Piao Luo, Qian Zhang, Shuo Shen, Yehai An, Lixia Yuan, Yin-Kwan Wong, Sizhe Huang, Shaohui Huang, Jingnan Huang, Guangqing Cheng, Jiahang Tian, Yu Chen, Xiaoyong Zhang, Weiguang Li, Songqi He, Jigang Wang, Qingfeng Du
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of most common and deadliest malignancies. Celastrol (Cel), a natural product derived from the Tripterygium wilfordii plant, has been extensively researched for its potential effectiveness in fighting cancer. However, its clinical application has been hindered by the unclear mechanism of action. Here, we used chemical proteomics to identify the direct targets of Cel and enhanced its targetability and anti-tumor capacity by developing a Cel-based liposomes in HCC. We demonstrated that Cel selectively targets the voltage-dependent anion channel 2 (VDAC2)...
November 2023: Asian journal of pharmaceutical sciences