Human cancer genetics

Cancer is a genetic disorder.Although heredi-tary cancers account for only a small fraction of all tumors,most cancers are caused by a variable mix of heredity and environment that leads to accumulations of genetic alterations and then uncontrolled cell pro-liferations(Kops et al.,2005).In addition,genetic alteration is one of the a few most important bio-logical factors that determine the diagnosis and prognosis of different cancers and dictate the treat-ment strategies for cancer patients.Fu…     

Clinical cytogenetics and molecular cytogenetics

The short report will be focused on helping our students to understand commonly used conventional and cutting edge cytogenetic techniques and their clinical applications, the advances and drawbacks of each technique, and how to pick the right test（s） for a specific patient in order to achieve a proper diagnosis efficiently and economically.     

Traditional Chinese medicines and their active ingredients sensitize cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis

The rapidly developing resistance of cancers to chemotherapy agents and the severe cytotoxicity of such agents to normal cells are major stumbling blocks in current cancer treatments.Most current chemotherapy agents have significant cytotoxicity,which leads to devastating adverse effects and results in a substandard quality of life,including increased daily morbidity and premature mortality.The death receptor of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand(TRAIL)can sidestep p53-dependent pathways to induce tumor cell apoptosis without damaging most normal cells.However,various cancer cells can develop resistance to TRAIL-induced apoptosis via different pathways.Therefore,it is critical to find an efficient TRAIL sensitizer to reverse the resistance of tumor cells to TRAIL,and to reinforce TRAIL’s ability to induce tumor cell apoptosis.In recent years,traditional Chinese medicines and their active ingredients have shown great potential to trigger apoptotic cell death in TRAIL-resistant cancer cell lines.This review aims to collate information about Chinese medicines that can effectively reverse the resistance of tumor cells to TRAIL and enhance TRAIL’s ability to induce apoptosis.We explore the therapeutic potential of TRAIL and provide new ideas for the development of TRAIL therapy and the generation of new anticancer drugs for human cancer treatment.This study involved an extensive review of studies obtained from literature searches of electronic databases such as Google Scholar and PubMed."TRAIL sensitize"and"Chinese medicine"were the search keywords.We then isolated newly published studies on the mechanisms of TRAIL-induced apoptosis.The name of each plant was validated using certified databases such as The Plant List.This study indicates that TRAIL can be combined with different Chinese medicine components through intrinsic or extrinsic pathways to promote cancer cell apoptosis.It also demonstrates that the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicines enhance the sensitivity of cancer cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis.This provides useful information regarding traditional Chinese medicine treatment,the development of TRAIL-based therapies,and the treatment of cancer.     

Translationally controlled tumor protein: the mediator promoting cancer invasion and migration and its potential clinical prospects

Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is a highly conserved multifunctional protein localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus of eukaryotic cells. It is secreted through exosomes and its degradation is associated with the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27), and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA). Its structure contains three α‍-helices and eleven β‍-strands, and features a helical hairpin as its hallmark. TCTP shows a remarkable similarity to the methionine-R-sulfoxide reductase B (MsrB) and mammalian suppressor of Sec4 (Mss4/Dss4) protein families, which exerts guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity on small guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) proteins, suggesting that some functions of TCTP may at least depend on its GEF action. Indeed, TCTP exerts GEF activity on Ras homolog enriched in brain (Rheb) to boost the growth and proliferation of Drosophila cells. TCTP also enhances the expression of cell division control protein 42 homolog (Cdc42) to promote cancer cell invasion and migration. Moreover, TCTP regulates cytoskeleton organization by interacting with actin microfilament (MF) and microtubule (MT) proteins and inducing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. In essence, TCTP promotes cancer cell movement. It is usually highly expressed in cancerous tissues and thus reduces patient survival; meanwhile, drugs can target TCTP to reduce this effect. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms of TCTP in promoting cancer invasion and migration, and describe the current inhibitory strategy to target TCTP in cancerous diseases.