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Chemotherapy has been proven to be an efficient strategy for the treatment of prostate cancer (PC). However, the insufficient cellular uptake of drugs is the biggest challenge for PC therapy. Therefore, in order to address the above concern, we developed tumor-targeted hyaluronic acid-silver nanoparticles (HA-Ag NPs), in which hyaluronic acid can specially bind with its receptor CD44 overexpressed on LNCaP cells. HA-Ag NPs have been used to load paclitaxel (PTX) to prepare functionalized silver nanoparticles (HA-Ag-PTX). The average particle size of HA-Ag-PTX was about 70 nm and kept under 120 nm for eight days. androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) cells show good uptake of HA-Ag-PTX, and HA-Ag-PTX enters LNCaP cells in a clathrin-mediated energy-dependent manner. HA-Ag-PTX exhibits an excellent pH response release of PTX under the acidic condition, which is beneficial to enhance the distribution of PTX in the tumor microenvironment. HA-Ag-PTX effectively suppresses the migration and proliferation of LNCaP cells probably by arresting the cellular cycle at G 0/ G 1 phase and enhancing the production of the reactive oxygen species. It is worth mentioning that HA-Ag-PTX exhibits greater anticancer activity in comparison with free PTX in the LNCaP cell model, indicating that HA-Ag NPs can effectively enhance the anticancer efficacy of PTX. As a whole, these findings suggest that HA-Ag-PTX has promising potential for PC therapy. Hyaluronic acid-modified silver nanoparticle loaded with paclitaxel (HA-Ag-PTX) was prepared in this study. Hyaluronic acid was used as cancer cells-targeted moiety. HA-Ag-PTX exhibited great ability to suppress the migration and proliferation of androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cells (LNCaP). Furthermore, HA-Ag-PTX could also induce the apoptosis of LNCaP. These findings suggest that HA-Ag-PTX has promising potential for prostate cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a very common head and neck cancer in southern china. Despite advances in surgical and chemotherapeutic approaches, its prognosis is still not promising. Hedgehog signaling pathway was reported to be involved in a number of cancers including head and neck. However, it remains unclear regarding the role of this pathway in NPC. By real-time PCR, we found Ptch1, Smo, and Gli-1 were expressed in all human nasopharyngeal epithelial tissues and cell lines. Compared with nasopharyngeal normal epithelial tissues, the mRNA expression level of Gli-1 was higher in carcinoma and nasopharyngitis (NPI) epithelial tissues. While compared with nasopharyngitis epithelia, the mRNA expression level of Ptch1 was lower in carcinoma epithelia and normal epithelia. The expressions of Smo mRNA were not significantly different among these epithelial tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that the expression level of Gli-1 was higher in NPC than NPI. Thus, our data indicated that aberrant activation of hedgehog pathway in NPC. Furthermore, blocking the pathway with cyclopamine inhibited the proliferation of NPC epithelia cell lines. In addition, blockade of the pathway in three NPC cell lines with cyclopamine-induced tumor cell apoptosis. The transcription of hedgehog target genes also is inhibited by cyclopamine. These data suggested that hedgehog pathway may sustain nasopharyngeal tumor growth. Our data demonstrated that hedgehog signaling pathway was involved in NPC pathogenesis and might be a novel therapeutic target for NPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Several antiangiogenic agents, including bevacizumab, sunitinib, and sorafenib, which mainly target the VEGF signaling system, have been approved for the treatment of human cancers. These drugs have been paired with conventional chemotherapeutic agents to treat different types of cancers, including colorectal and lung cancers; however, the patient response rate and resultant increase in overall survival time have been rather modest. The current antiangiogenic regimen is far from optimal. Improvements of therapeutic efficacy and minimization of adverse effects and drug resistance are urgent tasks that are most likely to be resolved by understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor angiogenesis. The aim of this article is to discuss these clinically related issues, to highlight several recent examples of the complex interplays between tumor-produced angiogenic factors, and to propose a new paradigm for improvement of therapeutic intervention of tumor angiogenesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The incidence of prostate cancer is gradually increasing. There are many methods for clinical treatment of prostate cancer, such as surgical treatment and endocrine treatment. In the case of advanced prostate cancer, we must not only extend patients' survival times but also enhance their quality of life. Endocrine medications are the most effective therapy for advanced prostate cancer. This research will investigate the therapeutic impact of a complete treatment model in prostate cancer in order to discover a trustworthy clinical treatment model. This research discovered that, as compared to endocrine treatment, radical resection of prostate cancer may diminish and reach lower serum PSA levels in a short amount of time, as well as sustain low PSA levels and delay progression to castration resistance. Moreover, the comprehensive treatment mode can effectively reduce the possibility of complications. The research results show that the comprehensive treatment model can play an important role in the treatment of prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dendritic cells (DCs) have been widely used as cancer vaccines. However, their functional abilities have often been suppressed by tumor-secreted immunosuppressants such as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β). We developed a new strategy using a TGF-β insensitive DC as cancer vaccine. The effect of this vaccine was tested in a murine pulmonary metastases model of renal carcinoma (Renca). Tumor lysate-pulsed DCs (TP-DCs) were infected with retrovirus containing gene of dominant negative TGF-β type II receptor (TβRIIDN) and thus made TGF-β insensitive. Vaccination of the mice bearing Renca pulmonary metastases with the TβRIIDN TP-DC induced powerful tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses, suppressed pulmonary metastases, and prolonged survival times. These results suggest TGF-β-insensitive TP-DC vaccine can be used to enhance the antitumor efficacy of DC vaccine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]