Multifunctional smart hydrogels are used for tissue engineering, drug delivery and cancer therapy.

Cancer is the most common cause of human death worldwide. Conventional anticancer therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation, are associated with severe side effects and toxicities as well as low specificity. Peptides are rapidly being developed as potential anticancer agents that specifically target cancer cells and are less toxic to normal tissues, thus making them a better alternative for the prevention and management of cancer. Recent research has focused on anticancer peptides from natural animal sources, such as terrestrial mammals, marine animals, amphibians, and animal venoms. However, the mode of action by which bioactive peptides inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells remains unclear. In this review, we present the animal sources from which bioactive peptides with anticancer activity are derived and discuss multiple proposed mechanisms by which these peptides exert cytotoxic effects against cancer cells.

It is well acknowledged that immune system is deeply involved in cancer initiation and progression, and can exert both pro-tumorigenic and anti-tumorigenic effects, depending on specific microenvironment. With the better understanding of cancer-associated immune cells, especially T cells, immunotherapy was developed and applied in multiple cancers and exhibits remarkable efficacy. However, currently only a subset of patients have responses to immunotherapy, suggesting that a boarder view of cancer immunity is required. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), mainly including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), are identified as critical regulators in both cancer cells and immune cells, thus show great potential to serve as new therapeutic targets to improve the response of immunotherapy. In this review, we summarize the functions and regulatory mechanisms of ncRNAs in cancer immunity, and highlight the potential of ncRNAs as novel targets for immunotherapy.

An increasing number of studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in diverse cellular processes, including proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, chromatin remodeling, metabolism and immune escape. Clinically, the expression of MIR22HG is increased in many human tumors (colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung cancer, and thyroid carcinoma), while in others (esophageal adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma), it is significantly decreased. Moreover, MIR22HG has been reported to function as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), be involved in signaling pathways, interact with proteins and interplay with miRNAs as a host gene to participate in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. In this review, we describe the biological functions of MIR22HG, reveal its underlying mechanisms for cancer regulation, and highlight the potential role of MIR22HG as a novel cancer prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target that can increase the efficacy of immunotherapy and targeted therapy for cancer treatment.

The aims of the study are to explore the effect of ursolic acid (UA) on the growth of gastric cancer cell line BGC‐803 and hepatocellular cancer cell H22 xenograft and to understand the mechanism. UA inhibits growth of BGC‐803 cells in vitro in dose‐dependent and time‐dependent manner. Treated with UA in vivo, tumor cells can be arrested to G0/G1 stage. The apoptotic rate was significantly increased in tumor cells treated with UA both in vitro and in vivo. DNA fragmentation was found in BGC‐803 cells exposed to UA. UA activated caspase‐3, ‐8, and ‐9 and down regulated expression of Bcl‐2 in BGC‐803 cells. The expression of caspase‐3 and ‐8 was elevated in tumor cells from xenograft treated with UA. ¹⁸F‐FLT PET‐CT imaging confirmed tumor model and UA effectiveness. Our results indicated that UA inhibits growth of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo by decreasing proliferation of cells and inducing apoptosis.

A great challenge of cancer chemotherapy is to eliminate cancer cells and concurrently maintain the quality of life (QOL) for cancer patients. Previously, we identified a novel anti-cancer bioactive peptide (ACBP), a peptide induced in goat spleen or liver following immunization with human gastric cancer protein extract. ACBP alone exhibited anti-tumor activity without measurable side effects. Thus, we hypothesize that ACBP and combined chemotherapy could improve the efficacy of treatment and lead to a better QOL.