Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

Proteomic Characterization And Cytotoxic Potential Of Proteins From Cuscuta (Cuscuta Epithymum (L.) Crude Herbal Product Against Mcf-7 Human Breast Cancer Cell Line, Umaima Akhtar, Yamna Khurshid, Bishoy El-Aarag, Basir Syed, Ishtiaq A. Khan, Keykavous Parang, Aftab Ahmed

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

The burden of breast cancer, the second leading cause of death worldwide, is increasing at an alarming rate. Cuscuta, used in traditional medicine for different ailments, including cancer, is known for containing phytochemicals that exhibit anticancer activity; however, the bioactivities of proteins from this plant remain unexplored. This study aimed to screen the cytotoxic potential of proteins from the crude herbal product of Cuscuta epithymum(L.) (CE) harvested from the host plants Alhagi maurorum and Medicago sativa.

Methods

The proteins from CE were extracted using a salting-out method, followed by fractionation with a gel filtration chromatography column. Gel-free shotgun …

A Systematic Comparison Of Lipopolymers For Sirna Delivery To Multiple Breast Cancer Cell Lines: In Vitro Studies, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Remant Bahadur Kc, Emira Bousoik, Ashley Barbarino, Bindu Thapa, Melissa Coyle, Parvin Mahdipoor, Hasan Uludağ

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy is a promising approach for treatment of a wide range of cancers, including breast cancers that display variable phenotypic features. To explore the general utility of siRNA therapy to control aberrant expression of genes in breast cancer, we conducted a detailed analysis of siRNA delivery and silencing response in vitro in 6 separate breast cancer cell models (MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-231-KRas-CRM, MCF-7, AU565, MDA-MB-435 and MDA-MB-468 cells). Using lipopolymers for siRNA complexation and delivery, we found a large variation in siRNA delivery efficiency depending on the specific lipopolymer used for siRNA complexation and delivery. Some lipopolymers were …

Amphiphilic Peptides For Efficient Sirna Delivery, Saghar Mozaffari, Emira Bousoik, Farideh Amirrad, Robert Lamboy, Melissa Coyle, Ryley Hall, Abdulaziz Alasmari, Parvin Mahdipoor, Keykavous Parang, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

A number of amphiphilic cyclic peptides—[FR]4, [WR]5, and [WK]5—containing hydrophobic and positively-charged amino acids were synthesized by Fmoc/tBu solid-phase peptide methods and evaluated for their efficiency in intracellular delivery of siRNA to triple-negative breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468, in the presence and absence of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE). Among the peptides, [WR]5, which contains alternate tryptophan (W) and arginine (R) residues, was found to be the most efficient in the delivery of siRNA by improving the delivery by more than 3-fold when compared to other synthesized cyclic peptides that were not efficient. The data also showed that co-formulation of [WR]5 …

Identification Of Potential Drug Targets In Cancer Signaling Pathways Using Stochastic Logical Models, Peican Zhu, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Hasan Uludag, Jie Han

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The investigation of vulnerable components in a signaling pathway can contribute to development of drug therapy addressing aberrations in that pathway. Here, an original signaling pathway is derived from the published literature on breast cancer models. New stochastic logical models are then developed to analyze the vulnerability of the components in multiple signalling sub-pathways involved in this signaling cascade. The computational results are consistent with the experimental results, where the selected proteins were silenced using specific siRNAs and the viability of the cells were analyzed 72 hours after silencing. The genes elF4E and NFkB are found to have nearly no …

Real-Time Detection Of Breast Cancer Cells Using Peptidefunctionalized Microcantilever Arrays, Hashem Etayash, Keren Jiang, Sarfuddin Azmi, Thomas Thundat, Kamaljit Kaur

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Ligand-directed targeting and capturing of cancer cells is a new approach for detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Ligands such as antibodies have been successfully used for capturing cancer cells and an antibody based system (CellSearch®) is currently used clinically to enumerate CTCs. Here we report the use of a peptide moiety in conjunction with a microcantilever array system to selectively detect CTCs resulting from cancer, specifically breast cancer. A sensing microcantilever, functionalized with a breast cancer specific peptide 18-4 (WxEAAYQrFL), showed significant deflection on cancer cell (MCF7 and MDA-MB-231) binding compared to when exposed to noncancerous (MCF10A and HUVEC) cells. …