During the last decades a large number of cucurbitacins have been isolated from various plant species belonging to other plant families than Cucurbitaceae. Although the roots and the fruits of plant belong to these Cucurbitaceae species are very bitter, they have been used as folk medicines in some countries because of their wide spectrum of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammation ...

Pancreatic cancer is genetically complex, and without effective therapy. Mutations in the Kirsten-ras (K-ras) oncogene occur early and frequently (approximately 90%) during pancreatic cancer development and progression. In this context, K-ras represents a potential molecular target for the therapy of this highly aggressive cancer. We now show that a bipartite adenovirus expressing a novel cance...

Recent progress in molecular biology has shown that cancer cells acquire common phenotypes such as self-sufficiency of growth signals, resistance to anti-proliferative and apoptotic signals through the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes. Recently developed anticancer drugs target these molecular mechanisms and good results have been reported for various cancer types. In lung cancer,...

Herein, we have reviewed and analysed recent literature, published in 2013 and early 2014, in the context of pre-existing data. Considered target therapies were tyrosine kinase inhibitors of active epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (e.g. erlotinib, gefinitib and afatinib), anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements (e.g. crizotinib) or angiogenesis (drugs under development), or monoclon...

Primary mammalian cells reach replicative exhaustion after several passages in vitro, a process called replicative senescence. During such a state of permanent growth arrest, senescent cells are refractory to physiological proliferation stimuli with altered cell morphology and gene expression patterns, although they remain viable with preserved metabolic activity. Interestingly, senescent cells...

Recent investigations highlighted strong similarities between neural crest migration during embryogenesis and metastatic processes. Indeed, some families of axon guidance molecules were also reported to participate in cancer invasion: plexins/semaphorins/neuropilins, ephrins/Eph receptors, netrin/DCC/UNC5. Neuropilins (NRPs) are transmembrane non tyrosine-kinase glycoproteins first identified a...

Drug Free Tumor Theranostics In article number 2205165, Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy and co-authors introduce hemoglobin nanocrystals for drug free, synergistic selective theranostics of colon cancer. After intravenous (i.v.) injection, these target tumor react with tumor-specific H2S H2O to enable magnetic resonance imaging guided photothermal therapy produce •OH chemodynamic therapy.

Cancer Therapy In article number 2007778, Lin Li, Shao Q. Yao, Wei Huang, and co-workers review the different mitochondria-targeting functional units (Mito-Bomb), various cancer treatment strategies that target mitochondria. picture, commander (scientist or doctor) controls “Mito-Bomb”, which indicates accurate destruction of mitochondria in tumor cells to achieve precise tumors.

background: in gene therapy, the use of rna molecules as therapeutic agents has shown advantages over plasmid dna, including higher levels of safety. however, transient nature of rna has been a major obstacle in application of rna in gene therapy. methods: here, we used the internal ribosomal entry site of encephalomyocarditis virus and the 3’ non-translated region of poliovirus to design an en...