No abstract

Ionic liquids (ILs) are being considered as greener alternatives to conventional organic solvents.

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) is a 40 kDa transmembrane glycoprotein overexpressed in majority of tumor epithelial cells and has a major morphoregulatory function, relevant not only to epithelial tissue development, but also in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. Since Ep-CAM localizes at the cell surface of most carcinomas, the molecule is an attractive target for immunotherapy and several strategies have been deployed to treat cancer using Ep-CAM targeting, including MAb therapy. For improving effective targeting of this protein for diagnostics in various clinical samples, we generated and characterized an anti-Ep-CAM MAb (C4) using recombinant Ep-CAM protein, comprising the highly immunogenic domain. The specificity of C4-MAb was characterized in Ep-CAM positive cell lines (PC3 and MCF-7) by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence. The immunohistochemistry analysis in clinical tissue samples showed specific detection of epithelial antigens in breast, colon, stomach, and prostate carcinomas. Thus, this Ep-CAM MAb (C4-MAb) could be used for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications due to its specificity.

Cancer relapse or recurrence has been the greatest challenge in the treatment of this life threatening disease, which occurs due to resistance of cancer cells to drug or radiation therapy. Most often this resistance is developed during treatment, which makes it even more complicated, leading to the failure of chemo or radiation therapy in the majority of cases. To circumvent these problems associated with conventional therapies, newer strategies were adopted like targeted therapy using monoclonal antibodies, immunotoxins and antibody-drug conjugates. However, targeted therapy also showed failure in many in vitro and in vivo studies that was again attributed to the emergence of resistant cells. Here, we discuss the various factors and cellular mechanisms responsible for resistance against conventional therapies and targeted approaches like recombinant immunotoxins. Cancer stem cells (CSC's) were identified as the major reason for resistance and their role in cancer relapse has been proved convincingly in recent studies. Hence, resistance mechanisms involved in CSC's have been elaborated. We also summarize the strategies being adopted currently to overcome resistance and different means of targeting resistant cancer stem cells that could be used in the future. Keywords

The success of liver regeneration depends on the availability of suitable cell types and their potential to differentiate into functional hepatocytes. To identify the stem cells which have the ability to differentiate into hepatocytes, we used neonatal liver as source. However, the current protocol for isolating stem cells from liver involves enzymes like collagenase, hyaluronidase exposed for longer duration which limits the success. This results in the keen interest to develop an easy single step enzyme digestion protocol for isolating stem cells from liver for tissue engineering approaches. Thus, the unlimited availability of cell type favors setting up the functional recovery of the damaged liver, ensuring ahead success towards treating liver diseases. We attempted to isolate liver stem derived cells (LDSCs) from mouse neonatal liver using single step minimal exposure to enzyme followed by in vitro culturing. The cells isolated were characterized for stem cell markers and subjected to lineage differentiation. Further, LDSCs were induced to hepatocyte differentiation and validated with hepatocyte markers. Finally, we developed a reproducible, efficient protocol for isolation of LDSCs with functional hepatocytes differentiation potential, which further can be used as in vitro model system for assessing drug toxicity assays in various preclinical trials.