Role of senescence and mitotic catastrophe in cancer therapy

Senescence and mitotic catastrophe (MC) are two distinct crucial non-apoptotic mechanisms, often triggered in cancer cells and tissues in response to anti-cancer drugs. Chemotherapeuticals and myriad other factors induce cell eradication via these routes. While senescence drives the cells to a state of quiescence, MC drives the cells towards death during the course of mitosis. The senescent phenotype distinguishes tumor cells that survived drug exposure but lost the ability to form colonies from those that recover and proliferate after treatment. Although senescent cells do not proliferate, they are metabolically active and may secrete proteins with potential tumor-promoting activities. The other anti-proliferative response of tumor cells is MC that is a form of cell death that results from abnormal mitosis and leads to the formation of interphase cells with multiple micronuclei. Different classes of cytotoxic agents induce MC, but the pathways of abnormal mitosis differ depending on the nature of the inducer and the status of cell-cycle checkpoints. In this review, we compare the two pathways and mention that they are activated to curb the growth of tumors. Altogether, we have highlighted the possibilities of the use of senescence targeting drugs, mitotic kinases and anti-mitotic agents in fabricating novel strategies in cancer control

Clastogenic Effects of Glyphosate in Bone Marrow Cells of Swiss Albino Mice

Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, C3H8NO5P), a herbicide, used to control unwanted annual and perennial plants all over the world. Nevertheless, occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides can pose a threat to nontarget species including human beings. Therefore, in the present study, genotoxic effects of the herbicide glyphosate were analyzed by measuring chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and micronuclei (MN) in bone marrow cells of Swiss albino mice. A single dose of glyphosate was given intraperitoneally (i.p) to the animals at a concentration of 25 and 50 mg/kg b.wt. Animals of positive control group were injected i.p. benzo(a)pyrene (100 mg/kg b.wt., once only), whereas, animals of control (vehicle) group were injected i.p. dimethyl sulfoxide (0.2 mL). Animals from all the groups were sacrificed at sampling times of 24, 48, and 72 hours and their bone marrow was analyzed for cytogenetic and chromosomal damage. Glyphosate treatment significantly increases CAs and MN induction at both treatments and time compared with the vehicle control (P < .05). The cytotoxic effects of glyphosate were also evident, as observed by significant decrease in mitotic index (MI). The present results indicate that glyphosate is clastogenic and cytotoxic to mouse bone marrow

Resveratrol and Black Tea Polyphenol Combination Synergistically Suppress Mouse Skin Tumors Growth by Inhibition of Activated MAPKs and p53

Cancer chemoprevention by natural dietary agents has received considerable importance because of their cost-effectiveness and wide safety margin. However, single agent intervention has failed to bring the expected outcome in clinical trials; therefore, combinations of chemopreventive agents are gaining increasing popularity. The present study aims to evaluate the combinatorial chemopreventive effects of resveratrol and black tea polyphenol (BTP) in suppressing two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis induced by DMBA and TPA. Resveratrol/BTP alone treatment decreased tumor incidence by ∼67% and ∼75%, while combination of both at low doses synergistically decreased tumor incidence even more significantly by ∼89% (p<0.01). This combination also significantly regressed tumor volume and number (p<0.01). Mechanistic studies revealed that this combinatorial inhibition was associated with decreased expression of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase family proteins: extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2, p38 and increased in total p53 and phospho p53 (Ser 15) in skin tissue/tumor. Treatment with combinations of resveratrol and BTP also decreased expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in mouse skin tissues/tumors than their solitary treatments as determined by immunohistochemistry. In addition, histological and cell death analysis also confirmed that resveratrol and BTP treatment together inhibits cellular proliferation and markedly induces apoptosis. Taken together, our results for the first time lucidly illustrate that resveratrol and BTP in combination impart better suppressive activity than either of these agents alone and accentuate that development of novel combination therapies/chemoprevention using dietary agents will be more beneficial against cancer. This promising combination should be examined in therapeutic trials of skin and possibly other cancers

What Is New for an Old Molecule? Systematic Review and Recommendations on the Use of Resveratrol

