Guowei Shi

17-DMCHAG, a new geldanamycin derivative, inhibits prostate cancer cells through Hsp90 inhibition and survivin downregulation.

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone involved in the stability of many client proteins, including androgen receptor (AR) and survivin, making Hsp90 an attractive molecular therapeutic target for prostate cancer. Several Hsp90 inhibitors have shown antitumor activity in various preclinical models and in clinical trials. Geldanamycin is a well-known inhibitor of Hsp90, but its associated liver toxicity limited its clinical development. Here, we report a highly effective and low-hepatotoxic geldanamycin derivative that exhibits antitumor activity against human prostate cancer cells. Treatment of cells with 17-DMCHAG (17-(6-(3,4-dimethoxycinnamamido)hexylamino)-17-demethoxy-geldanamycin) dose-dependently suppressed the proliferation, reduced colony formation and induced apoptosis of human prostate cancer cell lines. 17-DMCHAG exhibits anti-invasive and anti-migratory activities in prostate cancer cells through down-regulating of transcription factors Zeb1, Snail1, Slug, and mesenchymal marker Vimentin, while up-regulating the epithelial marker of E-cadherin. Furthermore, 17-DMCHAG treatment damaged the Hsp90/AR and Hsp90/survivin complexes and induced the proteasome-dependent degradation of AR and survivin, then inhibited the activity of these two proteins. In vivo, we observed that 17-DMCHAG showed strong antitumor effects in LNCaP and DU-145 cell-xenografted nude mice. Thus, 17-DMCHAG is a potential treatment for prostate cancer.

Discovery of Novel 17‐Phenylethylaminegeldanamycin Derivatives as Potent Hsp90 Inhibitors

Twenty‐six 17‐phenylethylamine‐modified geldanamycin derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for antiproliferation activity in human cancer cell lines, LNCaP and MDA‐MB‐231. Five derivatives (2j, 2q, 2v, 2x, and 2y) showed excellent in vitro antitumor activities. Among them, compound 2y was the most potent lead, with IC50 values of 0.27 ± 0.11 and 0.86 ± 0.23 μm for LNCaP and MDA‐MB‐231, respectively. In particular, compound 2y was more active than its precursor geldanamycin against LNCap cells. Liver injury test in mice demonstrated that 2y group showed no significant difference for serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity versus vehicle control, indicating that 2y was a promising antitumor candidate. Preliminary structure–activity relationship (SAR) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of this new series of geldanamycin derivatives were also investigated, suggesting a theoretical model of 17‐phenylethylaminegeldanamycins binding to Hsp90.

Polymorphisms at long non-coding RNAs and prostate cancer risk in an eastern Chinese population.

Background:Controversial data on the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, rs3787016G>A and rs10773338G>A) in long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) with prostate cancer risk were emerged. Considering possible genetic differences among populations, we conducted the present study to clarify these discrepancies and re-validate these results in an eastern Chinese population and thus provide clues for new therapeutic targets of prostate cancer.Methods:Genotypes of these two SNPs from 1015 ethnic Han Chinese patients with prostate cancer and 1032 cancer-free controls were determined by Taqman assays. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for risk associations.Results:The association of rs3787016 A variant genotypes with a significantly higher prostate cancer risk were found (adjusted OR=1.418, 95% CI=1.090–1.844 for AA vs GG). Stratification analysis indicated that the risk of rs3787016 variant AG/AA genotypes was more evident in younger subjects, ever smoking, patients with Gleason score ⩾7(4+3) and highly aggressive status. All these risks were not present for rs10773338G>A.Conclusions:These findings suggested that lncRNA SNPs may contribute to prostate cancer risk in an eastern Chinese population. Larger and well-designed studies with different ethnic populations are warranted to validate our findings.

Discovery of diamine-linked 17-aroylamido-17-demethoxygeldanamycins as potent Hsp90 inhibitors

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is an attractive target for the development of antitumor agents. Geldanamycin (GA), the first Hsp90 inhibitor, has potent antitumor activity, but showed significant hepatotoxicity. To get rid of the hepatotoxicity of GA, in this study we incorporated aroyl groups via three types of linkers (4-aminomethylpiperidine, 1,4-butanediamine, and 1,6-hexanediamine) to the 17-position of GA and synthesized fifty-three 17-diamine-linked 17-aroylamido-17-demethoxygeldanamycins. All the derivatives were evaluated by MTT assay for their inhibitory activities against human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. Among these compounds, 17-(6-(3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamamido)hexylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (7h29) showed the most potent cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231 (IC50 = 0.19 ± 0.02 μM) with the lowest hepatotoxicity (AST = 181.0 ± 23.6 U/L, ALT = 40.4 ± 11.8 U/L). Compared to tanespimycin (17-AAG), 7h29 exhibited lower hepatotoxicity in mice, higher Hsp90 inhibitory activity in vitro and antitumor activity in human breast carcinoma (MDA-MB-231) xenograft nude mice.

