Research on marine natural products as potential anticancer agents is still limited. In the present study, an aqueous extract of a Canadian marine microalgal preparation was assessed for anticancer activities using various assays and cell lines of human cancers, including lung, prostate, stomach, breast, and pancreatic cancers, as well as an osteosarcoma. In vitro, the microalgal extract exhibi...

Integrin alphanubeta3 is found on a subset of tumor blood vessels where it is associated with angiogenesis and malignant tumor growth. We designed an alphanubeta3-targeted nanoparticle (NP) encapsulating the cytotoxic drug doxorubicin (Dox) for targeted drug delivery to the alphanubeta3-expressing tumor vasculature. We observed real-time targeting of this NP to tumor vessels and noted selective...

Small interfering RNAs, depending on their structure, delivery system and sequence, can stimulate innate and adaptive immunity. The aim of this study was to investigate the antitumor and antimetastatic effects of immunostimulatory 19-bp dsRNA with 3'- trinucleotide overhangs (isRNA) on melanoma B16 in C57Bl/6 mice. Recently developed novel cationic liposomes 2X3-DOPE were used for the in vivo d...

Tumor-specific tissue-penetrating peptides deliver drugs into extravascular tumor tissue by increasing tumor vascular permeability through interaction with neuropilin (NRP). Here, we report that a prototypic tumor-penetrating peptide iRGD (amino acid sequence: CRGDKGPDC) potently inhibits spontaneous metastasis in mice. The antimetastatic effect was mediated by the NRP-binding RXXK peptide moti...

AIM To estimate the impact of C(60) fullerene aqueous solution (C(60)FAS) on the rate of transplanted malignant tumor growth and metastasis. METHODS Lewis lung carcinoma was transplanted into С57Bl/6J male mice. Conventional methods for the evaluation of antitumor and antimetastatic effects have been used. RESULTS The C(60)FAS at low single therapeutic dose of 5 mg/kg inhibited the growth o...

To investigate the role of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB) in tumor metastasis, we generated a murine lung alveolar carcinoma cell line (Line 1) defective in NFkappaB-signaling by retroviral delivery of a dominant negative inhibitor of NFkappaB. The NFkappaB signal blockade resulted in the down-regulation of prometastatic matrix metalloproteinase 9, a urokinase-like pl...