Page 414 - Read Online

J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2019;5:31 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2019.21 Page 2 of 36

1. Autophagy in cancer: epigenetic regulation and therapeutic opportunities

Ciro Isidoro, Chiara Vidoni, Alessandra Ferraresi, Eleonora Secomandi, Letizia Vallino

Department of Health Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy, Novara 28100, Italy.

Autophagy, lysosome-effected degradation pathway that eliminates damaged and redundant cellular self-
constituents, plays a pivotal role in maintaining cell homeostasis. Autophagy is a stress-response triggered
under nutrient- and energy-restricted situations, as well as in response to damaging and harmful injuries.
Autophagy play an important role in preventing tumorigenic transformation by cooperating with the
systems for the quality control of the proteome and of the genome. Defective autophagy may facilitate
carcinogenesis, and in cancer cells autophagy may serve a survival function allowing to cope with
damages induced by anti-cancer treatments or with the lack of oxygen and nutrients. The composition
of the tumour environment impacts on autophagy in cancer cells. In fact, the metabolic cross-talk with
stromal cells and their soluble factors, including inflammatory cytokines, can modulate the availability of
nutrients, energy and growth factors that eventually modulate autophagy. Autophagy in cancer cells is also
modulated epigenetically by changes of the chromatin structures and the presence of microRNA. The fact
that autophagy constitutes the integrated response to all metabolic stresses and that can be epigenetically
modulated offers the possibility to treat cancer through the use of autophagy-targeted epigenetic modifiers.

Biography
Ciro Isidoro is Professor of Pathology at the School of Medicine of Università del Piemonte Orientale
(Novara, Italy). He received his doctoral degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Torino (Italy)
and his doctoral degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Piemonte Orientale (Novara,
Italy). He is Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, of Mahidol University (Bangkok,
Thailand), Visiting Professor at the Department of Cell Biology of the Oklahoma City University Health
Sciences Center (US), and Professeur Honoraire at the Faculté de Medecine et de Pharmacie de l’Université
de Franche-Comté, Besancon (France). He is member of the Scientific board of the «Integrative Cancer
Research Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology» (Atlanta, US). Ciro Isidoro has co-authored >
120 peer-reviewed original articles published in international journals. He serves as Co-Editor in Chief of
the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine and Associate Editor of Autophagy, Molecular
Carcinogensis, BMC Cancer, and other journals. His fields of expertise include the subjects “autophagy
regulation in cancer” and “mechanisms of anticancer activity of dietary products”.

2. Understanding parasites in the United States

Omar M. Amin

Parasitology Center Inc, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA.

This Power Point presentation is based on our work at Parasitology Center, Inc. (PCI), in Scottsdale,
Arizona, USA and covers the diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of human parasitic infections in the
United States based on our own patient history and cases diagnosed. A brief introduction to laboratory
procedures, misdiagnoses/mistreatment, and impact on public health is made. The presentation begins
with a quiz which is answered at the end. A systematic treatment of protozoan, helminth (worm), and
arthropod parasites follows, emphasizing epidemiology and exposure, symptoms, gross pathology, and
herbal and allopathic remedies including our own anti-parasitic herbal product Freedom/Cleanse/Restore.