The identification and targeting of lung-cancer-cell-surface proteins are important for drug development. Molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) offer a synthetic approach for the recognition of proteins on the cell surfaces. This work outlines the use of a novel 'snapshot imprinting' approach to characterize differences in the cell-surface proteomes of lung cancer cell lines (A549, H460, H522) and a non-cancerous cell line (BEAS-2B) to potential protein targets for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics identified 2381 proteins. Fold change and p-value thresholds were used to define statistically and biologically significant differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) across cell lines, yielding 353, 426, and 274 DEPs for A549, H460, and H522, respectively, when compared to BEAS-2B. The DEPs identified across overlapping cell line comparisons were analyzed using Gene Ontology enrichment and a protein-protein network to identify hub proteins. Among these hub proteins, five proteins (NPM1, TOP2A, EZH2, PRKDC, and HNRNPK) were identified as clinically relevant when cross-referenced with the Human Protein Atlas database and the literature, highlighting their potential as diagnostic and therapeutic targets. These findings highlight the potential of nanoMIP-based snapshot imprinting as an alternative to 'classical' approaches for identifying potential protein targets for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Glucocorticoids are key regulators of immune, stress, and inflammatory responses, as well as of multiple metabolic pathways throughout life, and they play an anabolic role in tissue and organ development. Chronic glucocorticoid excess, whether due to endogenous Cushing's syndrome, long-term pharmacological treatment, or persistent stress, induces tissue-specific alterations that closely resemble those seen during physiological ageing. These shared changes include loss of tissue regenerative capacity, altered body composition, impaired glucose and lipid homeostasis, and increased cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric vulnerability. Emerging evidence indicates that glucocorticoid excess can promote cellular senescence, amplify pro-inflammatory signalling, and disrupt inter-organ communication, thereby accelerating a state of metabolic ageing. This review synthesises current clinical and experimental data linking glucocorticoid excess with cellular senescence in key metabolic organs and systems, including adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, bone, the cardiovascular system, and the brain. Particular emphasis is placed on chronic neoplastic hypercortisolism as a human model, while also considering prolonged pharmacological glucocorticoid exposure and sustained stress as more prevalent, subclinical sources of hormonal overload. By integrating these lines of evidence, we outline the emerging concept of glucocorticoid-driven metabolic ageing and highlight potential mechanistic targets along the glucocorticoid axis and within senescence pathways. A better understanding of these mechanisms may inform strategies to prevent or mitigate age-related metabolic and cardiovascular complications in patients with Cushing's syndrome, in individuals exposed to long-term glucocorticoid therapy, and in the broader ageing population.
Despite the good options for the management of Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a significant percentage of patients either do not respond to current treatments or relapse after a short time. Thus, a wider palette of targeted therapeutic strategies is needed. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitors have shown promising responses in B-cell malignancies, but their off-target effects limit their efficiency. Here, we investigated the use of novel targeted therapeutics against class I HDACs to specifically induce cell death in DLBCL cells. We show that a proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) that combined HDAC inhibitor CI-994 and an IAP ligand had a strong effect in killing different DLBCL cell lines, being more effective in doing so than CI-994 on its own. Moreover, we show that this was concomitant with the induction of DNA damage and apoptosis. A proteomics screen showed that the mechanism of induction of cell death by this PROTAC likely depends on the simultaneous activation of pro-apoptotic proteins (such as PARP-1, PDCD6IP, DAPk1, TP53BP1, and CACYBP) and the inhibition of pro-survival pathways. We conclude that eliminating class I HDACs with specific PROTACs could be an effective and precise strategy for treating DLBCL that should be further tested for their potential clinical relevance. Trial Registration: The authors have confirmed clinical trial registration is not needed for this submission.
Intermittent fasting (IF) has proven to be a feasible dietary intervention for the wider population. The recent increase in IF clinical trials highlights its potential effects on health, including changes in body composition, cardiometabolic status, and aging. Although IF may have clinical applications in different populations, studies suggest there may be sex-specific responses in parameters such as body composition or glucose and lipid metabolism. Here, the existing literature on IF clinical trials is summarized, the application of IF in both disease prevention and management is discussed, and potential disparities in response to this type of diet between men and women are assessed. Moreover, the potential mechanisms that may be contributing to the sexually dimorphic response, such as age, body composition, tissue distribution, or sex hormones are investigated. This review underscores the need to further study these sex-specific responses to IF to define the most effective time frames and length of fasting periods for men and women. Tailoring IF to specific populations with a personalized approach may help achieve its full potential as a lifestyle intervention with clinical benefits.
