Safety and Efficacy of Allogeneic Natural Killer Cells in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Patients with Chemotherapy-Refractory Biliary Tract Cancer: A Multicenter Open-Label Phase 1/2a Trial.

Background And Aim: This study investigated the administration of combination therapy, allogeneic natural killer (NK) cells and pembrolizumab in the treatment of advanced biliary tract cancer to determine the safety and tolerability (phase 1) and the efficacy and safety (phase 2a).

Methods: Forty patients (phase 1, = 6; phase 2a, = 34) were enrolled between December 2019 and June 2021. The patients received highly activated allogeneic NK cells ("SMT-NK") on weeks 1 and 2 and pembrolizumab on week 1.

Iroquois Homeobox 1 Acts as a True Tumor Suppressor in Multiple Organs by Regulating Cell Cycle Progression.

Iroquois homeobox 1 (IRX1) belongs to the Iroquois homeobox family known to play an important role during embryonic development. Interestingly, however, recent studies have suggested that IRX1 also acts as a tumor suppressor. Here, we use homozygous knockout mutants of zebrafish to demonstrate that the IRX1 gene is a true tumor suppressor gene and mechanism of the tumor suppression is mediated by repressing cell cycle progression.

Study of Natural Killer (NK) Cell Cytotoxicity Against Cholangiocarcinoma in a Nude Mouse Model.

Background/aim: Natural killer (NK) cells are one of the lymphocytes clinically used for various cancer types. Cytotoxicity of NK cells to cholangiocarcinoma (CC), however, has not yet been studied. Nor NK cell therapy against CC has been clinically applied.

Impaired Lymphocytes Development and Xenotransplantation of Gastrointestinal Tumor Cells in Prkdc-Null SCID Zebrafish Model.

Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice have widely been used as hosts for human tumor cell xenograft study. This animal model, however, is labor intensive. As zebrafish is largely emerging as a promising model system for studying human diseases including cancer, developing efficient immunocompromised strains for tumor xenograft study are also demanded in zebrafish.

Predominant Activation of JAK/STAT3 Pathway by Interleukin-6 Is Implicated in Hepatocarcinogenesis.

Chronic inflammation is an important process leading to tumorigenesis. Therefore, targeting and controlling inflammation can be a promising cancer therapy. Inflammation is often caused by a variety of inflammatory cytokine such as the interleukin (IL)-6, a pleiotrophic cytokine known to be involved in the tumorigenesis.

Methyl jasmonate reduces grain yield by mediating stress signals to alter spikelet development in rice.

Jasmonic acid (JA) is involved in plant development and the defense response. Transgenic overexpression of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) jasmonic acid carboxyl methyltransferase gene (AtJMT) linked to the Ubi1 promoter increased levels of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) by 6-fold in young panicles. Grain yield was greatly reduced in Ubi1:AtJMT plants due to a lower numbers of spikelets and lower filling rates than were observed for nontransgenic (NT) controls.

Abnormal chloroplast development and growth inhibition in rice thioredoxin m knock-down plants.

Plant cells contain several thioredoxin isoforms that are characterized by subcellular localization and substrate specificity. Here, we describe the functional characterization of a rice (Oryza sativa) thioredoxin m isoform (Ostrxm) using a reverse genetics technique. Ostrxm showed green tissue-specific and light-responsive mRNA expression.

The Arabidopsis phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is important for pollen development.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase has been reported to be important for normal plant growth. To characterize the role of the enzyme further, we attempted to isolate Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants that do not express the gene, but we could not recover homozygous mutant plants. The progeny of VPS34/vps34 heterozygous plants, harboring a T-DNA insertion, showed a segregation ratio of 1:1:0 for wild-type, heterozygous, and homozygous mutant plants, indicating a gametophytic defect.

The Arabidopsis aleurone layer responds to nitric oxide, gibberellin, and abscisic acid and is sufficient and necessary for seed dormancy.

