155 research outputs found

    Flavonoids Targeting the mTOR Signaling Cascades in Cancer: A Potential Crosstalk in Anti-Breast Cancer Therapy

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    Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, with triple-negative breast cancer being the most lethal and aggressive form. Conventional therapies, such as radiation, surgery, hormonal, immune, gene, and chemotherapy, are widely used, but their therapeutic efficacy is limited due to adverse side effects, toxicities, resistance, recurrence, and therapeutic failure. Many molecules have been identified and investigated as potential therapeutic agents for breast cancer, with a focus on various signaling pathways. Flavonoids are a versatile class of phytochemicals that have been used in cancer treatment to overcome issues with traditional therapies. Cell proliferation, growth, apoptosis, autophagy, and survival are all controlled by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. Flavonoids target mTOR signaling in breast cancer, and when this signaling pathway is regulated or deregulated, various signaling pathways provide potential therapeutic means. The role of various flavonoids as phytochemicals in targeting mTOR signaling pathways in breast cancer is highlighted in this review

    The Therapeutic Potential of Kaemferol and Other Naturally Occurring Polyphenols Might Be Modulated by Nrf2-ARE Signaling Pathway: Current Status and Future Direction

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    Kaempferol is a natural flavonoid, which has been widely investigated in the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic complications, and neurological disorders. Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) is a transcription factor involved in mediating carcinogenesis and other ailments, playing an important role in regulating oxidative stress. The activation of Nrf2 results in the expression of proteins and cytoprotective enzymes, which provide cellular protection against reactive oxygen species. Phytochemicals, either alone or in combination, have been used to modulate Nrf2 in cancer and other ailments. Among them, kaempferol has been recently explored for its anti-cancer and other anti-disease therapeutic efficacy, targeting Nrf2 modulation. In combating cancer, diabetic complications, metabolic disorders, and neurological disorders, kaempferol has been shown to regulate Nrf2 and reduce redox homeostasis. In this context, this review article highlights the current status of the therapeutic potential of kaempferol by targeting Nrf2 modulation in cancer, diabetic complications, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular disorders. In addition, we provide future perspectives on kaempferol targeting Nrf2 modulation as a potential therapeutic approach

    Alkaloids and colon cancer: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic implications for cell cycle arrest

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    Cancer is the second most fatal disease worldwide, with colon cancer being the third most prevalent and fatal form of cancer in several Western countries. The risk of acquisition of resistance to chemotherapy remains a significant hurdle in the management of various types of cancer, especially colon cancer. Therefore, it is essential to develop alternative treatment modalities. Naturally occurring alkaloids have been shown to regulate various mechanistic pathways linked to cell proliferation, cell cycle, and metastasis. This review aims to shed light on the potential of alkaloids as anti-colon-cancer chemotherapy agents that can modulate or arrest the cell cycle. Preclinical investigated alkaloids have shown anti-colon cancer activities and inhibition of cancer cell proliferation via cell cycle arrest at different stages, suggesting that alkaloids may have the potential to act as anticancer molecules

    Therapeutic Role of Carotenoids in Blood Cancer: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Potential

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    Blood cancers are characterized by pathological disorders causing uncontrolled hematological cell division. Various strategies were previously explored for the treatment of blood cancers, including chemotherapy, Car-T therapy, targeting chimeric antigen receptors, and platelets therapy. However, all these therapies pose serious challenges that limit their use in blood cancer therapy, such as poor metabolism. Furthermore, the solubility and stability of anticancer drugs limit efficacy and bio-distribution and cause toxicity. The isolation and purification of natural killer cells during Car-T cell therapy is a major challenge. To cope with these challenges, treatment strategies from phyto-medicine scaffolds have been evaluated for blood cancer treatments. Carotenoids represent a versatile class of phytochemical that offer therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of cancer, and specifically blood cancer. Carotenoids, through various signaling pathways and mechanisms, such as the activation of AMPK, expression of autophagy biochemical markers (p62/LC3-II), activation of Keap1-Nrf2/EpRE/ARE signaaling pathway, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), increased level of reactive oxygen species, cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (c-PARP), c-caspase-3, -7, decreased level of Bcl-xL, cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase, and decreasing STAT3 expression results in apoptosis induction and inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. This review article focuses the therapeutic potential of carotenoids in blood cancers, addressing various mechanisms and signaling pathways that mediate their therapeutic efficacy

    The regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress in cancer. Special focuses on luteolin patents

