[Corrigendum] Fully human VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody BC001 attenuates tumor angiogenesis and inhibits tumor growth.

Subsequently to the publication of the above paper, an interested reader drew to the authors' attention that, for the scratch wound assay experiments shown in Fig. 1 on p. 2413, the panels showing the '0 h' experiments for the respective incubations with VEGF or BC001 were apparently identical. The authors were able to re­examine their original data files, and realized that this figure had been inadverently assembled incorrectly. The revised version of Fig. 1, containing the correct data for the '0 h / BC001' panel, is shown below. Note that the revisions made to this figure do not affect the overall conclusions reported in the paper. The authors are grateful to the Editor of International Journal of Oncology for allowing them the opportunity to publish this Corrigendum, and apologize to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [International Journal of Oncology 45: 2411­2420, 2014; DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2014.2690].

The combination of circulating long noncoding RNAs AK001058, INHBA-AS1, MIR4435-2HG, and CEBPA-AS1 fragments in plasma serve as diagnostic markers for gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Suitable diagnostic markers for cancers are urgently required in clinical practice. Long non-coding RNAs, which have been reported in many cancer types, are a potential new class of biomarkers for tumor diagnosis. RESULTS: Five lncRNAs, including AK001058, INHBA-AS1, MIR4435-2HG, UCA1 and CEBPA-AS1 were validated to be increased in gastric cancer tissues. Furthermore, we found that plasma level of these five lncRNAs were significantly higher in gastric cancer patients compared with normal controls. By receiver operating characteristic analysis, we found that the combination of plasma lncRNAs with the area under the curve up to 0.921, including AK001058, INHBA-AS1, MIR4435-2HG, and CEBPA-AS1, is a better indicator of gastric cancer than their individual levels or other lncRNA combinations. Simultaneously, we found that the expression levels of a series of MIR4435-2HG fragments are different in gastric cancer plasma samples, but most of them higher than that in healthy control plasma samples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: LncRNA gene expression profiles were analyzed in two pairs of human gastric cancer and adjacent non-tumor tissues by microarray analysis. Nine gastric cancer-associated lncRNAs were selected and assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in gastric tissues, and 5 of them were further analyzed in gastric cancer patients' plasma. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that certain lncRNAs, such as AK001058, INHBA-AS1, MIR4435-2HG, and CEBPA-AS1, are enriched in human gastric cancer tissues and significantly elevated in the plasma of patients with gastric cancer. These findings indicate that the combination of these four lncRNAs might be used as diagnostic or prognostic markers for gastric cancer patients.

Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of tuftsin-derived T peptide, a promising antitumor agent, in beagles.

Tuftsin, a natural phagocytosis-stimulating tetrapeptide, had aroused much interest in tumor immunotherapy, but the poor pharmacokinetics hampered its clinical developments, for that it was extremely susceptible to degradation by enzymolysis in vivo. T Peptide (TP) was a newly designed tuftsin derivative aimed to enhance stability and was proved to have significant antitumor activity. In this study, the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of TP was first clarified in beagles with subcutaneous administration, by using a simple and robust competitive ELISA method. Dose-dependency and non-linear dynamics of TP after single-dose (2, 6 and 18 mg kg(-1), respectively) were found, and the half-time of TP was proved to reach 1.3-2.8 h. Multiple dosing of 6 mg kg(-1) once a day for 7 days resulted in a slight accumulation (accumulation index was 1.92 ± 0.43), indicating that the dosing interval in the following clinical trial needs to be extended. The absolute bioavailability of TP was 31.1 ± 6.2% after subcutaneous administration. These results first demonstrated the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability data of TP in vivo, which illustrated the potential druggability of TP and provided useful information for the dosage regimen design in the following clinical trials, as well as a simple and feasible analytical method for clinical sample analysis.

Micheliolide derivative DMAMCL inhibits glioma cell growth in vitro and in vivo.