The B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) protein family critically controls apoptosis by regulating the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. In this cutting-edge review, we summarize the basic biology regulating the BCL2 family including canonical and non-canonical functions, and highlight milestones from basic research to clinical applications in cancer and other pathophysiological conditions. We review laboratory and clinical development of BH3-mimetics as well as more recent approaches including proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and tools targeting the BH4 domain of BCL2. The first BCL2-selective BH3-mimetic, venetoclax, showed remarkable efficacy with manageable toxicities and has transformed the treatment of several hematologic malignancies. Following its success, several chemically similar BCL2 inhibitors such as sonrotoclax and lisaftoclax are currently under clinical evaluation, alone and in combination. Genetic analysis highlights the importance of BCL-XL and MCL1 across different cancer types and the possible utility of BH3-mimetics targeting these proteins. However, the development of BH3-mimetics targeting BCL-XL or MCL1 has been more challenging, with on-target toxicities including thrombocytopenia for BCL-XL and cardiac toxicities for MCL1 inhibitors precluding clinical development. Tumor-specific BCL-XL or MCL1 inhibition may be achieved by novel targeting approaches using PROTACs or selective drug delivery strategies and would be transformational in many subtypes of malignancy. Taken together, we envision that the targeting of BCL2 proteins, while already a success story of translational research, may in the foreseeable future have broader clinical applicability and improve the treatment of multiple diseases.
The indexed individual, from now on termed M116, was the world's oldest verified living person from January 17th 2023 until her passing on August 19th 2024, reaching the age of 117 years and 168 days (https://www.supercentenarian.com/records.html). She was a Caucasian woman born on March 4th 1907 in San Francisco, USA, from Spanish parents and settled in Spain since she was 8. Although centenarians are becoming more common in the demographics of human populations, the so-called supercentenarians (over 110 years old) are still a rarity. In Catalonia, the historic nation where M116 lived, the life-expectancy for women is 86 years, so she exceeded the average by more than 30 years (https://www.idescat.cat). In a similar manner to premature aging syndromes, such as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria and Werner syndrome, which can provide relevant clues about the mechanisms of aging, the study of supercentenarians might also shed light on the pathways involved in lifespan. To unfold the biological properties exhibited by such a remarkable human being, we developed a comprehensive multiomics analysis of her genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic, microbiomic and epigenomic landscapes in different tissues, comparing the results with those observed in non-supercentenarian populations. The picture that emerges from our study shows that extremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked and that both processes can be distinguished and dissected at the molecular level. ### Competing Interest Statement Dr. Esteller declares past grants from Ferrer International and Incyte and personal fees from Quimatryx and Eucerin, outside the submitted work.
Cellular senescence, a form of terminal cell cycle arrest, is as a key driver of organismal ageing and an important factor in age-related diseases. Insights into the senescent phenotype have led to the development of novel therapeutic strategies, collectively known as senotherapies, that aim to ameliorate the detrimental effects of senescent cell accumulation in tissues. The senotherapeutic field has rapidly evolved over the past decade, with clinical translation of the first drugs discovered currently underway. What began as the straightforward removal of senescent cells using repurposed compounds, which were given the name of senolytics, has grown into an expanding field that uses different state of the art approaches to achieve the goal of preventing the build-up of senescent cells in the body. Here, we summarize the emergence of a new generation of senotherapies, based on improving the efficacy and safety of the original senolytics by making them targeted, but also branching out into drugs that prevent senescence (senoblockers) or revert it (senoreversers).The use of nanotechnology, specific antibodies, cell-based approaches and restored immunosurveillance is likely to revolutionize the field of senotherapies in the near future, hopefully allowing it to realize its full clinical potential.
Fasting can affect the body’s inflammatory response, and this has been linked to potential health benefits, including improvements for people with rheumatic diseases. In this work, we evaluated, in vitro, how changes in nutrient availability alter the inflammatory response of macrophages. Macrophage-differentiated THP1 cells were cultured, deprived of FCS or subjected to cycles of FCS deprivation and restoration to mimic intermittent fasting. Changes in the macrophage phenotype, the cells’ response to inflammatory stimuli and the level of mitochondrial alteration were assessed. The results indicate that while periods of serum starvation are associated with a decrease in IL1β and TNFα expression, consistent with an anti-inflammatory response, intermittent serum starvation cycles promote a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Rapid changes in reducing capacity and mitochondrial response were also observed. Of note, while some changes, such as the production of oxygen free radicals, were reversed with refeeding, others, such as a decrease in reducing capacity, were maintained and even increased. This study shows that different fasting protocols can have diverging effects and highlights that time-limited nutrient changes can significantly affect macrophage functions in cell cultures. These findings help elucidate some of the mechanisms by which specific fasting dietary interventions could help control inflammatory diseases.
Mouse Double Minute 2 (MDM2) is a key negative regulator of the tumour suppressor protein p53. MDM2 overexpression occurs in many types of cancer and results in the suppression of wild type p53. The 14-3-3 family of adaptor proteins are known to bind MDM2 and the 14-3-3σ isoform controls MDM2 cellular localisation and stability to inhibit its activity. Therefore, small molecule stabilisation of the 14-3-3σ/MDM2 protein-protein interaction (PPI) is a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer. Here, we provide a detailed biophysical and structural characterisation of the phosphorylation-dependent interaction between 14-3-3σ and peptides that mimic the 14-3-3 binding motifs within MDM2. The data show that di-phosphorylation of MDM2 at S166 and S186 is essential for high affinity 14-3-3 binding and that the binary complex formed involves one MDM2 di-phosphorylated peptide bound to a dimer of 14-3-3σ. However, the two phosphorylation sites do not simultaneously interact so as to bridge the 14-3-3 dimer in a ‘multivalent’ fashion. Instead, the two phosphorylated MDM2 motifs ‘rock’ between the two binding grooves of the dimer, which is unusual in the context of 14-3-3 proteins. In addition, we show that the 14-3-3σ/MDM2 interaction is amenable to small molecule stabilisation. The natural product fusicoccin A forms a ternary complex with a 14-3-3σ dimer and an MDM2 di-phosphorylated peptide resulting in stablisation of the 14-3-3σ/MDM2 PPI. This work serves as a proof-of-concept of the drugability of the 14-3-3/MDM2 PPI and paves the way toward the development of more selective and efficacious small molecule stabilisers.