17-ABAG, a novel geldanamycin derivative, inhibits LNCaP-cell proliferation through heat shock protein 90 inhibition

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancer types worldwide. In 2014, there were an estimated 233,000 new cases and 29,480 mortalities in the United States. Androgen deprivation therapy, also called androgen suppression therapy, targets androgen signaling and remains the standard treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer; however, responses to treatment are not durable and most patients advance to castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies to treat prostate cancer are urgently required. Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a chaperone protein that has been shown to regulate the progression of tumor cells. Numerous Hsp90 inhibitors show anti-tumor activity and several of them have entered clinical trials. Geldanamycin (GA) was identified as the first Hsp90 inhibitor, but shows hepatotoxicity at its effective concentrations, limiting its clinical use. In previous studies by our group, the GA derivative 17-ABAG was designed and synthesized. The present study showed that 17-ABAG inhibits the proliferation and induces apoptosis of LNCaP, an androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell line, in vitro through a classic apoptotic pathway. 17-ABAG also downregulated the Hsp90 client protein and inhibited androgen receptor nuclear localization in LNCaP cells. In addition, 17-ABAG suppressed the growth of LNCaP xenograft tumors without any obvious side-effects. The present study demonstrated that 17-ABAG is a promising anti-tumor agent and warrants further validation in prospective studies.

Low expression of microRNA‑30c promotes prostate cancer cells invasion involved in downregulation of KRAS protein

Aberrant microRNA expression is associated with tumor development. The present study aimed to elucidate the role of miR-30c in the development of prostate cancer. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to compare miR-30c expression in LNCaP, DU145, PC-3 and RWPE-1 cell lines. Lentivirus expressing miR-30c was used to create stable overexpression cell lines to investigate the effects of miR-30c overexpression on cell proliferation, migration and invasion, which were determined in the prostate cancer cell line PC-3 by MTT, colony formation, wound healing and Transwell assays. Effects of miR-30c on KRAS were examined by western blot analysis. miR-30c expression was significantly lower (P<0.05) in the PC-3 cell line compared with LNCaP, DU145 and RWPE-1 cell lines. miR-30c overexpression in PC-3 inhibited tumor cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Furthermore, KRAS protein expression was downregulated in miR-30c overexpression cell lines compared with the negative control (NC) group (P<0.05). The present results demonstrated that overexpression of miR-30c inhibits prostate cancer cell line proliferation, migration and invasion, which was possibly caused by downregulation of KRAS protein by miR-30c. The data implicate miR-30c in the prognosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Upregulated VEGFA and DLL4 act as potential prognostic genes for clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Purpose As a typical hypervascular tumor, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common type of RCC. This study was aimed to explore the prognostic genes for ccRCC, focusing on the roles of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) in the disease. Materials and methods The mRNA-sequencing data of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, including 469 tumor samples and 68 adjacent normal samples. Using limma package, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by differential expression and subgroup analyses and confirmed using validation dataset GSE53757. Followed by enrichment analysis, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and protein subcellular localization were performed using multifaceted analysis tool for human transcriptome tool, and Cytoscape software and InnateDB database, respectively. Moreover, survival analysis was conducted to identify key prognosis-associated genes. In addition, VEGFA and DLL4 levels were detected using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Results A total of 1,984 DEGs were screened in the KIRC tumor samples. VEGFA was located in extracellular space and could interact with placental growth factor (PGF) and angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2) in the PPI network. Subgroup analysis suggested that VEGFA was significantly upregulated in stages I, II, and III ccRCC tumor samples. Survival analysis showed that TIMP1 was among the top four prognosis-associated genes. qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that the expression levels of DLL4 and VEGFA were significantly upregulated in tumor samples. Conclusion VEGFA and DLL4 might be prognostic genes for ccRCC. Besides, PGF, ANGPT2, and TIMP1 might also be related to the prognosis of ccRCC patients.

Tissue‑engineered sling with adipose‑derived stem cells under static mechanical strain

The implantation of a suburethral sling is an important treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). However, the slings used current have a number of inherent limitations, such as tissue rejection and infection. The present study investigated the potential of engineering sling tissue in vitro using adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). The ADSCs were obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats and were characterized in vitro. The ADSCs were seeded on polyglycolic acid (PGA) fibers that formed a scaffold with a shape mimicking a sling complex. The results demonstrated that following in vitro culture for 12 weeks under static strain, neo-sling tissue could be generated using ADSCs. With increasing culture time, the engineered neo-sling tissue exhibited a significant improvement in biomechanical properties, including maximal load and Youngs modulus (P<0.05), and the tissue and collagen structures matured. Furthermore, differentiated ADSCs cultured under static strain were maintained their myoblast phenotype within the PGA scaffolds. These results indicate that ADSCs may serve as a novel cell source for tissue sling engineering and could improve treatment for patients with SUI.