BACKGROUND: There is no highly effective chemotherapy for malignant gliomas to date. We found that dimethylaminomicheliolide (DMAMCL), a selective inhibitor of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem/progenitor cells, inhibited the growth of glioma cells. METHODS: The distribution of DMAMCL in brain was analyzed by an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) system. The anti-tumor evaluations of DMAMCL in vitro were performed by MTT, FACS and RT-PCR. In vivo, the mixture of C6 cells and matrigel was injected into caudatum, and the anti-tumor activity of DMAMCL was evaluated by tumor growth and rat survival. The toxicity of DMAMCL was evaluated by body weight, daily food intake, hematological or serum biochemical analyses, and histological appearance of tissues. RESULTS: The IC50 values of DMAMCL against the C6 and U-87MG cell lines in vitro were 27.18 ± 1.89 µM and 20.58 ± 1.61 µM, respectively. DAMMCL down-regulated the anti-apoptosis gene Bcl-2 and increased apoptosis in C6 and U-87MG cells in a dose-dependent manner. In a C6 rat tumor model, daily administration of DMAMCL for 21 days reduced the burden of C6 tumors by 60% to 88% compared to controls, and more than doubled the mean lifespan of tumor-bearing rats. Distribution analysis showed that the DMAMCL concentration was higher in the brain than in plasma. Evaluations for toxicity revealed that oral administration of DMAMCL at 200 or 300 mg/kg once a day for 21 days did not result in toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that DMAMCL is highly promising for the treatment of glioma.

Fully human VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody BC001 attenuates tumor angiogenesis and inhibits tumor growth.

The critical role of VEGFR2 in tumor neovascularization and progression has allowed the design of clinically beneficial therapies based on it. Here we show that BC001, a new fully human anti-VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody, inhibits VEGF-stimulated endothelial cell migration, tube formation, and effectively suppressed the transdifferentiation of cancer stem cells into endothelial cells in vitro. Since BC001 exhibited no activity against the mouse VEGFR2 and mouse based study was required to confirm its efficacy in vivo, BC101, the mouse analogue of BC001, was developed. BC101 significantly attenuated angiogenesis according to Matrigel plug assay and resulted in ~80% growth inhibition of mouse B16F10 homograft tumors relative to vehicle control. Similarly, human analogue BC001 suppressed the growth of human xenograft tumors HCT116 and BGC823. Furthermore, immunohistochemical results showed reduced expression of CD31, VEGFR2 and Ki-67, as well as increased expression of Caspase 3 in BC001-treated tumor, which indicated BC001 was able to significantly decrease microvessel density, suppress proliferation and promote apoptosis. These results demonstrate the fully human VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody BC001 can work as an effective inhibitor of tumor angiogenesis and tumor growth both in vitro and in vivo.

Anticancer activity of tuftsin-derived T peptide in postoperative residual tumors.

Immune adjuvants have been used in cancer biotherapies to stimulate immune response to tumor cells. Despite their potential as anticancer reagents, there are several impediments to their use in clinical applications. In this study, we aim to modify the existing tuftsin structure and evaluate its antitumor activity in preclinical models. We synthesized a novel tuftsin derivative, namely, the T peptide (TP), by linking four tuftsin peptides, which showed enhanced stability in vivo. We then evaluated its anticancer activity in a postoperative residual tumor model in mice, where we surgically removed most of the primary tumor from the host, a procedure mimicking clinically postoperative patients. Despite the limited effect in intact solid tumors, TP strongly inhibited relapsed growth of residual tumors in postsurgical mice. Surgical resection of tumors accelerated residual tumor growth, but TP slowed down this process significantly. Interestingly, TP showed similar effects in human xenograft residual models. As an immunomodulator, TP could synergize the functions of macrophages, thus inhibiting the growth of cocultured tumor cells in vitro. Furthermore, TP could shift the macrophages to the tumor-suppressive M1 type and mobilize them to produce elevated cytotoxic TNF-α and NO. As a result, TP effectively prolonged the survival time of tumor-resected mice. Using the postoperative residual tumor models, we provide a body of evidence showing the antitumor activity of TP, which causes no obvious toxicity. Our study highlights the potential of TP as a postoperative adjuvant in cancer therapies.

Exploration of the protection of riboflavin laurate on oral mucositis induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy at the cellular level: what is the leading contributor?

Oral or gastrointestinal mucositis is a frequent phenomenon in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In addition, several clinical investigations have demonstrated in recent years that riboflavin laurate has the potential to protect the patients from the disease induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In our studies, it is observed that riboflavin laurate can ameliorate either chemotherapy- or radiotherapy-induced toxicities on Helf cells, and the effect is greater than that of riboflavin. In addition, riboflavin laurate is able to transport through the Caco-2 cell monolayer as the prototype, indicating the protective effects may be produced by the prototype of riboflavin laurate, rather than simply by the released riboflavin.