Bladder tumors are a diffuse type of cancer. Long pentraxin-3 (PTX3) is a component of the innate immunity with pleiotropic functions in the regulation of immune response, tissue remodeling, and cancer progression. PTX3 may act as an oncosuppressor in different contexts, functioning as an antagonist of the fibroblast growth factor/fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGF/FGFR) system, rewiring the immune microenvironment, or acting through mechanisms not yet fully clarified. In this study we used biopsies and data mining to assess that PTX3 is differentially expressed during the different stages of bladder cancer (BC) progression. BC cell lines, representative of different tumor grades, and transgenic/carcinogen-induced models were used to demonstrate in vitro and in vivo that PTX3 production by tumor cells decreases along the progression from low-grade to high-grade advanced muscle invasive forms (MIBC). In vitro and in vivo data revealed for the first time that PTX3 modulation and the consequent impairment of FGF/FGR systems in BC cells have a significant impact on different biological features of BC growth, including cell proliferation, motility, metabolism, stemness, and drug resistance. PTX3 exerts an oncosuppressive effect on BC progression and may represent a potential functional biomarker in BC evolution. Moreover, FGF/FGFR blockade has an impact on drug resistance and stemness features in BC.

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Among the chemotypes studied for selective inhibition of tumour-associated carbonic anhydrases (CAs), SLC-0111 , a ureido-bearing benzenesulfonamide CA IX inhibitor, displayed promising antiproliferative effects in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo , being in Phase Ib/II clinical development. To explore the structural characteristics required for better discrimination of less conserved regions of the enzyme, we investigate the incorporation of the urea linker into an imidazolidin-2-one cycle, a modification already explored previously for obtaining CA inhibitors. This new library of compounds inhibited potently four different hCAs in the nanomolar range with a different isoform selectivity profile compared to the lead SLC-0111 . Several representative CA IX inhibitors were tested for their efficacy to inhibit the proliferation of glioblastoma, pancreatic, and breast cancer cells expressing CA IX, in hypoxic conditions. Unlike previous literature data on SLC-149 , a structurally related sulphonamide to compounds investigated here, our data reveal that these derivatives possess promising anti-proliferative effects, comparable to those of SLC-0111 .

Ocular tumors are a family of rare neoplasms that develop in the eye. Depending on the type of cancer, they mainly originate from cells localized within the retina, the uvea, or the vitreous. Even though current treatments (e.g., radiotherapy, transpupillary thermotherapy, cryotherapy, chemotherapy, local resection, or enucleation) achieve the control of the local tumor in the majority of treated cases, a significant percentage of patients develop metastatic disease. In recent years, new targeting therapies and immuno-therapeutic approaches have been evaluated. Nevertheless, the search for novel targets and players is eagerly required to prevent and control tumor growth and metastasis dissemination. The fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/FGF receptor (FGFR) system consists of a family of proteins involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. Indeed, tumor and stroma activation of the FGF/FGFR system plays a relevant role in tumor growth, invasion, and resistance, as well as in angiogenesis and dissemination. To date, scattered pieces of literature report that FGFs and FGFRs are expressed by a significant subset of primary eye cancers, where they play relevant and pleiotropic roles. In this review, we provide an up-to-date description of the relevant roles played by the FGF/FGFR system in ocular tumors and speculate on its possible prognostic and therapeutic exploitation.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of death in the male population commonly treated with androgen deprivation therapy that often relapses as androgen-independent and aggressive castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Ferroptosis is a recently described form of cell death that requires abundant cytosolic labile iron to promote membrane lipid peroxidation and which can be induced by agents that inhibit the glutathione peroxidase-4 activity such as RSL3. Exploiting in vitro and in vivo human and murine PCa models and the multistage transgenic TRAMP model of PCa we show that RSL3 induces ferroptosis in PCa cells and demonstrate for the first time that iron supplementation significantly increases the effect of RSL3 triggering lipid peroxidation, enhanced intracellular stress and leading to cancer cell death. Moreover, the combination with the second generation anti-androgen drug enzalutamide potentiates the effect of the RSL3 + iron combination leading to superior inhibition of PCa and preventing the onset of CRPC in the TRAMP mouse model. These data open new perspectives in the use of pro-ferroptotic approaches alone or in combination with enzalutamide for the treatment of PCa.

The lymphatic vascular system represents a major route for dissemination of several solid tumors, including melanoma. Even though the members of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor family VEGF-C and VEGF-A have been shown to drive tumor lymphangiogenesis, experimental evidence indicates that also the pro-angiogenic factor Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF2) may play a role in the lymphangiogenic switch by triggering the activation of lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) in cooperation with VEGFs.The soluble pattern recognition receptor Long Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) acts as a natural FGF trap, thus exerting an oncosuppressive role in FGF-dependent tumors. Here, the capacity of PTX3 to modulate lymphangiogenesis was assessed in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrate that recombinant human PTX3 inhibits the lymphangiogenic activity exerted by the VEGF-A/FGF2/sphingosine-1-phosphate (VFS) cocktail on human and murine LECs. In keeping with in vitro data, a reduced lymphangiogenic response was observed in a lymphangiogenic Matrigel plug assay following the subcutaneous injection of the VFS cocktail in PTX3-overexpressing transgenic TgN(Tie2-hPTX3) mice when compared to wild-type or Ptx3 null animals. Accordingly, the capacity of B16F10-VEGFC-luc melanoma cells to colonize the primary tumor-draining lymph node after grafting into the foot pad was dramatically impaired in PTX3-overexpressing mice.Together with the observation that both the VFS cocktail and melanoma cell conditioned media caused a significant downregulation of PTX3 expression in LECs, these data indicate that the FGF trap activity of PTX3 may exert a key effect in the modulation of lymphangiogenesis and tumor metastatic dissemination.

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Several studies have shown a potential protective role of long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) in different lung pathologies. In the present study, we have explored the influence of PTX3 in the bleomycin (BLM)-induced murine model of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). We made a picture of the pulmonary microenvironment by looking at inflammatory infiltrate (macrophages, mast cells, T cells) and stemness/regenerative markers of lung epithelium (SOX2) and fibroblasts/myofibroblasts (CD44) at different time points that retrace the progression of the disease from onset at day 14, to full-blown disease at day 21, to incomplete regression at day 28. We took advantage of transgenic PTX3 overexpressing mice (Tie2-PTX3) and Ptx3 null ones (PTX3-KO) in which IPF was indued. Our data have shown that: throughout the whole experimental period, the CD68+ and CD163+ macrophages and the Tryptase+ mast cells are reduced in the Tie2-PTX3 pulmonary microenvironment compared to wild-type (WT) or PTX3-KO; on the contrary, CD4+ T cells are consistently present on day 14 and dramatically decreased on day 21 in Tie2-PTX3 compared to WT or PTX3-KO; CD8+ T cells do not show significant differences on day 14, but are significantly reduced on day 21 in Tie2-PTX3 compared to WT or PTX3-KO; SOX2 is reduced on days 14 and 21 in Tie2-PTX3 compared to WT or PTX3-KO; CD44 is reduced on day 21 in Tie2-PTX3 compared to WT or PTX3-KO. This scenario demonstrates the anti-inflammatory effects of PTX3, which reduces pro-inflammatory cells and counteracts profibrotic events.