Taurine is one of the abundant amino acids present in mammalian cells. It exerts various physiological actions such as wound healing, radioprotection, neuroprotection and anti-anxiety. In the present study, we sought to determine if taurine could inhibit osteoclastogenesis and explore the potential role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) with reactive oxygen species (ROS). The level of intracellular ROS generated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was measured with DCFH-DA staining and fluorescence microscopic analysis was also performed in response to taurine in RAW264.7 cells. The expression of COX-2 and phosphorylation status of JNK by LPS was analyzed by Western blot analysis in the presence of taurine. Osteoclastogenesis was induced by LPS in the absence or presence of taurine and TRAP assay was performed to confirm the formation of osteoclast cells. ROS production was significantly enhanced by LPS and taurine treatment inhibited the ROS generation in a dose-dependent manner. The fluorescence microscopic analysis clearly showed the inhibition of ROS staining by taurine. Western blot analysis indicated that taurine significantly inhibited LPS induced COX-2 protein expression and it also inhibited phosphorylation of JNK. Taurine at the same concentration inhibited osteoclastogenesis induced by LPS, suggesting that taurine prevent osteoclast differentiation by inhibiting ROS generation. Inhibition of COX-2 expression and JNK phoshorylation could be an important mechanism by which taurine exerts anti-osteoclastogeneis.

Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), a multifunctional cytokine, is known to promote tumor invasion and metastasis and induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various cancer cells. Inhibition of TGF-β1 signaling is a new strategy for cancer therapy. Most cancer cells display altered or nonfunctional TGF-β1 signaling; hence, TGF-β1 inhibitors exert limited effects on these cells. Recent studies have suggested that developing a TGF-β1 inhibitor from natural compounds is a key step to create novel therapeutic agents. This study aimed to develop a new anti-TGF-β1 therapy for cancer. We found an improved analog of chalcones, compound 67, and investigated its effects in vitro. We demonstrated the inhibitory role of compound 67 through migration and invasion assays on TGF-β1-induced EMT of human A549 lung cancer cells. Compound 67 inhibited TGF-β1-induced smad2 phosphorylation, suppressed TGF-β1-induced EMT markers, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9, and inhibited migration and invasion of A549 cells. The study results showed that compound 67 is useful to prevent tumor growth and metastasis.

Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is a clinical challenge in treatment because of its aggressive nature and resistance to androgen deprivation therapy. Topoisomerase II catalytic inhibitors have been suggested as a strategy to overcome these issues. We previously reported AK-I-190 as a novel topoisomerase II inhibitor. In this study, the mechanism of AK-I-190 was clarified using various types of spectroscopic and biological evaluations. AK-I-190 showed potent topoisomerase II inhibitory activity through intercalating into DNA without stabilizing the DNA-enzyme cleavage complex, resulting in significantly less DNA toxicity than etoposide, a clinically used topoisomerase II poison. AK-I-190 induced G1 arrest and effectively inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation in combination with paclitaxel in an androgen receptor–negative CRPC cell line. Our results confirmed that topoisomerase II catalytic inhibition inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of AR-independently growing prostate cancer cells. These findings indicate the clinical relevance of topoisomerase II catalytic inhibitors in androgen receptor-negative prostate cancer.

Topoisomerase IIα has been a representative anti-cancer target for decades thanks to its functional necessity in highly proliferative cancer cells. As type of topoisomerase IIα targeting drugs, topoisomerase II poisons are frequently in clinical usage. However, topoisomerase II poisons result in crucial consequences resulted from mechanistically induced DNA toxicity. For this reason, it is needed to develop catalytic inhibitors of topoisomerase IIα through the alternative mechanism of enzymatic regulation. As a catalytic inhibitor of topoisomerase IIα, AK-I-191 was previously reported for its enzyme inhibitory activity. In this study, we clarified the mechanism of AK-I-191 and conducted various types of spectroscopic and biological evaluations for deeper understanding of its mechanism of action. Conclusively, AK-I-191 represented potent topoisomerase IIα inhibitory activity through binding to minor groove of DNA double helix and showed synergistic effects with tamoxifen in antiproliferative activity.

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