70 research outputs found
Emericellopsis maritima and Purpureocillium lilacinum Marine Fungi as a Source of Functional Fractions with Antioxidant and Antitumor Potential in Colorectal Cancer: A Preliminary Study
This work was co-financed by the 2014–2020 ERDF Operational Programme and by the
Department of Economy, Knowledge, and Business of the University of the Regional Government of
Andalusia (project reference: FEDER-UCA18-105749).The following supporting information can be downloaded at
https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jmse11102024/s1The marine environment is a promising source of natural products with possible pharmacological applications. In this sense, marine microorganisms, especially marine fungi, can produce bioactive compounds with various therapeutic properties. Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents a major health problem worldwide, since the treatments used to date are not capable of improving patient survival; that is why natural compounds from marine fungi offer a promising alternative. This study focused on evaluating the antitumor and antioxidant activity of fractions derived from the marine fungi E. maritima and P. lilacinum in two CRC cell lines T84 and SW480. Fractions Fr-EM6, Fr-EM7, Fr-EM8 and Fr-PLMOH-3 demonstrated potent cytotoxic activity in tested CRC cell lines with no activity in the non-tumor line. In particular, the Fr-PLMOH-3 fraction from P. lilacinum showed significant antiproliferative effects on T84 and SW480 cell lines and exhibited a greater cytotoxic effect on cancer stem cells compared to tumor cells. Furthermore, the Fr-EM8 fraction from E. maritima demonstrated a strong antioxidant capacity. These findings highlight the potential of compounds of marine origin as effective and selective antitumor agents for the treatment of CRC. Further studies are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms and potential clinical applications of these bioactive fractions and compounds.014–2020 ERDF Operational ProgrammeRegional Government of
Andalusia FEDER-UCA18-10574
Double inferior vena cava-an important anatomical variant in retroperitoneal surgery
University of
Granada/CBU
Evaluating Metabolite-Based Biomarkers for Early Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic Review
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest cancers, with five-year
survival rates around 10%. The only curative option remains complete surgical resection, but due
to the delay in diagnosis, less than 20% of patients are eligible for surgery. Therefore, discovering
diagnostic biomarkers for early detection is crucial for improving clinical outcomes. Metabolomics
has become a powerful technology for biomarker discovery, and several metabolomic-based panels
have been proposed for PDAC diagnosis, but these advances have not yet been translated into the
clinic. Therefore, this review focused on summarizing metabolites identified for the early diagnosis
of PDAC in the last five years. Bibliographic searches were performed in the PubMed, Scopus and
WOS databases, using the terms “Biomarkers, Tumor”, “Pancreatic Neoplasms”, “Early Diagnosis”,
“Metabolomics” and “Lipidome” (January 2018–March 2023), and resulted in the selection of fourteen
original studies that compared PDAC patients with subjects with other pancreatic diseases. These
investigations showed amino acid and lipid metabolic pathways as the most commonly altered,
reflecting their potential for biomarker research. Furthermore, other relevant metabolites such as
glucose and lactate were detected in the pancreas tissue and body fluids from PDAC patients. Our
results suggest that the use of metabolomics remains a robust approach to improve the early diagnosis
of PDAC. However, these studies showed heterogeneity with respect to the metabolomics techniques
used and further studies will be needed to validate the clinical utility of these biomarkersB-TIC-414-UGR18 (Junta deAndalucía 2020) (FEDER
O6-methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase Promoter Methylation in Patients with Rectal Adenocarcinoma After Chemoradiotherapy Treatment: Clinical Implications
Brief Report
283Aims: To analyze the clinical relevance of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase in rectal adenocarcinoma treated with chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery.
Methods: Tissue samples from 29 rectal adenocarcinoma patients were obtained after chemoradiotherapy. O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation status was established by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase protein levels were determined by immunohistochemistry. Clinicopathologic variables, including treatment regression grade, recurrence, lymph node invasion, and stage and differentiation grade of the tumor, were determined.
Results: The O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase gene promoter was methylated in 81.5% of samples. Most patients (88.9%) showed low O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase protein expression. O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase methylation status was not correlated with any of the clinicopathological variables determined in rectal adenocarcinomas selected for chemoradiotherapy.
