Immunological profiling for short-term predictive analysis in PD-1/PD-L1 therapy for lung cancer.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and PD-1 ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibodies, have achieved breakthrough results in improving long-term survival rates in lung cancer. Although high levels of PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden have emerged as pivotal biomarkers, not all patients derive lasting benefits, and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade remains a prevalent issue. Comprehending the immunological intricacies of lung cancer is crucial for uncovering the mechanisms that govern responses and resistance to immunomodulatory treatments.

mA-induced TRIB3 regulates Hippo pathway through interacting with LATS1 to promote the progression of lung adenocarcinoma.

Recent studies have indicated that dysregulation of the Hippo/Yes-associated protein (YAP) axis is associated with tumor progression and therapy resistance in various cancer types, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Understanding the regulation of Hippo signaling in LUAD is of great significance. Elevated levels of TRIB3, a pseudo kinase, have been observed in certain lung malignancies and are associated with an unfavorable prognosis.

Activation of CHPF by transcription factor NFIC promotes NLRP3 activation during the progression of colorectal cancer.

Given the role of chondroitin polymerizing factor (CHPF) in several cancers, we investigated its role in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) and its association with NLRP3 inflammasome activation. High expression of CHPF in CRC predicted poor patient prognosis. Using colony formation, EdU staining, wound healing, Transwell invasion, and flow cytometry assays, we revealed that the downregulation of CHPF inhibited the malignant behavior of CRC cells.

Aging under endocrine hormone regulation.

Aging is a biological process in which the environment interacts with the body to cause a progressive decline in effective physiological function. Aging in the human body can lead to a dysfunction of the vital organ systems, resulting in the onset of age-related diseases, such as neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, which can seriously affect an individual's quality of life. The endocrine system acts on specific targets through hormones and related major functional factors in its pathways, which play biological roles in coordinating cellular interactions, metabolism, growth, and aging.

A Single-Domain Antibody-Based Anti-PSMA Recombinant Immunotoxin Exhibits Specificity and Efficacy for Prostate Cancer Therapy.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer in men, causing more than 300,000 deaths every year worldwide. Due to their superior cell-killing ability and the relative simplicity of their preparation, immunotoxin molecules have great potential in the clinical treatment of cancer, and several such molecules have been approved for clinical application. In this study, we adopted a relatively simple strategy based on a single-domain antibody (sdAb) and an improved exotoxin A (PE) toxin (PE24X7) to prepare a safer immunotoxin against prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) for PCa treatment.

Preclinical evaluation of a novel anti-mesothelin immunotoxin based on a single domain antibody as the targeting ligand.

Pancreatic cancer, as one of the most aggressive and lethal malignancies in the world, is lack of effective treatment. Constructing immunotoxin molecules to target the mesothelin (MSLN) receptor is a potential therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer and other related malignant tumors, with some molecules being tested in clinical trials. However, currently, there are still some limitations in its applications, such as the difficulty of the preparation of drug molecules, the limited effectiveness of drugs, and the inadequacy of drug safety and immunogenicity.

Genome-wide association analysis reveals regulation of at-risk loci by DNA methylation in prostate cancer.

Epigenetic changes are potentially important for the ontogeny and progression of tumors but are not usually studied because of the complexity of analyzing transcript regulation resulting from epigenetic alterations. Prostate cancer (PCa) is characterized by variable clinical manifestations and frequently unpredictable outcomes. We performed an expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis to identify the genomic regions that regulate gene expression in PCa and identified a relationship between DNA methylation and clinical information.

P22 virus-like particles as an effective antigen delivery nanoplatform for cancer immunotherapy.

As a new strategy for cancer immunotherapy, therapeutic cancer vaccines have been greatly improved in recent years. However, addressing the needs to quickly and efficiently elicit a high-intensity immune response against neoantigen peptides, especially to induce an effective cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) reaction, remain challenges in this field. In this study, virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from the phage P22 were adopted to load peptide antigens on the surface, to test whether VLP technology can be used as a platform for efficient peptide antigen delivery by therapeutic cancer vaccines.

PEG Linker Improves Antitumor Efficacy and Safety of Affibody-Based Drug Conjugates.

Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) have become an important modality of clinical cancer treatment. However, traditional ADCs have some limitations, such as reduced permeability in solid tumors due to the high molecular weight of monoclonal antibodies, difficulty in preparation and heterogeneity of products due to the high drug/antibody ratio (4-8 small molecules per antibody). Miniaturized ADCs may be a potential solution, although their short circulation half-life may lead to new problems.

TRIB3 Promotes Lung Adenocarcinoma Progression via an Enhanced Warburg Effect.

Background: The pseudokinase Tribbles 3 (TRIB3) is involved in many cellular processes and various cancers. In recent years, the importance of metabolic transformation in the maintenance of malignant tumors has become increasingly prominent. Abnormal metabolism of cancer cells is considered a hallmark of cancer.

KRAS G12C mutations in Asia: a landscape analysis of 11,951 Chinese tumor samples.

Background: Kirsten rat sarcoma vial oncogene () is one of the most prevalent oncogenes in multiple cancer types, but the incidence is different between the Asian and non-Asian populations. The recent development of G12C targeting drug has shown great promise. It is thus important to understand the genomic landscape of G12C in a specific population.

Gut transcriptomic changes during hibernation in the greater horseshoe bat ().

Background: The gut is the major organ for nutrient absorption and immune response in the body of animals. Although effects of fasting on the gut functions have been extensively studied in model animals (e.g.

