BH3 mimetic ABT-737 sensitizes colorectal cancer cells to ixazomib through MCL-1 downregulation and autophagy inhibition.

The proteasome inhibitor MLN9708 is an orally administered drug that is hydrolyzed into its active form, MLN2238 (ixazomib). Compared with Bortezomib, MLN2238 has a shorter proteasome dissociation half-life and a lower incidence and severity of peripheral neuropathy, which makes it an attractive candidate for colorectal cancer treatment. In the present study, we observed that MLN2238 induced autophagy, as evidenced by conversion of the autophagosomal marker LC3 from LC3I to LC3II, in colorectal cancer cell lines. Mcl-1, an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein, was markedly elevated after treating a colorectal cancer cell line with MLN2238. We proved that inhibiting Mcl-1 expression enhances MLN2238 induced apoptosis and negatively regulates autophagy. Co-administration of BH3 mimetic ABT-737 with MLN2238 synergistically kills colorectal cancer cells through MCL-1 neutralization and autophagy inhibition. Furthermore, the synergistic killing effect of the combination therapy is correlated with P53 status in colorectal cancer. These data highlight that the combination of ABT-737 with MLN9708 is a promising therapeutic strategy for human colorectal cancer

Old Story New Tell: The Graphite to Diamond Transition Revisited

Graphite and diamond are two well-known allotropes of carbon with distinct physical properties due to different atomic connectivity. Graphite has a layered structure in which the honeycomb carbon sheets can easily glide, while atoms in diamond are strongly bonded in all three dimensions. The transition from graphite to diamond has been a central subject in physical science. One way to turn graphite into diamond is to apply the high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) conditions. However, atomistic mechanism of this transition is still under debate. From a series of large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we report a mechanism that the diamond nuclei originate at the graphite grain boundaries and propagate in two preferred directions. In addition to the widely accepted [001] direction, we found that the growth along [120] direction of graphite is even faster. In this scenario, cubic diamond (CD) is the kinetically favorable product, while hexagonal diamond (HD) would appear as minor amounts of twinning structures in two main directions. Following the crystallographic orientation relationship, the coherent interface t-(100)gr//(11-1)cd + [010]gr//[1-10]cd was also confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) experiment. The proposed phase transition mechanism does not only reconcile the longstanding debate regarding the role of HD in graphite-diamond transition, but also yields the atomistic insight into microstructure engineering via controlled solid phase transition.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figure