Biological effects of essential oils - A review

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is essential for driving plasticity during development, but is an unintentional behaviour of cells during cancer progression. The EMT-associated reprogramming of cells not only suggests that fundamental changes may occur to several regulatory networks but also that an intimate interplay exists between them. Disturbance of a controlled epithelial balance is triggered by altering several layers of regulation, including the transcriptional and translational machinery, expression of non-coding RNAs, alternative splicing and protein stability.

Regulatory networks defining EMT during cancer initiation and progression

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a cellular programme that is known to be crucial for embryogenesis, wound healing and malignant progression. During EMT, cell–cell and cell–extracellular matrix interactions are remodelled, which leads to the detachment of epithelial cells from each other and the underlying basement membrane, and a new transcriptional programme is activated to promote the mesenchymal fate. In the context of neoplasias, EMT confers on cancer cells increased tumour-initiating and metastatic potential and a greater resistance to elimination by several therapeutic regimens. In this Review, we discuss recent findings on the mechanisms and roles of EMT in normal and neoplastic tissues, and the cell-intrinsic signals that sustain expression of this programme. We also highlight how EMT gives rise to a variety of intermediate cell states between the epithelial and the mesenchymal state, which could function as cancer stem cells. In addition, we describe the contributions of the tumour microenvironment in inducing EMT and the effects of EMT on the immunobiology of carcinomas. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is crucial for embryogenesis, wound healing and cancer development, and confers greater resistance to cancer therapies. This Review discusses the mechanisms of EMT and its roles in normal and neoplastic tissues, the contribution of cell-intrinsic signals and the microenvironment to inducing EMT, and its effects on the immunobiology of carcinomas.

New insights into the mechanisms of epithelial–mesenchymal transition and implications for cancer

Emerging Biological Principles of Metastasis

Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables per day! This is what is highly recommended and heavily advertised nowadays to the general public to stay fit and healthy! Drinking green tea on a regular basis, eating chocolate from time to time, as well as savoring a couple of glasses of red wine per day have been claimed to increase life expectancy even further! Why? The answer is in fact still under scientific scrutiny, but a particular class of compounds naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables is considered to be crucial for the expression of such human health benefits: the polyphenols! What are these plant products really? What are their physicochemical properties? How do they express their biological activity? Are they really valuable for disease prevention? Can they be used to develop new pharmaceutical drugs? What recent progress has been made toward their preparation by organic synthesis? This Review gives answers from a chemical perspective, summarizes the state of the art, and highlights the most significant advances in the field of polyphenol research.

Plant Polyphenols: Chemical Properties, Biological Activities, and Synthesis

Mechanism of Gallic Acid Anticancer Activity Through Copper Mediated Cell Death

Metastatic breast cancers are difficult to manage, and brain metastatic breast cancers are particularly lethal with poor overall survival and outcomes. Our understanding of factors that facilitate brain metastasis of breast cancers is very poor. However, a number of studies in the last few years have focused on brain metastatic breast cancers; a number of therapeutic targets have been tested, and few therapeutic regimes have also been evaluated in phase I/II settings. We discuss here some of the most recent developments in the field. We will limit our discussion to the reports from past one year only to make this article most up-to-date with no repetition of information that has already been reviewed in the available literature.

Molecular Targeted Therapy for Brain Metastatic Breast Cancers: Current Updates

In the last few decades we have witnessed an increased interest in nutraceuticals research for their putative use as anticancer therapeutics. A major drawback of nutraceuticals is their poor bioavailability. A few years back we synthesized a difluorinated analogue of curcumin, named CDF, which showed promise during our initial studies by being more bioavailable. This prompted us to investigate the anticancer mechanism(s) of this promising compound in detail, with the ultimate goal of taking this compound to the clinical setting. In this expert opinion, we provide a succinct overview of all the biological effects of CDF that we have discovered in the last few years. These include the ability of CDF to regulate epigenetic factors, miRNAs, and the cancer stem cell markers. Development and characterization of CDF is a good example of how natural chemical structures can be modified for better efficacy and activity against cancer cells, although such agents require further development for clinical studies.

