Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0598934 (tumor growth)
 58,965 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a fatal malignancy the clinical outcome of which is unaltered by current therapeutic modalities. A recent phase 1 clinical trial of combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P) produced a long-lasting total remission in a patient with ATC. CA4P is a tubulin-binding agent derived from the African bush willow, Combretum caffrum, which possesses tumor vascular-targeting activity. In order to discriminate primary antineoplastic effects from tumor antivascular activity, we evaluated CA4P cytotoxicity in eight human ATC cell lines and compared it to paclitaxel, another tubulin-binding agent with significant clinical activity. CA4P displayed significant cytotoxicity against the ATC cell lines, comparable to that of paclitaxel, and these effects were longer lasting in two cell lines compared to the duration of paclitaxel. We further investigated the effects of CA4P on xenograft tumors from four ATC cell lines injected in athymic nude mice. Significantly lower tumor weights were observed in animals treated with CA4P compared to those treated with vehicle alone. Continuous monitoring of xenograft tumor volumes from one of the ATC cell lines also revealed a significantly lower rate of tumor growth in the CA4P-treated mice compared to those receiving vehicle alone. These results suggest that antitumoral effects of CA4P can be consequent to a combination of primary antineoplastic effects as well as the potential destruction of tumor vasculature.
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PMID:Combretastatin A4 phosphate has primary antineoplastic activity against human anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cell lines and xenograft tumors. 1259 19

Combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P) causes rapid disruption of the tumor vasculature and is currently being evaluated for antivascular therapy. We describe the initial results obtained with a noninvasive multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach to assess the early effects of CA4P on rat bladder tumors implanted on nude mice. MRI (4.7 T) comprised a fast spin-echo sequence for growth curve assessment; a multislice multiecho sequence for T2 measurement before, 15 minutes after, and 24 hours after CA4P (100 mg/kg); and a fast T2w* gradient-echo sequence to assess MR signal modification under carbogen breathing before, 35 minutes after, and 24 hours after CA4P. The tumor fraction with increased T2w* signal intensity under carbogen (T+) was used to quantify CA4P effect on functional vasculature. CA4P slowed tumor growth over 24 hours and accelerated necrosis development. T+ decrease was observed already at 35 minutes post-CA4P. Early T2 increase was observed in regions becoming necrotic at 24 hours post-CA4P, as confirmed by high T2 and histology. These regions exhibited, under carbogen, a switch from T2w* signal increase before CA4P to a decrease postCA4P. The combination of carbogen-based functional MRI and T2 measurement may be useful for the early follow-up of antivascular therapy without the administration of contrast agents.
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PMID:Early effects of combretastatin A4 phosphate assessed by anatomic and carbogen-based functional magnetic resonance imaging on rat bladder tumors implanted in nude mice. 1686 21

The anticancer activity of a novel pure 1,4-Diaryl-2-azetidinone (1), endowed with a higher solubility than the well known Combretastatin A4, is tested in mice. We previously reported that Compound (1) showed specific antiproliferative activity against duodenal and colon cancer cells, inducing activation of AMP-activated protein kinase and apoptosis. Here we estimate that the maximum tolerated dose in a mouse model is 40 mg/kg; the drug is well tolerated both in single dose and in repeated administration schedules. The drug displays a significant antitumor activity and a tumor growth delay when administered at the MTD both in single and fractionated i.v. administration in a mouse xenograft model of colorectal cancer. Arrest of tumor growth and relapse after drug suspension are parallel to modification in glucose demand as shown by PET studies with [(18)F] FDG. These data strongly support Compound (1) as a promising molecule for in vivo treatment of colorectal cancer.
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PMID:A novel AMPK activator reduces glucose uptake and inhibits tumor progression in a mouse xenograft model of colorectal cancer. 2513 89

