CD8+ T Lymphocyte and NK Cell Network: Circuitry in the Cytotoxic Domain of Immunity

Targeting CD8+ T cells with natural products for tumor therapy: Revealing insights into the mechanisms

BACKGROUND

Despite significant advances in cancer immunotherapy over the past decades, such as T cell-engaging chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), therapeutic failure resulting from various factors remains prevalent. Therefore, developing combinational immunotherapeutic strategies is of great significance for improving the clinical outcome of cancer immunotherapy. Natural products are substances that naturally exist in various living organisms with multiple pharmacological or biological activities, and some of them have been found to have anti-tumor potential. Notably, emerging evidences have suggested that several natural compounds may boost the anti-tumor effects through activating immune response of hosts, in which CD8+ T cells play a pivotal role.

METHODS

The data of this review come from PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials (https://clinicaltrials.gov/) with the keywords "CD8+ T cell", "anti-tumor", "immunity", "signal 1", "signal 2", "signal 3", "natural products", "T cell receptor (TCR)", "co-stimulation", "co-inhibition", "immune checkpoint", "inflammatory cytokine", "hesperidin", "ginsenoside", "quercetin", "curcumin", "apigenin", "dendrobium officinale polysaccharides (DOPS)", "luteolin", "shikonin", "licochalcone A", "erianin", "resveratrol", "procyanidin", "berberine", "usnic acid", "naringenin", "6-gingerol", "ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide (GL-PS)", "neem leaf glycoprotein (NLGP)", "paclitaxel", "source", "pharmacological activities", and "toxicity". These literatures were published between 1993 and 2023.

RESULTS

Natural products have considerable advantages as anti-tumor drugs based on the various species, wide distribution, low price, and few side effects. This review summarized the effects and mechanisms of some natural products that exhibit anti-tumor effects via targeting CD8+ T cells, mainly focused on the three signals that activate CD8+ T cells: TCR, co-stimulation, and inflammatory cytokines.

CONCLUSION

Clarifying the role and underlying mechanism of natural products in cancer immunotherapy may provide more options for combinational treatment strategies and benefit cancer therapy, to shed light on identifying potential natural compounds for improving the clinical outcome in cancer immunotherapy.

Targeting the chromatin structural changes of antitumor immunity

Epigenomic imbalance drives abnormal transcriptional processes, promoting the onset and progression of cancer. Although defective gene regulation generally affects carcinogenesis and tumor suppression networks, tumor immunogenicity and immune cells involved in antitumor responses may also be affected by epigenomic changes, which may have significant implications for the development and application of epigenetic therapy, cancer immunotherapy, and their combinations. Herein, we focus on the impact of epigenetic regulation on tumor immune cell function and the role of key abnormal epigenetic processes, DNA methylation, histone post-translational modification, and chromatin structure in tumor immunogenicity, and introduce these epigenetic research methods. We emphasize the value of small-molecule inhibitors of epigenetic modulators in enhancing antitumor immune responses and discuss the challenges of developing treatment plans that combine epigenetic therapy and immunotherapy through the complex interaction between cancer epigenetics and cancer immunology.

Chitosan-LeoA-DNA Nanoparticles Promoted the Efficacy of Novel LeoA-DNA Vaccination on Mice Against Helicobacter pylori

More than half of the world's population is infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which may lead to chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, and stomach cancer. LeoA, a conserved antigen of H. pylori, aids in preventing this infection by triggering specific CD3+ T-cell responses. In this study, recombinant plasmids containing the LeoA gene of H. pylori are created and conjugated with chitosan nanoparticle (CSNP) to immunize BALB/c mice against the H. pylori infection. We used the online Vaxign tool to analyze the genomes of five distinct strains of H. pylori, and we chose the outer membrane as a prospective vaccine candidate. Afterward, the proteins' immunogenicity was evaluated. The DNA vaccine was constructed and then encapsulated in CSNPs. The effectiveness of the vaccine's immunoprotective effects was evaluated in BALB/c mice. Purified activated splenic CD3+ T cells are used to test the anticancer effects in vitro. Nanovaccines had apparent spherical forms, were small (mean size, 150-250 nm), and positively charged (41.3 ± 3.11 mV). A consistently delayed release pattern and an entrapment efficiency (73.35 ± 3.48%) could be established. Compared to the non-encapsulated DNA vaccine, vaccinated BALB/c mice produced higher amounts of LeoA-specific IgG in plasma and TNF-α in splenocyte lysate. Moreover, BALB/c mice inoculated with nanovaccine demonstrated considerable immunity (87.5%) against the H. pylori challenge and reduced stomach injury and bacterial burdens in the stomach. The immunological state in individuals with GC with chronic infection with H. pylori is mimicked by the H. pylori DNA nanovaccines by inducing a shift from Th1 to Th2 in the response. In vitro human GC cell development is inhibited by activated CD3+ T lymphocytes. According to our findings, the H. pylori vaccine-activated CD3+ has potential immunotherapeutic benefits.

Microphysiological systems for solid tumor immunotherapy: opportunities and challenges

Immunotherapy remains more effective for hematologic tumors than for solid tumors. One of the main challenges to immunotherapy of solid tumors is the immunosuppressive microenvironment these tumors generate, which limits the cytotoxic capabilities of immune effector cells (e.g., cytotoxic T and natural killer cells). This microenvironment is characterized by hypoxia, nutrient starvation, accumulated waste products, and acidic pH. Tumor-hijacked cells, such as fibroblasts, macrophages, and T regulatory cells, also contribute to this inhospitable microenvironment for immune cells by secreting immunosuppressive cytokines that suppress the antitumor immune response and lead to immune evasion. Thus, there is a strong interest in developing new drugs and cell formulations that modulate the tumor microenvironment and reduce tumor cell immune evasion. Microphysiological systems (MPSs) are versatile tools that may accelerate the development and evaluation of these therapies, although specific examples showcasing the potential of MPSs remain rare. Advances in microtechnologies have led to the development of sophisticated microfluidic devices used to recapitulate tumor complexity. The resulting models, also known as microphysiological systems (MPSs), are versatile tools with which to decipher the molecular mechanisms driving immune cell antitumor cytotoxicity, immune cell exhaustion, and immune cell exclusion and to evaluate new targeted immunotherapies. Here, we review existing microphysiological platforms to study immuno-oncological applications and discuss challenges and opportunities in the field.

