Overexpression of Semaphorin-3E enhances pancreatic cancer cell growth and associates with poor patient survival.

Semaphorin-3E (Sema3E) is a member of an axon guidance gene family, and has recently been reported to contribute to tumor progression and metastasis. However, its role in pancreatic cancer is yet unknown and uncharacterized. In this study, we showed that Sema3E is overexpressed in human pancreatic cancer, and that high Sema3E levels are associated with tumor progression and poor survival.

Mesothelin virus-like particle immunization controls pancreatic cancer growth through CD8+ T cell induction and reduction in the frequency of CD4+ foxp3+ ICOS- regulatory T cells.

Our previous study has shown that mesothelin (MSLN) is a potential immunotherapeutic target for pancreatic cancer. Here, we further studied the immunogenicity of chimeric murine MSLN-virus-like particles (mMSLN-VLPs), their ability to break tolerance to mMSLN, a self-antigen, and deciphered the mechanism of immune responses elicited by mMSLN-VLP immunization using a pancreatic cancer (PC) mouse model. In addition to what we have found with xenogeneic human MSLN-VLP (hMSLN-VLP), mMSLN-VLP immunization was able to break the tolerance to intrinsic MSLN and mount mMSLN-specific, cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells which led to a significant reduction in tumor volume and prolonged survival in an orthotopic PC mouse model.

Diaminododecane-based cationic bolaamphiphile as a non-viral gene delivery carrier.

The advancement in gene therapy relies upon the discovery of safe and efficient delivery agents and methods. In this study, we report the design and synthesis of a cationic bolaamphiphile as a non-viral gene delivery agent. The bolaamphiphile is composed of 1,12-diaminododecane as the central hydrophobic unit linked to the hydrophilic pentaethylenehexamine via thioether-based glycidyl units.

The effect of thiol functional group incorporation into cationic helical peptides on antimicrobial activities and spectra.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMP) have been proposed as blueprints for the development of new antimicrobial agents for the treatment of drug resistant infections. A series of synthetic AMPs capable of forming α-helical structures and containing free-sulfhydryl groups are designed in this study ((LLKK)(2)C, C(LLKK)(2)C, (LLKK)(3)C, C(LLKK)(3)C). In particular, the AMP with 2 cysteine residues at the terminal ends of the peptide and 2 repeat units of LLKK, i.