Search

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a rare blood cancer of older adults (3 in every 1,000,000 persons) characterized by poor survival and lacking effective mutation-specific therapy. Mutations in the ubiquitin ligase Cbl occur frequently in CMML and share biological and molecular features with a clonal disease occurring in children, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). Here we analyzed the clinical presentations, molecular features and immunophenotype of CMML patients with CBL mutations enrolled in a prospective Phase II clinical trial stratified according to molecular markers. Clinically, CBL mutations were associated with increased bone marrow blasts at diagnosis, leukocytosis and splenomegaly, similar to patients harboring NRAS or KRAS mutations. Interestingly, 64% of patients presented with more than one CBL variant implying a complex subclonal architecture, often with co-occurrence of TET2 mutations. We found CBL mutations in CMML frequently clustered in the RING domain in contrast to JMML, where mutations frequently involve the linker helix region (P<0.0001). According to our comparative alignment of available X-ray structures, mutations in the linker helix region such as Y371E give rise to conformational differences that could be exploited by targeted therapy approaches. Furthermore, we noted an increased percentage of CMML CD34+ stem and progenitor cells expressing CD116 and CD131 in all CBL mutant cases and increased CD116 receptor density compared to healthy controls, similar to CMML overall. In summary, our data demonstrate that CBL mutations are associated with distinct molecular and clinical features in CMML and are potentially targetable with CD116-directed immunotherapy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Lim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Leukemia stem cells (LSC) possess distinct self-renewal and arrested differentiation properties that are responsible for disease emergence, therapy failure, and recurrence in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Despite AML displaying extensive biological and clinical heterogeneity, LSC with high interleukin-3 receptor (IL3R) levels are a constant yet puzzling feature, as this receptor lacks tyrosine kinase activity. Here, we show that the heterodimeric IL3Rα/βc receptor assembles into hexamers and dodecamers through a unique interface in the 3D structure, where high IL3Rα/βc ratios bias hexamer formation. Importantly, receptor stoichiometry is clinically relevant as it varies across the individual cells in the AML hierarchy, in which high IL3Rα/βc ratios in LSCs drive hexamer-mediated stemness programs and poor patient survival, while low ratios mediate differentiation. Our study establishes a new paradigm in which alternative cytokine receptor stoichiometries differentially regulate cell fate, a signaling mechanism that may be generalizable to other transformed cellular hierarchies and of potential therapeutic significance., Significance: Stemness is a hallmark of many cancers and is largely responsible for disease emergence, progression, and relapse. Our finding that clinically significant stemness programs in AML are directly regulated by different stoichiometries of cytokine receptors represents a hitherto unexplained mechanism underlying cell-fate decisions in cancer stem cell hierarchies. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1749., (©2023 The Authors; Published by the American Association for Cancer Research.)

Our understanding of the biological role of the βc family of cytokines has evolved enormously since their initial identification as bone marrow colony stimulating factors in the 1960's. It has become abundantly clear over the intervening decades that this family of cytokines has truly astonishing pleiotropic capacity, capable of regulating not only hematopoiesis but also many other normal and pathological processes such as development, inflammation, allergy and cancer. As noted in the current pandemic, βc cytokines contribute to the cytokine storm seen in acutely ill COVID-19 patients. Ongoing studies to discover how these cytokines activate their receptor are revealing insights into the fundamental mechanisms that give rise to cytokine pleiotropy and are providing tantalizing glimpses of how discrete signaling pathways may be dissected for activation with novel ligands for therapeutic benefit., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Treatment of patients with myelofibrosis with the type I JAK (Janus kinase) inhibitor ruxolitinib paradoxically induces JAK2 activation loop phosphorylation and is associated with a life-threatening cytokine-rebound syndrome if rapidly withdrawn. We developed a time-dependent assay to mimic ruxolitinib withdrawal in primary JAK2 V617F and CALR mutant myelofibrosis patient samples and observed notable activation of spontaneous STAT signaling in JAK2 V617F samples after drug washout. Accumulation of ruxolitinib-induced JAK2 phosphorylation was dose dependent and correlated with rebound signaling and the presence of a JAK2 V617F mutation. Ruxolitinib prevented dephosphorylation of a cryptic site involving Tyr 1007/1008 in JAK2 blocking ubiquitination and degradation. In contrast, a type II JAK inhibitor, CHZ868, did not induce JAK2 phosphorylation, was not associated with withdrawal signaling, and was superior in the eradication of flow-purified JAK2 V617F mutant CD34 + progenitors after drug washout. Type I inhibitor-induced loop phosphorylation may act as a pathogenic signaling node released upon drug withdrawal, especially in JAK2 V617F patients.

