Publications by authors named "Zhi-jun Sun"

The discovery of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) within tumor tissues provides a promising avenue to promote the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Yet, the lack of effective strategies to induce TLS formation poses a substantial obstacle. Thus, the exploration of potential inducers for TLS formation is of great interest but remains challenging.

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Cancer immunotherapy holds significant promise for improving cancer treatment efficacy; however, the low response rate remains a considerable challenge. To overcome this limitation, advanced catalytic materials offer potential in augmenting catalytic immunotherapy by modulating the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) through precise biochemical reactions. Achieving optimal targeting precision and therapeutic efficacy necessitates a thorough understanding of the properties and underlying mechanisms of tumor-targeted catalytic materials.

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Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI) and induced systemic inflammation is a time-dependent multistage process which poses a risk of causing direct hepatic dysfunction and multiorgan failure. Real-time in situ comprehensive visualization assessment is important and scarce for imaging-guided therapeutic interventions and timely efficacy evaluation. Here, a logically activatable nanoreporter (termed QD@IR783-TK-FITC) is developed for time-phase imaging quantification of HIRI and induced systemic inflammation.

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The emergence of immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has markedly enhanced cancer treatment outcomes for numerous patients. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of immunotherapy demonstrates substantial variation across different cancer types and individual patients. The immunosuppressive characteristics of the tumor microenvironment (TME) play a crucial role in contributing to this variation.

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  • This study evaluates the predictive value of soluble growth stimulation expressed gene 2 protein (sST2) for long-term clinical outcomes in patients with acute heart failure (AHF), particularly focusing on those with a history of myocardial infarction (MI).
  • Researchers followed 149 hospitalized AHF patients over three years and found that higher sST2 levels were significantly associated with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), including heart failure readmissions and mortality.
  • The findings highlight sST2 as a strong predictor for patients with prior MI, suggesting that monitoring sST2 levels could improve patient management in this high-risk group.
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  • Pyroptosis is a form of programmed cell death that triggers inflammation and boosts immune responses through gasdermin proteins, activated by specific pathways and caspases.
  • Post-translational modifications (PTMs) can alter the properties and functions of proteins involved in pyroptosis, affecting their activity and stability.
  • This review summarizes various PTMs, their modifying enzymes, and explores how understanding these modifications can lead to new treatments for cancer and inflammatory diseases.
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Recent advancements in tumor immunotherapy, particularly PD-1 targeted therapy, have shown significant promise, marking major progress in tumor treatment approaches. Despite this, the development of resistance to therapy and mechanisms of immune evasion by tumors pose considerable obstacles to the broad application of immunotherapy. This necessitates a deeper exploration of complex immune signaling pathways integral to tumor immunity.

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Copper (Cu), an essential micronutrient with redox properties, plays a pivotal role in a wide array of pathological and physiological processes across virtually all cell types. Maintaining an optimal copper concentration is critical for cellular survival: insufficient copper levels disrupt respiration and metabolism, while excess copper compromises cell viability, potentially leading to cell death. Similarly, in the context of cancer, copper exhibits a dual role: appropriate amount of copper can promote tumor progression and be an accomplice, yet beyond befitting level, copper can bring about multiple types of cell death, including autophagy, apoptosis, ferroptosis, immunogenic cell death, pyroptosis, and cuproptosis.

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Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy as a form of adoptive cell therapy (ACT) has shown significant promise in cancer treatment, demonstrated by the FDA-approved CAR-T cell therapies targeting CD19 or B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) for hematological malignancies, albeit with moderate outcomes in solid tumors. However, despite these advancements, the efficacy of CAR-T therapy is often compromised by T cell exhaustion, a phenomenon that impedes the persistence and effector function of CAR-T cells, leading to a relapse rate of up to 75% in patients treated with CD19 or CD22 CAR-T cells for hematological malignancies. Strategies to overcome CAR-T exhaustion employ state-of-the-art genomic engineering tools and single-cell sequencing technologies.

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  • Inducing tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) can enhance the immune response against tumors, and mouse models are essential for studying TLS formation strategies.
  • Oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 (oHSV) shows potential in promoting TLS development by increasing the presence of B cells and specific T cells, suggesting its role in antitumor immunity.
  • The study highlights that oHSV enhances TLS formation via the CXCL10/CXCR3 pathway, and this effect improves survival rates when combined with αPD-1 treatment, paving the way for future cancer immunotherapy strategies.
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In the contemporary landscape of oncology, immunotherapy, represented by immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, stands out as a beacon of innovation in cancer treatment. Despite its promise, the therapy's progression is hindered by suboptimal clinical response rates. Addressing this challenge, the modulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome-GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis pathway holds promise as a means to augment the efficacy of immunotherapy.

