Novel Therapeutic Targets for Ovarian Cancer

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Tumor Microenvironment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2024) | Viewed by 2559

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Experimental Pathology Unit, Department of Pathology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
Interests: ovarian cancer; drug repurposing; ovarian cancer development; immunogenic cell death; ER stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Epithelial ovarian cancer is a devastating disease leading to high mortality due to a lack of early diagnosis and failure of long-term treatment strategies. Since the introduction of cytoreductive surgery and platinum–taxane combination treatment in the 1980–90s, there have been no significant breakthroughs influencing the overall survival of patients except for the use of PARP inhibitors in BRCA1 deficient individuals. To make matters more complex, this disease is not unitary; conversely, it is represented by multiple malignancies pathologically defined as high-grade serous, low-grade serous, mucinous, clear cell, and endometrioid carcinoma. The burden of this disease is highly prevalent, as demonstrated by the fact that the overall survival has not significantly changed in decades.

In this Special Issue of Cancers, we welcome original research articles or comprehensive review articles focusing on research related to novel therapeutic approaches for all histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer, including, among others, novel target therapeutics, combination drug therapies, repurposed drugs, immunotherapies, PARP inhibitors and antiangiogenic drugs, natural products, and synthetic anti-cancer compounds.

Dr. Carlos M. Telleria
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ovarian cancer
  • cancer therapy
  • drug repurposing
  • combination therapy
  • Epithelial ovarian cancer

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 5665 KiB  
Article
Auranofin Induces Lethality Driven by Reactive Oxygen Species in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer Cells
by Farah H. Abdalbari, Elvis Martinez-Jaramillo, Benjamin N. Forgie, Estelle Tran, Edith Zorychta, Alicia A. Goyeneche, Siham Sabri and Carlos M. Telleria
Cancers 2023, 15(21), 5136; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15215136 - 25 Oct 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2133
Abstract
High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) accounts for 70% of ovarian cancer cases, and the survival rate remains remarkably low due to the lack of effective long-term consolidation therapies. Clinical remission can be temporarily induced by platinum-based chemotherapy, but death subsequently results from the [...] Read more.
High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) accounts for 70% of ovarian cancer cases, and the survival rate remains remarkably low due to the lack of effective long-term consolidation therapies. Clinical remission can be temporarily induced by platinum-based chemotherapy, but death subsequently results from the extensive growth of a platinum-resistant component of the tumor. This work explores a novel treatment against HGSOC using the gold complex auranofin (AF). AF primarily functions as a pro-oxidant by inhibiting thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), an antioxidant enzyme overexpressed in ovarian cancer. We investigated the effect of AF on TrxR activity and the various mechanisms of cytotoxicity using HGSOC cells that are clinically sensitive or resistant to platinum. In addition, we studied the interaction between AF and another pro-oxidant, L-buthionine sulfoximine (L-BSO), an anti-glutathione (GSH) compound. We demonstrated that AF potently inhibited TrxR activity and reduced the vitality and viability of HGSOC cells regardless of their sensitivities to platinum. We showed that AF induces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), triggers the depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane, and kills HGSOC cells by inducing apoptosis. Notably, AF-induced cell death was abrogated by the ROS-scavenger N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). In addition, the lethality of AF was associated with the activation of caspases-3/7 and the generation of DNA damage, effects that were also prevented by the presence of NAC. Finally, when AF and L-BSO were combined, we observed synergistic lethality against HGSOC cells, which was mediated by a further increase in ROS and a decrease in the levels of the antioxidant GSH. In summary, our results support the concept that AF can be used alone or in combination with L-BSO to kill HGSOC cells regardless of their sensitivity to platinum, suggesting that the depletion of antioxidants is an efficient strategy to mitigate the course of this disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Therapeutic Targets for Ovarian Cancer)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop