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Inflammation primarily influences the initiation, progression, and deterioration of many human diseases, and immune cells are the principal forces that modulate the balance of inflammation by generating cytokines and chemokines to maintain physiological homeostasis or accelerate disease development. S100A8/A9, a heterodimer protein mainly generated by neutrophils, triggers many signal transduction pathways to mediate microtubule constitution and pathogen defense, as well as intricate procedures of cancer growth, metastasis, drug resistance, and prognosis. Its paired receptors, such as receptor for advanced glycation ends (RAGEs) and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), also have roles and effects within tumor cells, mainly involved with mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), NF-κB, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and protein kinase C (PKC) activation. In the clinical setting, S100A8/A9 and its receptors can be used complementarily as efficient biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and treatment. This review comprehensively summarizes the biological functions of S100A8/A9 and its various receptors in tumor cells, in order to provide new insights and strategies targeting S100A8/A9 to promote novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods in cancers.

Three new hexadepsipeptides (1–3), along with beauvericin (4), beauvericin D (5), and four 4-hydroxy-2-pyridone derivatives (6–9) were isolated from the endophytic fungus Fusarium sp. CPCC 400857 that derived from the stem of tea plant. Their structures were determined by extensive 1D and 2D NMR, and HRESIMS analyses. The absolute configuration of hexadepsipeptides were elucidated by the advanced Marfey’s method and chiral HPLC analysis. Compounds 4, and 7–9 displayed the cytotoxicity against human pancreatic cancer cell line, AsPC-1 with IC50 values ranging from 3.45 to 29.69 μM, and 7 and 8 also showed the antiviral activity against the coronavirus (HCoV-OC43) with IC50 values of 13.33 and 6.65 μM, respectively.

Biotransformation of the neo-clerodane diterpene, scutebarbatine F (1), by Streptomyces sp. CPCC 205437 was investigated for the first time, which led to the isolation of nine new metabolites, scutebarbatine F1–F9 (2–10). Their structures were determined by extensive high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) and NMR data analyses. The reactions that occurred included hydroxylation, acetylation, and deacetylation. Compounds 2–4 and 8–10 possess 18-OAc fragment, which were the first examples of 13-spiro neo-clerodanes with 18-OAc group. Compounds 7–10 were the first report of 13-spiro neo-clerodanes with 2-OH. Compounds 1–10 were biologically evaluated for the cytotoxic, antiviral, and antibacterial activities. Compounds 5, 7, and 9 exhibited cytotoxic activities against H460 cancer cell line with inhibitory ratios of 46.0, 42.2, and 51.1%, respectively, at 0.3 μM. Compound 5 displayed a significant anti-influenza A virus activity with inhibitory ratio of 54.8% at 20 μM, close to the positive control, ribavirin.