Editorial (Thematic Issue: Novel Pharmaceutical Approaches by Natural Compound-Derived Epigenetic Regulators: Epigenetic...
Published in Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
Epigenetic alterations as a universal feature of cancer hallmarks and a promising target for personalized treatments
Published in Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
Despite considerable scientific progress, the burden of cancer in our society remains a major public health problem. Tumorigenesis is recognized as a complex and multistep process that involves the accumulation of successive transformational events with multi-factorial etiology. Nevertheless, such events result in the acquisition of key hallmark ch...
Role of Histone Acetylation in Cell Cycle Regulation
Published in Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry
Core histone acetylation is a key prerequisite for chromatin decondensation and plays a pivotal role in regulation of chromatin structure, function and dynamics. The addition of acetyl groups disturbs histone/DNA interactions in the nucleosome and alters histone/histone interactions in the same or adjacent nucleosomes. Acetyl groups can also provid...
Effects of Natural Products on Mcl-1 Expression and Function
Published in Current Medicinal Chemistry
Cancer development is mostly due to a deregulation of cell death as cancer cells become resistant to apoptosis by increasing expression of anti-apoptotic proteins belonging to the Bcl-2 family. Mcl-1 is one anti-apoptotic protein, which is mainly responsible for cancer cell resistance as it is overexpressed by most cancer cell types. Many research ...
Natural and Synthetic Flavonoids: Structure–Activity Relationship and Chemotherapeutic Potential for the Treatment of Le...
Published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Flavonoids and their derivatives are polyphenolic secondary metabolites with an extensive spectrum of pharmacological activities, including antioxidants, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activities. These flavonoids can also act as chemopreventive agents by their interaction with different proteins and can play a vital role in chemothera...
Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT) Regulatory Networks in Marine Organisms: From Physiological Ob...
Published in Marine Drugs
Part of our ocean's richness comes from its extensive history of supporting life, resulting in a highly diverse ecological system. To date, over 250,000 species of marine organisms have been identified, but it is speculated that the actual number of marine species exceeds one million, including several hundreds of millions of species of marine micr...
Epipolythiodiketopiperazines from the Marine Derived Fungus Dichotomomyces cejpii with NF-κB Inhibitory Potential
Published in Marine Drugs
The Ascomycota Dichotomomyces cejpii was isolated from the marine sponge Callyspongia cf. C. flammea. A new gliotoxin derivative, 6-acetylmonodethiogliotoxin (1) was obtained from fungal extracts. Compounds 2 and 3, methylthio-gliotoxin derivatives were formerly only known as semi-synthetic compounds and are here described as natural products. Addi...
Early downregulation of Mcl-1 regulates apoptosis triggered by cardiac glycoside UNBS1450
Published in Cell Death and Disease
Cardiac glycosides (CGs), prescribed to treat cardiovascular alterations, display potent anti-cancer activities. Despite their well-established target, the sodium/potassium (Na + /K +)-ATPase, downstream mechanisms remain poorly elucidated. UNBS1450 is a hemi-synthetic cardenolide derived from 2″-oxovorusharin extracted from the plant Calotropis pr...
Bispecific Antibodies: An Innovative Arsenal to Hunt, Grab and Destroy Cancer Cells
Published in Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Targeted cellular immunotherapy with bifunctional antibodies (bsAbs) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach for cancer over the last two decades. Progress in antibody engineering has led to the generation of many different types of antibody-derived entities that display at least two binding specificities. Most bsAbs consist of large IgG-li...
Melatonin promotes Bax sequestration to mitochondria reducing cell susceptibility to apoptosis via the lipoxygenase meta...
Published in Mitochondrion
Extra-neurological functions of melatonin include control of the immune system and modulation of apoptosis. We previously showed that melatonin inhibits the intrinsic apoptotic pathway in leukocytes via stimulation of high affinity MT1/MT2 receptors, thereby promoting re-localization of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein to mitochondria. Here we show...
