From immune checkpoints to therapies: understanding immune checkpoint regulation and the influence of natural products and traditional medicine on immune checkpoint and immunotherapy in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is a disease of global concern, and immunotherapy has brought lung cancer therapy to a new era. Besides promising effects in the clinical use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and low response rates are problems unsolved. Natural products and traditional medicine with an immune-modulating nature have the property to influence immune checkpoint expression and can improve immunotherapy's effect with relatively low toxicity.

Efficacy of Yisui granule on myelodysplastic syndromes in SKM-1 mouse xenograft model through suppressing Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Objective: To unmask the underlying mechanisms of Yisui granule (, YSG) for the treatment of Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

Methods: Our study used an SKM-1 mouse xenograft model of MDS to explore the anti-tumor potential of YSG and its safety, assess its effect on overall survival (OS), and evaluate whether its mechanism is associated with the demethylation of the secreted frizzled related protein 5 (sFRP5) gene and suppressing Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Bisulfite amplicon sequencing was applied to detect the level of methylation of the sFRP5 gene; western blotting, immunofluorescence staining, and real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction were performed to detect DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), sFRP5, and other Wnt/β-catenin pathway-related mRNA and protein expression.

Promotion of quality standard of Chinese herbal medicine by the integrated and efficacy-oriented quality marker of Effect-constituent Index.

Background: Multiple constituents have been applied currently as markers to control the quality of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). However, those constituents are isolated from each other, failed to present their contribution differences to the bioeffect of CHM. Besides, a CHM for different clinic uses is often controlled by the same quality marker (Q-marker), which cannot correlate its efficacies differentially.

Tylophorine Analogs Allosterically Regulates Heat Shock Cognate Protein 70 And Inhibits Hepatitis C Virus Replication.

Tylophorine analogs have been shown to exhibit diverse activities against cancer, inflammation, arthritis, and lupus in vivo. In this study, we demonstrated that two tylophorine analogs, DCB-3503 and rac-cryptopleurine, exhibit potent inhibitory activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication in genotype 1b Con 1 isolate. The inhibition of HCV replication is at least partially mediated through cellular heat shock cognate protein 70 (Hsc70).

Study of Malformin C, a Fungal Source Cyclic Pentapeptide, as an Anti-Cancer Drug.

Malformin C, a fungal cyclic pentapeptide, has been claimed to have anti-cancer potential, but no in vivo study was available to substantiate this property. Therefore, we conducted in vitro and in vivo experiments to investigate its anti-cancer effects and toxicity. Our studies showed Malformin C inhibited Colon 38 and HCT 116 cell growth dose-dependently with an IC50 of 0.