Updates on the Promising Anticancer Activity of CDF, a Synthetic Curcumin Analogue

Category: Ankle Introduction/Purpose: Suspected peroneal tendinopathy, tears, and subluxation are often confirmed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or diagnostic ultrasound (US). The choice between these two imaging modalities is commonly based on surgeon preference as the accuracy of these tests for the diagnosis of peroneal tendinopathy, tears, and subluxation is not known. The purpose of this study was to compare MRI and US to the intraoperative findings in patients who underwent surgery for the treatment of suspected peroneal tendinopathy, tears, and subluxations to determine the diagnostic accuracy of each imaging modality. Methods: The operative records and diagnostic images for 21 patients who underwent surgery for suspected peroneal tendinopathy, tears, or subluxation were retrospectively reviewed. Two fellowship trained musculoskeletal radiologists conducted a systematic blinded review of the stored MRI and US images. The results of this review were compared with the intraoperative findings to yield the sensitivity and specificity for each imaging modality. Results: For the diagnosis of peroneus brevis tears, both MRI and ultrasound were equally good at detecting tears. In the diagnosis of peroneus brevis tears, MRI was marginally better with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% versus ultrasound, which had a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 100%. In the diagnosis of peroneal subluxation, ultrasound had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 100% compared to MRI, which had a sensitivity of 33% and specificity of 100%. Conclusion: In comparing MRI and US to intraoperative findings for the diagnosis of peroneal tendinosis, tears and subluxation, we found ultrasound to be more effective at diagnosing peroneal tendinopathy and subluxation, while MRI was found to be slightly more accurate in the diagnosis of peroneus brevis tendon tears. Both MRI and ultrasound were effective for the diagnosis of peroneus longus tears.

Comparison of Ultrasound and MRI with Intraoperative Findings in the Diagnosis of Peroneal Tendinopathy, Tears, and Subluxation

Both genetic alterations and epigenetic regulations of genes could lead to the development of human cancers. However, recent studies have shown that epigenetic alteration contributes significantly not only to the development of cancer but also responsible for the progression of cancer to metastatic disease. The epigenetic regulations of specific genes in human cancer cells include DNA methylation, acetylation, histone modification, nucleosome remodeling, and small non-coding RNA regulation including the regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs). Among many epigenetic regulations, DNA methylation is the most common event and has been well studied for understanding the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of genes. The DNA hypermethylation occurs in the promoter sequences of tumor suppressor gene or tumor suppressive miRNAs leading to the down-regulation in the expression of tumor suppressor mRNAs or miRNAs, resulting in the development and progression of various cancers. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that several non-toxic natural agents known as nutraceuticals including isoflavone, curcumin, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, 3,3′-diindolylmethane, and lycopene could demethylate DNA at their hypermethylation sites or modulate histone, demonstrating their potential roles in the epigenetic regulation of mRNAs and miRNAs. These epigenetic regulations of mRNAs and miRNAs could be one of the molecular mechanisms by which nutraceuticals inhibit carcinogenesis and cancer progression, and thus either nutraceuticals or their synthetic analogs could serve as novel demethylating agents for the treatment of human malignancies.

Aamir Ahmad

Papers

Mechanism of Gallic Acid Anticancer Activity Through Copper Mediated Cell Death

Molecular Targeted Therapy for Brain Metastatic Breast Cancers: Current Updates

Updates on the Promising Anticancer Activity of CDF, a Synthetic Curcumin Analogue

Comparison of Ultrasound and MRI with Intraoperative Findings in the Diagnosis of Peroneal Tendinopathy, Tears, and Subluxation

Epigenetic Regulations of mRNAs and miRNAs by Nutraceuticals