Single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing analysis of B cell marker genes in TNBC TME landscape and immunotherapy

Objective

This study amied to investigate the prognostic characteristics of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients by analyzing B cell marker genes based on single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing.

Methods

Utilizing single-cell sequencing data from TNBC patients, we examined tumor-associated B cell marker genes. Transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were used as the foundation for predictive modeling. Independent validation set was conducted using the GSE58812 dataset. Immune cell infiltration into the tumor was assessed through various, including XCELL, TIMER, QUANTISEQ, CIBERSORT, CIBERSORT-ABS, and ssGSEA. The TIDE score was utilized to predict immunotherapy outcomes. Additional investigations were conducted on the immune checkpoint blockade gene, tumor mutational load, and the GSEA enrichment analysis.

Results

Our analysis encompassed 22,106 cells and 20,556 genes in cancerous tissue samples from four TNBC patients, resulting in the identification of 116 B cell marker genes. A B cell marker gene score (BCMG score) involving nine B cell marker genes (ZBP1, SEL1L3, CCND2, TNFRSF13C, HSPA6, PLPP5, CXCR4, GZMB, and CCDC50) was developed using TCGA transcriptomic data, revealing statistically significant differences in survival analysis (P<0.05). Functional analysis demonstrated that marker genes were predominantly associated with immune-related pathways. Notably, substantial differences between the higher and lower- BCMG score groups were observed in terms of immune cell infiltration, immune cell activity, tumor mutational burden, TIDE score, and the expression of immune checkpoint blockade genes.

Conclusion

This study has established a robust model based on B-cell marker genes in TNBC, which holds significant potential for predicting prognosis and response to immunotherapy in TNBC patients.

Cancer-associated mesenchymal stem/stromal cells: role in progression and potential targets for therapeutic approaches

Malignancies contain a relatively small number of Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), constituting a crucial tumor microenvironment (TME) component. These cells comprise approximately 0.01-5% of the total TME cell population. MSC differentiation potential and their interaction with the tumor environment enable these cells to affect tumor cells' growth, immune evasion, metastasis, drug resistance, and angiogenesis. This type of MSC, known as cancer-associated mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (CA-MSCs (interacts with tumor/non-tumor cells in the TME and affects their function by producing cytokines, chemokines, and various growth factors to facilitate tumor cell migration, survival, proliferation, and tumor progression. Considering that the effect of different cells on each other in the TME is a multi-faceted relationship, it is essential to discover the role of these relationships for targeting in tumor therapy. Due to the immunomodulatory role and the tissue repair characteristic of MSCs, these cells can help tumor growth from different aspects. CA-MSCs indirectly suppress antitumor immune response through several mechanisms, including decreasing dendritic cells (DCs) antigen presentation potential, disrupting natural killer (NK) cell differentiation, inducing immunoinhibitory subsets like tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and Treg cells, and immune checkpoint expression to reduce effector T cell antitumor responses. Therefore, if these cells can be targeted for treatment so that their population decreases, we can hope for the treatment and improvement of the tumor conditions. Also, various studies show that CA-MSCs in the TME can affect other vital aspects of a tumor, including cell proliferation, drug resistance, angiogenesis, and tumor cell invasion and metastasis. In this review article, we will discuss in detail some of the mechanisms by which CA-MSCs suppress the innate and adaptive immune systems and other mechanisms related to tumor progression.

Euglena gracilis (Euglena) powder supplementation enhanced immune function through natural killer cell activity in apparently healthy participants: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Euglena gracilis (Euglena) is a microalgae found in most freshwater environments that produces paramylon, an insoluble β-1,3-glucan linked to human immunity. We hypothesized that Euglena powder has effects on immune function in apparently healthy adults. The study included male or female volunteers between the ages of 20 and 70 years who had white blood cell counts ranging from 4 × 103/µL to 10 × 103/µL, a "severe" rating on the stress questionnaire from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and at least 2 upper respiratory infections with cold-like symptoms in the previous year. Participants received either a placebo or 700 mg of Euglena powder daily for 8 weeks. The study measured natural killer cell activity, cytokine concentrations, and blood lipid profiles to confirm the immune effect of Euglena consumption. In conclusion, Euglena improved immunological function through natural killer cell activity. Safety assessment showed no significant changes in vital signs or clinical chemistry indicators, and there were no adverse events associated with Euglena consumption. Euglena supplementation may help boost the immune systems of healthy individuals.

The functional response of human monocyte-derived macrophages to serum amyloid A and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

Introduction

In the course of tuberculosis (TB), the level of major acute phase protein, namely serum amyloid A (hSAA-1), increases up to a hundredfold in the pleural fluids of infected individuals. Tubercle bacilli infecting the human host can be opsonized by hSAA-1, which affects bacterial entry into human macrophages and their intracellular multiplication.

Methods

We applied global RNA sequencing to evaluate the functional response of human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), isolated from healthy blood donors, under elevated hSAA-1 conditions and during infection with nonopsonized and hSAA-1-opsonized Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). In the same infection model, we also examined the functional response of mycobacteria to the intracellular environment of macrophages in the presence and absence of hSAA-1. The RNASeq analysis was validated using qPCR. The functional response of MDMs to hSAA-1 and/or tubercle bacilli was also evaluated for selected cytokines at the protein level by applying the Milliplex system.