Seed dormancy is a common phase of the plant life cycle, and several parts of the seed can contribute to dormancy. Whole seeds, seeds lacking the testa, embryos, and isolated aleurone layers of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) were used in experiments designed to identify components of the Arabidopsis seed that contribute to seed dormancy and to learn more about how dormancy and germination are regulated in this species. The aleurone layer was found to be the primary determinant of seed dormancy.

BcXTH1, a Brassica campestris homologue of Arabidopsis XTH9, is associated with cell expansion.

Xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolases (XTHs) are a group of the enzymes that are responsible for reorganization of the cellulose-xyloglucan framework by catalyzing cleavage and religation of the xyloglucan chains in the plant cell wall. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of a XTH gene from a pistil cDNA library of Brassica campestris. Sequence analysis of the gene, designated BcXTH1, revealed that it is homologous to the XTH9 gene of Arabidopsis.

OsPPR1, a pentatricopeptide repeat protein of rice is essential for the chloroplast biogenesis.

In this paper, we report a novel pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein gene in rice. PPR, a characteristic repeat motif consisted of tandem 35 amino acids, has been found in various biological systems including plant. Sequence analysis revealed that the gene designated OsPPR1 consisted of an open reading frame of 2433 nucleotides encoding 810 amino acids that include 11 PPR motifs.

Induction of a homeodomain-leucine zipper gene by auxin is inhibited by cytokinin in Arabidopsis roots.

Homeobox genes are essential regulators of the development of plants as well as other organisms. We chose eight putative Arabidopsis homeobox genes not previously characterized and examined their expression in response to treatment with auxin/cytokinin. One of them, ATHB53, was further studied because it was auxin-inducible and its induction was inhibited by cytokinin.

Expression analysis of the pistil genes in controlling self-incompatibility of brassica campestris by CO2 gas using microarray.

In Brassica campestris, self-incompatibility (SI) can be overcome by CO2 gas treatment. Previously, we reported inhibition of the SI in the Brassica campestris line, 734, by CO2 gas. In this study, we used a cDNA microarray comprising 1,184 unique cDNA ESTs from a pistil-specific cDNA library of the Brassica line to examine the expression of the pistil genes in response to CO2.

Isolation and characterization of a rice cysteine protease gene, OsCP1, using T-DNA gene-trap system.

The T-DNA gene-trap system has been efficiently used to elucidate gene functions in plants. We report here a functional analysis of a cysteine protease gene, OsCP1, isolated from a pool of T-DNA insertional rice. GUS assay with the T-DNA tagged line indicated that the OsCP1 promoter was highly active in the rice anther.

Alteration of floral organ identity in rice through ectopic expression of OsMADS16.

We used a transgenic approach and yeast two-hybrid experiments to study the role of the rice ( Oryza sativa L.) B-function MADS-box gene, OsMADS16. Transgenic rice plants were generated that ectopically expressed OsMADS16 under the control of the maize ( Zea mays L.

Characterization of a rice chlorophyll-deficient mutant using the T-DNA gene-trap system.

We have previously generated a large pool of T-DNA insertional lines in rice. In this study, we screened those T-DNA pools for rice mutants that had defective chlorophylls. Among the 1,995 lines examined in the T2 generation, 189 showed a chlorophyll-deficient phenotype that segregated as a single recessive locus.

Male-sterility of thermosensitive genic male-sterile rice is associated with premature programmed cell death of the tapetum.

The tapetum plays a crucial role in pollen development. This secretory tissue produces numerous nutritive proteins necessary for pollen maturation. The tapetum, whose cells undergo programmed cell death (PCD), is completely diminished by the time the pollen is fully mature.

Identification of anther-specific gene expression from T-DNA tagging rice.

We have screened a total of 5,500 T-DNA tagging rice lines in which beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene sequence was randomly inserted as a transgene into the plant genome. Histochemical GUS assays were carried out to select the T-DNA tagging rice lines that show its expression in anther. Of the tagging lines screened, three lines were found to express GUS specifically in the anther that is about 0.