Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 10, Issue 4, 2010

In November 2008, the Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI), Bangkok, Thailand, hosted an international conference on “Recent Progress in Cancer Therapeutics”. The conference was graciously presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn, President of the CRI. Prof. Dr. Chulabhorn Mahidol opened the conference by delivering a keynote lecture on “Genetic Alterations in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in the Thai Populat Read More

Acquired deficiency of C1 inhibitor (C1-INH) with angioedema symptoms (acquired angioedema, AAE) is characterized by local increase in vascular permeability (agioedema) of the skin and the gastrointestinal and oro-pharyngo-laryngeal mucosa. The mediator of symptoms is bradykinin, a potent vasoactive peptide, released from high molecular weight kininogen when it is cleaved by plasma kallikrein a serine protease cont Read More

RNA interference (RNAi), an evolutionarily conserved sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism, is triggered by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that results in the degradation of homologous mRNA or in the inhibition of mRNA translation. The naturally occurring triggers for the RNAi pathway are small regulatory RNAs, including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), processed from longer dsRNAs by the RNAse Read More

Inflammatory conditions in selected organs increase the risk of cancer. An inflammatory component is present also in the microenvironment of tumours that are not epidemiologically related to inflammation. Compounds of the inflammatory tumour microenvironment include leukocytes, cytokines, complement components, and are orchestrated by transcription factors, such as NFkB and Stat3. Recent studies have begun Read More

Alterations in TGFß signaling are common in human cancers. TGFß has significant impact on tumor initiation and progression. Therapeutic strategies including neutralizing antibodies and small molecular inhibitors have been developed to target TGFß signaling. However, TGFß can work as both a tumor suppressor and a tumor promoter. A significant challenge to the development of successful TGFß antagonism treatmen Read More

Fast growing solid tumours generally lack an inner organisation, which causes the problem of a sufficient nutrient of each part of the tumour that then happens only by diffusion. The low oxygen supply leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible factors, which regulate a plethora of genes. The reaction of tumour cells to hypoxia can be divided into two parts: On the one hand, there are signal substances, predominantly growth f Read More

Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays a crucial role during embryogenesis. However, this signaling pathway also plays a role in normal adult tissues and in carcinogenesis, including cadmium (Cd2+) induced nephrocarcinogenesis, which is the topic of this review. Wnt/β-catenin signaling is tightly regulated in mature epithelia to balance cell proliferation, differentiation and death. This is accomplished by modulating phosphorylation Read More

The majority of melanoma cells do not express argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS), and hence cannot synthesize arginine from citrulline. Their growth and proliferation depend on exogenous supply of arginine. Arginine degradation using arginine deiminase (ADI) leads to growth inhibition and eventually cell death while normal cells which express ASS can survive. This notion has been translated into clinical trial. Pegylated A Read More

Melanoma causes a considerable public health burden because of its dramatic rise in incidence worldwide since the mid-1960s and because the metastatic disease remains incurable, has a short median survival and is characterized by resistance to almost all classes of cytotoxic agents. DNA repair pathways are multiple and are able to repair, usually in an error-free manner, all kinds of DNA damage induced by exogenous an Read More

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), also known as High Molecular Weight- Melanoma Associated Antigen, is a cell surface proteoglycan which has been recently shown to be expressed not only by melanoma cells, but also by various types of human carcinoma and sarcoma. Furthermore, at least in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck and in basal breast carcinoma, CSPG4 is expressed by cancer stem Read More

Mistletoe is often used as complementary therapy in oncology. The anti-tumor effects of mistletoe (Iscador®) are well documented in-vitro in respect to inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, segmental activation of immune competent cells and trapping of chemotherapeutic drugs within cancer cells by modulating the inhibitory potential of P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated transport of cell toxifying substances ( Read More