Topic Review
Colorectal Cancer Treatment Based on Nanomaterials
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a global health problem responsible for 10% of all cancer incidences and 9.4% of all cancer deaths worldwide. The number of new cases increases per annum, whereas the lack of effective therapies highlights the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Conventional treatment methods, such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are widely applied in oncology practice. Their therapeutic success is little, and therefore, the search for novel technologies is ongoing. Many efforts have focused recently on the development of safe and efficient cancer nanomedicines. Nanoparticles are among them. They are unique with their properties on a nanoscale and hold the potential to exploit intrinsic metabolic differences between cancer and healthy cells. This feature allows them to induce high levels of toxicity in cancer cells with little damage to the surrounding healthy tissues.
  • 816
  • 21 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Activated Hepatic Stellate Cells
Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are the major cellular drivers of liver fibrosis. Upon liver inflammation caused by a broad range of insults including non-alcoholic fatty liver, HSC transform from a quiescent into a proliferating, fibrotic phenotype.
  • 815
  • 03 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Targeting CDK9 for Glioblastoma Treatment
Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary malignant brain tumor, and more than two-thirds of patients with glioblastoma die within two years of diagnosis. The challenges of treating this disease mainly include genetic and microenvironmental features that often render the tumor resistant to treatments. Despite extensive research efforts, only a small number of drugs tested in clinical trials have become therapies for patients. Targeting cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) is an emerging therapeutic approach that has the potential to overcome the challenges in glioblastoma management.
  • 814
  • 02 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Gain of Function Mutant p53 in Cancer
The tumor suppressor p53, encoded by the TP53 gene and known as “the guardian of the genome”, performs a variety of functions in cancer prevention.
  • 809
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Perineuronal Nets
During restricted time windows of postnatal life, called critical periods, neural circuits are highly plastic and are shaped by environmental stimuli. In several mammalian brain areas, from the cerebral cortex to the hippocampus and amygdala, the closure of the critical period is dependent on the formation of perineuronal nets (PNNs). PNNs are condensed aggregates of an extracellular matrix (ECM) enwrapping the cell body, dendrites, and axon initial segments of several neurons in the adult central nervous system (CNS). They represent one form of an ECM in the CNS, together with the ECM that is loosely distributed in the parenchyma, the ECM that constitutes the basal lamina (which separates the CNS tissue from meningeal and vascular tissues), and the ECM that is located at the nodes of Ranvier.
  • 808
  • 11 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Adipose Tissue Development
Despite developing prenatally, the adipose tissue is unique in its ability to undergo drastic growth even after reaching its mature size. Proper adipose tissue development relies on tightly regulated processes that require careful coordination and cooperation between many different cell types and their matrix cues.
  • 807
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Copy-number Variation
Copy number variation (CNV) is a phenomenon in which sections of the genome are repeated and the number of repeats in the genome varies between individuals. Copy number variation is a type of structural variation: specifically, it is a type of duplication or deletion event that affects a considerable number of base pairs. Approximately two-thirds of the entire human genome may be composed of repeats and 4.8–9.5% of the human genome can be classified as copy number variations. In mammals, copy number variations play an important role in generating necessary variation in the population as well as disease phenotype. Copy number variations can be generally categorized into two main groups: short repeats and long repeats. However, there are no clear boundaries between the two groups and the classification depends on the nature of the loci of interest. Short repeats include mainly bi-nucleotide repeats (two repeating nucleotides e.g. A-C-A-C-A-C...) and tri-nucleotide repeats. Long repeats include repeats of entire genes. This classification based on size of the repeat is the most obvious type of classification as size is an important factor in examining the types of mechanisms that most likely gave rise to the repeats, hence the likely effects of these repeats on phenotype.
  • 804
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Sublethal Cell Death Signaling
An important role of cell death pathways is to protect tissues and minimize disease by limiting the transference of potentially oncogenic mutations to daughter clones. However, there is increasing evidence demonstrating that activation of sublethal cell death signaling pathways, in particular apoptotic signaling, in the absence of direct DNA damaging stimuli, can promote genomic instability in cells that fail to die. This may increase the risk of the formation of subsequent neoplasms. Apoptosis-mediated mutagenesis occurs indirectly via sublethal activation of caspases and apoptotic nucleases (specifically CAD). On the other hand, cells surviving sublethal necroptotic signaling did not acquire mutations, most likely due to caspase-independent pathways, although the possibility of mutagenesis under conditions of oxidative stress are still elusive. It may therefore be possible for necroptosis-inducing anti-cancer drugs to be less likely than apoptosis-inducing or DNA damaging drugs to trigger therapy-related cancers.
  • 804
  • 12 Jul 2021
Topic Review
B-Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA)
During the past two decades there has been a major shift in the choice of agents to treat multiple myeloma, whether newly diagnosed or in the relapsed/refractory stage. The introduction of new drug classes, such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulators, and anti-CD38 and anti- SLAMF7 monoclonal antibodies, coupled with autologous stem cell transplantation, has approximately doubled the disease’s five-year survival rate. However, this positive news is tempered by the realization that these measures are not curative and patients eventually relapse and/or become resistant to the drug’s effects. Thus, there is a need to discover newer myeloma- driving molecular markers and develop innovative drugs designed to precisely regulate the actions of such putative targets. B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), which is found almost exclusively on the surfaces of malignant plasma cells to the exclusion of other cell types, including their normal counterparts, has emerged as a specific target of interest in this regard. Immunotherapeutic agents have been at the forefront of research designed to block BCMA activity. These agents encompass monoclonal antibodies, such as the drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin; bispecific T-cell engager strategies exemplified by AMG 420; and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapeutics that include idecabtagene vicleucel (bb2121) and JNJ-68284528.
  • 801
  • 16 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Three-Dimensional Culture Systems
It is getting more and more clear that cancer cell culture models are switching from two-dimension to three-dimensional, in order to better reflect in vivo situations where tumor cells have to cope with a highly interactive three-dimensional microenvironment. Several such culture models have been reported, predominantly multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) and patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTO). These are used both to investigate fundamental aspects of cancer development and as test systems for innovative therapies against gastric cancer, the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The authors review the actual state of research in this field to provide an overview of the contribution of MCTS and PDTO, especially in the areas of molecular profiling, drug discovery, pathogen infection, and personalized medicine.
  • 801
  • 18 Feb 2021
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