Findings

Transcriptomes of MDMs cultured in the presence of hSAA-1 or infected with Mtb showed a high degree of similarity for both upregulated and downregulated genes involved mainly in processes related to cell division and immune response, respectively. Among the most induced genes, across both hSAA-1 and Mtb infection conditions, CXCL8, CCL15, CCL5, IL-1β, and receptors for IL-7 and IL-2 were identified. We also observed the same pattern of upregulated pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, IL-23, and IL-1) and downregulated anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, TGFβ, and antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin) in the hSAA-1 treated-MDMs or the phagocytes infected with tubercle bacilli. At this early stage of infection, Mtb genes affected by the inside microenvironment of MDMs are strictly involved in iron scavenging, adaptation to hypoxia, low pH, and increasing levels of CO2. The genes for the synthesis and transport of virulence lipids, but not cholesterol/fatty acid degradation, were also upregulated.

Conclusion

Elevated serum hSAA-1 levels in tuberculosis enhance the response of host phagocytes to infection, including macrophages that have not yet been in contact with mycobacteria. SAA induces antigen processing and presentation processes by professional phagocytes reversing the inhibition caused by Mtb infection.

Breast cancer vaccines; A comprehensive and updated review

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, breast cancer is more common than lung cancer globally. By 2040, mortality from breast cancer will rise by 50% and 40%, respectively. Despite advances in chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and HER2-targeted therapy, breast cancer metastases and recurrences remain challenging to treat. Cancer vaccines are an effective treatment option because they stimulate a long-lasting immune response that will eliminate tumor cells. In studies on the breast cancer vaccine, no appreciable advantages were discovered. A recent study claims that immune checkpoint inhibitors or anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies may be used in vaccinations. This vaccination strengthens the immune system to fight off breast cancer cells. Clinical trials have been conducted on DNA, dendritic cells, and peptide-based breast cancer vaccines. Studies on the breast cancer vaccine have employed subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intradermal injections. Clinical studies have shown that these efforts have not been successful. Several factors might have slowed the development of a breast cancer vaccine. The complexity of the immune system makes it challenging to create cancer vaccines. Given the heterogeneity of breast cancer, there may be a need for different vaccination strategies. Despite these obstacles, research into breast cancer vaccines continues. Effective methods for creating vaccines include immune checkpoint inhibition and anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies. Research is also being done on specialized tumor vaccinations.

Development of a deep pathomics score for predicting hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Tumor recurrence after liver transplantation (LT) impedes the curative chance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. This study aimed to develop a deep pathomics score (DPS) for predicting tumor recurrence after liver transplantation using deep learning.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Two datasets of 380 HCC patients who underwent LT were enrolled. Residual convolutional neural networks were used to identify six histological structures of HCC. The individual risk score of each structure and DPS were derived by a modified DeepSurv network. Cox regression analysis and Concordance index were used to evaluate the prognostic significance. The cellular exploration of prognostic immune biomarkers was performed by quantitative and spatial proximity analysis according to three panels of 7-color immunofluorescence.

RESULTS

The overall classification accuracy of HCC tissue was 97%. At the structural level, immune cells were the most significant tissue category for predicting post-LT recurrence (HR 1.907, 95% CI 1.490-2.440). The C-indices of DPS achieved 0.827 and 0.794 in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Multivariate analysis for recurrence-free survival (RFS) showed that DPS (HR 4.795, 95% CI 3.017-7.619) was an independent risk factor. Patients in the high-risk subgroup had a shorter RFS, larger tumor diameter and a lower proportion of clear tumor borders. At the cellular level, a higher infiltration of intratumoral NK cells was negatively correlated with recurrence risk.

CONCLUSIONS

This study established an effective DPS. Immune cells were the most significant histological structure related to HCC recurrence. DPS performed well in post-LT recurrence prediction and the identification of clinicopathological features.

Natural-Product-Derived Adjunctive Treatments to Conventional Therapy and Their Immunoregulatory Activities in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an invasive and persistent subtype of breast cancer that is likely to be resistant to conventional treatments. The rise in immunotherapy has created new modalities to treat cancer, but due to high costs and unreliable efficacy, adjunctive and complementary treatments have sparked interest in enhancing the efficacy of currently available treatments. Natural products, which are bioactive compounds derived from natural sources, have historically been used to treat or ameliorate inflammatory diseases and symptoms. As TNBC patients have shown little to no response to immunotherapy, the potential of natural products as candidates for adjuvant immunotherapy is being explored, as well as their immunomodulatory effects on cancer. Due to the complexity of TNBC and the ever-changing tumor microenvironment, there are challenges in determining the feasibility of using natural products to enhance the efficacy or counteract the toxicity of conventional treatments. In view of technological advances in molecular docking, pharmaceutical networking, and new drug delivery systems, natural products show promise as potential candidates in adjunctive therapy. In this article, we summarize the mechanisms of action of selected natural-product-based bioactive compounds and analyze their roles and applications in combination treatments and immune regulation.

New insights on IL‑36 in intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer (Review)

Interleukin (IL)-36 is a member of the IL-1 superfamily, which includes three receptor agonists and one antagonist and exhibits a familial feature of inflammatory regulation. Distributed among various tissues, such as the skin, lung, gut and joints, the mechanism of IL-36 has been most completely investigated in the skin and has been used in clinical treatment of generalized pustular psoriasis. Meanwhile, the role of IL-36 in the intestine has also been under scrutiny and has been shown to be involved in the regulation of various intestinal diseases. Inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer are the most predominant inflammatory and neoplastic diseases of the intestine, and multiple studies have identified a complex role for IL-36 in both of them. Indeed, inhibiting IL-36 signaling is currently regarded as a promising therapeutic approach. Therefore, the present review briefly describes the composition and expression of IL-36 and focuses on the role of IL-36 in intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer. The targeted therapies that are currently being developed for the IL-36 receptor are also discussed.