Blood vessel development is critical for the continued growth and progression of solid tumors and, therefore, makes an attractive target for improving cancer therapy. Indeed, vascular-targeted therapies have been extensively explored but they have shown minimal efficacy as monotherapies. Combretastatin A4 (CA-4) is a tubulin-binding vascular disrupting agent that selectively targets the established tumor endothelium, causing rapid vascular beak down. Despite its potent anticancer potential, the drug has dose-limiting side effects, particularly in the form of cardiovascular toxicity. Furthermore, its poor aqueous solubility and the resulting limited bioavailability hinder its antitumor activity in the clinic. To improve the therapeutic efficacy of CA-4, we investigated its application as a combination therapy with doxorubicin (Dox) in a tumor vasculature targeted delivery vehicle: peptide-modified cross-linked multilamellar liposomal vesicles (cMLVs). In vitro cell culture studies showed that a tumor vasculature-targeting peptide, RIF7, could facilitate higher cellular uptake of drug-loaded cMLVs, and consequently enhance the antitumor efficacy in both drug resistant B16 mouse melanoma and human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. In vivo, upon intravenous injection, targeted cMLVs could efficiently deliver both Dox and CA-4 to significantly slow tumor growth through the specific interaction of the targeting peptide with its receptor on the surface of tumor vasculature. This study demonstrates the potential of our novel targeted combination therapy delivery vehicle to improve the outcome of cancer treatment.
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PMID:Combination drug delivery via multilamellar vesicles enables targeting of tumor cells and tumor vasculature. 2945 30

Inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis simultaneously is an important issue for tumor therapy. The CXCR4/CXCL12 axis plays a crucial role in cancer metastasis, and the blocking of the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis is an effective way of inhibiting cancer metastasis. Combretastatin A4 nanodrug (CA4-NPs), a neogenesis blood vascular disrupting agent, can accumulate around blood vessels and disrupt tumor neogenesis of blood vessels more efficaciously than typical small molecular drug combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P). However, in this work, we find that the CXCR4 expression is significantly enhanced in CA4-NPs-treated tumor tissues in a metastatic orthotopic 4T1 mammary adenocarcinoma mouse model. Considering that the overexpression of CXCR4 can promote tumor cell metastasis, a novel cooperative strategy that utilizes plerixafor (PLF, CXCR4 antagonist) with CA4-NPs for inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis simultaneously is developed. The combination of CA4-NPs (60 mg kg-1 on CA4 basis) + PLF shows remarkably enhanced antitumor efficacy. The tumor growth inhibition rate of the combination group reaches 91.3%, significantly higher than those of non-cooperative groups. In addition, the number of lung metastasis foci of the combination group is least among all groups. This cooperative strategy provides a useful method for inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis simultaneously, and gives the evidence to support the clinical use of the combination of vascular disruption agents and CXCR4 antagonists.
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PMID:Combretastatin A4 nanodrug combined plerixafor for inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis simultaneously. 3160 48

Combretastatin A4 nanoparticles (CA4-NPs), which notably inhibit tumor growth, were found to cause tumor regrowth due to the intratumoral enrichment of M2-type macrophages after treatment. Since BLZ945, an inhibitor of CSF-1 receptor (CSF-1R), depletes and inhibits the proliferation of M2-type macrophages, it has the potential to relieve the immunosuppressive microenvironment and improve anti-tumor therapy of CA4-NPs. However, CSF-1R exists widely, not only in macrophages, and BLZ945 could cause potential hepatotoxicity. It is necessary to establish a tumor-targeting drug delivery system to reduce the off-target and side effects of BLZ945. In this study, FXIIIa substrate peptide A15 decorated BLZ945 nanoparticles (A15-BLZ-NPs) were developed, in which, BLZ945-poly(d,l-lactide) (BLZ945-PLA), produced by ring-opening polymerization, was encapsulated in poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(d,l-lactide) (PEG5k-PLA5k), and A15 was decorated on the surface PEG segment. A15-BLZ-NPs could crosslink with fibrin through elevated FXIIIa and specifically target intratumoral coagulation spots induced by CA4-NPs. In vivo studies showed that CA4-NPs induced enhanced distribution of BLZ945 in tumors, as the BLZ945 content was 3.75-fold in the CA4-NP + A15-BLZ-NP group compared to that of A15-BLZ-NP single treatment. Meanwhile, compared to the CA4-NP group, the combination treatment significantly reduced the proportion of M2-type macrophages (from 64.4% to 24.5%) and enriched cytotoxic T lymphocytes (from 1.5% to 18.9%) in tumors, suggesting that A15-BLZ-NPs remodeled and activated tumor immunity after CA4-NP treatment. Furthermore, the combined treatment effectively improved the tumor inhibition rate to 73.4%, which was significantly higher than that of CA4-NP (15.5%) or A15-BLZ-NP (23.9%) single treatment. This work established a novel combination strategy for anti-tumor therapy.
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PMID:FXIIIa substrate peptide decorated BLZ945 nanoparticles for specifically remodeling tumor immunity. 3304 11