Although considerable progress in oncology therapeutics has been achieved in the last century, cancer remains one of major death causes in the World and for this reason, the development of novel cancer drugs remains a pressing need. Natural marine compounds represent an interesting source of novel leads with potent chemotherapeutic or chemo-prevent...
Glutathione-S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) gene is commonly silenced by CpG island promoter hypermethylation in prostate, breast, and liver cancers. However, mechanisms leading to GSTP1 repression by promoter hypermethylation in leukemia and its relationship with pathological alterations of the chromatin structure remain poorly understood. A panel of leu...
Many sulfur compounds are known to exhibit widespread antimicrobial activity. The latter is often the result of an intricate redox biochemistry whereby reactive sulfur species, such as organic polysulfanes, interact with pivotal cellular signaling pathways. The S8 unit in elemental sulfur resembles certain aspects of the chemistry of polysulfanes. ...
The recent search for new anti-cancer drugs focuses more on natural compounds from the regular human diet because these compounds rarely exhibit severe side-effects yet efficiently act on a wide range of molecular targets involved in carcinogenesis. One promising compound, which is now being tested in clinical studies, is the tomato-derived caroten...
Since 1998, Dr. Marc Diederich and his research team successfully managed eight cell signaling meetings in Luxembourg attracting more then 5,500 scientists. In January 2010, over 550 scientists and exhibitors came together for the meeting Inflammation 2010, which was held from January 27th to 30th. Invited and selected talks followed the keynote se...
For many years, in vitro and in vivo studies have reported that organosulfur compounds (OSCs), naturally found in Allium vegetables, are able to suppress the proliferation of various tumor cells. In spite of recent advances, the specific molecular mechanisms involved in OSC activity are still unclear. Considering the antiproliferative effects obser...
The ability of magnetic fields (MFs) to promote/increase Ca(2+) influx into cells is widely recognized, but the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. Here we analyze how static MFs of 6 mT modulates thapsigargin-induced Ca(2+) movements in non-excitable U937 monocytes, and how this relates to the anti-apoptotic effect of MFs. Magnetic fields do not...
Activation of the Wingless (Wnt)/ß-catenin signaling pathway contributes to prostate tumorigenesis and metastasis. Depending of the stage of prostate cancer development, current drug therapies are of limited efficiency, so that prevention with natural compounds appears as an attractive strategy especially due to the slow progressive development of ...
Organic sulfur compounds (OSCs) derived from plants, fungi or bacteria can serve as chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agents and have been attracting medical and research interest as a promising source for novel anti-cancer agents. Garlic, which has long been used as a medicinal plant in different cultures due to its multiple beneficial effec...
In addition to its demethylating properties, 2'-deoxy-5-azacytidine (DAC) induces cell cycle arrest, differentiation, cell sensitization to chemotherapy, and cell death. However, the mechanisms by which DAC induces antiproliferation via these processes and how they are interconnected remain unclear. In this study, we found that a clinically relevan...