Invited review: From heat stress to disease-Immune response and candidate genes involved in cattle thermotolerance

Heat stress implies unfavorable effects on primary and functional traits in dairy cattle and, in consequence, on the profitability of the whole production system. The increasing number of days with extreme hot temperatures suggests that it is imperative to detect the heat stress status of animals based on adequate measures. However, confirming the heat stress status of an individual is still challenging, and, in consequence, the identification of novel heat stress biomarkers, including molecular biomarkers, remains a very relevant issue. Currently, it is known that heat stress seems to have unfavorable effects on immune system mechanisms, but this information is of limited use in the context of heat stress phenotyping. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge addressing the molecular mechanisms linking the relevant genes to the observed phenotype. In this review, we explored the potential molecular mechanisms explaining how heat stress affects the immune system and, therefore, increases the occurrence of immune-related diseases in cattle. In this regard, 2 relatively opposite hypotheses are under focus: the immunosuppressive action of cortisol, and the proinflammatory effect of heat stress. In both hypotheses, the modulation of the immune response during heat stress is highlighted. Moreover, it is possible to link candidate genes to these potential mechanisms. In this context, immune markers are very valuable indicators for the detection of heat stress in dairy cattle, broadening the portfolio of potential biomarkers for heat stress.

Mechanisms of CD8+ T cell exclusion and dysfunction in cancer resistance to anti-PD-(L)1

CD8⁺ T cells are the front-line defensive cells against cancer. Reduced infiltration and effector function of CD8⁺ T cells occurs in cancer and is contributed to defective immunity and immunotherapy resistance. Exclusion and exhaustion of CD8⁺ T cells are the two key factors associated with reduced durability of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Initially activated T cells upon exposure to chronic antigen stimulation or immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) acquire a hyporesponsive state that progressively lose their effector function. Thus, a key strategy in cancer immunotherapy is to look for factors contributed to defective CD8⁺ T cell infiltration and function. Targeting such factors can define a promising supplementary approach in patients receiving anti-programmed death-1 receptor (PD-1)/anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy. Recently, bispecific antibodies are developed against PD-(L)1 and a dominant factor within TME, representing higher safety profile and exerting more desired outcomes. The focus of this review is to discuss about promoters of deficient infiltration and effector function of CD8⁺ T cells and their addressing in cancer ICI therapy.

Expansion of mixed immune cells using CD3/CD161 co-stimulation for the treatment of cancer

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is a type of personalized immunotherapy in which expanded immune cells are administered to patients with cancer. However, single-cell populations, such as killer T cells, dendritic cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and NKT (NKT) cells, have been generally used, and their effectiveness remains limited. Here, we established a novel culture method via CD3/CD161 co-stimulation and successfully expanded CD3⁺/CD4⁺ helper T cells, CD3⁺/CD8⁺ cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), CD3^-/CD56⁺ NK cells, CD3⁺/CD1d⁺ NKT cells, CD3⁺/CD56⁺ NKT cells, CD3⁺/TCRγδ⁺ T cells, and CD3^-/CD11c⁺/HLA-DR⁺ dendritic cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors; their respective numbers were 155.5, 1132.5, 5.7, 117.0, 659.2, 325.6, and 6.8 times higher than those before expansion. These mixed immune cells showed strong cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines Capan-1 and SW480. Moreover, both CD3⁺/CD8⁺ CTLs and CD3⁺/CD56⁺ NKT cells killed tumor cells in cell contact-dependent and -independent manners via granzyme B and interferon-γ/TNF-α, respectively. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of the mixed cells was significantly superior to that of CTLs or NKTs alone. A bet-hedging CTL-NKT circuitry is one potential mechanism underlying this cooperative cytotoxicity. Collectively, CD3/CD161 co-stimulation may be a promising culture method to expand multiple, distinct immune cell populations for the treatment of cancer.

DapNet-HLA: Adaptive dual-attention mechanism network based on deep learning to predict non-classical HLA binding sites

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) plays a vital role in immunomodulatory function. Studies have shown that immunotherapy based on non-classical HLA has essential applications in cancer, COVID-19, and allergic diseases. However, there are few deep learning methods to predict non-classical HLA alleles. In this work, an adaptive dual-attention network named DapNet-HLA is established based on existing datasets. Firstly, amino acid sequences are transformed into digital vectors by looking up the table. To overcome the feature sparsity problem caused by unique one-hot encoding, the fused word embedding method is used to map each amino acid to a low-dimensional word vector optimized with the training of the classifier. Then, we use the GCB (group convolution block), SENet attention (squeeze-and-excitation networks), BiLSTM (bidirectional long short-term memory network), and Bahdanau attention mechanism to construct the classifier. The use of SENet can make the weight of the effective feature map high, so that the model can be trained to achieve better results. Attention mechanism is an Encoder-Decoder model used to improve the effectiveness of RNN, LSTM or GRU (gated recurrent neural network). The ablation experiment shows that DapNet-HLA has the best adaptability for five datasets. On the five test datasets, the ACC index and MCC index of DapNet-HLA are 4.89% and 0.0933 higher than the comparison method, respectively. According to the ROC curve and PR curve verified by the 5-fold cross-validation, the AUC value of each fold has a slight fluctuation, which proves the robustness of the DapNet-HLA. The codes and datasets are accessible at https://github.com/JYY625/DapNet-HLA.

Role of MHC class I pathways in Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen presentation

MHC class I antigen processing is an underappreciated area of nonviral host–pathogen interactions, bridging both immunology and cell biology, where the pathogen’s natural life cycle involves little presence in the cytoplasm. The effective response to MHC-I foreign antigen presentation is not only cell death but also phenotypic changes in other cells and stimulation of the memory cells ready for the next antigen reoccurrence. This review looks at the MHC-I antigen processing pathway and potential alternative sources of the antigens, focusing on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) as an intracellular pathogen that co-evolved with humans and developed an array of decoy strategies to survive in a hostile environment by manipulating host immunity to its own advantage. As that happens via the selective antigen presentation process, reinforcement of the effective antigen recognition on MHC-I molecules may stimulate subsets of effector cells that act earlier and more locally. Vaccines against tuberculosis (TB) could potentially eliminate this disease, yet their development has been slow, and success is limited in the context of this global disease’s spread. This review’s conclusions set out potential directions for MHC-I-focused approaches for the next generation of vaccines.

