Probiotic microorganisms such as lactic acid bacteria (LAB) exert a number of strain-specific health-promoting activities attributed to their immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties. Despite recent attention, our understanding of the biological processes involved in the beneficial effects of LAB strains is still limited. To this end, the present study investigated t...

Thalidomide (THD) exhibits antitumor effects in several types of cancer. However, the failure of THD to inhibit tumor growth has also been observed in a number of murine models in vivo. The mechanism involved in the therapeutic failure of THD remains unclear. The present study demonstrated that, accompanied by growth-arresting and apoptosis-inducing effects (P<0.05), THD upregulated vascular en...

AIM To investigate the expression and function of CD74 in normal murine colon epithelial cells (CEC) and colon carcinoma cells. METHODS Expression of CD74 mRNA and protein were measured by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blotting and fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS). The effect of migration inhibitory factor (MIF) on the survival of normal CEC from C...

Replication-competent retrovirus (RCR) vectors are intrinsically incapable of infecting quiescent cells and have been shown to achieve highly efficient and tumor-restricted replicative spread and gene transfer in vivo after direct intratumoral injection in a variety of primary cancer models. However, i.v. delivery of RCR vectors expressing therapeutic genes has never previously been tested, par...

Cancer is a devastating disease and a large socio-economic burden. Novel therapeutic solutions are on the rise, although a cure remains elusive. Application of microorganisms represents an ancient therapeutic strategy, lately revoked and refined via simultaneous attenuation and amelioration of pathogenic properties. Salmonella Typhimurium has prevailed in preclinical development. Yet, using vir...

Morus alba L. fruits have long been used in traditional medicine by many cultures. Their medicinal attributes include cardiovascular, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective and immunomodulatory actions. However, their mechanism of macrophage activation and anti-cancer effects remain unclear. The present study investigated the molecular mechanisms of immune stimulation and improved chemotherapeutic e...

Several strains of the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) have raised considerable interest in recent years for clinical application because of their oncolytic properties. In this study we characterized virological, immunological and anti-tumor properties of some NDV strains. The oncolytic strain MTH-68/H was the most potent interferon-alpha inducer and, after UV light inactivation, it was the only ...

Clostridium difficile toxin B (TcdB) is a key virulence factor of bacterium and induces intestinal inflammatory disease. Because of its potent cytotoxic and proinflammatory activities, we investigated the utility of TcdB in developing anti-tumor immunity. TcdB induced cell death in mouse colorectal cancer CT26 cells, and the intoxicated cells stimulated the activation of mouse bone marrow-deriv...

Immunotherapeutic approaches to manage patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancies are desired; however, mechanisms to incite tumor-specific immune responses remain to be elucidated. Rose bengal (RB) is toxic at low concentrations to malignant cells and may induce damage-associated molecular patterns; therefore, we investigated its potential as an immunomodulator in colon cancer. Murin...

Recent studies suggest that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels are inversely related to colon cancer risk. HDL mimetics constructed from a number of peptides and proteins with varying structures possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties reminiscent of HDL. In this article, we examined whether HDLmimetics, L-4F (an apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptide) and G (an apolipoprotein J mime...