Neoplasma 

About: Neoplasma is an academic journal published by AEPress. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Cancer & Breast cancer. It has an ISSN identifier of 0028-2685. Over the lifetime, 4455 publications have been published receiving 44167 citations. The journal is also known as: Journal of experimental and clinical oncology.

Pentacyclic triterpenoic acids: new chemoprotective compounds. Minireview.

Abstract: Ursolic acid and oleanolic acid are pentacyclic triterpenoic acids having a similar chemical structure and are the major components of some oriental and traditional medicine herbs wildly distributed all over the world. There is a growing interest in the elucidation of the biological roles of both these triterpenoid compounds. This review summarizes the biological activities of presented triterpenoid acids (anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, anti-ulcer, anti-HIV, cardiovascular, hypolipidemic, antiatherosclerotic and immunoregulatory effects). Our interest has been focussed especially on their anti-tumor and chemopreventive activity. Both compounds have been shown to act at various stages of tumor development, including inhibition of tumorigenesis, inhibition of tumor promotion, and induction of tumor cell differentiation. They effectively inhibit angiogenesis, invasion of tumor cells and metastasis. However, the mechanisms by which they act are poorly understood. Ursolic acid and oleanolic acid are relatively non-toxic and could be use as chemopreventive/chemoprotective agents in clinical praxis.

HOTAIR: a cancer-related long non-coding RNA.

Abstract: Long non-coding RNA was dismissed as merely transcriptional "noise" in the past decades. Numerous researches have shown that lncRNAs regulated gene expression at the epigenetic level. Moreover, lncRNAs played important roles in proliferation, apoptosis and invasiveness of tumor cells, and participated in metastatic capacity of cancers. Recent studies revealed HOX transcript antisense RNA, a lncRNA with regulatory functions of transcription, could bind PRC2 and LSD1/CoREST/REST complexes and direct to the specific gene sites, resulted in H3K27 methylation and H3K4 demethylation and ultimately gene silencing. Aberrant HOTAIR expression was associated with various sites of cancers such as breast, hepatocellular, gastric, colorectal, pancreatic et al; and affected survival and prognosis of cancer patients. In this review, we introduce an overall view of HOTAIR by describing the known molecular mechanisms and potential functions of HOTAIR and summarizing the latest progresses on the research of HOTAIR in various human cancers.

Long non-coding RNA MEG3 inhibits the proliferation of cervical carcinoma cells through the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

Abstract: Cervical cancer remains an important public health problem worldwide. New and effective therapeutic strategies targeting cervical cancer are urgently needed. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are newly identified regulators in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. To investigate the role of lncRNA MEG3 in the development of cervical cancer, we examined MEG3 expression in 18 pairs of cervical cancer and matched adjacent non-neoplastic tissues. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) results showed high expression levels of MEG3 in non-neoplastic tissues, but markedly lower levels in cancer tissues. We further investigated whether the restoration of MEG3 expression might affect the proliferation of cervical carcinoma cells. Ectopic expression of MEG3 inhibited the proliferation of human cervical carcinoma cells HeLa and C-33A in vitro. On the other hand, knockdown of MEG3 promoted the growth of well-differentiated cervical carcinoma HCC94 cells. Further investigation into the mechanisms responsible for the growth inhibitory effects revealed that overexpression of MEG3 resulted in the induction of G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. These results identified an important role of MEG3 in the molecular etiology of cervical cancer and implicated the potential application of MEG3 in cervical cancer therapy.

Cancer stem cells

Abstract: There is an increasing evidence supporting the cancer stem cell hypothesis. Normal stem cells in the adult organism are responsible for tissue renewal and repair of aged or damaged tissue. A substantial characteristic of stem cells is their ability for self-renewal without loss of proliferation capacity with each cell division. The stem cells are immortal, and rather resistant to action of drugs. They are able to differentiate and form specific types of tissue due to the influence of microenvironmental and some other factors. Stem cells divide asymmetrically producing two daughter cells -- one is a new stem cell and the second is progenitor cell, which has the ability for differentiation and proliferation, but not the capability for self-renewal. Cancer stem cells are in many aspects similar to the stem cells. It has been proven that tumor cells are heterogeneous comprising rare tumor initiating cells and abundant non-tumor initiating cells. Tumor initiating cells -- cancer stem cells have the ability of self-renewal and proliferation, are resistant to drugs, and express typical markers of stem cells. It is not clear whether cancer stem cells originate from normal stem cells in consequence of genetic and epigenetic changes and/or by redifferentiation from somatic tumor cells to the stem-like cells. Probably both mechanisms are involved in the origin of cancer stem cells. Dysregulation of stem cell self-renewal is a likely requirement for the development of cancer. Isolation and identification of cancer stem cells in human tumors and in tumor cell lines has been successful. To date, the existence of cancer stem cells has been proven in acute and chronic myeloid leukemia, in breast cancer, in brain tumors, in lung cancer and gastrointestinal tumors. Cancer stem cell model is also consistent with some clinical observations. Although standard chemotherapy kills most cells in a tumor, cancer stem cells remain viable. Despite the small number of such cells, they might be the cause of tumor recurrence, sometimes many years after the "successful" treatment of primary tumor. Growth of metastases in distinct areas of body and their cellular heterogeneity might be consequence of cancer stem cell differentiation and/or dedifferentiation and asymmetric division of cancer stem cells. Further characterization of cancer stem cells is needed in order to find ways to destroy them, which might contribute significantly to the therapeutic management of malignant tumors.

Study of antioxidant effect of apigenin, luteolin and quercetin by DNA protective method.

Abstract: A DNA protective capacity of three flavonoids, apigenin (AP), luteolin (LU) and quercetin (QU) against free radicals generated by H202, resp. Fe2+ is reported. This effect corresponding with scavenging of free radicals or with chelating of iron was assayed at two concentrations of flavonoids studied (1 microM and 10 microM). The quantitative analysis has shown that LU possesses the highest DNA protective effect of flavonoids investigated in the presence of H2O2. On the other hand, in the presence of 10 microM Fe2+, AP exhibited the highest DNA protective effect at the concentration of 1 microM and the following order was reached at the stoichiometric concentrations (10 microM) of Fe2+. It is believed that this discrepancy is caused by the ability of LU and QU iron-complex formation as it was separately investigated using UV-VIS spectrometry.