Recent patents on anti-cancer drug discovery最新文献

There has been a great amount of advancement in the early field of nano-immunotherapy and combination therapy. Persistent consideration regarding the clinical challenges and therapeutic hindrance should be tended to achieve therapeutic efficacy and potential. In this review, we will address how nanotechnology could defeat the difficulties resulting from cancer immunotherapy, how nanoparticles' utilization can enhance the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockers, and reconstituting the tumor microenvironment can promote antitumor responses. Moreover, this review discusses how nanoparticles mediate therapeutic modalities like chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, and radiotherapy, which are used to target and destroy cancerous cells, initiate the release of tumor antigens, and can trigger anti-tumor immunity reactions. Furthermore, we analyzed the potential benefits of immunotherapy combinatorial using the nanoparticle delivery system to prevent tumor recurrence, hinder metastases, and decrease systemic toxicity of major organs and healthy cells common with uncontrolled targeting.

Background: Gliotoxin, a secondary metabolite isolated from marine-derived Aspergillus fumigatus, has demonstrated anti-tumor properties in several cancers. Ferroptosis, a recently discovered type of programmed cell death that depends on the accumulation of iron and lipid peroxides, participates in the occurrence and development of various diseases, including cancer. A recent patent, US20200383943, has suggested that the promotion of ferroptosis is a method of cancer treatment. Therefore, the development of drugs that induce ferroptosis in cancer cells would constitute a novel therapeutic approach.

Objective: Gliotoxin is a natural compound which has exhibited anti-tumor properties in multiple cancers, however, studies of the effect of gliotoxin on esophageal cancer are lacking. Although cancer treatment has shown great progress, including traditional surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, the prognosis of esophageal cancer is still poor. Therefore, the development of new treatment approaches for esophageal cancer is necessary.

Methods: The effects of gliotoxin on esophageal cancer cells were determined by functional assays, such as CCK-8, wound healing and transwell assays. We used online tools to predict the target genes of gliotoxin, followed by further verification using Western blotting assays. To assess the role of gliotxin in inducing ferroptosis in esophageal cancer, we detected characteristics associated with ferroptosis including ROS, MDA, GSH and Fe²⁺.

Results: Using online tools SEA and SwissTargetPrediction, we predicted that SUV39H1 was the gliotoxin target gene. Furthermore, in esophageal cancer tissues, SUV39H1 was expressed at higher levels than in normal tissues, while in patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC), high expression levels of SUV39H1 indicated a poor prognosis. In vitro, we observed that gliotoxin increased ESCC cell death and inhibited cell migration. We treated ESCC cells with pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK or ferroptosis inhibitors, including Fer-1 and DFO. Our results showed that Fer-1 and DFO reduced the toxic effects of gliotoxin, while Z-VAD-FMK did not. Furthermore, gliotoxin treatment reduced tumor weight and volume in the xenograft tumor mouse model.

Conclusion: In summary, our findings indicate that gliotoxin downregulated SUV39H1 expression in ESCC cells and induced ferroptosis, suggesting a novel natural therapy for ESSC.

Background: Gefitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is effectively used in the targeted treatment of malignant conditions. It suppresses the signal transduction cascades leading to cell proliferation in the tumors and is now currently approved in several countries globally as secondline and third-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Objective: This review is aimed to summarize the journey of gefitinib as an established anticancer drug for the management of various cancers. Moreover, this review will focus on the mechanism of action, established anticancer activities, combination therapy, nanoformulations, as well as recent clinical trials and patents on gefitinib.

Methods: The data for this review was collected from scientific databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, etc. Recent patents on gefitinib granted in the last two years were collected from databases Patentscope, USPTO, Espacenet, InPASS and Google Patents. Data for the recent clinical trials were obtained from the U.S. National Library of Medicine database.

Results: Recent pre-clinical and clinical studies during the period 2015-2021 demonstrating the efficacy of gefitinib were selected and summarized. Total 31 patents were granted in the year 2020-2021 concerning gefitinib. The efficacy of gefitinib against lung cancer, as well as other cancer types, including breast, prostate, colon, cervix etc., was reviewed.

Conclusion: Gefitinib showed significant advantages in being more effective, safer and more stable, and the associated biopharmaceutical problems are addressed by the application of nanotechnology. The combination therapy using gefitinib and various anticancer molecules of natural and synthetic origin has shown an improved anticancer profile.

The present disclosure relates to p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, and the use of the p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors and pharmaceutical compositions thereof for treating various diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, COVID-19, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and acute lung injury (ALI).

Background: The occurrence and progression of cancer are the results of the dysregulation of genetics and epigenetics. Epigenetic regulation can reversibly affect gene transcription activity without changing DNA structure. Covalent modification of histones is crucial in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Furthermore, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) significantly affects cell tumorigenesis, proliferation, antitumor drug resistance, etc. Overexpression of EGFR promotes cancer development. Therefore, EGFR-targeted drugs have become the focus of tumor therapy. With the advent of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), EGFR-TKIs resistance, which occurs about half a year to a year, has become an obstacle in cancer treatment.

Objective: The objective of this study is to discuss the ways to overcome EGFR-TKIs resistance in a variety of tumors.

Methods: The combination therapy of epigenetic drugs and other drugs is used.

Results: The combination of the two drugs can overcome the resistance of EGFR-TKIs and prolong the survival of patients.

