In this study, we have determined the anticancer activity of doxorubicin (Dox)-loaded DNA/gold nanoparticle (AuNP) nanocarrier (Dox-DNA-AuNP) for the treatment of ovarian cancer. The anticancer effect of Dox-DNA-AuNP was evaluated in vitro using the EZ-Cytox cell viability assay on three human ovarian cancer cell lines, SK-OV-3, HEY A8, and A2780. Dox-DNA-AuNP exhibited outstanding activity with good IC₅₀ values of 4.8, 7.4, and 7.6 nM for SK-OV-3, HEY A8, and A2780, respectively. In vivo evaluation further demonstrated the superior anticancer effects of Dox-DNA-AuNP by inhibiting tumor growth compared to free Dox in an established SK-OV-3 xenograft mice model. Dox-DNA-AuNP showed about a 2.5 times higher tumor growth inhibition rate than free Dox. Furthermore, the immunohistochemical analysis of Ki67 antigen expression showed the lowest number of proliferative cells in the ovarian tumor tissue treated with Dox-DNA-AuNP. These results suggest Dox-DNA-AuNP might be a potential effective agent in ovarian cancer chemotherapy.

The aim of the study was to develop a new diagnostic biomarker for identifying serum exosomal miRNAs specific to epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and to find out target gene of the miRNA for exploring the molecular mechanisms in EOC. A total of 84 cases of ovarian masses and sera were enrolled, comprising EOC (n = 71), benign ovarian neoplasms (n = 13). We detected expression of candidate miRNAs in the serum and tissue of both benign ovarian neoplasm group and EOC group using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Immunohistochemistry were constructed using formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue to detect expression level of suppressor of cytokine signaling 4 (SOCS4). In the EOC group, miRNA-1290 was significantly overexpressed in serum exosomes and tissues as compared to benign ovarian neoplasm group (fold change ≥ 2, p < 0.05). We observed area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for miR-1290, using a cut-off of 0.73, the exosomal miR-1290 from serum had AUC, sensitivity, and specificity values of 0.794, 69.2 and 87.3, respectively. In immunohistochemical study, expression of SOCS4 in EOC was lower than that in benign ovarian neoplasm. Serum exosomal miR-1290 could be considered as a biomarker for differential diagnosis of EOC from benign ovarian neoplasm and SOCS4 might be potential target gene of miR-1290 in EOC.

Although many studies have been conducted on leukemia, only a few have analyzed the metabolomic profiles of various leukemic cells. In this study, the metabolomes of THP-1, U937, KG-1 (acute myelogenous leukemia, AML), K562 (chronic myelogenous leukemia, CML), and cord blood-derived CD34-positive hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and specific metabolic alterations were found using multivariate statistical analysis. Compared to HSCs, leukemia cell metabolomes were found to have significant alterations, among which three were related to amino acids, three to sugars, and five to fatty acids. Compared to CML, four metabolomes were observed specifically in AML. Given that overall more metabolites are present in leukemia cells than in HSCs, we observed that the activation of glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) metabolism facilitated the incidence of leukemia and the proliferation of leukemic cells. Analysis of metabolome profiles specifically present in HSCs and leukemia cells greatly increases our basic understanding of cellular metabolic characteristics, which is valuable fundamental knowledge for developing novel anticancer drugs targeting leukemia metabolism.