Natural peptides for immunological regulation in cancer therapy: Mechanism, facts and perspectives

Cancer incidence and mortality rates are increasing annually. Treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) is unsatisfactory because many patients have advanced disease at the initial diagnosis. However, the emergence of immunotherapy promises to be an effective strategy to improve the outcome of advanced tumors. Immune checkpoint antibodies, which are at the forefront of immunotherapy, have had significant success but still leave some cancer patients without benefit. For more cancer patients to benefit from immunotherapy, it is necessary to find new drugs and combination therapeutic strategies to improve the outcome of advanced cancer patients and achieve long-term tumor control or even eradication. Peptides are promising choices for tumor immunotherapy drugs because they have the advantages of low production cost, high sequence selectivity, high tissue permeability, low toxicity and low immunogenicity etc., and the adjuvant matching and technologies like nanotechnology can further optimize the effects of peptides. In this review, we present the current status and mechanisms of research on peptides targeting multiple immune cells (T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells (DCs), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), regulatory T cells (Tregs)) and immune checkpoints in tumor immunotherapy; and we summarize the current status of research on peptide-based tumor immunotherapy in combination with other therapies including RT, chemotherapy, surgery, targeted therapy, cytokine therapy, adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and cancer vaccines. Finally, we discuss the current status of peptide applications in mRNA vaccine delivery.

The Role of Microbiota-Derived Vitamins in Immune Homeostasis and Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy

Not all cancer patients who receive immunotherapy respond positively and emerging evidence suggests that the gut microbiota may be linked to treatment efficacy. Though mechanisms of microbial contributions to the immune response have been postulated, one likely function is the supply of basic co-factors to the host including selected vitamins. Bacteria, fungi, and plants can produce their own vitamins, whereas humans primarily obtain vitamins from exogenous sources, yet despite the significance of microbial-derived vitamins as crucial immune system modulators, the microbiota is an overlooked source of these nutrients in humans. Microbial-derived vitamins are often shared by gut bacteria, stabilizing bioenergetic pathways amongst microbial communities. Compositional changes in gut microbiota can affect metabolic pathways that alter immune function. Similarly, the immune system plays a pivotal role in maintaining the gut microbiota, which parenthetically affects vitamin biosynthesis. Here we elucidate the immune-interactive mechanisms underlying the effects of these microbially derived vitamins and how they can potentially enhance the activity of immunotherapies in cancer.

Immune response elicited in the tumor microenvironment upon rMV-SLAMblind cancer virotherapy

Oncolytic virotherapy is a promising therapy for cancer. We previously established a recombinant measles virus (rMV-SLAMblind) that targets NECTIN4-expressing cancer cells and demonstrated its antitumor effects using a xenograft model in an immunodeficient mouse. In the current study, to investigate the immune response after rMV-SLAMblind therapy, we developed an immunocompetent cancer mouse model by introducing the NECTIN4 gene into mouse cancer cell lines. NECTIN4-expressing mouse cancer cells were successfully killed by rMV-SLAMblind in vitro. After transplantation of the NECTIN4-expressing tumor cells, rMV-SLAMblind significantly suppressed tumor growth in immunocompetent mice. Thus, this immunocompetent mouse cancer model could be a powerful tool in which to study the effect of rMV-SLAMblind therapy on the immune response. Using this model we found that rMV-SLAMblind elicited significant activation of natural killer cells, type 1 helper T cells and the tumor-specific CD8⁺ T-cell response in the tumor microenvironment. Immune cell depletion study revealed that CD8⁺ cells particularly played significant roles in the therapeutic efficacy of rMV-SLAMblind. Thus, rMV-SLAMblind exerts a therapeutic effect, not only directly by tumor cell killing, but also indirectly by efficient induction of antitumor immunity.

A Predictive Disease Risk Model for Ankylosing Spondylitis: Based on Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis and Identification of Potential Biomarkers Most Related to Immunity

Background

The pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is still not clear, and immune-related genes have not been systematically explored in AS. The purpose of this paper was to identify the potential early biomarkers most related to immunity in AS and develop a predictive disease risk model with bioinformatic methods and the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO) to improve diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency.

Methods

To identify differentially expressed genes and create a gene coexpression network between AS and healthy samples, we downloaded the AS-related datasets GSE25101 and GSE73754 from the GEO database and employed weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA). We used the GSVA, GSEABase, limma, ggpubr, and reshape2 packages to score immune data and investigated the links between immune cells and immunological functions by using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). The value of the core gene set and constructed model for early AS diagnosis was investigated by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results

Biological function and immune score analyses identified central genes related to immunity, key immune cells, key related pathways, gene modules, and the coexpression network in AS. Granulysin (GNLY), Granulysin (GZMK), CX3CR1, IL2RB, dysferlin (DYSF), and S100A12 may participate in AS development through NK cells, CD8⁺ T cells, Th1 cells, and other immune cells and represent potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AS occurrence and progression. Furthermore, the T cell coinhibitory pathway may be involved in AS pathogenesis.

Conclusion

The AS disease risk model constructed based on immune-related genes can guide clinical diagnosis and treatment and may help in the development of personalized immunotherapy.

Successful targeting of PD-1/PD-L1 with chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer cells and nivolumab in a humanized mouse cancer model

In recent decades, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered immune effector cells have demonstrated promising antileukemic activity. Nevertheless, their efficacy remains unsatisfactory on solid cancers, plausibly due to the influence of tumor microenvironments (TME). In a novel mouse cancer model with a humanized immune system, tumor-infiltrating immunosuppressive leukocytes and exhausted programmed death protein-1 (PD-1)^high T cells were found, which better mimic patient TME, allowing the screening and assessment of immune therapeutics. Particularly, membrane-bound programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) level was elevated on a tumor cell surface, which serves as an attractive target for natural killer (NK) cell-mediated therapy. Hematopoietic stem cell-derived CAR-NK (CAR pNK) cells targeting the PD-L1 showed enhanced in vitro and in vivo anti-solid tumor function. The CAR pNK cells and nivolumab resulted in a synergistic anti-solid tumor response. Together, our study highlights a robust platform to develop and evaluate the antitumor efficacy and safety of previously unexplored therapeutic regimens.