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Immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint blockade therapy, represents a major milestone in the history of cancer therapy. However, the current response rate to immunotherapy among cancer patients must be improved; thus, new strategies for sensitizing patients to immunotherapy are urgently needed. Erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs), a population of immature erythroid cells, exert potent immunosuppressive functions.

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Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a promising approach for the treatment of various cancers. However, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) limits the efficacy of current immunotherapies. In this study, we designed a dual-responsive DNA methyltransferase inhibitor nanoprodrug ACNPs for combination therapy with oncolytic herpes simplex virus (oHSV).

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Cuproptosis is characterized by the aggregation of lipoylated enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and subsequent loss of iron-sulfur cluster proteins as a unique copper-dependent form of regulated cell death. As dysregulation of copper homeostasis can induce cuproptosis, there is emerging interest in exploiting cuproptosis for cancer therapy. However, the molecular drivers of cancer cell evasion of cuproptosis were previously undefined.

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  • Bone is constantly remodeled, and disruptions in its microenvironment can lead to diseases like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, highlighting the need for improved treatment strategies.
  • Nanotechnology, particularly cerium(III, IV) oxide, has emerged as a promising solution due to its unique properties and ability to enhance bone health.
  • This review covers the characteristics of the bone microenvironment, the benefits and safety of cerium-based biomaterials, and recent advancements in their application for preventing and treating bone diseases.
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Background: As the global aging process continues to accelerate, heart failure (HF) has become an important cause of increased morbidity and mortality in elderly patients. Chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major risk factor for HF. Patients with HF combined with AF are more difficult to treat and have a worse prognosis.

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Immune therapies represented by immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) have significantly transformed cancer treatment. However, the effectiveness of these treatments depends on the status of T cells. T cell exhaustion, characterized by diminished effector function, increased expression of co-inhibitory receptors, and clonal deletion, emerges as a hypofunctional state resulting from chronic exposure to antigens, posing an obstacle to ICB therapy.

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Tumor microenvironment (TME), is characterized by a complex and heterogenous composition involving a substantial population of immune cells. Myeloid cells comprising over half of the solid tumor mass, are undoubtedly one of the most prominent cell populations associated with tumors. Studies have unambiguously established that myeloid cells play a key role in tumor development, including immune suppression, pro-inflammation, promote tumor metastasis and angiogenesis, for example, tumor-associated macrophages promote tumor progression in a variety of common tumors, including lung cancer, through direct or indirect interactions with the TME.

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  • The study compares the effects of left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) and right ventricular pacing (RVP) on ventricular electromechanical synchrony and the risk of atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs) in patients with atrioventricular block.
  • Results indicate that LBBAP significantly improved pacing parameters, showing shorter paced QRS duration and better electromechanical synchrony compared to RVP, specifically the right ventricular apical pacing (RVA) and right side ventricular septal pacing (RVS) groups.
  • The researchers concluded that LBBAP may offer better clinical outcomes by reducing electromechanical dyssynchrony and decreasing the incidence of AHREs compared to traditional RVP methods.
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Oncolytic viruses (OVs) represent an emerging immunotherapeutic strategy owing to their capacity for direct tumor lysis and induction of antitumor immunity. However, hurdles like transient persistence and moderate efficacy necessitate innovative approaches. Metabolic remodeling has recently gained prominence as a strategic intervention, wherein OVs or combination regimens could reprogram tumor and immune cell metabolism to enhance viral replication and oncolysis.

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Oncolytic viruses (OVs) show promise as a cancer treatment by selectively replicating in tumor cells and promoting antitumor immunity. However, the current immunogenicity induced by OVs for tumor treatment is relatively weak, necessitating a thorough investigation of the mechanisms underlying its induction of antitumor immunity. Here, we show that HSV-1-based OVs (oHSVs) trigger ZBP1-mediated PANoptosis (a unique innate immune inflammatory cell death modality), resulting in augmented antitumor immune effects.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a formidable cancer type that poses significant treatment challenges, including radiotherapy (RT) resistance. The metabolic characteristics of tumors present substantial obstacles to cancer therapy, and the relationship between RT and tumor metabolism in HNSCC remains elusive. Ferroptosis is a type of iron-dependent regulated cell death, representing an emerging disease-modulatory mechanism.

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Cancer immunotherapy, a field within immunology that aims to enhance the host's anti-cancer immune response, frequently encounters challenges associated with suboptimal response rates. The presence of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), crucial constituents of the tumor microenvironment (TME), exacerbates this issue by fostering immunosuppression and impeding T cell differentiation and maturation. Consequently, targeting MDSCs has emerged as crucial for immunotherapy aimed at enhancing anti-tumor responses.

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Inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, periodontitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and celiac disease, disrupt the delicate balance between bone resorption and formation, leading to inflammatory bone loss. Conventional approaches to tackle this issue encompass pharmaceutical interventions and surgical procedures. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical interventions exhibit limited efficacy, while surgical treatments impose trauma and significant financial burden upon patients.

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