Current Cancer Drug Targets - Volume 13, Issue 6, 2013

Isodon rubescens, a Chinese herb, has been used as a folk, botanical medicine in China for inflammatory diseases and cancer treatment for many years. Recently, we isolated a new ent-kaurene diterpenoid, named Jaridonin, from Isodon rubescens. The chemical structure of Jaridonin was verified by Infrared (IR), Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Mass spectrum (MS) data as well as X-ray spectra. Jaridonin potently r Read More

Hydroxytyrosol, an important polyphenolic compound found in olive oil, has shown anti-tumor activity both in vitro and in vivo. However, effects of hydroxytyrosol on prostate cancer are largely unkown. We found that hydroxytyrosol preferentially reduces the viability of human prostate cancer cells (PC-3, DU145) compared to an immortalized non-malignant prostate epithelial cell line (RWPE-1). Exposure of PC-3 cells to 80 µmol/ Read More

We have shown previously that withaferin A (WA), which is a highly promising anticancer constituent of Ayurvedic medicine plant Withania somnifera, inhibits viability of cultured breast cancer cells in association with reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent apoptosis induction. Because ROS production is implicated in induction of autophagy, which is an evolutionary conserved process for bulk degradation of cell Read More

Identification and validation of molecular targets are considered as key elements in new drug discovery and development. We have recently demonstrated that a novel synthetic iminoquinone analog, termed [7-(benzylamino)- 1,3,4,8-tetrahydropyrrolo [4,3, 2-de]quinolin-8(1H)-one] (BA-TPQ), has significant anti-breast cancer activity both in vitro and in vivo, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understo Read More

Aberrant DNA methylation is a key pathological mechanism in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and provides rationale for the clinical development of hypomethylating agents (HMAs) for the treatment of these diseases. One HMA, azacitidine (Vidaza®, Celgene Corp.), has demonstrated improved survival versus conventional care regimens in patients with intermediate-2/high-risk MDS a Read More

The heterogeneous distribution of hypoxic regions within solid tumors renders them refractive to chemo- and radio-therapies and contributes positively to tumor invasion and metastasis. Moreover, hypoxia favors the enrichment of cancer stem cells by interacting with differentiation signals via the maintenance of stem cell properties of undifferentiated cells or via the induction of cellular dedifferentiation. The discovery of th Read More

Aberrant expression of the RON receptor tyrosine kinase contributes to breast cancer malignancy. Although clinical trials of RON targeting are underway, the intriguing issue is the diversity of RON expression as evident by cancer cells expressing different variants including oncogenic RON160. The current study determines aberrant RON160 expression in breast cancer and its potential as a target for breast cancer ther Read More

Ovarian cancer (OC) carries a poor prognosis; however, accumulating molecular data for the major histologic subtypes may lead to subtype-specific treatment paradigms. The present review discusses what is currently understood about the major molecular and histologic subgroups of OC. Areas specifically addressed include hormonal pathways, tumor protein p53 (TP53) and AT rich interactive domain 1A (SWI-like; ARI Read More