Conclusion: O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase methylation status is not correlated with clinicopathologic variables examined in rectal adenocarcinoma selected for chemoradiotherapy, although its role as a biomarker awaits further investigation
Active Biomolecules from Vegetable Extracts with Antitumoral Activity against Pancreas Cancer: A Systematic Review (2011–2021)
The emergence of resistance to pancreatic cancer (PC) current treatment requires the
development of new therapeutic strategies. In this context, bioactive molecules from plant extracts
have shown excellent properties to improve classical therapy against this type of tumor. This
systematic review aims to collect all the in vitro studies related to the antiproliferative activity of
isolated plant molecules that support their applicability in PC. A total of 620 articles published in the
last 10 years were identified, although only 28 were finally included to meet the inclusion criteria.
Our results reflect the most important biomolecules from natural compounds that induce cell death in
PC and their essential mechanism of cell death, including apoptosis, pathways activated by the KRAS
mutation and cycle cell arrest, among others. These in vitro studies provide an excellent molecule
guide showing applications against PC and that should be tested in vivo and in clinical trials to
determine their usefulness to reduce PC incidence and to improve the prognosis of these patients.
However, natural compounds are isolated in small amounts, which prevents comprehensive drug
screening, being necessary the role of organic synthesis for the total synthesis of natural compounds
or for the synthesis of their simplified and bioactive analogs.GranadaUniversity INB-009Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIEuropean Commission DTS17/00081Spanish Government RTC2019-006870-1Junta de Andalucia P18-TP-1420
A-CTS-666-UGR20
B-CTS-122-UGR20Ministerio de Educacion, Ciencia y Deporte y Competitividad (Spain) FPU17/02977
Ibs. GRANAD
Electrospun Nanofibers: Recent Applications in Drug Delivery and Cancer Therapy
Polymeric nanofibers (NFs) have been extensively reported as a biocompatible scaffold to
be specifically applied in several researching fields, including biomedical applications. The principal
researching lines cover the encapsulation of antitumor drugs for controlled drug delivery applications,
scaffolds structures for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, as well as magnetic or plasmonic
hyperthermia to be applied in the reduction of cancer tumors. This makes NFs useful as therapeutic
implantable patches or mats to be implemented in numerous biomedical researching fields. In this
context, several biocompatible polymers with excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability
including poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), poly butylcyanoacrylate (PBCA), poly ethylenglycol
(PEG), poly (epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) or poly lactic acid (PLA) have been widely used for the synthesis of
NFs using the electrospun technique. Indeed, other types of polymers with stimuli-responsive
capabilities has have recently reported for the fabrication of polymeric NFs scaffolds with
relevant biomedical applications. Importantly, colloidal nanoparticles used as nanocarriers and
non-biodegradable structures have been also incorporated by electrospinning into polymeric NFs for
drug delivery applications and cancer treatments. In this review, we focus on the incorporation of
drugs into polymeric NFs for drug delivery and cancer treatment applications. However, the principal
novelty compared with previously reported publications is that we also focus on recent investigations
concerning new strategies that increase drug delivery and cancer treatments efficiencies, such as the
incorporation of colloidal nanoparticles into polymeric NFs, the possibility to fabricate NFs with
the capability to respond to external environments, and finally, the synthesis of hybrid polymeric
NFs containing carbon nanotubes, magnetic and gold nanoparticles, with magnetic and plasmonic
hyperthermia applicability.This research was funded by the Comunidad de Madrid, Spain fellowship “Atracción de Talento
Investigador” (2018-T1/IND-10736), Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (project PI-0476-2016 and
PI-0102-2017) and CICYT, Spain (project CTQ16-76311)
Antitumor Effect of Traditional Drugs for Neurological Disorders: Preliminary Studies in Neural Tumor Cell Lines
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults. Despite new treatments developed including immunomodulation using vaccines and cell therapies, mortality remains high due to the resistance mechanisms presented by these tumor cells and the function of the blood–brain barrier that prevents the entry of most drugs. In this context of searching for new glioblastoma therapies, the study of the existing drugs to treat neurological disorder is gaining great relevance. The aim of this study was to determine, through a preliminary in vitro study on human glioblastoma (A172, LN229), anaplastic glioma (SF268) and neuroblastoma (SK-N-SH) cell lines, the possible antitumor activity of the active principles of several drugs (levomepromazine, haloperidol, lacosamide, valproic acid, levetiracetam, glatiramer acetate, fingolimod, biperiden and dextromethorphan) with the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier and that are commonly used in neurological disorders. Results showed that levetiracetam, valproic acid, and haloperidol were able to induce a relevant synergistic antitumor effect when associated with the chemotherapy currently used in clinic (temozolomide). Regarding the mechanism of action, haloperidol, valproic acid and levomepromazine caused cell death by apoptosis, while biperiden and dextromethorphan induced autophagy. Fingolimod appeared to have anoikis-related cell death. Thus, the assayed drugs which are able to cross the blood–brain barrier could represent a possibility to improve the treatment of neural tumors, though future in vivo studies and clinical trials will be necessary to validate it.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA. This work was supported by the Project Innbio INB-009 (Granada University and ibs. GRANADA) and by the CTS-107 Group of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain)
