A number of acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders are caused due to misfolding and aggregation of many intra- and extracellular proteins. Protein misfolding and aggregation processes in cells are strongly regulated by cellular molecular chaperones known as heat-shock proteins (Hsps) that include Hsp60, Hsp70, Hsp40, and Hsp90. Recent studies have shown the evidences that Hsps are colocalized in protein aggregates in Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Polyglutamine disease (PGD), Prion disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders. This fact indicates that Hsps might have attempted to prevent aggregate formation in cells and thus to suppress disease conditions. Experimental findings have already established in many cases that selective overexpression of Hsps like Hsp70 and Hsp40 prevented the disease progression in various animal models and cellular models. However, recently, various Hsp modulators like geldanamycin, 17-(dimethylaminoethylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin, and celastrol have shown to up-regulate the expression level of Hsp70 and Hsp40, which in turn triggers the solubilization of diseased protein aggregates. Hsps are, therefore, if appropriately selected, an attractive choice for therapeutic targeting in various kinds of neurodegeneration and hence are expected to have strong potential as therapeutic agents in suppressing or curing AD, PD, PGD, and other devastative neurodegenerative disorders. In the present review, we report the experimental findings that describe the implication of Hsps in the development of neurodegeneration and explore the possibility of how Hsps can be used directly or as a target by other agents to prevent various neurodegeneration through preventing aggregation process and thus reducing the toxicity of the oligomers based on the previous reports.

Reliance on aerobic glycolysis is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Although pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a key mediator of glycolysis in cancer cells, lack of selective agents that target PKM2 remains a challenge in exploiting metabolic pathways for cancer therapy. We report that unlike its structural analog shikonin, a known inhibitor of PKM2, lapachol failed to induce non-apoptotic cell death ferroxitosis in hypoxia. However, melanoma cells treated with lapachol showed a dose-dependent inhibition of glycolysis and a corresponding increase in oxygen consumption. Accordingly, in silico studies revealed a high affinity-binding pocket for lapachol on PKM2 structure. Lapachol inhibited PKM2 activity of purified enzyme as well as in melanoma cell extracts. Blockade of glycolysis by lapachol in melanoma cells led to decreased ATP levels and inhibition of cell proliferation. Furthermore, perturbation of glycolysis in melanoma cells with lapachol sensitized cells to mitochondrial protonophore and promoted apoptosis. These results present lapachol as an inhibitor of PKM2 to interrogate metabolic plasticity in tumor cells.

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Self-assembly of a protein is a natural phenomenon; however, the process can be performed under a suitable condition in vitro. Since proteins are nontoxic, biodegradable, and biocompatible in nature, they are used in various industrial applications such as biocatalyst, therapeutic agent, and drug carriers. Moreover, their flexible structural state and specific activity are being used as sensors and immensely attract many new applications. However, the inherent potential of protein self-assembly for various applications is yet to be explored in detail. In this study, spherical self-assembly of bovine α-lactalbumin (nsBLA) was synthesized using an optimized ethanol-mediated desolvation process with an average diameter of approximately 300 nm. The self-assembly was found to be highly stable against thermal, pH, and proteases stress. When nsBLA was administered in various cancer cells, it demonstrated high cytotoxicity in three different cancer cells via reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, whereas it exhibited negligible toxicity in normal human and murine cells. When nsBLA was conjugated with folic acid, it improved the cytotoxicity and perhaps mediated through enhanced cellular uptake in cancer cells through binding with folate receptors. Further, experimental results confirmed that the cancer cell death induced by nsBLA was not caused by apoptosis but a necrotic-like death mechanism. When compared with a well-known protein-based anticancer agent BAMLET (bovine α-lactalbumin made lethal against tumor cell), the self-assembled BLA clearly exhibited higher cytotoxicity to cancer cells than BAMLET. While BAMLET exhibits poor biocompatibility, our nsBLA demonstrated excellent biocompatibility to normal cells. Therefore, in this study, we prepared self-assembled α-lactalbumin that exhibits strong inherent antiproliferative potential in multiple cancer cells which can be used for efficient therapeutic approach in cancer.

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