G3BP (Ras-GTPase-activating protein SH3 domain binding protein), a protein which binds to RasGAP SH3 domain, belongs to RNA-binding protein family, implicating in the downstream of Ras signaling. G3BP harbors the activities of endoribonuclease and DNA helicase, and can induce stress granules formation. G3BP plays a general role in the signal pathways of cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and RNA metabolism. It has been shown to be over-expressed in a number of human malignancies and has a close relationship with tumor invasion and metastasis. Given that it has been implicated in several pathways that are known to be involved in cancer biology, G3BP may provide a new target for cancer therapy.

Sphingolipids as an important regulator play a critical role in the cell biological functions. Among them, ceramide (Cer) and sphingosine (Sph) induce apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation; on the contrary sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) promotes cell survival and proliferation. The balance between ceramide/sphingosine and S1P forms a so-called "sphingolipid-rheostat", which decides the cell fate. Sphingosine kinases, which catalyze the phosphorylation of sphingosine to S1P, are critical regulators of this balance. Here, we review the role of sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) in regulating fundamental biological processes and tumorigenesis and the potential of SphK1 as a new target for cancer therapeutics.

Liver fibrosis is a pathological process of the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix, especially collagen al (I) in liver. Ultimately, hepatic fibrosis leads to cirrhosis or hepatic failure. Liver fibrosis and early cirrhosis can be reversed, thus control of the development of liver fibrosis is very important for preventive treatment of cirrhosis and hepatic failure. This is a review of potential targets for anti-hepatic fibrosis based on plenty of publications, including TGF-β1 and integrin α(v) and so on, aimed at providing novel therapeutic targets in liver fibrosis.

The use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for cancer therapy has achieved considerable success in recent years. Approximate 17 monoclonal antibodies have been approved as cancer therapeutics since 1997. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) are powerful new treatment options for cancer, and naked antibodies have recently achieved remarkable success. The safety and effectiveness of therapeutic mAbs in oncology vary depending on the nature of the target antigen and the mechanisms of tumor cell killing. This review provides a summary of the current state of antibody-based cancer therapy, including the mechanisms of tumor cell killing by antibodies, tumor antigens as antibody targets, clinical effectiveness of antibodies in cancer patients and nanoparticles-based ADCs.

The number of projects from free applications of the national natural science foundation of China (NSFC) about pharmacology of antitumor drugs in 2001 increased evidently than before. Those projects were mainly about the exploration of the natural materials with antitumor activity, investigation in new targets of antitumor drugs, study in the inhibition of angiogenesis in tumor cells,etc. The tumor pharmacology in China has made some progress, but it still lags much behind the international study level. Basic work and creative ideas should be strengthened for further development.

Aim To investigate the relationship be-tween phosphoprotein EBP50 and the proliferation of breast cancer in MCF-7 cells. Methods The quali-fied recombinant plasmid sh-EBP50-pGPU6/Neo was transfected into MCF-7 cells with EBP50 knocking down. The expression of EBP50, c-myc, p-ERK1/2, and ERK1/2 was detected by Western blot. The prolif-eration ability of cells was detected by sulforhodamine B assay. Results The EBP50 knocking down plasmid was constructed successfully. MCF-7 cells with EBP50 knocking down had been established successfully. Knocking down of EBP50 increased the proliferation of MCF-7 significantly, and partially augmented the ex-pression of c-myc and phosphorylation of ERK1/2 . However, knocking down of EBP50 did not impact the expression of ERK1/2 . Conclusion EBP50 suppres-ses the proliferation of breast cancer cell through inhib-iting the activity of ERK1/2 in MCF-7 cell line.

C1027, an anticancer antibiotic, showed extremely potent cytotoxicity against cultured cancer cells, being over 10,000-fold more potent than adriamycin. C1027 acted rapidly; DNA synthesis of hepatoma cells was suppressed within 10 mintus of exposure. C1027 consists of two moieties, a new enediyne chromophore and an apoprotein; the chromophore serves as the active part of the molecule. C1027 molecule can be dissociated and reconstituted. The reconstituted C1027 was as potent as natural C1027. Through a newly developed method, enriched conjugation C1027 was conjugated to monoclonal antibodies. As determined by clonogenic assay, the conjugates displayed highly-potent, specific cytotoxicity to target cancer cells. The conjugates exerted marked therapeutic effects against hepatoma and gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice; at tolerable dose, tumor inhibition rate reached 85% (P

Retinoblastoma is the most common pediatric retinal tumor initiated by biallelic inactivation of the retinoblastoma gene ( RB1 ) , affecting roughly 1 in 15000 children with 1100 new cases each year.In China, RB remains a potentially devastating disease while lack of early diagnosis and aggressive treatment strategies.Moreover, RB patients individually show a variety of drug response to regular systemic chemotherapy since intensive chemotherapy and long-term follow-up are not as readily available.The majority of patients with advanced diseases require enucleation which affects the future quality of children life.Recent studies showed that alterations in genomics and epigenomics of RB play very important roles in RB progress and therapy.We thereby review current understanding changes of genomics and epigenomics in RB as potential prognostic and therapeutic targets.

With the recent understanding of cancer biology, physiopathology, and cancer genetics& genomics, new treatments and methodologies are constantly developed, including on the development and application of molecular targeted drugs for cancer therapy have been widespread concerned.Antibody-based drugs targeting over-expressed oncogenes or other functional proteins in cancer with its high specificity, less side-effects and significant clinical efficacy became rapidly the hot-spot of anti-tumor drug research.Currently, there are already more than 20 of anti-tumor antibody-based drugs approved for clinical application, and achieved remarkable results.This article summarizes the development and current situation of monoclonal antibody-based drug research for cancer therapy, as well as their anti-tumor mechanism of action.At the same time summarizes the new advances in cancer research in the field of monoclonal antibody drugs made,and its prospects as well as shortcomings were outlined.

Aim and Methods To investigate the effect of UCN-01(7-hydroxystaurosporine) on cell migration and invasion ability of DU-145, an invasive human prostate cancer cell line.Results It was found that UCN-01 at non-cytotoxic doses (100 nmol· L-1) significantly inhibited prostate cancer DU-145 cell invasion and migration behaviors.Moreover, this anti-invasion and migration activity of UCN-01 was associated with an up-regulation of cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin. Conclusion These results indicate for first time that UCN-01 inhibits the invasion and migration of human prostate cancer cells.Thus, clinical application of UCN-01 may contribute to the potential benefit for suppression of prostate cancer invasion and metastasis.