Specific Colon Cancer Cell Cytotoxicity Induced by Bacteriophage E Gene Expression under Transcriptional Control of Carcinoembryonic Antigen Promoter
Colorectal cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in the world. Patients in advanced stages often develop metastases that require chemotherapy and usually show a poor response, have a low survival rate and develop considerable toxicity with adverse symptoms. Gene therapy may act as an adjuvant therapy in attempts to destroy the tumor without affecting normal host tissue. The bacteriophage E gene has demonstrated significant antitumor activity in several cancers, but without any tumor-specific activity. The use of tumor-specific promoters may help to direct the expression of therapeutic genes so they act against specific cancer cells. We used the carcinoembryonic antigen promoter (CEA) to direct E gene expression (pCEA-E) towards colon cancer cells. pCEA-E induced a high cell growth inhibition of human HTC-116 colon adenocarcinoma and mouse MC-38 colon cancer cells in comparison to normal human CCD18co colon cells, which have practically undetectable levels of CEA. In addition, in vivo analyses of mice bearing tumors induced using MC-38 cells showed a significant decrease in tumor volume after pCEA-E treatment and a low level of Ki-67 in relation to untreated tumors. These results suggest that the CEA promoter is an excellent candidate for directing E gene expression specifically toward colon cancer cells.This research was funded by FEDER, Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación
Tecnológica (I+D+I), Instituto de Salud Carlos III- Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) through
Projects PI11/01862 and PI11/0257
Plant-Mediated Inorganic Nanoparticles for Anti-Tumor Therapy in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review
Colon cancer is the third most frequent neoplasm and the second most lethal worldwide.
Despite progress in its treatment, new therapies are still needed to improve the prognosis of this
type of tumor and, in this context, the use of plant compounds with anti-tumor properties has been
increasing in recent years. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the potential benefits
of encapsulation of compounds derived from plant extracts in nanoparticles and their cytotoxic
effect under in vitro conditions. Once the search strategy was defined based on the selected MESH
terms, 147 publications published since 2012 were identified from three different databases (PubMed,
SCOPUS and WOS). After eliminating duplicates and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria,
17 studies were finally included. The results showed that the use of natural extracts encapsulated in
nanoparticles offered significant cytotoxic activity against colon neoplastic cells by increasing the
therapeutic effect of free plant extracts through their encapsulation and without producing toxicity
on healthy cells. In addition, most studies (14) involved metal-derived nanoparticles (zinc, iron and
gold). Despite the possible efficacy of these nanodrugs, more in vivo studies are needed to elucidate
their potential future therapeutic application and their biocompatibilityInstituto de Salud Carlos IIIPI19/01478-FEDERPMPTA22/00136Junta de AndalucíaA-CTS-666-UGR20P20_00540B-CTS-122-
UGR20Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (RTC2019-006870-1)FEDERCTS-107 (Andalusian Government
Plant-Derived Bioactive Compounds for Rhabdomyosarcoma Therapy In Vitro: A Systematic Review
Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children, constitutes
approximately 40% of all recorded soft tissue tumors and is associated with a poor prognosis, with
survival rates of less than 20% at 3 years. The development of resistance to cytotoxic drugs is a
primary contributor to therapeutic failure. Consequently, the exploration of new therapeutic strategies
is of vital importance. The potential use of plant extracts and their bioactive compounds emerges as a
complementary treatment for this type of cancer. This systematic review focuses on research related
to plant extracts or isolated bioactive compounds exhibiting antitumor activity against RMS cells.
Literature searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, and WOS. A total of 173 articles
published to date were identified, although only 40 were finally included to meet the inclusion
criteria. Furthermore, many of these compounds are readily available and have reduced cytotoxicity,
showing an apoptosis-mediated mechanism of action to induce tumor cell death. Interestingly, their
use combined with chemotherapy or loaded with nanoparticles achieves better results by reducing
toxicity and/or facilitating entry into tumor cells. Future in vivo studies will be necessary to verify
the utility of these natural compounds as a therapeutic tool for RMS.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
(FEDER) (CPP2022-009967 and CPP2022-010017)Spanish Ministry of Universities and Science
(RTC2019-006870-1
- …