Cancer immunotherapy represents a promising new era in cancer management due to the relatively high safety margins and selectivity, compared to the classical cancer chemotherapeutic agents. However, there is an imperative need to overcome tumor resistance in order to improve clinical outcomes and maximize the benefits of cancer immunotherapy. The interaction between the programmed cell death‐1 (PD‐1) receptor and its ligand PD‐L1 is a vital immune checkpoint that is often adopted by cancer cells to undergo immune evasion. PD‐1/PD‐L1 signaling is regulated at multiple levels through the crosstalk with other immune targets or relevant signaling partners involved in the cancer progression. Among the significant epigenetic players that are implicated in modulating the immune system are microRNAs (miRNAs). A complex system of these noncoding RNAs regulates the gene expression at the post‐transcriptional level and plays a significant role in the modulation of both innate and the adaptive immune systems. The expression profile of immune‐modulatory miRNAs might be useful as a predictive biomarker for the response and clinical outcomes in cancer immunotherapy. Therefore, in the current review, we highlighted the role of miRNAs in cancer immune evasion through a critical discussion of their impact on key immune checkpoints as well as the role of miRNAs in cancer progression and resistance.

Abbreviations: 5AZA, 5-aza-2 0 -deoxycytidine; BSA, bovine serum albumin; DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide; DNMT, DNA methyltransferase; HAT, histone acetyl transferase; HDAC, histone deacetylase; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; SCLC, small-cell lung cancer; TSA, trichostatin A; 5mc, 5-methyl cytosine.Lung cancer cells show inherent and acquired resistance to chemotherapy. The lack of good predictive markers/ novel targets and the incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of resistance limit the success of lung cancer response to chemotherapy. In the present study, we used an isogenic pair of lung adenocarcinoma cell lines; A549 (wild-type) and A549DOX11 (doxorubicin resistant) to study the role of epigenetics and miRNA in resistance/response of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells to doxorubicin. Our results demonstrate differential expression of epigenetic markers whereby the level of HDACs 1, 2, 3 and4, DNA methyltransferase, acetylated H2B and acetylated H3 were lower in A549DOX11 compared to A549 cells. Fourteen miRNAs were dys-regulated in A549DOX11 cells compared to A549 cells, of these 14 miRNAs, 4 (has-mir-1973, 494, 4286 and 29b-3p) have shown 2.99 -4.44 fold increase in their expression. This was associated with reduced apoptosis and higher resistance of A549DOX11cells to doxorubicin and etoposide. Sequential treatment with the epigenetic modifiers trichostatin A or 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine followed by doxorubicin resulted in: (i) enhanced sensitivity of both cell lines to doxorubicin especially at low concentrations, (ii) enhanced doxorubicin-induced DNA damage in both cell lines, (iii) dysregulation of some miRNAs in A549 cells. In conclusion, A549DOX11 cells resistant to DNA damaging drugs have epigenetic profile and miRNA expression different from the sensitive cells. Moreover, epigenetic modifiers may reverse the resistance of certain NSCLC cells to DNA damaging agents by enhancing induction of DNA damage. This may open the door for using epigenetic profile/miRNA expression of some cancer cells as resistance markers/targets to improve response of resistant cells to doxorubicin and for the use of combination doxorubicin/epigenetic modifiers to reduce doxorubicin toxicity.

The design and synthesis of a quality compound library containing a small number of skeletally diverse scaffolds, whose members rapidly deliver new chemical probes active against multiple phenotypes, is paramount in drug discovery. In this context, an efficient one-pot strategy for the synthesis of a mini library of sp 3 -enriched hexahydropyrido[2′,1′:2,3]imidazo[1,5-a]quinolinium and hexahydrothiazolo[2′,3′:2,3]imidazo[1,5-a]quinolinium architectures, is described. This new one-pot method features a combination of Sc(OTf) 3 -catalyzed [4 + 1]-cycloaddition with aza-Michael addition reactions. The cascade results in a rapid and diastereoselective formation of these scaffolds via desymmetrization of the oxidative dearomatization products of phenols. Phenotypic screening of the mini library against multiple drug-resistant bacteria and a panel of cancer cell lines identified potential antibacterial and anticancer lead drug candidates. Further investigation of the anticancer leads, indicated by their activity as tubulin-polymerization inhibitors, represents a promising approach for cancer therapy.

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The incidence of obesity-related diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and different types of cancers shed light on the importance of dietary control as preventive and treatment measures. However, long-term dietary control is challenging to achieve in most individuals. The use of energy restriction mimetic agents (ERMAs) as an alternative approach to affect the energy machinery of cancer cells has emerged as a promising approach for cancer therapy. ERMAs limit the high need for energy in rapidly growing tumor cells, with their survival rate strongly dependent on the robust availability of energy. In this context, initial phenotypic screening of an in-house pilot compound library identified a new class of aminothiazole anchored on coumarin scaffold as potent anticancer lead drug candidates with potential activity as ERMA. The identified chemotypes were able to inhibit glucose uptake and increase ROS content in cancer cells. Compounds 9b, 9c, 9i, 11b, and 11c were highly active against colorectal cancer cell lines, HCT116 and HT-29, with half-maximal inhibitory concertation (IC 50 ) range from 0.25 to 0.38 µM. Further biological evaluations of 9b and 9f using Western blotting, caspase activity, glucose uptake, ROS production, and NADPH/NADP levels revealed the ability of these lead drug candidates to induce cancer cell death via, at least in part, energy restriction. Moreover, the assessment of 9b and 9f synergistic activity with cisplatin showed promising outcomes. The current work highlights the significant potential of the lead compounds, 9b, and 9f as potential anticancer agents via targeting the cellular energy machinery in cancer cells.www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ on this in brief: If our scaffolds possess a similar mechanism of action as that of OSU-CG12 (Fig. 1), then an electron-withdrawing group on the phenyl ring of our motifs should mimic that of the phenyl ring in OSU-CG12. Therefore, compounds with electron-withdrawing groups (9a, 9b, 9c, and 9f) are the most active as anticancer agents. Furthermore, the cyclohexyl group in OSU-CG12 is not substituted. Therefore, bulkier groups on its analogue, the coumarin ring in our motifs, should not be tolerated and, therefore, less potent as anticancer. Biological evaluationCell viability of human colorectal cancer cell lines. The potential cytotoxicity of 24 candidate compounds was initially evaluated at a single concentration level (5 μM). Then a full dose-response curve was plotted for each compound against different colorectal cancer cell lines (HCT116 and HT-29) by MTT assay after 72 h treatments. The half-maximal inhibitory concertation (IC 50 ) values after 72 h treatment are summarized in Table 1. 4-hydroxycoumarin, OSU-CG5, and OSU-CG12 were used as positive controls. Most compounds exhibited higher potency in comparison to the positive controls except 9h (>30 µM),10a (>30 µM) and 10e (13.06 ± 1.39), in HT-29 and 9h (>30 µM), 10a (>30 µM), 10e (>30 µM) 10f (10.3 ± 3.15), 10i (13.49 ± 0.20), 11a (6.76 ± 0....

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