INTRODUCTION Despite improvements in treatment strategies for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), outcomes have not significantly improved; highlighting the importance of identifying novel therapeutic approaches to target this disease. To address this challenge, we proceeded to evaluate the role of iron in HNSCC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Expression levels of iron-related genes were eval...

Ciclopirox olamine (CPX) is an antifungal drug that has been reported to have antitumor effects. In this study we investigated the antileukemia effects and the possible mechanisms of CPX on glucocorticoid (GC)-resistant T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cell lines. The results indicated that CPX inhibited the growth of GC-resistant T-ALL cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and...

Antibiotic-resistant infections caused by gram-negative bacteria are a major healthcare concern. Repurposing drugs circumvents the time and money limitations associated with developing new antimicrobial agents needed to combat these antibiotic-resistant infections. Here we identified the off-patent antifungal agent, ciclopirox, as a candidate to repurpose for antibiotic use. To test the efficac...

Iron is an essential cellular nutrient, being a critical cofactor of several proteins involved in cell growth and replication. Compared with normal cells, neoplastic cells have been shown to require a greater amount of iron, thus laying the basis for the promising anticancer activity of iron chelators. In this work, we evaluated the effects of molecules with iron chelation activity on neuroblas...

Ucn2 (urocortin 2) has been shown to exert potent beneficial effects in the cardiovascular system, including inhibition of apoptosis, improvement of cardiomyocyte contractility and decrease of oxidative stress. The mechanisms that contribute to the regulation of hUcn2 (human Ucn2) expression in cardiovascular pathologies are not known. In the present study, we analysed the mechanism by which hy...

Cell cycle arrest in response to environmental effects can lead to DNA breaks. We investigated whether inhibition of DNA replication during the initiation step can lead to DNA damage and characterised a cell-cycle-arrest point at the replication initiation step before the establishment of active replication forks. This arrest can be elicited by the iron chelators mimosine, ciclopirox olamine or...

BACKGROUND Aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotes the development of several types of cancer. Recently, it has been demonstrated that Wnt pathway is also activated in myeloma. Therefore, the Wnt/β-catenin signaling molecules are attractive candidates for development of targeted therapies for this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study investigated the antitumor effect of c...

BACKGROUND Onychomycosis is a type of fungal infection that accounts for over 50% of all onycopathies. Some authors consider superficial mycosis the most difficult to be treated. Very few studies have been carried out in order to assess the epidemiology of onychomycosis in Brazil. OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiological profile of onychomycosis in Brazilian dermatology offices and to assess...

Ciclopirox olamine (CPX), a fungicide, has been demonstrated as a potential anticancer agent. However, the underlying anticancer mechanism is not well understood. Here, we found that CPX induced autophagy in human rhabdomyosarcoma (Rh30 and RD) cells. It appeared that CPX-induced autophagy was attributed to induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a ROS scavenge...