The interleukin-3 (IL-3) receptor is a cell-surface heterodimer that links the haemopoietic, vascular and immune systems and is overexpressed in acute and chronic myeloid leukaemia progenitor cells. It belongs to the type I cytokine receptor family in which the α-subunits consist of two fibronectin III-like domains that bind cytokine, and a third, evolutionarily unrelated and topologically conserved, N-terminal domain (NTD) with unknown function. Here we show by crystallography that, while the NTD of IL3Rα is highly mobile in the presence of IL-3, it becomes surprisingly rigid in the presence of IL-3 K116W. Mutagenesis, biochemical and functional studies show that the NTD of IL3Rα regulates IL-3 binding and signalling and reveal an unexpected role in preventing spontaneous receptor dimerisation. Our work identifies a dual role for the NTD in this cytokine receptor family, protecting against inappropriate signalling and dynamically regulating cytokine receptor binding and function.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Ginseng (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma) is used worldwide for its miracle tonic effects, especially for its immunomodulatory activities. Sulfur fumigation, a fast and convenient method to prevent pesticidal and bacterial contamination in the food industry, has been recently employed during post-harvest processing of ginseng. Our previous studies demonstrated that sulfur fumigation significantly altered the chemical profile of the bioactive ingredients in ginseng. However, the effects of sulfur fumigation on the pharmacokinetics and bioactivities of ginseng remain unknown., Aim of the Study: To examine the effects of sulfur fumigation on the pharmacokinetics and immunomodulatory activities of ginseng., Materials and Methods: For pharmacokinetic studies, male Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to single/multiple dosages of non-fumigated ginseng (NFG) and sulfur fumigated ginseng (SFG) were investigated using HPLC-MS/MS analysis. For bioactivity studies, male ICR mice were used to compare the immunomodulatory effects of NFG or SFG under both normal and cyclophosphamide (CY)-induced immunocompromised conditions using white blood cell counts, serum cytokine levels, and spleen and thymus weight indices., Results: Sulfur fumigation significantly reduced the contents of the bioactive ginsenosides in ginseng, which resulted in drastically low systemic exposure of ginsenosides in SFG-treatment group compared to NFG-treatment group. This observation was consistent with the bioactivities obtained in NFG- and SFG-treatment groups. The bioactivity studies also demonstrated the immunomodulatory effects of NFG but not SFG in the CY-induced immunosuppressed mice., Conclusion: Sulfur fumigation significantly reduced contents of bioactive ginsenosides in ginseng, leading to dramatic decrease in the systemic exposure of these ginsenosides in the body and detrimental reduction of immunomodulatory effects of ginseng. Our results provided scientific evidences and laid a solid foundation for the needs of thorough evaluation of the significant impact of sulfur fumigation on ginseng and other medicinal herbs., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3) and IL-5 are members of a small family of cytokines that share a beta receptor subunit (βc). These cytokines regulate the growth, differentiation, migration and effector function activities of many hematopoietic cells in bone marrow, blood and sites of inflammation. Excessive or aberrant signaling can result in chronic inflammatory conditions and myeloid leukemias. The crystal structures of the GM-CSF ternary complex, the IL-5 binary complex and the very recent IL-3 receptor alpha subunit build upon decades of structure-function studies, giving new insights into cytokine-receptor specificity and signal transduction. Selective modulation of receptor function is now a real possibility and the structures of the βc receptor family are being used to discover novel and disease-specific therapeutics., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Interleukin-3 (IL-3) is an activated T cell product that bridges innate and adaptive immunity and contributes to several immunopathologies. Here, we report the crystal structure of the IL-3 receptor α chain (IL3Rα) in complex with the anti-leukemia antibody CSL362 that reveals the N-terminal domain (NTD), a domain also present in the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), IL-5, and IL-13 receptors, adopting unique "open" and classical "closed" conformations. Although extensive mutational analyses of the NTD epitope of CSL362 show minor overlap with the IL-3 binding site, CSL362 only inhibits IL-3 binding to the closed conformation, indicating alternative mechanisms for blocking IL-3 signaling. Significantly, whereas "open-like" IL3Rα mutants can simultaneously bind IL-3 and CSL362, CSL362 still prevents the assembly of a higher-order IL-3 receptor-signaling complex. The discovery of open forms of cytokine receptors provides the framework for development of potent antibodies that can achieve a "double hit" cytokine receptor blockade., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a group of heterocyclic phytotoxins present in a wide range of plants. The consumption of PA-containing medicinal herbs or PA-contaminated foodstuffs has long been reported to cause human hepatotoxicity. However, the degrees of hepatotoxicity of different PAs are unknown, which makes it difficult to determine a universal threshold of toxic dose of individual PAs for safe regulation of PA-containing natural products. The aim of the present study is to develop a simple and convenient in vitro model to assess the hepatotoxicity of different PAs., Material and Methods: Six common cytotoxicity assays were used to evaluate the hepatotoxicity of different PAs in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells., Results: The combination of MTT and bromodeoxyuridine incorporation (BrdU) assays demonstrated to be a suitable method to evaluate the toxic potencies of various PAs in HepG2 cells, and the results indicated that otonecine-type PA (clivorine: IC₂₀=0.013 ± 0.004 mM (MTT), 0.066 ± 0.031 mM (BrdU)) exhibited significantly higher cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects than retronecine-type PA (retrorsine: IC₂₀=0.27 ± 0.07 mM (MTT), 0.19 ± 0.03 mM (BrdU)). While as expected, the known less toxic platyphylline-type PA (platyphylline: IC₂₀=0.85 ± 0.11 mM (MTT), 1.01 ± 0.40 mM (BrdU)) exhibited significantly less toxicity. The different cytotoxic and anti-proliferative potencies of various PAs in the same retronecine-type could also be discriminated by using the combined MTT and BrdU assays. In addition, the developed assays were further utilized to test alkaloid extract of Gynura segetum, a senecionine and seneciphylline-containing herb, the overall cytotoxicity of two PAs in the extract was comparable to that of these two PAs tested individually., Conclusion: Using the developed in vitro model, the cytotoxicity of different PAs and the extract of a PA-containing herb were investigated in parallel in one system, and their different hepatotoxic potencies were determined and directly compared for the first time. The results suggested that the developed model has a great potential to be applied for the quick screening of the toxicity of PAs and PA-containing natural products., (© 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The GM-CSF, IL-3 and IL-5 family of cytokines, also known as the βc family due to their receptors sharing the signalling subunit βc, regulates multiple biological processes such as native and adaptive immunity, inflammation, normal and malignant hemopoieis, and autoimmunity. Australian scientists played a major role in the discovery and biological characterisation of the βc cytokines and their recent work is revealing unique features of cytokine receptor assembly and signalling. Furthermore, specific antibodies have been generated to modulate their function. Characterisation of the structural and dynamic requirements for the activation of the βc receptor family and the molecular definition of downstream signalling pathways are providing new insights into cytokine receptor signalling as well as new therapeutic opportunities., (Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Low selectivity is one of the major problems of currently used anticancer drugs, therefore, there is a high demand for novel, selective antitumor agents. In this study, the anticancer effects and mechanisms of guttiferone K (GUTK), a novel polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol derivative isolated from Garcinia cowa Roxb., were examined for its development as a novel drug targeting colon cancer. GUTK concentration- and time-dependently reduced the viability of human colon cancer HT-29 cells (IC(50) value 5.39 ± 0.22 μM) without affecting the viability of normal human colon epithelial CCD 841 CoN cells and induced G(0) /G(1) cell cycle arrest in HT-29 cells by down-regulating cyclins D1, D3 and cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6, while selectively restoring p21Waf1/Cip1 and p27Kip1 to levels comparable to those observed in normal colon cells, without affecting their levels in normal cells. GUTK (10.0 μM) induced cleavage of PARP, caspases-3, -8 and -9 and chromatin condensation to stimulate caspase-3-mediated apoptosis. The addition of a JNK inhibitor, SP600125, partially reversed GUTK-induced caspase-3 activity, indicating the possible involvement of JNK in GUTK-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, GUTK (10 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly decreased the tumor volume in a syngeneic colon tumor model when used alone or in combination with 5-fluorouracil without toxicity to the mice. Immunohistochemical staining of the tumor sections revealed a mechanism involving an increase in cleaved caspase-3 and a decrease in cell proliferation marker Ki-67. Our results support GUTK as a promising novel, potent and selective antitumor drug candidate for colon cancer., (Copyright © 2012 UICC.)

