Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 10, 2015

Globally, the cancer associated deaths are generally attributed to the spread of cancerous cells or their features to the nearby or distant secondary organs by a process known as metastasis. Among other factors, the metastatic dissemination of cancer cells is attributed to the reactivation of an evolutionary conserved developmental program known as epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). During EMT, fully differentiated e Read More

Pancreatic cancer, often considered a metastatic disease at the time of clinical diagnosis due to lack of any reliable early diagnostic marker(s), is refractory to conventional chemo- and radiotherapy and has a dismal 5-year survival rate of only 6%. Although surgical removal of the primary tumor is considered to be curative, the 5-year survival rate is no more than 20% even in patients with clear resection margins (R0). The Read More

As an important basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, Twist associates with several physiological processes such as mesodermal development, and pathological processes such as Saethre-Chotzen syndrome. During cancer progression, Twist induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), potentiating cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Although many studies have revealed its multiple biological roles, it re Read More

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) still remains one of the most fatal human malignant tumors. Long-term survival rate is still extremely pathetic even for patients who receive surgery. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is a physiologic process of morphological as well as genetic changes in carcinoma cells, plays a vital role in aggressiveness of PDAC. Meanwhile EMT is also the reason why pancreatic ca Read More

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most malignant cancers in human brain. The prognosis of GBM is extremely poor because it is resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Improving understanding of the tumor biology brings some new hope to the treatment of GBM. In this review, we discuss the evidence that FoxM1 promotes the development and progression of GBM by regulating key factors involved in cel Read More

Intratumoral hypoxia followed by stabilization/activation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) and its downstream transcriptional factors, is one of the most important mechanisms inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which has been widely accepted as a crucial step to generate early stage of tumor metastasis. Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms play important roles in hypoxia-induced E Read More

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a highly conserved cellular process that transforms epithelial cells into mesenchymal cells; EMT is involved in normal embryogenesis and tissue repair and contributes to tumor progression, including tumor metastasis, therapy resistance and disease recurrence. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a fraction of undifferentiated cancer cells that exhibit stem cell-like features. Th Read More

Malignant tumors aberrantly overexpress various embryonic genes and proto-oncogenes, including a variety of cancer-testis antigens (CTAs). CTAs belong to a class of testis-derived proteins which are only expressed in germ cells in the male testis, and the expression of CTA genes is entirely silenced in the adult somatic tissues. They are, however, aberrantly overexpressed in a variety of malignant tumor tissues. Emerging evi Read More

Over the past several decades the traditional view of cancer being a homogeneous mass of rapid proliferating malignant cells is being replaced by a model of ever increasing complexity, which points out that cancers are complex tissues composed of multiple cell types. A large variety of immune and other host cells constitute the tumor microenvironment, which supports the growth and progression of the tumor where in Read More

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been unraveled to regulate the tumor invasion and metastasis processes. In this review, in order to better understand the regulatory mechanisms of EMT, we describe that F-box pr oteins could be critically involved in regulating the EMT process in human cancers. Specifically, we discuss how th ese F-box proteins directly control the stability of EMT regulators such as E-cadherin, β-c Read More

Missing in metastasis (MIM, also MTSS1) is a member of the inverse Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs (I-BAR) family that senses and stabilizes negative membrane protrusions. Abnormal expression of MIM has been frequently associated with a subset of human cancers and may play different roles in different stages of tumor progression. Overexpression of MIM-I-BAR in 293A cells potentiated the cell growth and increased the toxic r Read More

The targeting of drugs to skeletal muscle is an emerging area of research. Driven by the need for new therapies to treat a range of muscle-associated diseases, these strategies aim to provide improved drug exposure at the site of action in skeletal muscle with reduced concentration in other tissues where unwanted side effects could occur. By interacting with muscle-specific cell surface recognition elements, both tissue Read More

Background: Patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) commonly report significant disability together with an increased risk of functional impairment. Neuroimaging techniques have been used to investigate the neuropathology of this complex illness, but it is still quite unknown whether abnormalities in the integrity of white matter (WM) of specific brain areas may be considered as trait markers of TRD. Methods: Read More

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy of adolescents and young adults. Existing treatment options and surgical intervention are unable to effectively manage this tumor. Therefore, novel mechanism-based targets and strategies need to be rationally established to strive for improvement in the survival of patients diagnosed with osteosarcoma. The serine/threonine kinases Polo-like kinase (Plk) 1 is a key re Read More

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have become a great potential non-invasive carrier candidate for the delivery of various cell-impermeable therapeutic cargoes such as proteins, polypeptides and nucleic acid. However, the lack of tissue specificity and entrapment in the endocytic vesicles is the primary limitation to the application of these peptides in cargo delivery. Emphasis should be placed on developing novel m Read More