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The authors looked at how a 3D bioprinter could be used to model the blood brain barrier.

The purpose of this study was to test the anti-cancer properties and pro-apoptotic effects of the polyherbal formulation MAT20 as a complementary treatment. Moringa oleifera (Moringa), Phyllanthus emblica (Amla) and Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi), these 3 herbs were used to formulate MAT20, which contain phytochemicals that are known to display anti-cancer properties. In this study, we hypothesized that MCF-7 breast cancer cells treated with MAT20 would show increased cytotoxicity compared to its individual plant extracts.

Smoking generates free radicals and reactive oxygen species which induce cell damage and lipid peroxidation. This is linked to the development of oral cancer in chronic smokers. The authors of this study developed Quitpuff, simple colorimetric test to measure the extent of lipid peroxidation in saliva samples. This test detected salivary lipid peroxidation with 96% accuracy in test subjects and could serve as an inexpensive, non-invasive test for smokers to measure degree of salivary lipid peroxidation and potential risk of oral cancer.

Luteolin (3′,4′,5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone) is a flavonoid that occurs in fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Research suggests that luteolin is effective against various forms of cancer by triggering apoptosis pathways. This experiment analyzes the effects of luteolin on the cell viability of malignant melanoma cells using an in vitro experiment to research alternative melanoma treatments and hopefully to help further cancer research as a whole.

This paper hypothesized that the tumor microenvironment mediates cancer’s response to oxidative stress by delivering extracellular vesicles to cancer cells. Breast and lung cancer cells were treated with EVs, reavealing that EVs extracted from oxidatively stressed adipocytes increased the cell proliferation of breast cancer cells. These findings present a novel way that the TME influences cancer progression.

This study hypothesizes that nanoparticles derived from corn (cNPs)may have anti-proliferative effects on bone cancer and metastasized bone cancer. It finds that human osteosarcoma and human lung carcinoma metastasized to bone marrow cell viability decreased to 0% when treated with cNPs. Overall, these results indicate that cNPs have anti-proliferative effects on bone cancer cells and cancer cells that metastasize to the bone.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, with a 10% 5-year survival rate. The authors studied various dosages of TPEN and zinc in combination with Chloroquine and Gemcitabine as treatments to reduce cell proliferation. Results showed that when combined with Chloroquine and Gemcitabine, zinc and TPEN both significantly lowered cell proliferation compared to Gemcitabine, suggesting a synergistic effect that resulted in a more cytotoxic treatment. Further research and clinical trials on this topic are needed to determine whether this could be a viable treatment for pancreatic cancer.

The major drawback of chemotherapy regimens for treating cancer is that the cancerous cells acquire drug resistance and become impervious to further dose escalation. Keeping in mind the studied success of herbal formulations with regard to alternative treatments for cancer, we hypothesized that the use of a chemotherapeutic drug and proprietary herbal formulation, HF1, would combat this phenomenon when administered with common chemotherapeutic drug 5FU. Results demonstrated a cooperative effect between HF1 and 5FU on the drug resistant cell line, implying that administration of HF1 with 5FU results in cell death as measured by MTT assay.

As cancer continues to take millions of lives worldwide, the need to create effective therapeutics for the disease persists. The kinesin Eg5 assembly motor protein is a promising target for cancer therapeutics as inhibition of this protein leads to cell cycle arrest. Monastrol, a small dihydropyrimidine-based molecule capable of inhibiting the kinesin Eg5 function, has attracted the attention of medicinal chemists with its potency, affinity, and specificity to the highly targeted loop5/α2/α3 allosteric binding pocket. In this work, we employed high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS) to identify potential small molecule Eg5 inhibitors from a designed set of novel dihydropyrimidine analogs structurally similar to monastrol.

In this article the authors created an interaction map of proteins involved in colorectal cancer to look for driver vs. non-driver genes. That is they wanted to see if they could determine what genes are more likely to drive the development and progression in colorectal cancer and which are present in altered states but not necessarily driving disease progression.