Tumorigenesis is a complex and dynamic process, consisting of three stages: initiation, progression, and metastasis. Tumors are encircled by extracellular matrix (ECM) and stromal cells, and the physiological state of the tumor microenvironment (TME) is closely connected to every step of tumorigenesis. Evidence suggests that the vital components of the TME are fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, neuroendocrine cells, adipose cells, immune and inflammatory cells, the blood and lymphatic vascular networks, and ECM. This manuscript, based on the current studies of the TME, offers a more comprehensive overview of the primary functions of each component of the TME in cancer initiation, progression, and invasion. The manuscript also includes primary therapeutic targeting markers for each player, which may be helpful in treating tumors.

Tumor angiogenesis is necessary for the continued survival and development of tumor cells, and plays an important role in their growth, invasion, and metastasis. The tumor microenvironment—composed of tumor cells, surrounding cells, and secreted cytokines—provides a conducive environment for the growth and survival of tumors. Different components of the tumor microenvironment can regulate tumor development. In this review, we have discussed the regulatory role of the microenvironment in tumor angiogenesis. High expression of angiogenic factors and inflammatory cytokines in the tumor microenvironment, as well as hypoxia, are presumed to be the reasons for poor therapeutic efficacy of current anti-angiogenic drugs. A combination of anti-angiogenic drugs and antitumor inflammatory drugs or hypoxia inhibitors might improve the therapeutic outcome.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most commonmalignancy. Exsome plays a significant role in the elucidation of signal transduction pathways between hepatoma cells, angiogenesis and early diagnosis of HCC. Exosomes are small vesicular structures that mediate interaction between different types of cells, and contain a variety of components (including DNA, RNA, and proteins). Numerous studies have shown that these substances in exosomes are involved in growth, metastasis and angiogenesis in liver cancer, and then inhibited the growth of liver cancer by blocking the signaling pathway of liver cancer cells. In addition, the exosomal substances could also be used as markers for screening early liver cancer. In this review, we summarized to reveal the significance of exosomes in the occurrence, development, diagnosis and treatment of HCC, which in turn might help us to further elucidate the mechanism of exosomes in HCC, and promote the use of exosomes in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

BackgroundRadioresistance is a major factor leading to the failure of radiotherapy and poor prognosis in tumor patients. Following the application of radiotherapy, the activity of various metabolic pathways considerably changes, which may result in the development of resistance to radiation.Main bodyHere, we discussed the relationships between radioresistance and mitochondrial and glucose metabolic pathways, aiming to elucidate the interplay between the tumor cell metabolism and radiotherapy resistance. In this review, we additionally summarized the potential therapeutic targets in the metabolic pathways.Short conclusionThe aim of this review was to provide a theoretical basis and relevant references, which may lead to the improvement of the sensitivity of radiotherapy and prolong the survival of cancer patients.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a distinct class of small noncoding RNAs that posttranscriptionally repress expression of target genes through imperfect base pairing with the 3 ¶ untranslated region. We previously reported amplification and overexpression of the miR-17-92 miRNA cluster at 13q31.3 in lung cancers, as well as growth inhibition by treatment with antisense oligonucleotides against miR-17-5p and miR-20a, constituents of miR-17-92, specifically in miR-17-92-overexpressing lung cancer cell lines. Although these findings clearly suggested important roles of miR-17-92 overexpression in lung cancers, only a few targets for the miR-17-92 cluster have been identified thus far. In this study, we identified hypoxiainducible factor (HIF)-1A as a novel direct target for miR-17-92 through global expression profiling by mass spectrometric analysis using an isobaric tagging reagent, iTRAQ, combined with bioinformatic target prediction. This is the first report to describe negative regulation of HIF-1A by miRNA, which seemed to occur without disrupting the induction of HIF-1A for cellular adaptation to hypoxia. In addition, overexpression of c-myc led to down-regulation of HIF-1A and induction of miR-17-92, the latter of which was previously reported to be a transcriptional activation activity, suggesting that the induction of miR-17-92 may play a role at least in part in c-myc-mediated repression of HIF-1A. Together with previous reports on the functional negative regulation of c-myc by HIF-1A, our findings suggest the possible existence of an intricate and finely tuned circuit involving c-myc, miR-17-92, and HIF-1A that may play a role in cancer cell proliferation under normoxia in a cellular context-dependent manner.

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Our preliminary work has revealed that vitamin D receptor (VDR) activation is protective against cisplatin induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Ferroptosis was recently reported to be involved in AKI. Here in this study, we investigated the internal relation between ferroptosis and the protective effect of VDR in cisplatin induced AKI. By using ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 and measurement of ferroptotic cell death phenotype in both in vivo and in vitro cisplatin induced AKI model, we observed the decreased blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and tissue injury by ferrostatin-1, hence validated the essential involvement of ferroptosis in cisplatin induced AKI. VDR agonist paricalcitol could both functionally and histologically attenuate cisplatin induced AKI by decreasing lipid peroxidation (featured phenotype of ferroptosis), biomarker 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), and malondialdehyde (MDA), while reversing glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4, key regulator of ferroptosis) downregulation. VDR knockout mouse exhibited much more ferroptotic cell death and worsen kidney injury than wild type mice. And VDR deficiency remarkably decreased the expression of GPX4 under cisplatin stress in both in vivo and in vitro, further luciferase reporter gene assay showed that GPX4 were target gene of transcription factor VDR. In addition, in vitro study showed that GPX4 inhibition by siRNA largely abolished the protective effect of paricalcitol against cisplatin induced tubular cell injury. Besides, pretreatment of paricalcitol could also alleviated Erastin (an inducer of ferroptosis) induced cell death in HK-2 cell. These data suggested that ferroptosis plays an important role in cisplatin induced AKI. VDR activation can protect against cisplatin induced renal injury by inhibiting ferroptosis partly via trans-regulation of GPX4.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a heterogeneous group of critical disease conditions with high incidence and mortality. Vasoconstriction, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation are generally thought to be the main pathogenic mechanisms of AKI. Ferroptosis is a type of iron-dependent nonapoptotic cell death characterized by membrane lipid peroxide accumulation and polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption, and it plays essential roles in many diseases, including cancers and neurologic diseases. Recent studies have revealed an emerging role of ferroptosis in the pathophysiological processes of AKI. Here, in the present review, we summarized the most recent discoveries on the role of ferroptosis in the pathogenesis of AKI as well as its therapeutic potential in AKI.