Stilbenes are naturally occurring phytoalexins that generally exist as their more stable E isomers. The most well known natural stilbene is resveratrol (Res), firstly isolated in 1939 from roots of Veratrum grandiflorum (white hellebore) (1) and since then found in various edible plants, notably in Vitis vinifera L. (Vitaceae) (2). The therapeutic potential of Res covers a wide range of diseases, and multiple beneficial effects on human health such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities have been suggested based on several in vitro and animal studies (3). In particular, Res has been reported to be an inhibitor of carcinogenesis at multiple stages via its ability to inhibit cyclooxygenase, and is an anticancer agent with a role in antiangiogenesis (4). Moreover, both in vitro and in vivo studies showed that Res induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in tumor cells (4). However, clinical studies in humans evidenced that Res is rapidly absorbed after oral intake, and that the low level observed in the blood stream is caused by a fast conversion into metabolites that are readily excreted from the body (5). Thus, considerable efforts have gone in the design and synthesis of Res analogues with enhanced metabolic stability. Considering that reduced Res (dihydro- resveratrol, D-Res) conjugates may account for as much as 50% of an oral Res dose (5), and that D-Res has a strong proliferative effect on hormone-sensitive cancer cell lines such as breast cancer cell line MCF7 (6), we recently devoted our synthetic efforts to the preparation of trans-restricted analogues of Res in which the E carbon-carbon double bond is embedded into an imidazole nucleus. To keep the trans geometry, the two aryl rings were linked to the heteroaromatic core in a 1,3 fashion. Based on this design, we successfully prepared a variety of 1,4-, 2,4- and 2,5-diaryl substituted imidazoles including Res analogues 1, 2 and 3, respectively, by procedures that involve transition metal-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions and highly selective N-H or C-H direct arylation reactions as key synthetic steps. The anticancer activity of compounds 1–3 was evaluated against the 60 human cancer cell lines panel of the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA). The obtained results, that will be showed and discussed along with the protocols developed for the preparation of imidazoles 1–3, confirmed that a structural optimization of Res may provide analogues with improved potency in inhibiting the growth of human cancer cell lines in vitro when compared to their natural lead. (1) Takaoka,M.J.Chem.Soc.Jpn.1939,60,1090-1100. (2) Langcake, P.; Pryce, R. J. Physiological. Plant Patology 1976, 9, 77-86. (3) Vang, O.; et al. PLoS ONE 2011, 6, e19881. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019881 (4) Kraft, T. E.; et al. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 2009, 49, 782-799. (5) Walle, T. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 2011, 1215, 9-15. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05842.x (6) Gakh,A.A.;etal.Bioorg.Med.Chem.Lett.2010,20,6149-6151

Expressive Models In Online Learning

We study the online learning model: a widely applicable model for making repeated choices in an interactive environment. In standard online learning model (or an online learning problem), the decision-maker is provided with a set of alternatives, and selects one alternative in each of the T sequential trials, deriving a reward for each selection. After T trials, the total reward of the decision-maker is compared with the best "single-arm" strategy which has the maximum reward in hindsight. The difference between the reward of the best single-arm strategy and that of the algorithm is called the regret , and one seeks decision-making algorithms whose regret is sublinear in T and running time is polynomial in the problem size. In this thesis, we extend the basic online learning model in two important ways. In the first extension, we model sponsored search auctions as a multi-armed bandit problem (a type of online learning problem), and allow the alternatives (or advertisers in this case) to be strategic which can report possibly wrong rewards (in order to make personal gains). We seek to provide incentives to advertisers so as to get good solutions (socially efficient solutions). We prove that any socially efficient solution that provides right incentives to advertisers (being dominant strategy truthful) must suffer much higher regret than the regret suffered by algorithms for multi-armed problem without incentive issues. In the second extension, also motivated by sponsored search and resource selection in distributed systems, we allow the set of available alternatives to vary over time, provide a natural way to define the regret, and give policies for the decision-maker that suffer low regret. We also prove that the regret suffered by our policies is information-theoretically the lowest possible