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    Cancer is a major health problem across the globe, and is expeditiously growing at a faster rate worldwide. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a membranous cell organelle having inextricable links in cellular homeostasis. Altering ER homeostasis initiates various signaling events known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). The basic purpose of the UPR is to reinstate the homeostasis; however, a continuous UPR can stimulate pathways of cell death, such as apoptosis. As a result, there is great perturbation to target particular signaling pathways of ER stress. Flavonoids have gained significant interest as a potential anticancer agent because of their considerable role in causing cytotoxicity of the cancerous cells. Luteolin, a flavonoid isolated from natural products, is a promising phytochemical used in the treatment of cancer. The current study is designed to review the different endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways involved in the cancer, mechanistic insights of luteolin as an anticancer agent in modulating ER stress, and the available luteolin patent formulations were also highlighted. The patents were selected on the basis of pre-clinical and/or clinical trials, and established antitumor effects using patent databases of FPO IP and Espacenet. The patented formulation of luteolin studied so far has shown promising anticancer potential against different cancer cell lines. However, further research is still required to determine the molecular targets of such bioactive molecules so that they can be used as anticancer drugs

    Keratin 19 maintains epithelial cell shape and cell adhesion through stabilization of E-cadherin complex in breast cancer cells

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    A presentation that was delivered in the Fifth University Research Day at the Catholic University of America in 2020

    Therapeutic Potential of Marine Peptides in Prostate Cancer: Mechanistic Insights

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    International audienceProstate cancer (PCa) is the leading cause of cancer death in men, and its treatment is commonly associated with severe adverse effects. Thus, new treatment modalities are required. In this context, natural compounds have been widely explored for their anti-PCa properties. Aquatic organisms contain numerous potential medications. Anticancer peptides are less toxic to normal cells and provide an efficacious treatment approach via multiple mechanisms, including altered cell viability, apoptosis, cell migration/invasion, suppression of angiogenesis and microtubule balance disturbances. This review sheds light on marine peptides as efficacious and safe therapeutic agents for PCa

    Writing English Sentences More Effectively By Avoiding Arabian Students’ Typical Mistakes

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    In Arabic speaking countries like Saudi Arabia, English is considered as the most important second language to be taught and used. Unfortunately, a sizeable percentage of students there appear to still have significant difficulty learning English, possibly due to the difficulty in finding sufficiently qualified teachers. This type of problem is self-perpetuating since the taught students might become weak teachers in the future also. This thesis aims to address the problem of helping Arabic students to improve their writing in English and to help them learn so that they will make fewer mistakes in the future and possibly become better teachers themselves. It focuses on creating methods to find the most typical mistakes made by those Arabian students in their writing, mistakes which were determined by the author from both self-observation and a review of related research findings (The author also saw these mistakes in the sentences used by subjects who tried pilot versions of the software). The result of this work is usable software that is able to detect, correct, and provide grammatical rules related to the most common mistakes found in the written sentences of the target Arabian students, when the sentences are in the present tense. These types are errors related to the following rules: (1) letters capitalization rules, (2) adj-noun ordering in the sentence, (3) proper use of the verb to be, (4) punctuation placement rules, (5) the use of the articles “a” and “an” within a sentence, and (6) rules for the possessive case. The software was evaluated using the author’s observation on the use of the software by 22 Arabian students and by letting them afterwards to complete a usability and usefulness survey. The results of the evaluation suggest that Arabs will mostly like how the software treats punctuation placing errors. Students also advised the author that it would be beneficial for the software to address a broader range of typical mistakes. This work is the first to create software specifically for Arabic students of English to help them to find their grammatical errors, provide suggested correction, and teach the student the grammatical rules needed to correct his/her sentence

    Writing English Sentences More Effectively By Avoiding Arabian Students’ Typical Mistakes

    No full text
    In Arabic speaking countries like Saudi Arabia, English is considered as the most important second language to be taught and used. Unfortunately, a sizeable percentage of students there appear to still have significant difficulty learning English, possibly due to the difficulty in finding sufficiently qualified teachers. This type of problem is self-perpetuating since the taught students might become weak teachers in the future also. This thesis aims to address the problem of helping Arabic students to improve their writing in English and to help them learn so that they will make fewer mistakes in the future and possibly become better teachers themselves. It focuses on creating methods to find the most typical mistakes made by those Arabian students in their writing, mistakes which were determined by the author from both self-observation and a review of related research findings (The author also saw these mistakes in the sentences used by subjects who tried pilot versions of the software). The result of this work is usable software that is able to detect, correct, and provide grammatical rules related to the most common mistakes found in the written sentences of the target Arabian students, when the sentences are in the present tense. These types are errors related to the following rules: (1) letters capitalization rules, (2) adj-noun ordering in the sentence, (3) proper use of the verb to be, (4) punctuation placement rules, (5) the use of the articles “a” and “an” within a sentence, and (6) rules for the possessive case. The software was evaluated using the author’s observation on the use of the software by 22 Arabian students and by letting them afterwards to complete a usability and usefulness survey. The results of the evaluation suggest that Arabs will mostly like how the software treats punctuation placing errors. Students also advised the author that it would be beneficial for the software to address a broader range of typical mistakes. This work is the first to create software specifically for Arabic students of English to help them to find their grammatical errors, provide suggested correction, and teach the student the grammatical rules needed to correct his/her sentence
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