Progress in biomedicine has been extremely fast since the beginning of this century, driven, in part, by the revolution in genomics that The Human Genome Project sparked, which lead to an impressive series of scientific and technological developments. These technical advances have rapidly redefined the landscape of bioethical challenges, many of which society has yet to fully appreciate, and continue to do so today. If the 20th century brought the ability to read and understand the information contained in the genetic material, it is now possible to edit and rewrite it practically at will, thus opening a myriad of possibilities that would have been thought of as science fiction until very recently. Announcement that the first genetically modified humans have already been born is a wake-up call regarding the need for active dialogue on many aspects of current innovation, not least the possibility to redefine core characteristics of the human species.
It is known that the microenvironmental cytokine interferon gamma (IFN‐γ) provides a survival advantage for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells. However, the mechanisms involved in this effect have not been properly investigated.
Although clinical outcomes of CLL have improved with the use of BCL-2 inhibitor, ABT-199, acquired resistance eventually occurs in many cases, which leads to CLL disease progression. Thus, understanding the mechanisms that mediate this relapse is important to design improved therapies. Herein, we report that cytokine IFN-γ, secreted by dysfunctional T cells, enhanced CLL cells resistance to ABT-199. IFN-γ stimulation significantly increased the expression of BCL-2, MCL-1 and BCL-xL. Blocking JAK1/2-STAT3 signaling pathway impaired the expression of these anti-apoptotic proteins after IFN-γ stimulation. The combination of ABT-199 with JAK1/2 inhibitor Ruxolitinib or STAT3 inhibitors Stattic and C188-9 increased malignant B cell death. In summary, we show that IFN-γ enhanced CLL cells resistance to ABT-199 at least in part by up-regulating BCL-2, MCL-1 and BCL-xL expression via JAK1/2-STAT3 pathway, and thus blocking this pathway with inhibitors increased ABT-199 efficiency to induce CLL cell apoptosis, suggesting a potential therapeutically relevant combination to overcome ABT-199 resistance.
The accumulation of senescent cells has an important role in the phenotypical changes observed in ageing and in many age-related pathologies. Thus, the strategies designed to prevent these effects, collectively known as senotherapies, have a strong clinical potential. Senolytics are a type of senotherapy aimed at specifically eliminating senescent cells from tissues. Several small molecule compounds with senolytic properties have already been identified, but their specificity and range of action are variable. Because of this, potential novel senolytics are being actively investigated. Given the involvement of HDACs and the PI3K pathway in senescence, we hypothesized that the dual inhibitor CUDC-907, a drug already in clinical trials for its antineoplastic effects, could have senolytic effects. Here, we show that CUDC-907 was indeed able to selectively induce apoptosis in cells driven to senesce by p53 expression, but not when senescence happened in the absence of p53. Consistent with this, CUDC-907 showed senolytic properties in different models of stress-induced senescence. Our results also indicate that the senolytic functions of CUDC-907 depend on the inhibitory effects of both HDACs and PI3K, which leads to an increase in p53 and a reduction in BH3 pro-survival proteins. Taken together, our results show that CUDC-907 has the potential to be a clinically relevant senolytic in pathological conditions in which stress-induced senescence is involved.
Cellular senescence has proved to be a strong contributor to ageing and age-related diseases, such as cancer and atherosclerosis. Therefore, the protein content of senescent cells is highly relevant to drug discovery, diagnostics and therapeutic applications. However, current technologies for the analysis of proteins are based on a combination of separation techniques and mass spectrometry, which require handling large sample sizes and a large volume of data and are time-consuming. This limits their application in personalised medicine. An easy, quick and inexpensive procedure is needed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of proteins expressed by a cell or tissue. Here, we describe the use of the "snapshot imprinting" approach for the identification of proteins differentially expressed by senescent cells. Molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MIPs) were formed in the presence of whole cells. Following trypsinolysis, protein epitopes protected by complex with MIPs were eluted from the nanoparticles and analysed by LC-MS/MS. In this work, "snapshot imprinting" was performed parallel to a standard proteomic "shaving approach", showing similar results. The analysis by "snapshot imprinting" identified three senescent-specific proteins: cell division cycle 7-related protein kinase, partitioning defective three homolog B and putative ATP-dependent RNA helicase DHX57, the abundance of which could potentially make them specific markers of senescence. Identifying biomarkers for the future elimination of senescent cells grants the potential for developing therapeutics for age-related diseases.