Conclusion: This article depicts the concepts of epigenetics and the mechanism of EGFR-TKIs resistance and then illustrates the relationship between epigenetic mechanisms and EGFR-TKIs resistance. Finally, it discusses the clinical research and the latest patents for using epigenetic drugs to reverse EGFR-TKIs resistance in human cancer. In the future, more novel targets may be discovered for overcoming resistance to EGFR-TKIs, not just on histone deacetylases (HDACs). The dosing course and mode of administration of the combination therapy containing epigenetic drugs need further study. This review provides new ideas for using epigenetic agents to overcome EGFR-TKIs resistance.

Green nanotechnology can offer notable advantages over the conventional drug delivery methods in terms of improved drug stability, drug-carrying capacity, site-specificity, and feasibility to apply different routes of administration with less systemic toxicities. Metal nanoparticles bio fabricated with phytoconstituents and microbial extracts have gained significant interest for the treatment of various solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive cancer with a very poor prognosis. The current treatments of HCC fails to provide tumor specificity, causing many systemic toxicities and poor overall survival benefits especially for patients in advanced and terminal stages. A novel therapeutic approach with maximal therapeutic effect and minimum adverse effects are urgently required for HCC patients. Green synthesized metal nanoparticles offer significant anticancer effects along with minimal systemic toxicities because of their site-specific delivery into the tumor microenvironment (TME). Green synthesized metal nanoparticles can therefore be a highly beneficial strategy for the treatment of HCC if properly validated with preclinical and clinical studies. This review focuses on the preclinical evidence of the most widely studied green metal nanoparticles such as green synthesized silver nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles and selenium nanoparticles. We have also summarised the clinical studies and the patents approved for nanoparticles against HCC.

Many cancer patients die due to their treatment failing because of their disease's resistance to chemotherapy and other forms of radiation therapy. Resistance may develop at any stage of therapy, even at the beginning. Several factors influence current therapy, including the type of cancer and the existence of genetic abnormalities. The response to treatment is not always predicted by the existence of a genetic mutation and might vary for various cancer subtypes. It is clear that cancer patients must be assigned a particular treatment or combination of drugs based on prediction models. Preliminary studies utilizing artificial intelligence-based prediction models have shown promising results. Building therapeutically useful models is still difficult despite enormous increases in computer capacity due to the lack of adequate clinically important pharmacogenomics data. Machine learning is the most widely used branch of artificial intelligence. Here, we review the current state in the area of using machine learning to predict treatment response. In addition, examples of machine learning algorithms being employed in clinical practice are offered.

Background: Ovarian cancer remains a leading cause of mortality in women. It is known that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) controls various biological processes and pathogenesis of many diseases, including cancers. This study aimed to determine whether LINC00936 and microRNA-221-3p (miR-221-3p) influence the laminin alpha 3 chain gene (LAMA3) in the development of ovarian cancer.

Methods: The expressions of LINC00936, miR-221-3p, and LAMA3 in ovarian cancer and adjacent tissues were assessed. Furthermore, ovarian cancer cells were transfected with vectors with overexpressed LINC00936, miR-221-3p mimic, miR-221-3p inhibitor, and si-LAMA3 to elucidate their functions in ovarian cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis. The binding relationship between LINC00936 and miR-221-3p and the relationship between miR-221-3p and LAMA3 were verified to explore the mechanism of action of LINC00936 in ovarian cancer. LINC00936 binds to miR-221-3p as a ceRNA and regulates the expression of LAMA3.

Results: LINC00936 and LAMA3 were poorly expressed, while miR-221-3p was highly expressed in ovarian cancer tissues. Over-expression of LINC00936 contributed to decreasing miR- 221-3p expression and increasing LAMA3 expression. LINC00936 overexpression or miR-221- 3p silencing downregulated the levels of PCNA, MMP-2, MMP-9, and VEGF and decreased cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and ovarian cancer tumorigenesis.

Conclusion: Collectively, overexpression of LINC00936 suppressed the development of ovarian cancer by competitively binding to miR-221-3p and controlling LAMA3 expression. These results could serve as a novel theoretical base for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Background: Polyphenols found abundantly in plants exhibit various anti-carcinogenic effects on tumor cells, including angiogenesis, metastasis, anti-proliferating agents, inflammation, and apoptosis. In recent years, many novel polyphenolic compounds with anticancer activity have been identified worldwide, and few of them are promising anticancer drugs to cure or inhibit cancer growth by interfering with cancer initiation, promotion, and progression.

Objectives: This mini-review aims to provide a comprehensive survey of the information about polyphenolic anticancer drugs disclosed in worldwide patents and discuss their possibility of developing as drugs used as anticancer drugs in clinical settings.

Methods: In the present mini-review, we have revealed the anticancer properties of polyphenols presented according to their mechanisms of action. PubMed, Google Patents, and SciDirect databases were used to compile the present study.

Results: In the last five years, various anticancer polyphenols were revealed in worldwide patents in the last decades, and their mode of action pointed out cytoskeletal damage, arresting cell cycle, inhibiting kinase, and tumor suppressor protein expression.

Conclusion: Many newly found polyphenols display a promising anticancer potential both in vitro and in vivo, and a few anticancer polyphenols act to inhibit the growth of various human cancer cells. Also, we have given an overview of patents filed in the last five years related to the anticancer potentials of polyphenols.