Association between microRNA 25 expression in serum and lung cancer: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: This study aims to identify the association between microRNA 25 (mRNA 25) expression in serum and lung cancer (LC).

Methods: This planned study will cover all eligible case-controlled studies that report association between mRNA 25 expression in serum and LC. It will include published studies from inception to the present in Cochrane Library, PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, VIP database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure regardless language and geographical location.

Anti-HER2 Affibody-Conjugated Photosensitizer for Tumor Targeting Photodynamic Therapy.

Antibody-coupled photosensitive molecules can achieve an ideal tumor-specific photodynamic therapy (PDT) and show strong clinical application potential. However, some inherent disadvantages, such as long circulation half-life, poor permeation into solid tumors, and difficulty in obtaining uniform coupling products, present potential problems to clinical applications. In this study, we propose a novel design of targeting photosensitizers, based on a very small targeting protein (an affibody molecule) coupled with photosensitive compounds, to address these problems.

Somatic genetic aberrations in gallbladder cancer: comparison between Chinese and US patients.

Background: Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is often diagnosed at an advanced stage with limited therapeutic options and poor prognosis. The five-year survival rate of this cancer when diagnosed at an advanced stage is below 5%, and the median survival time is less than a year with standard gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. Survival benefit with second-line treatment is unknown.

HER2-specific immunotoxins constructed based on single-domain antibodies and the improved toxin PE24X7.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an attractive target for cancer therapy, although a large fraction of tumors that express HER2 may still resist first-line therapies. Immunotoxins with antibodies that are armed with extremely potent cytotoxic toxin molecules may provide an important solution to this problem. In this work, we constructed three new anti-HER2 immunotoxins by using single-domain antibody (sdAb) molecules as the targeting moiety and the improved toxin PE24X7 as the effector with the aim of simplifying the preparation and reducing the off-target toxicity of the immunotoxins.

Gut microbial diversity in two insectivorous bats: Insights into the effect of different sampling sources.

The gut microbiota is now known as a key factor in mammalian physiology and health. Our understanding of the gut microbial communities and their effects on ecology and evolution of their hosts is extremely limited in bats which represent the second largest mammalian order. In the current study, gut microbiota of three sampling sources (small intestine, large intestine, and feces) were characterized in two sympatric and insectivorous bats (Rhinolophus sinicus and Myotis altarium) by high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene.

cRGD Peptide-Conjugated Pyropheophorbide-a Photosensitizers for Tumor Targeting in Photodynamic Therapy.

Pyropheophorbide-a (Pyro) is a highly promising photosensitizer for tumor photodynamic therapy (PDT), although its very limited tumor-accumulation ability seriously restricts its clinical applications. A higher accumulation of photosensitizers is very important for the treatment of deeply seated and larger tumors. The conjugation of Pyro with tumor-homing peptide ligands could be a very useful strategy to optimize the physical properties of Pyro.

The little brown bat nuclear genome contains an entire mitochondrial genome: Real or artifact?

Nuclear mitochondrial DNA sequences (NUMTs) have been documented in almost all eukaryotic genomes studied. Recently, with the number of sequenced genomes increasing, extremely large NUMTs, even a nearly entire mitochondrial genome, have been reported in some plants and animals. However, few such studies provided strong experimental evidences for these important discoveries.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Thomas's horseshoe bat () using next-generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing.

The Thomas's horseshoe bat () is restricted to southeast Asia and few studies have been conducted on this species. Here we characterized the complete mitochondrial genome of using next-generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing. The whole mitogenome is 16,899 bp in length and contains 22 tRNA, 2 rRNA, 13 protein-coding genes and a non-coding control region.

The implications and mechanisms of the extra-nuclear nucleolin in the esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

In recent decades, the multi-functional protein nucleolin (NCL) has been reported to express outside the nucleus of many cancer cells. However, the expression and role of the extra-nuclear NCL in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) were not well characterized. Here, NCL was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting in 60 ESCC tissues.

Hydrophilic bile salt ursodeoxycholic acid protects myocardium against reperfusion injury in a PI3K/Akt dependent pathway.

The opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP) during reperfusion injury of heart has been well demonstrated and thus controlling PTP would attenuate the myocardial damage and cell death. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a hydrophilic bile salt and has been shown to prevent apoptosis in hepatocytes by inhibiting the opening of PTP. Here we demonstrate the role of UDCA in preventing the reperfusion injury of heart through its ability to inhibit PTP.

Supplementation of nucleoside-nucleotide mixture enhances functional recovery and energy metabolism following long-time hypothermic heart preservation.

Background: OG-VI, a well-balanced mixture of nucleoside and nucleotides, has been demonstrated to have a favorable effect on energy metabolism. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that addition of OG-VI to the University of Wisconsin solution can improve the cardiac functional recovery following long-time hypothermic preservation.

Materials And Methods: Forty-two male Wistar rats were randomized into four groups.

MCI-186 inhibits tumor growth through suppression of EGFR phosphorylation and cell cycle arrest.

Background: It has been suggested that radicals stimulate tumor cell growth. We examined if the hydroxyl radical scavenger, 3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-5-one (MCI-186), affects tumor growth in vitro.

Materials And Methods: Human hepatocarcinoma HepG2, mesothelioma MSTO-211H, gastric carcinoma TMK-1 and breast carcinoma MCF-7 were used for cell proliferation assay.