Distinct transcriptome architectures underlying lupus establishment and exacerbation

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease involving multiple immune cells. To elucidate SLE pathogenesis, it is essential to understand the dysregulated gene expression pattern linked to various clinical statuses with a high cellular resolution. Here, we conducted a large-scale transcriptome study with 6,386 RNA sequencing data covering 27 immune cell types from 136 SLE and 89 healthy donors. We profiled two distinct cell-type-specific transcriptomic signatures: disease-state and disease-activity signatures, reflecting disease establishment and exacerbation, respectively. We then identified candidate biological processes unique to each signature. This study suggested the clinical value of disease-activity signatures, which were associated with organ involvement and therapeutic responses. However, disease-activity signatures were less enriched around SLE risk variants than disease-state signatures, suggesting that current genetic studies may not well capture clinically vital biology. Together, we identified comprehensive gene signatures of SLE, which will provide essential foundations for future genomic and genetic studies.

Nanomaterials for Natural Killer Cell-Based Immunoimaging and Immunotherapies in Cancer

Natural killer (NK) cells are an important component of the tumor immunosurveillance; activated NK cells can recognize and directly lyse tumor cells eliciting a potent antitumor immune response. Due to their intrinsic ability to unleash cytotoxicity against tumor cells, NK cell-based adoptive cell therapies have gained rapid clinical significance, and many clinical trials are ongoing. However, priming and activating NK cells, infiltration of activated NK cells in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and tracking the infiltrated NK cells in the tumors remain a critical challenge. To address these challenges, NK cells have been successfully interfaced with nanomaterials where the morphology, composition, and surface characteristics of nanoparticles (NPs) were leveraged to enable longitudinal tracking of NK cells in tumors or deliver therapeutics to prime NK cells. Distinct from other published reviews, in this tutorial review, we summarize the recent findings in the past decade where NPs were used to label NK cells for immunoimaging or deliver treatment to activate NK cells and induce long-term immunity against tumors. We discuss the NP properties that are key to surmounting the current challenges in NK cells and the different strategies employed to advance NK cells-based diagnostics and therapeutics. We conclude the review with an outlook on future directions in NP-NK cell hybrid interfaces, and overall clinical impact and patient response to such interfaces that need to be addressed to enable their clinical translation.

Metabolic reprogramming and crosstalk of cancer-related fibroblasts and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment

It is notorious that cancer cells alter their metabolism to adjust to harsh environments of hypoxia and nutritional starvation. Metabolic reprogramming most often occurs in the tumor microenvironment (TME). TME is defined as the cellular environment in which the tumor resides. This includes surrounding blood vessels, fibroblasts, immune cells, signaling molecules and the extracellular matrix (ECM). It is increasingly recognized that cancer cells, fibroblasts and immune cells within TME can regulate tumor progression through metabolic reprogramming. As the most significant proportion of cells among all the stromal cells that constitute TME, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are closely associated with tumorigenesis and progression. Multitudinous studies have shown that CAFs participate in and promote tumor metabolic reprogramming and exert regulatory effects via the dysregulation of metabolic pathways. Previous studies have demonstrated that curbing the substance exchange between CAFs and tumor cells can dramatically restrain tumor growth. Emerging studies suggest that CAFs within the TME have emerged as important determinants of metabolic reprogramming. Metabolic reprogramming also occurs in the metabolic pattern of immune cells. In the meanwhile, immune cell phenotype and functions are metabolically regulated. Notably, immune cell functions influenced by metabolic programs may ultimately lead to alterations in tumor immunity. Despite the fact that multiple previous researches have been devoted to studying the interplays between different cells in the tumor microenvironment, the complicated relationship between CAFs and immune cells and implications of metabolic reprogramming remains unknown and requires further investigation. In this review, we discuss our current comprehension of metabolic reprogramming of CAFs and immune cells (mainly glucose, amino acid, and lipid metabolism) and crosstalk between them that induces immune responses, and we also highlight their contributions to tumorigenesis and progression. Furthermore, we underscore potential therapeutic opportunities arising from metabolism dysregulation and metabolic crosstalk, focusing on strategies targeting CAFs and immune cell metabolic crosstalk in cancer immunotherapy.

Systemically targeted cancer immunotherapy and gene delivery using transmorphic particles

Immunotherapy is a powerful tool for cancer treatment, but the pleiotropic nature of cytokines and immunological agents strongly limits clinical translation and safety. To address this unmet need, we designed and characterised a systemically targeted cytokine gene delivery system through transmorphic encapsidation of human recombinant adeno-associated virus DNA using coat proteins from a tumour-targeted bacteriophage (phage). We show that Transmorphic Phage/AAV (TPA) particles provide superior delivery of transgenes over current phage-derived vectors through greater diffusion across the extracellular space and improved intracellular trafficking. We used TPA to target the delivery of cytokine-encoding transgenes for interleukin-12 (IL12), and novel isoforms of IL15 and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF α ) for tumour immunotherapy. Our results demonstrate selective and efficient gene delivery and immunotherapy against solid tumours in vivo, without harming healthy organs. Our transmorphic particle system provides a promising modality for safe and effective gene delivery, and cancer immunotherapies through cross-species complementation of two commonly used viruses.