The lack of selectivity and adequate potency of currently known P-glycoprotein (P-gp) inhibitors obscured their further development for clinical use to circumvent P-gp-mediated multidrug resistance (MDR), which necessitates the investigation of novel ones with higher potency and better specificity. The present study investigated the reversal effect of a new synthetic α-aminoxy lysine-peptidomimetic (Lys-P) on P-gp-mediated MDR. Effects of Lys-P on cytotoxicity of P-gp substrate doxorubicin (Dox) and intracellular accumulation of another P-gp substrate rhodamine 123 were examined in HEK293 cells. Its interaction mechanism and effect on P-gp expression were further investigated using ATPase assay and Western blot in Caco-2 cells, respectively. Lys-P restored the cytotoxicity of Dox toward the resistant MDR1-transfected HEK293 and MCF-7 TX400 cells without affecting their corresponding parental cells. It also significantly increased intracellular accumulation (21-fold) of rhodamine 123 in HEK293 MDR1 cells. Further mechanistic studies demonstrated that in the Caco-2 cell monolayer model, Lys-P abolished the P-gp-mediated efflux of Dox due to uncompetitive inhibition of P-gp ATPase without altering P-gp expression. Our findings demonstrated that Lys-P can be used as a promising lead compound for further development into selective and efficient MDR reversing agents for combination use with P-gp substrate drugs in cancer chemotherapy., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Majority of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herbs need to undergo post-harvesting processing to convert raw material into the form readily used for prescription. In general, processing procedures are either according to China Pharmacopeia or based on traditional methods. Recently sulfur fumigation is increasingly used to replace traditional sun-drying for its pesticidal and anti-bacterial properties in a cheap and convenient manner. However, to date information on effects of sulfur fumigation on herbal safety and efficacy are limited. This article addresses potential destructive effects of sulfur fumigation on herbal efficacy and safety through reviewing currently available information. Since recently increased numbers of studies have demonstrated that sulfur fumigation-induced dramatic changes in chemical profiles of various sulfur-fumigated herbs, consequent alteration of efficacy, and/or potential incidence of toxicity are suspected. Therefore comprehensive investigations on effects of sulfur fumigation on toxicity, chemical profiles, pharmacokinetics, and bioactivities of TCM herbs are timely to provide scientific basis for standardization and regulation of this currently common but potentially harmful processing method.

