BackgroundTumour cells show greater dependency on glycolysis so providing a sufficient and rapid energy supply for fast growth. In many breast cancers, estrogen, progesterone and epidermal growth factor receptor-positive cells proliferate in response to growth factors and growth factor antagonists are a mainstay of treatment. However, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells lack receptor expression, are frequently more aggressive and are resistant to growth factor inhibition. Downstream of growth factor receptors, signal transduction proceeds via phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3k), Akt and FOXO3a inhibition, the latter being partly responsible for coordinated increases in glycolysis and apoptosis resistance. FOXO3a may be an attractive therapeutic target for TNBC. Therefore we have undertaken a systematic review of FOXO3a as a target for breast cancer therapeutics.MethodsArticles from NCBI were retrieved systematically when reporting primary data about FOXO3a expression in breast cancer cells after cytotoxic drug treatment.ResultsIncreased FOXO3a expression is common following cytotoxic drug treatment and is associated with apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. There is some evidence that metabolic enzyme expression is also altered and that this effect is also elicited in TNBC cells. FOXO3a expression serves as a positive prognostic marker, especially in estrogen (ER) receptor positive cells.DiscussionFOXO3a is upregulated by a number of receptor-dependent and -independent anti-cancer drugs and associates with apoptosis. The identification of microRNA that regulate FOXO3a directly suggest that it offers a tangible therapeutic target that merits wider evaluation.

The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology seeks to address growing concerns about reproducibility in scientific research by conducting replications of selected experiments from a number of high-profile papers in the field of cancer biology. The papers, which were published between 2010 and 2012, were selected on the basis of citations and Altimetric scores (Errington et al., 2014). This Registered report describes the proposed replication plan of key experiments from ‘The microRNA miR-34a inhibits prostate cancer stem cells and metastasis by directly repressing CD44’ by Liu and colleagues published in Nature Medicine in 2011 (Liu et al., 2011). Liu and colleagues first demonstrated that miR-34a levels were reduced in CD44+ prostate cancer cells (Figure 1B). They then showed that xenograft tumors from cells expressing exogenous miR-34a were smaller in size than control tumors (Supplemental Figure 5C). Tumors with exogenous miR-34a showed reduced levels of CD44 expression (Figure 4A), and mutation of two putative miR-34a binding sites in the CD33 3′ UTR partially abrogated signal repression in a luciferase assay (Figure 4D). The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology is a collaboration between the Center for Open Science and Science Exchange, and the results of the replications will be published by eLife.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06434.001

Bui et al.: Antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of Dialium cochinchinensisThis study was undertaken to evaluate the phytoconstituents present in the seed extract of Dialium cochinchinensis for antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties. Results showed the presence of polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, coumarins and a polyuronid compound in the Dialium cochinchinensis seed extract. The total polyphenol and flavonoid contents of the dry extract were 133.5±2.87 mg GAE/g and 227.0±23.20 mg rutin equivalent/g, respectively. Dialium cochinchinensis seed extract exhibited antioxidant property in 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid and potassium ferricyanide reducing antioxidant power methods. Moreover, Dialium cochinchinensis seed extract exerted inhibitory effect on Gram-positive bacteria. Finally, Dialium cochinchinensis seed extract was found to be toxic to Vero cell lines and the pathogens with selectivity index ranging from 0.01 to 0.04. In conclusion, Dialium cochinchinensis seed extract could be considered as a new source of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents for research and application.

The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology seeks to address growing concerns about reproducibility in scientific research by conducting replications of selected experiments from a number of high-profile papers in the field of cancer biology. The papers, which were published between 2010 and 2012, were selected on the basis of citations and Altimetric scores (Errington et al., 2014). This Registered report describes the proposed replication plan of key experiments from 'The microRNA miR-34a inhibits prostate cancer stem cells and metastasis by directly repressing CD44' by Liu and colleagues published in Nature Medicine in 2011 (Liu et al., 2011). Liu and colleagues first demonstrated that miR-34a levels were reduced in CD44+ prostate cancer cells (Figure 1B). They then showed that xenograft tumors from cells expressing exogenous miR-34a were smaller in size than control tumors (Supplemental Figure 5C). Tumors with exogenous miR-34a showed reduced levels of CD44 expression (Figure 4A), and mutation of two putative miR-34a binding sites in the CD33 3′ UTR partially abrogated signal repression in a luciferase assay (Figure 4D). The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology is a collaboration between the Center for Open Science and Science Exchange, and the results of the replications will be published by eLife.