Na+/H+-exchanger 1 enhances antitumor activity of engineered NK-92 natural killer cells

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) immunotherapy has remarkable efficacy against some hematological malignancies. However, its efficacy in solid tumors is limited by the adverse tumor microenvironment (TME) conditions, most notably that acidity inhibits T and natural killer (NK) cell mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) activity and impairs cytotoxicity. In several reported studies, systemic buffering of tumor acidity enhanced the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Paradoxically, we found in a c-Myc-driven hepatocellular carcinoma model that systemic buffering increased tumor mTORC1 activity, negating inhibition of tumor growth by anti-PD1 treatment. Therefore, in this proof-of-concept study, we tested the metabolic engineering of immune effector cells to mitigate the inhibitory effect of tumor acidity while avoiding side effects associated with systemic buffering. We first overexpressed an activated RHEB in the human NK cell line NK-92, thereby rescuing acid-blunted mTORC1 activity and enhancing cytolytic activity. Then, to directly mitigate the effect of acidity, we ectopically expressed acid extruder proteins. Whereas ectopic expression of carbonic anhydrase IX (CA9) moderately increased mTORC1 activity, it did not enhance effector function. In contrast, overexpressing a constitutively active Na⁺/H⁺-exchanger 1 (NHE1; SLC9A1) in NK-92 did not elevate mTORC1 but enhanced degranulation, target engagement, in vitro cytotoxicity, and in vivo antitumor activity. Our findings suggest the feasibility of overcoming the inhibitory effect of the TME by metabolically engineering immune effector cells, which can enhance ACT for better efficacy against solid tumors.

Cross-Talk between the Cytokine IL-37 and Thyroid Hormones in Modulating Chronic Inflammation Associated with Target Organ Damage in Age-Related Metabolic and Vascular Conditions

Chronic inflammation is considered to be the main mechanism contributing to the development of age-related metabolic and vascular conditions. The phases of chronic inflammation that mediate the progression of target organ damage in these conditions are poorly known, however. In particular, there is a paucity of data on the link between chronic inflammation and metabolic disorders. Based on some of our own results and recent developments in our understanding of age-related inflammation as a whole-body response, we discuss the hypothesis that cross-talk between the cytokine IL-37 and thyroid hormones could be the key regulatory mechanism that justifies the metabolic effects of chronic tissue-related inflammation. The cytokine IL-37 is emerging as a strong natural suppressor of the chronic innate immune response. The effect of this cytokine has been identified in reversing metabolic costs of chronic inflammation. Thyroid hormones are known to regulate energy metabolism. There is a close link between thyroid function and inflammation in elderly individuals. Nonlinear associations between IL-37 and thyroid hormones, considered within the wider clinical context, can improve our understanding of the phases of chronic inflammation that are associated with target organ damage in age-related metabolic and vascular conditions.

Blocking prostanoid receptors switches on multiple immune responses and cascades of inflammatory signaling against larval stages in snail fever

Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever or bilharziasis, is a worm infection caused by trematode called schistosomes that affects humans and animals worldwide. Schistosomiasis endemically exists in developing countries. Inflammatory responses elicited in the early phase of infection represent the rate limiting step for parasite migration and pathogenesis and could be a valuable target for therapeutic interventions. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and interleukin (IL)-10 were found to be differentially affected in case of immune-modulation studies and cytokine analysis of hosts infected with either normal or radiation-attenuated parasite (RA) which switches off the development of an effective immune response against the migrating parasite in the early phase of schistosomiasis. Normal parasites induce predominantly a T helper 2 (Th2)-type cytokine response (IL-4 and IL-5) which is essential for parasite survival; here, we discuss in detail the downstream effects and cascades of inflammatory signaling of PGE2 and IL10 induced by normal parasites and the effect of blocking PGE2 receptors. We suggest that by selectively constraining the production of PGE2 during vaccination or therapy of susceptible persons or infected patients of schistosomiasis, this would boost IL-12 and reduce IL-10 production leading to a polarization toward the anti-worm Thl cytokine synthesis (IL-2 and Interferon (IFN)-γ).

Innate Immunity: A Balance between Disease and Adaption to Stress

Since first being documented in ancient times, the relation of inflammation with injury and disease has evolved in complexity and causality. Early observations supported a cause (injury) and effect (inflammation) relationship, but the number of pathologies linked to chronic inflammation suggests that inflammation itself acts as a potent promoter of injury and disease. Additionally, results from studies over the last 25 years point to chronic inflammation and innate immune signaling as a critical link between stress (exogenous and endogenous) and adaptation. This brief review looks to highlight the role of the innate immune response in disease pathology, and recent findings indicating the innate immune response to chronic stresses as an influence in driving adaptation.

Activin-A impairs CD8 T cell-mediated immunity and immune checkpoint therapy response in melanoma

Background

Activin-A, a transforming growth factor β family member, is secreted by many cancer types and is often associated with poor disease prognosis. Previous studies have shown that Activin-A expression can promote cancer progression and reduce the intratumoral frequency of cytotoxic T cells. However, the underlying mechanisms and the significance of Activin-A expression for cancer therapies are unclear.

Methods

We analyzed the expression of the Activin-A encoding gene INHBA in melanoma patients and the influence of its gain- or loss-of-function on the immune infiltration and growth of BRAF-driven YUMM3.3 and iBIP2 mouse melanoma grafts and in B16 models. Using antibody depletion strategies, we investigated the dependence of Activin-A tumor-promoting effect on different immune cells. Immune-regulatory effects of Activin-A were further characterized in vitro and by an adoptive transfer of T cells. Finally, we assessed INHBA expression in melanoma patients who received immune checkpoint therapy and tested whether it impairs the response in preclinical models.

Results

We show that Activin-A secretion by melanoma cells inhibits adaptive antitumor immunity irrespective of BRAF status by inhibiting CD8⁺ T cell infiltration indirectly and even independently of CD4 T cells, at least in part by attenuating the production of CXCL9/10 by myeloid cells. In addition, we show that Activin-A/INHBA expression correlates with anti-PD1 therapy resistance in melanoma patients and impairs the response to dual anti-cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte associated protein 4/anti-PD1 treatment in preclinical models.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that strategies interfering with Activin-A induced immune-regulation offer new therapeutic opportunities to overcome CD8 T cell exclusion and immunotherapy resistance.

