Tumor metastasis is a major cause leading to the deaths of cancer patients. Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) is a natural product that has been demonstrated to show therapeutic values in multiple diseases. In this study, we report that NDGA can inhibit cell migration and tumor metastasis via a novel mechanism. NDGA suppresses NRP1 function by downregulating its expression, which leads to attenuated cell motility, cell adhesion to ECM and FAK signaling in cancer cells. Moreover, due to its cross-cell type activity on NRP1 suppression, NDGA also impairs angiogenesis function of endothelial cells and fibronectin assembly by fibroblasts, both of which are critical to promote metastasis. Based on these comprehensive effects, NDGA effectively suppresses tumor metastasis in nude mice model. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism underlying the anti-metastasis function of NDGA and indicate the potential value of NDGA in NRP1 targeting therapy for selected subtypes of cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy, which is intrinsically resistant to current chemotherapies. Herein, we investigate whether bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC), a derivative of curcumin, potentiates gemcitabine in human pancreatic cancer cells. The result suggests that BDMC sensitizes gemcitabine by inducing mitochondrial dysfunctions and apoptosis in PANC-1 and MiaPaCa-2 pancreatic cancer cells. Utilizing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, we identify 13 essential proteins with significantly altered expressions in response to gemcitabine alone or combined with BDMC. Protein-protein interaction network analysis pinpoints glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) as the key hub activated by BDMC. We then reveal that BDMC upregulates GRP78 and facilitates apoptosis through eIF2α/CHOP pathway. Moreover, DJ-1 and prohibitin, two identified markers of chemoresistance, are increased by gemcitabine in PANC-1 cells. This could be meaningfully reversed by BDMC, suggesting that BDMC partially offsets the chemoresistance induced by gemcitabine. In summary, these findings show that BDMC promotes apoptosis through a GRP78-dependent pathway and mitochondrial dysfunctions, and potentiates the antitumor effect of gemcitabine in human pancreatic cancer cells.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor with limited therapeutic options. Glioma stem cell (GSC) is thought to be greatly responsible for glioma tumor progression and drug resistance. But the molecular mechanisms of GSC deriving recurrence and drug resistance are still unclear. SOX9 (sex-determining region Y (SRY)-box9 protein), a transcription factor expressed in most solid tumors, is reported as a key regulator involved in maintaining cancer hallmarks including the GSCs state. Previously, we have observed that silencing of SOX9 suppressed glioma cells proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we found that SOX9 was essential for GSC self-renewal. Silencing of SOX9 down-regulated a broad range of stem cell markers and inhibited glioma cell colony and sphere formation. We identified pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1) as a target gene of SOX9 using microarray analyses. PDK1 inactivation greatly inhibited glioma cell colony and sphere formation and sensitized glioma spheres to temozolomide (TMZ) toxicity. In addition, SOX9-shRNA and PDK1 inhibitor could greatly sensitize GSC to TMZ in vivo. Taken together, our data reveals that SOX9-PDK1 axis is a key regulator of GSC self-renewal and GSC temozolomide resistance. These findings may provide help for future human GBM therapy.

Urothelial carcinoma ranks the ninth among malignant cancers. We conducted this study to identify which patients could benefit more from the treatment of programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand1 (PD-L1) inhibitors.

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a pivotal role in breast cancer progression. We found that overexpression of miR-129-5p reversed EMT, whereas depletion of miR-129-5p induced EMT in breast cancer cells. We demonstrated that Twist1 is a direct target of miR-129-5p. Both Twist1 and Snail transcriptionally suppressed miR-129-5p expression. Levels of miR-129-5p were low in breast cancer tissues. miR-129-5p down-regulation correlated with advanced clinical stage and poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer. miR-129-5p expression negatively correlated with Twist1 and Snail expression. Thus, miR-129-5p down-regulation fosters EMT in breast cancer by increasing Twist1-Snail and activating a negative feedback loop.

Quantitative analyses of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are suggested to be a promising method for the detection of colorectal cancer, validated clinical relevance of cfDNA has not been published so far. Though some of the inconsistent results were published. This study is the first meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of circulating cfDNA as non-invasive biomarkers for colorectal cancer.

By analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, we identified ZYG11A as a potential oncogene. We determined the expression of ZYG11A in NSCLC tissues and explored its clinical significance. And also evaluated the effects of ZYG11A on NSCLC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion both in vitro and in vivo. Our results show that ZYG11A is hyper-expressed in NSCLC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues, and increased expression of ZYG11A is associated with a poor prognosis (HR: 2.489, 95%CI: 1.248-4.963, p = 0.010). ZYG11A knockdown induces cell cycle arrest and inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells. ZYG11A knockdown also results in decreased expression of CCNE1. Over-expression of CCNE1 in cells with ZYG11A knockdown restores their oncogenic activities. Our data suggest that ZYG11A may serve as a novel oncogene promoting tumorigenicity of NSCLC cells by inducing cell cycle alterations and increasing CCNE1 expression.