Berberine nanostructures attenuate ß-catenin, a key component of epithelial mesenchymal transition in lung adenocarcinoma.

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. It accounts for more than 1.9 million cases each year due to its complex and poorly understood molecular mechanisms that result in unregulated cell proliferation and metastasis.

Cigarette smoking induces lung cancer tumorigenesis via upregulation of the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate compared to any other cancer worldwide, and cigarette smoking is one of the major etiological factors. How cigarette smoke (CS) induces tumorigenesis in healthy cells is still not completely understood. In this study, we treated healthy human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o) with 1 % cigarette smoke extract (CSE) for one week.

Extracellular Vesicles Released from Cancer Cells Promote Tumorigenesis by Inducing Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition via β-Catenin Signaling.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, in part due to a lack of early diagnostic tools and effective pharmacological interventions. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-based membrane-bound particles released from all living cells in both physiological and pathological states. To understand the effects of lung-cancer-derived EVs on healthy cells, we isolated and characterized EVs derived from A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells and transferred them to healthy human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBe14o).

Adverse roles of mast cell chymase-1 in COPD.

Background: COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide. Cigarette smoke (CS)-induced chronic inflammation inducing airway remodelling, emphysema and impaired lung function is the primary cause. Effective therapies are urgently needed.

Exposure to the gut microbiota from cigarette smoke-exposed mice exacerbates cigarette smoke extract-induced inflammation in zebrafish larvae.

Cigarette smoke (CS)-induced inflammation leads to a range of diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer. The gut microbiota is a major modifying environmental factor that determine the severity of cigarette smoke-induced pathology. Microbiomes and metabolites from CS-exposed mice exacerbate lung inflammation via the gut-lung axis of shared mucosal immunity in mice but these systems are expensive to establish and analyse.

Berberine-loaded liquid crystalline nanoparticles inhibit non-small cell lung cancer proliferation and migration in vitro.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is reported to have a high incidence rate and is one of the most prevalent types of cancer contributing towards 85% of all incidences of lung cancer. Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid which offers a broad range of therapeutical and pharmacological actions against cancer. However, extremely low water solubility and poor oral bioavailability have largely restricted its therapeutic applications.

Unravelling the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic respiratory diseases for the development of novel therapeutics via in vitro experimental models.

Chronic respiratory diseases have collectively become a major public health concern and have now taken form as one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Most chronic respiratory diseases primarily occur due to prolonged airway inflammation. In addition, critical environmental factors such as cigarette smoke, industrial pollutants, farm dust, and pollens may also exacerbate such diseases.

Berberine loaded liquid crystalline nanostructure inhibits cancer progression in adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells in vitro.

Metastasis represents the leading cause of death in lung cancer patients. C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 8 (CXCL-8), Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL-20) and heme oxygenase -1 (HO-1) play an important role in cancer cell proliferation and migration. Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid isolated from several herbs in the Papaveraceae family that exhibits anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antidiabetic properties.

Role of Lung Microbiome in Innate Immune Response Associated With Chronic Lung Diseases.

Respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung fibrosis, and lung cancer, pose a huge socio-economic burden on society and are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In the past, culture-dependent techniques could not detect bacteria in the lungs, therefore the lungs were considered a sterile environment. However, the development of culture-independent techniques, particularly 16S rRNA sequencing, allowed for the detection of commensal microbes in the lung and with further investigation, their roles in disease have since emerged.

Targeting respiratory diseases using miRNA inhibitor based nanotherapeutics: Current status and future perspectives.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a fundamental role in the developmental and physiological processes that occur in both animals and plants. AntagomiRs are synthetic antagonists of miRNA, which prevent the target mRNA from suppression. Therapeutic approaches that modulate miRNAs have immense potential in the treatment of chronic respiratory disorders.

Identification of biomarkers and genetic approaches toward chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease accounts as the leading cause of mortality worldwide prominently affected by genetic and environmental factors. The disease is characterized by persistent coughing, breathlessness airways inflammation followed by a decrease in forced expiratory volume and exacerbations, which affect the quality of life. Determination of genetic, epigenetic, and oxidant biomarkers to evaluate the progression of disease has proved complicated and challenging.

Increasing complexity and interactions of oxidative stress in chronic respiratory diseases: An emerging need for novel drug delivery systems.

Oxidative stress is intensely involved in enhancing the severity of various chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), infections and lung cancer. Even though there are various existing anti-inflammatory therapies, which are not enough to control the inflammation caused due to various contributing factors such as anti-inflammatory genes and antioxidant enzymes. This leads to an urgent need of novel drug delivery systems to combat the oxidative stress.

Tethering of Chemotherapeutic Drug/Imaging Agent to Bile Acid-Phospholipid Increases the Efficacy and Bioavailability with Reduced Hepatotoxicity.

Weakly basic drugs display poor solubility and tend to precipitate in the stomach's acidic environment causing reduced oral bioavailability. Tracing of these orally delivered therapeutic agents using molecular probes is challenged due to their poor absorption in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Therefore, we designed a gastric pH stable bile acid derived amphiphile where Tamoxifen (as a model anticancer drug) is conjugated to lithocholic acid derived phospholipid (LCA-Tam-PC).