Use of thermophilic bacteria to utilize sugarcane bagasse: Efficient cellulase production, saccharification, and hydrolysate applications.

Sugarcane bagasse (SB) a renewable and abundant source of rich fermentable sugars has been reported extensively to produce microbial enzymes and other valuable products. However, most of the SB-based processes require its pretreatment which is an additional step incurring time and cost. In this study, fermentation of SB by bacterial strains without any pretreatment was carried out to obtain crude cellulase preparation.

Targeting NKG2D ligands in glioblastoma with a bispecific T-cell engager is augmented with conventional therapy and enhances oncolytic virotherapy of glioma stem-like cells.

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) almost invariably becomes resistant towards conventional treatment of radiotherapy and temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy, partly due to subpopulations of intrinsically resistant glioma stem-like cells (GSC). The oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 G207 is a promising approach for GBM virotherapy although its efficacy in patients with GBM is often limited. Natural killer group 2 member D ligands (NKG2DLs) are minimally expressed by healthy cells but are upregulated by the DNA damage response (DDR) and in malignant cells with chronic DDR signaling, resulting in innate immune activation.

Oncolytic herpesvirus expressing PD-L1 BiTE for cancer therapy: exploiting tumor immune suppression as an opportunity for targeted immunotherapy.

Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an important immune checkpoint protein that can be regarded as a pan-cancer antigen expressed by multiple different cell types within the tumor. While antagonizing PD-L1 is well known to relieve PD-1/PD-L1-mediated T cell suppression, here we have combined this approach with an immunotherapy strategy to target T cell cytotoxicity directly toward PD-L1-expressing cells. We developed a bi-specific T cell engager (BiTE) crosslinking PD-L1 and CD3ε and demonstrated targeted cytotoxicity using a clinically relevant patient-derived ascites model.

Convergent Evolution by Cancer and Viruses in Evading the NKG2D Immune Response.

The natural killer group 2 member D (NKG2D) receptor and its family of NKG2D ligands (NKG2DLs) are key components in the innate immune system, triggering NK, γδ and CD8 T cell-mediated immune responses. While surface NKG2DL are rarely found on healthy cells, expression is significantly increased in response to various types of cellular stress, viral infection, and tumour cell transformation. In order to evade immune-mediated cytotoxicity, both pathogenic viruses and cancer cells have evolved various mechanisms of subverting immune defences and preventing NKG2DL expression.

Development of a novel mammalian display system for selection of antibodies against membrane proteins.

Reliable, specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are important tools in research and medicine. However, the discovery of antibodies against their targets in their native forms is difficult. Here, we present a novel method for discovery of antibodies against membrane proteins in their native configuration in mammalian cells.