Caffeine induces macroautophagy and confers a cytocidal effect on food spoilage yeast in combination with benzoic acid.
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Weak organic acids are an important class of food preservatives that are particularly efficacious towards yeast and fungal spoilage. While acids with small aliphatic chains appear to function by acidification of the cytosol and are required at high concentrations to inhibit growth, more hydrophobic organic acids such as sorbic and benzoic acid have been suggested to function by perturbing membrane dynamics and are growth-inhibitory at much lower concentrations. We previously demonstrated that benzoic acid has selective effects on membrane trafficking in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Benzoic acid selectively blocks macroautophagy in S. cerevisiae while acetic acid does not, and sorbic acid does so to a lesser extent. Indeed, while both benzoic acid and nitrogen starvation are cytostatic when assayed separately, the combination of these treatments is cytocidal, because macroautophagy is essential for survival during nitrogen starvation. In this report, we demonstrate that Zygosaccharomyces bailii, a food spoilage yeast with relatively high resistance to weak acid stress, also exhibits a cytocidal response to the combination of benzoic acid and nitrogen starvation. In addition, we show that nitrogen starvation can be replaced by caffeine supplementation. Caffeine induces a starvation response that includes the induction of macroautophagy, and the combination of caffeine and benzoic acid is cytocidal, as predicted from the nitrogen starvation data. (+info)
Does the use of paclitaxel or rapamycin-eluting stent decrease further need for coronary-artery bypass grafting when compared with bare-metal stent?
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CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: The safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents reduce the need for surgical revascularization. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether paclitaxel or rapamycin-eluting stent are effective in avoiding the need for coronary-artery bypass grafting. METHODS: This was a systematic review of the literature using the methodology of the Cochrane Collaboration. The type of study considered was controlled randomized trials; the type of intervention was drug-eluting or bare-metal stents; and the main outcome investigated was coronary-artery bypass grafting. RESULTS: The ten studies included in this systematic review did not show any statistically significant difference between the drug-eluting stents and the bare-metal stents with regard to the outcome of coronary-artery bypass grafting (confidence interval: 0.31 to 1.42). CONCLUSION: The surgical revascularization rate was not reduced by the use of drug-eluting stents. (+info)
Cytostatic drugs differentially affect phenotypic features of porcine coronary artery smooth muscle cell populations.
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We studied the effects of cytostatic drugs on porcine coronary artery spindle-shaped (S) and rhomboid (R) smooth muscle cell (SMC) biological activities related to intimal thickening (IT) formation. Imatinib, and to a lesser extent curcumin, decreased proliferation of S- and R-SMCs and migratory and urokinase activities of R-SMCs more efficiently compared with cyclosporine plus rapamycin. Imatinib increased the expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin in both SMC populations and that of smoothelin in S-SMCs. It decreased S100A4 expression in R-SMCs. By promoting SMC quiescence and differentiation imatinib and curcumin may represent valid candidates for restenosis preventive and therapeutic strategies. (+info)
Cytostatic and cytotoxic properties of Amphinase: a novel cytotoxic ribonuclease from Rana pipiens oocytes.
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Onconase (Onc), is a novel amphibian cytotoxic ribonuclease with antitumor activity, and is currently in a confirmatory phase III clinical trial for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. It was recently reported that Rana pipiens oocytes contain still another ribonuclease, named Amphinase (Amph). Amph shows 38-40% amino acid sequence identity with onconase, presents as four variants varying between themselves from 87-99% in amino acid sequence identity and has a molecular mass approximately 13,000. In the present study we describe the effects of Amph on growth of several tumor cell lines. All four variants demonstrated cytostatic and cytotoxic activity against human promyelocytic HL-60-, Jurkat T-cell- and U-937 monocytic leukemia cells. The pattern of Amph activity to certain extent resembled that of Onc. Thus, cell proliferation was suppressed at 0.5-10.0 mug/ml (40-80 nM) Amph concentration with distinct accumulation of cells in G(1) phase of the cell cycle. In addition, the cells were undergoing apoptosis, which manifested by DNA fragmentation (presence of "sub-G1" cells, TUNEL-positivity), caspases and serine proteases activation as well as activation of transglutaminase. The cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of Amph required its ribonuclease activity: the enzymatically inactive Amph-2 having histidine at the active site alkylated was ineffective. The effectiveness and cell cycle specificity was generally similar for all four Amph variants and at the equimolar concentrations was somewhat more pronounced than that of Onc. The observed cytostatic and cytotoxic activity of Amph against tumor cell lines suggests that similar to Onc this cytotoxic ribonuclease may have antitumor activity and find an application in clinical oncology. (+info)
Bilirubin inhibits tumor cell growth via activation of ERK.
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Bilirubin for decades was considered a potentially toxic waste product of heme degradation until the discovery that it is a potent antioxidant. Accumulating data from observations in humans and experimental studies indicate that the bile pigment may be protective against certain diseases. Based on our own observations that bilirubin induces cell cycle arrest in abnormally proliferating vascular smooth muscle cells and clinical observations describing a lesser incidence of cancer in healthy individuals with high normal or slightly elevated serum bilirubin levels, we hypothesized that bilirubin might suppress tumor cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. As possible effectors we analyzed key proteins that are involved in cell cycle progression and apoptosis. In vivo, tumor growth was assessed in BALB/c nude mice bearing HRT-18 colon cancer xenografts that were treated with bilirubin. In vitro, we investigated the effect of bilirubin on various cell lines and the signaling pathways involved in bilirubin action on tumor cell proliferation in HRT-18 cells using western blots. Bilirubin potently inhibited tumor cell proliferation in vivo and acted cytostatic and pro-apoptotic in vitro. The signaling cascades responsible for this action involved induction of p53, p27, hypophosphorylation of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein as well as caspase activation. These effects were dependent on ERK 1/2. Our study demonstrates that bilirubin may play a role in the defense against cancer by interfering with pro-cancerogenic signaling pathways. (+info)
Is cell death a critical end point for anticancer therapies or is cytostasis sufficient?
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Since the discovery of conventional chemotherapy and the development of new target-based agents, the importance of cytostasis in anticancer activity has been debated. This review examines the relative importance of both cytostasis and cytotoxicity based on both preclinical data and clinical reports. Several limitations of our basic and clinical methods to evaluate cytostasis and cytotoxicity will be highlighted. Molecular mechanisms of cytostasis will be analyzed, including interference with the cell cycle as well as putative links with necrosis and autophagy. Finally, we will cite evidence that most older and newer compounds are both cytostatic and cytotoxic. The relative role of cytostasis and cytotoxicity on future drug screening and clinical development will be explored. (+info)
The mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase inhibitor AZD6244 (ARRY-142886) induces growth arrest in melanoma cells and tumor regression when combined with docetaxel.
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Interaction of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C1/C2 with a novel cis-regulatory element within p53 mRNA as a response to cytostatic drug treatment.
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