : Medipoeia Publication. - 2231-3354. ; 7:6, s. 13-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developing natural products as potential antineoplastic drugs is a meticulous process involving both compound isolation and biological testing. Many studies are based on primary screening using tumor cell viability as the readout followed by compound isolation. We here present an approach which utilizes both 2-D and 3-D cultured of tumor cells for screening and immortalized human non-transformed cells for counter screening. This procedure increases the precision of identifying tumor-specific cytotoxic compounds with interesting pharmacological properties. Using this straight-forward approach, we screened 500 plant extracts from the Egyptian flora for anticancer activity. The primary screen on 2-D cultured cells yielded 41 hits, 12 of which showed significant cytotoxicity on 3-D cultured cells. Of these, 4 extracts showed limited cytoxicity to normal cells. We conclude that only ~10% of the cytotoxic extracts showed desired properties with regard to tumor parenchyme penetration and tumor-specific activity. Extracts from Euphorbia dendroides L. herb, Ononis vaginalis Vahl. herb and Quercus robur L. branches were found to induce tumor apoptosis and were considered the most promising. These three extracts showed significant inhibition in the Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in vivo model and did not show severe toxicity on healthy animals.
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| 18. |
- Fayad, Walid, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of a novel topoisomerase inhibitor effective in cells overexpressing drug efflux transporters
- 2009
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 4:10, s. e7238-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Natural product structures have high chemical diversity and are attractive as lead structures for discovery of new drugs. One of the disease areas where natural products are most frequently used as therapeutics is oncology. METHOD AND FINDINGS: A library of natural products (NCI Natural Product set) was screened for compounds that induce apoptosis of HCT116 colon carcinoma cells using an assay that measures an endogenous caspase-cleavage product. One of the apoptosis-inducing compounds identified in the screen was thaspine (taspine), an alkaloid from the South American tree Croton lechleri. The cortex of this tree is used for medicinal purposes by tribes in the Amazonas basin. Thaspine was found to induce conformational activation of the pro-apoptotic proteins Bak and Bax, mitochondrial cytochrome c release and mitochondrial membrane permeabilization in HCT116 cells. Analysis of the gene expression signature of thaspine-treated cells suggested that thaspine is a topoisomerase inhibitor. Inhibition of both topoisomerase I and II was observed using in vitro assays, and thaspine was found to have a reduced cytotoxic effect on a cell line with a mutated topoisomerase II enzyme. Interestingly, in contrast to the topoisomerase II inhibitors doxorubicin, etoposide and mitoxantrone, thaspine was cytotoxic to cell lines overexpressing the PgP or MRP drug efflux transporters. We finally show that thaspine induces wide-spread apoptosis in colon carcinoma multicellular spheroids and that apoptosis is induced in two xenograft mouse models in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: The alkaloid thaspine from the cortex of Croton lechleri is a dual topoisomerase inhibitor effective in cells overexpressing drug efflux transporters and induces wide-spread apoptosis in multicellular spheroids.
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| 19. |
- Fayad, Walid, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of Agents that Induce Apoptosis of Multicellular Tumour Spheroids : Enrichment for Mitotic Inhibitors with Hydrophobic Properties
- 2011
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Ingår i: Chemical Biology and Drug Design. - : Wiley. - 1747-0277 .- 1747-0285. ; 78:4, s. 547-557
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cell-based anticancer drug screening generally utilizes rapidly proliferating tumour cells grown as monolayer cultures. Hit compounds from such screens are not necessarily effective on hypoxic and slowly proliferating cells in 3-D tumour tissue. The aim of this study was to examine the potential usefulness of 3-D cultured tumour cells for anticancer drug screening. We used colon carcinoma multicellular spheroids containing hypoxic and quiescent cells in core areas for this purpose. Three libraries (similar to 11 000 compounds) were screened using antiproliferative activity and/or apoptosis as end-points. Screening of monolayer and spheroid cultures was found to identify different sets of hit compounds. Spheroid screening enriched for hydrophobic compounds: median XLogP values of 4.3 and 4.4 were observed for the hits in two independent screening campaigns. Mechanistic analysis revealed that the majority of spheroid screening hits were microtubuli inhibitors. One of these inhibitors was examined in detail and found to be effective against non-dividing cells in the hypoxic centres of spheroids. Spheroid screening represents a conceptually new strategy for anticancer drug discovery. Our findings have implications for drug library design and hit selection in projects aimed to develop drugs for the treatment of solid tumours.
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| 20. |
- Felth, Jenny, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Gambogic acid is cytotoxic to cancer cells through inhibition of the ubiquitin-proteasome system
- 2013
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Ingår i: Investigational new drugs. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0167-6997 .- 1573-0646. ; 31:3, s. 587-598
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Gambogic acid (GA), displays cytotoxicity towards a wide variety of tumor cells and has been shown to affect many important cell-signaling pathways. In the present work, we investigated the mechanism of action of GA by analysis of drug-induced changes in gene expression profiles and identified GA and the derivative dihydro GA as possible inhibitors of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Both GA and dihydro GA inhibited proteasome function in cells resulting in the accumulation of polyubiquitin complexes. In vitro experiments showed that both GA and dihydro GA inhibited 20S chymotrypsin activity and the inhibitory effects of GA and dihydro GA on proteasome function corresponded with apoptosis induction and cell death. In conclusion, our results show that GA and dihydro GA exert their cytotoxic activity through inhibition of the UPS, specifically by acting as inhibitors of the chymotrypsin activity of the 20S proteasome.
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