ABSTRACT
Past several years have witnessed dramatic leaps in our understanding of rewiring of gene expression at the translation level during cancer developmentthat provides linchpin support to the transformed phenotype. Most recent and ground-breaking developments in the field of molecular oncology aredriven by an explosion in technological advancements and have started to reveal previously unimagined regulatory mechanisms and how they intricately co-ordinate to modulate cancer progression, loss of apoptosis and development of resistance against different therapeutics. However, the insights gained from work in this natural product research have far-reaching impact because of rapidly increasing repertoire of medicinally and biologically efficient phytochemicals. How Tanshinones mediate targeting of JAK-STAT, ER stress associated signaling cascade,PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway,autophagy, TRAIL pathway and microRNAs are being discovered and will prove to be helpful in getting a step closer to personalized medicine.
Subject(s)
Abietanes/therapeutic use , Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/therapeutic use , Neoplasms/drug therapy , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Abietanes/pharmacology , Animals , Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/pharmacology , Apoptosis/drug effects , Autophagy/drug effects , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Humans , MAP Kinase Signaling System/drug effects , Matrix Metalloproteinases/metabolism , Neoplasms/metabolism , Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism , TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand/metabolism , TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases/metabolismABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: IL-12B is a strong candidate gene for asthma. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the relationship between IL-12B and asthma, allergic rhinitis, familial asthma, and levels of eosinophils and total immunoglobulin (Ig) E in the serum of asthma patients. METHODS: The study group consisted of 53 asthma patients and 60 control patients. Serum total IgE levels, eosinophil count, and the presence of allergic rhinitis and familial asthma were determined, and the IL-12B polymorphism was analyzed. Both patients and controls were divided into 3 groups based on their genotypes-homozygous for allele 1 (Al), homozygous for allele 2 (A2), and heterozygous patients, ie, alleles 1 and 2 (A1A2). Each genotype was compared with the other genotypes and the control genotypes. RESULTS: The rates for genotypes A1, A1A2, and A2 were 17%, 40%, and 43%, respectively. Male and female total IgE levels were not different between the groups (P>.05), but they were higher than in the controls (P > .05). The frequencies of allergic rhinitis and familial asthma were not different between the groups (P > .05), although allergic rhinitis in the A1A2 genotype and familial asthma in the A2 genotype were higher than in the controls (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our comparison of asthma patients and controls showed that familial susceptibility to asthma may be related to the A2 genotype, whereas coexistence of asthma and allergic rhinitis may be related to the A1A2 genotype. In asthmatic patients, the effects of the IL-12B polymorphism on asthma, allergic rhinitis, familial asthma, eosinophilia and total IgE levels, are controversial. We think that there is a need to investigate this hypothesis in larger series.
