Marc Diederich

From nature to bedside: Pro-survival and cell death mechanisms as therapeutic targets in cancer treatment

Published in Biotechnology Advances

Cell death is an important physiological regulator during development, tissue homeostasis and stress response but it is also a protective tumor suppressive mechanism. Tumor cells almost universally acquire the ability to evade cell death pathways that in normal cells act as a protective mechanism to remove damaged cells. As a result, a population o...

Energy restriction mimetic agents to target cancer cells: Comparison between 2-deoxyglucose and thiazolidinediones

Published in Biochemical Pharmacology

The use of energy restriction mimetic agents (ERMAs) to selectively target cancer cells addicted to glycolysis could be a promising therapeutic approach. Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are synthetic agonists of the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ that were developed to treat type II diabetes. These compounds also disp...

Plant-derived epigenetic modulators for cancer treatment and prevention

Published in Biotechnology Advances

Carcinogenesis is a complex and multistep process that involves the accumulation of successive transformational events driven by genetic mutations and epigenetic alterations that affect major cellular processes and pathways such as proliferation, differentiation, invasion and survival. Massive deregulation of all components of the epigenetic machin...

Modulatory roles of glycolytic enzymes in cell death

Published in Biochemical Pharmacology

Cancer cells depend on an altered energy metabolism characterized by increased rates of both glycolysis and glutaminolysis. Accordingly, corresponding key metabolic enzymes are overexpressed or hyperactivated. As a result, this newly acquired metabolic profile determines most other cancer hallmarks including resistance to cell death. Recent finding...

Synthesis and bioactivity of novel amino-pyrazolopyridines

Published in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

Here we describe the synthesis and biological activity of novel amino-pyrazolopyridines with anti-NF-κB and pro-apoptotic potential. α-Methylene ketones were used as a starting point for synthesis of amino-pyrazolopyridine 3. The alkylidene malononitriles 1 were obtained by the Knoevenagel reaction of ketones with malononitriles. Vilsmeier-Haack re...

Epigenetic modulators from “The Big Blue”: A treasure to fight against cancer

Published in Cancer Letters

Cancer remains a major public health problem in our society. The development of potent novel anti-cancer drugs selective for tumor cells is therefore still required. Deregulation of the epigenetic machinery including DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs is a hallmark of cancer, which provides potential new therapeutic targets....

Inhibitory effect of St. John׳s Wort oil macerates on TNFα-induced NF-κB activation and their fatty acid composition

Published in Journal of Ethnopharmacology

The oil macerates of Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's Wort=SJW) has a long history of medicinal use and SJW has been used in traditional medicine both orally and topically for centuries worldwide mainly for wound healing, ulcer and inflammation.

Methylenedioxy flavonoids: Assessment of cytotoxic and anti-cancer potential in human leukemia cells

Published in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

A new series of chalcones, flavanones and flavones with methylenedioxy group at the 3',4' position in chalcone, 7,8 position in flavanones and flavones with mono-, di- and trimethoxy groups in the benzaldehyde ring have been assessed for their effect on proliferation, cytotoxic potential and apoptosis in human leukemia cells. Among the tested compo...

Eurycomanone and Eurycomanol from Eurycoma longifolia Jack as Regulators of Signaling Pathways Involved in Proliferation...

Published in Molecules

Eurycomanone and eurycomanol are two quassinoids from the roots of Eurycoma longifolia Jack. The aim of this study was to assess the bioactivity of these compounds in Jurkat and K562 human leukemia cell models compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors. Both eurycomanone and eurycomanol inhibited Jurkat and K562 cell viabili...

Novel inhibitors of human histone deacetylases: Design, synthesis and bioactivity of 3-alkenoylcoumarines

Published in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are well-established, promising targets for anticancer therapy due to their critical role in cancer development. Accordingly, an increasing number of HDAC inhibitors displaying cytotoxic effects against cancer cells have been reported. Among them, a large panel of chemical structures was described including coumarin-con...

Regulation of epigenetic traits of the glutathione S-transferase P1 gene: from detoxification toward cancer prevention a...

Published in Frontiers in Pharmacology

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are phase II drug detoxifying enzymes that play an essential role in the maintenance of cell integrity and protection against DNA damage by catalyzing the conjugation of glutathione to a wide variety of exo- and endogenous electrophilic substrates. Glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1), the gene encoding the pi-clas...

Plumbagin Modulates Leukemia Cell Redox Status

Published in Molecules

Plumbagin is a plant naphtoquinone exerting anti-cancer properties including apoptotic cell death induction and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this study was to elucidate parameters explaining the differential leukemia cell sensitivity towards this compound. Among several leukemia cell lines, U937 monocytic leukemia cells a...

Cytotoxic activity and mechanism of action of metabolites from the Goniothalamus genus

Published in Phytochemistry Reviews

The World Health Organization estimates that 4 billion people or 80% of the population use plants for curative purposes or for their natural health benefits. Accordingly, biodiversity is an important source of active natural products especially used in traditional medicine as healers transmitted knowledge of traditional usage of medicinal plants fr...

5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine-mediated c-myc Down-regulation Triggers Telomere-dependent Senescence by Regulating Human Telomer...

Increased proliferation rates as well as resistance to apoptosis are considered major obstacles for the treatment of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), thus highlighting the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Since senescence has been recognized as a physiological barrier against tumorigenesis, senescence-based therapy could repr...

Bis(4-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one): Synthesis and effects on leukemic cell lines proliferation and NF-κB regulation

Published in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry

Synthesis of the bis-4-hydroxycoumarin-type compound, 3,3'-[3-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-3-oxopropane-1,1-diyl]bis(4-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one), was performed by two alternative pathways, either involving a basic organocatalyzed 1,4-conjugate addition tandem reaction of 4-hydroxycoumarin on chromone-3-carboxylic acid, or a double condensation of 4-hydroxycou...

Properly Substituted Analogues of BIX-01294 Lose Inhibition of G9a Histone Methyltransferase and Gain Selective Anti-DNA...

Published in PLoS ONE

Chemical manipulations performed on the histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferases (G9a/GLP) inhibitor BIX-01294 afforded novel desmethoxyquinazolines able to inhibit the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A at low micromolar levels without any significant inhibition of DNMT1 and G9a. In KG-1 cells such compounds, when tested at sub-toxic doses, induced the lu...

Celecoxib prevents curcumin-induced apoptosis in a hematopoietic cancer cell model

Published in Molecular Carcinogenesis

Molecules targeting pro-inflammatory pathways have demonstrated beneficial effects in cancer treatment. More recently, combination of natural and synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs was suggested as an appealing strategy to inhibit tumor growth. Herein, we show that curcumin, a polyphenol from Curcuma longa and celecoxib induce apoptosis in hematopoi...