The natural compounds derived from marine organisms often exhibit unique chemical structures and potent biological activities. Cancer-preventive activity is one of the rather new activities that has ...emerged and been extensively studied over the last decades. This review summarizes the recent updates on the marine chemopreventive compounds covering the relevant literature published in 2013-2021 and following the previous comprehensive review by Stonik and Fedorov (
,
, 636-671). In the current article, only the molecules having an effect on malignant transformation (or related pathway and molecules), cancer stem cells, or carcinogen-induced in vivo tumor development were considered to be "true" cancer-preventive compounds and were, therefore, reviewed. Additionally, particular attention has been given to the molecular mechanisms of chemoprevention, executed by the reported marine compounds.
In 2019, the scientific and medical community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the very first marine-derived drug, Cytarabine, into clinics ....
By the end of the year 2020, there are nine marine-derived anticancer drugs available on the market, and the field is currently growing exponentially ....
Autophagy is an elegant and complex biological process that has recently attracted much attention from the scientific community. The compounds which are capable of control and modulation of this ...process have a promising potential as therapeutics for a number of pathological conditions, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. At the same time, due to the relatively young age of the field, there are still some pitfalls in the autophagy monitoring assays and interpretation of the experimental data. This critical review provides an overview of the marine natural compounds, which have been reported to affect autophagy. The time period from the beginning of 2016 to the middle of 2020 is covered. Additionally, the published data and conclusions based on the experimental results are re-analyzed with regard to the guidelines developed by Klionsky and colleagues (Autophagy. 2016; 12(1): 1-222), which are widely accepted by the autophagy research community. Remarkably and surprisingly, more than half of the compounds reported to be autophagy activators or inhibitors could not ultimately be assigned to either category. The experimental data reported for those substances could indicate both autophagy activation and inhibition, requiring further investigation. Thus, the reviewed molecules were divided into two groups: having validated and non-validated autophagy modulatory effects. This review gives an analysis of the recent updates in the field and raises an important problem of standardization in the experimental design and data interpretation.
In Western countries, cancer is among the most frequent causes of death. Despite striking advances in cancer therapy, there is still an urgent need for new drugs in oncology. Current development ...favors so called “targeted agents” or drugs that target the immune system, i.e., therapeutic antibodies that enhance or facilitate an immune response against tumor cells (also referred to as “checkpoint inhibitors”). However, until recently, roughly 60% of drugs used in hematology and oncology were originally derived from natural sources, and one third of the top-selling agents are either natural agents or derivatives 1. There is justified hope for the discovery and development of new anticancer agents from the marine environment. Historically, this habitat has proven to be a rich source of potent natural compounds such as alkaloids, steroids, terpenes, macrolides, peptides, and polyketides, among others. Interestingly, marine agents and cancer treatment have had a special relationship from the beginning. One of the first marine-derived compounds, discovered in 1945 that was later developed into a clinically used drug, was spongothymidine 2–4, which was the lead compound for the discovery of cytarabine 5. Until today, cytarabine remains one of the most widely used agents in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and relapsed aggressive lymphomas. ...
Despite recent advances in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), treatment is inevitably hampered by the development of drug resistance. Thus, new drugs are ...urgently needed. We investigated the efficacy, toxicity, and mechanism of action of the marine triterpene glycoside cucumarioside A2-2 (CA2-2) using an in vitro CRPC model. CA2-2 induced a G2/M-phase cell cycle arrest in human prostate cancer PC-3 cells and caspase-dependent apoptosis executed via an intrinsic pathway. Additionally, the drug inhibited the formation and growth of CRPC cell colonies at low micromolar concentrations. A global proteome analysis performed using the 2D-PAGE technique, followed by MALDI-MS and bioinformatical evaluation, revealed alterations in the proteins involved in cellular processes such as metastatic potential, invasion, and apoptosis. Among others, the regulation of keratin 81, CrkII, IL-1β, and cathepsin B could be identified by our proteomics approach. The effects were validated on the protein level by a 2D Western blotting analysis. Our results demonstrate the promising anticancer activity of CA2-2 in a prostate cancer model and provide insights on the underlying mode of action.
The term "Far East" implies a huge geographical region that consists of Eastern and Southeastern Asia, Eastern Russia and includes the waters of two oceans-the Pacific and Indian ....
Autophagy (Ancient Greek αὐτόφαγος
-"self-devouring") is defined as a regulated mechanism of the degradation of unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components ....
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