An unusual polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol derivative unsubstituted at C-2 and C-6, garcicowin A (1), together with three other new (garcicowins B-D, 2-4) and nine known analogues, was isolated and characterized from the twigs of Garcinia cowa. The structures of 1-4 were elucidated by interpretation of their spectroscopic data. The compounds isolated were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against two cancer cell lines (HT-29 and HCT116) and against normal colon cells (CCD-18Co), and the results demonstrated their selective toxicity toward the cancer cells.

The effects of polyethyleneimine (PEI) impregnation on the Pb(2+) adsorption kinetics of palm shell-activated carbon and pH profile of bulk solution were investigated. Adsorption data were fitted to four established adsorption kinetics models, namely, pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Elovich equation and intraparticle diffusion. It was found that PEI impregnation at 16.68 and 29.82 wt% PEI/AC increased the Pb(2+) uptake rate while the opposite was observed for PEI impregnation at 4.76 and 8.41 wt% PEI/AC. The increased uptake rates were due to higher concentration of PEI molecules on the surface of clogged pores as well as varying pore volumes. The adsorption kinetics data fitted the pseudo-second-order model better than the pseudo-first-order model, implying chemisorption was the rate-controlling step. The bulk solution pH generally showed an increasing trend from the use of virgin to PEI-impregnated activated carbon.

Unlabelled: Angelica sinensis is a Chinese medicinal herb for treating gynecological and gastrointestinal disorders, and also in conjunction with cancer chemotherapy., Aim of the Study: In the present study, the cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects of three main Angelica sinensis phthalides, namely n-butylidenephthalide (BLP), senkyunolide A (SKA) and z-ligustilide (LGT), and their synergy on colon cancer HT-29 cells were investigated. Moreover, the results obtained in both human colon cancer HT-29 and normal colon CCD-18Co cells were compared for the investigation of selectivity., Materials and Methods: MTT and [3H] thymidine incorporation assays were used for the evaluation of cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects, respectively. Interactions among phthalides were determined by median-effect analysis., Results: All three phthalides dose-dependently decreased cell viability more potently in HT-29 than in CCD-18Co cells. The IC50 values for inhibition of cell proliferation for SKA, LGT and BLP were 54.17+/-5.10, 60.63+/-6.79 and 236.90+/-18.22microM, respectively, in HT-29 cells. Angelica sinensis extract demonstrated significant synergy in inhibiting cell proliferation., Conclusions: The three phthalides might have anti-cancer potential, yet the phthalides, in combination with other ingredients in Angelica sinensis extract, display significant synergy leading to a stronger anti-tumor effect.