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Browsing by Author "Fonseca, Joana"

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  • An overview of the spindle assembly checkpoint status in oral cancer
    Publication . Teixeira, Jose Henrique; Silva, Patrícia; Reis, Rita Margarida; Moura, Ines Moranguinho; Marques, Sandra; Fonseca, Joana; Monteiro, Luis Silva; Bousbaa, Hassan
    Abnormal chromosome number, or aneuploidy, is a common feature of human solid tumors, including oral cancer. Deregulated spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is thought as one of the mechanisms that drive aneuploidy. In normal cells, SAC prevents anaphase onset until all chromosomes are correctly aligned at the metaphase plate thereby ensuring genomic stability. Significantly, the activity of this checkpoint is compromised in many cancers. While mutations are rather rare, many tumors show altered expression levels of SAC components. Genomic alterations such as aneuploidy indicate a high risk of oral cancer and cancer-related mortality, and the molecular basis of these alterations is largely unknown. Yet, our knowledge on the status of SAC components in oral cancer remains sparse. In this review, we address the state of our knowledge regarding the SAC defects and the underlying molecular mechanisms in oral cancer, and discuss their therapeutic relevance, focusing our analysis on the core components of SAC and its target Cdc20.
    2014Journal article Open access Show more
  • Prenylated chalcone 2 ccts as an antimitotic agent and enhances the chemosensitivity of tumor cells to paclitaxel
    Publication . Fonseca, Joana; Marques, Sandra; Silva, PMA; Patrícia M.A. Silva; Brandão, Pedro; Cidade, Honorina; Pinto, Madalena M.; Bousbaa, Hassan
    We previously reported that prenylated chalcone 2 (PC2), the O-prenyl derivative (2) of 2'-hydroxy-3,4,4',5,6'-pentamethoxychalcone (1), induced cytotoxicity of tumor cells via disruption of p53-MDM2 interaction. However, the cellular changes through which PC2 exerts its cytotoxic activity and its antitumor potential, remain to be addressed. In the present work, we aimed to (i) characterize the effect of PC2 on mitotic progression and the underlying mechanism; and to (ii) explore this information to evaluate its ability to sensitize tumor cells to paclitaxel in a combination regimen. PC2 was able to arrest breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 and non-small cell lung cancer NCI-H460 cells in mitosis. All mitosis-arrested cells showed collapsed mitotic spindles with randomly distributed chromosomes, and activated spindle assembly checkpoint. Live-cell imaging revealed that the compound induced a prolonged delay (up to 14 h) in mitosis, culminating in massive cell death by blebbing. Importantly, PC2 in combination with paclitaxel enhanced the effect on cell growth inhibition as determined by cell viability and proliferation assays. Our findings demonstrate that the cytotoxicity induced by PC2 is mediated through antimitotic activity as a result of mitotic spindle damage. The enhancement effects of PC2 on chemosensitivity of cancer cells to paclitaxel encourage further validation of the clinical potential of this combination.
    2016-08Journal article Open access Show more