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Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and rapidly growing subtype of breast cancer characterized by the lack of es-trogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) expression, rendering it resistant to targeted therapies. In the absence of molecular targets, the pathogenesis of TNBC is not well understood and many studies are focused towards identifying the pathways and molecular signatures associated with the initiation and progression of TNBC. Heat shock proteins emerged as key players in the tumorigenic pathways of several types of cancer including TNBC. In the present study, paraffin- embedded tumor tissues of 66 Jordanian TNBC patients were analyzed, retrospectively, by immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of HSP90, HSP70, HSP60, and HSP27 in Jordanian TNBC patients. The expression of the aforementioned markers was also examined using disease-free survival (DFS) along with a variety of clinical and pathological characteristics such as age, stage/grade of tumor, and nodal involvement. Positive expression of HSP90, HSP60, HSP27, and HSP70 was shown in 89%, 79%, 76%, and 40% of the cases analyzed, respectively. HSP60 positive expression was found to be significantly correlated with advanced stage (pT3/pT4) of the tumor (p = 0.05), nodal involvement (p = 0.03), and older age of patients (p = 0.03). Among the clinical and pathological variables analyzed in the present study, it was found that advanced stage (pT3/pT4) of the tumor and older age of the patients were significantly associated with worse DFS (p = 0.001 and 0.02, respectively). Additionally, positive expression of HSP60 showed to be correlated with worse DFS (p = 0.05). This study highlights the importance of HSP60 as a marker of poor prognosis in TNBC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Virus nanoparticles have been extensively studied over the past decades for theranostics applications. Viruses are well-characterized, naturally occurring nanoparticles that can be produced in high quantity with a high degree of similarity in both structure and composition., Objectives: The plant virus Cowpea Mosaic Virus (CPMV) has been innovatively used as a nanoscaffold. Utilization of the internal cavity of empty Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) for the inclusion of therapeutics within the capsid has opened many opportunities in drug delivery and imaging applications., Methods: The encapsidation of magnetic materials and anticancer drugs was achieved. Superscript CPMV denotes molecules attached to the external surface of CPMV and CPMV Subscript denotes molecules within the interior of the capsid., Results: Here, the generation of novel VLPs incorporating iron-platinum nanoparticles T CPMV FePt and cisplatin (Cis) ( T CPMV Cis ) is reported. T CPMV Cis exhibited a cytotoxic IC 50 of T CPMV Cis on both A549 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines of 1.8 μM and 3.9 μM, respectively after 72 hours of incubation. The T CPMV FePt were prepared as potential MRI contrast agents., Conclusion: Cisplatin loaded VLP ( T CPMV Cis ) is shown to enhance cisplatin cytotoxicity in cancer cell lines with its potency increased by 2.3-folds., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)