HLAncPred: a method for predicting promiscuous non-classical HLA binding sites

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) regulate various innate and adaptive immune responses and play a crucial immunomodulatory role. Recent studies revealed that non-classical HLA-(HLA-E & HLA-G) based immunotherapies have many advantages over traditional HLA-based immunotherapy, particularly against cancer and COVID-19 infection. In the last two decades, several methods have been developed to predict the binders of classical HLA alleles. In contrast, limited attempts have been made to develop methods for predicting non-classical HLA binding peptides, due to the scarcity of sufficient experimental data. Of note, in order to facilitate the scientific community, we have developed an artificial intelligence-based method for predicting binders of class-Ib HLA alleles. All the models were trained and tested on experimentally validated data obtained from the recent release of IEDB. The machine learning models achieved more than 0.98 AUC for HLA-G alleles on validation dataset. Similarly, our models achieved the highest AUC of 0.96 and 0.94 on the validation dataset for HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03, respectively. We have summarized the models developed in the past for non-classical HLA and validated the performance with the models developed in this study. Moreover, to facilitate the community, we have utilized our tool for predicting the potential non-classical HLA binding peptides in the spike protein of different variants of virus causing COVID-19, including Omicron (B.1.1.529). One of the major challenges in the field of immunotherapy is to identify the promiscuous binders or antigenic regions that can bind to a large number of HLA alleles. To predict the promiscuous binders for the non-classical HLA alleles, we developed a web server HLAncPred (https://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/hlancpred) and standalone package.

Liver Immunology, Immunotherapy, and Liver Cancers: Time for a Rethink?

The complex immune system of the liver has a major role in tumor surveillance, but also partly explains why current immune therapies are poorly effective against liver cancers. Known primarily for its tolerogenic capacity, the hepatic immune repertoire also comprises diverse populations of armored immune cells with tumor surveillant roles. In healthy people, these work together to successfully identify malignant cells and prevent their proliferation, thus halting tumor formation. When frontline hepatic immune surveillance systems fail, compromised hepatic immunity, driven by obesity, infection, or other pathological factors, allows primary or secondary liver cancers to develop. Tumor growth promotes the normal tolerogenic immunological milieu of the liver, perhaps explaining why current immunotherapies fail to work. This review explores the complex local liver immune system with the hope of identifying potential therapeutic targets needed to best overcome immunological barriers in the liver to create an environment no longer hostile to immunotherapy for the treatment of liver cancer.

Das Pädiatrische Inflammatorische Multisystem Syndrom (PIMS) in der COVID-19 Pandemie

Nach einer meist mild verlaufenden SARS-CoV-2-Infektion kommt es bei einem kleinen Teil der Kinder nach einem Zeitraum von ca. 6–8 Wochen zu einer ausgeprägten multisystemischen Hyperinflammation (Pediatriac multisystemic inflammatory syndrome (PIMS)). Klinisch präsentieren sich diese Patienten mit Zeichen eines Kawasaki-Syndroms bzw. eines toxischen Schocksyndroms. Gerade die kardiale Manifestation mit einer deutlichen Einschränkung der Herzfunktion erfordert in vielen Fällen eine intensivmedizinische Behandlung.

Die Pathophysiologie ist trotz des beeindruckenden Erkenntnisgewinns der letzten 1 ½ Jahre noch unklar. Möglicherweise spielen Superantigene eine wesentliche Rolle, die T-Zellen an einer bestimmten β-Kette des T-Zellrezeptors polyklonal stimulieren.

Neben den z.T. intensivmedizinischen supportiven Maßnahmen werden zur Kontrolle der Inflammation intravenöse Immunglobuline, Steroide und Biologika eingesetzt.

Downregulated cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell identifies with the NKG2A-soluble HLA-E axis as a predictive biomarker and potential therapeutic target in keloids

Keloids are an abnormal fibroproliferative wound-healing disease with a poorly understood pathogenesis, making it difficult to predict and prevent this disease in clinical settings. Identifying disease-specific signatures at the molecular and cellular levels in both the blood circulation and primary lesions is urgently needed to develop novel biomarkers for risk assessment and therapeutic targets for recurrence-free treatment. There is mounting evidence of immune cell dysregulation in keloid scarring. In this study, we aimed to profile keloid scar tissues and blood cells and found that downregulation of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells is a keloid signature in the peripheral blood and keloid lesions. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that the NKG2A/CD94 complex was specifically upregulated, which might contribute to the significant reduction in CTLs within the scar tissue boundary. In addition, the NKG2A/CD94 complex was associated with high serum levels of soluble human leukocyte antigen-E (sHLA-E). We subsequently measured sHLA-E in our hospital-based study cohort, consisting of 104 keloid patients, 512 healthy donors, and 100 patients with an interfering disease. The sensitivity and specificity of sHLA-E were 83.69% (87/104) and 92.16% (564/612), respectively, and hypertrophic scars and other unrelated diseases exhibited minimal interference with the test results. Furthermore, intralesional therapy with triamcinolone combined with 5-fluorouracil drastically decreased the sHLA-E levels in keloid patients with better prognostic outcomes, while an incomplete reduction in the sHLA-E levels in patient serum was associated with higher recurrence. sHLA-E may effectively serve as a diagnostic marker for assessing the risk of keloid formation and a prognostic marker for the clinical outcomes of intralesional treatment.

CD8+ T Cells in SARS-CoV-2 Induced Disease and Cancer-Clinical Perspectives

Dysregulated innate and adaptive immunity is a sign of SARS-CoV-2-induced disease and cancer. CD8+ T cells are important cells of the immune system. The cells belong to the adaptive immunity and take a front-line defense against viral infections and cancer. Extreme CD8+ T-cell activities in the lung of patients with a SARS-CoV-2-induced disease and within the tumor microenvironment (TME) will change their functionality into exhausted state and undergo apoptosis. Such diminished immunity will put cancer cases at a high-risk group for SARS-CoV-2-induced disease, rendering viral sepsis and a more severe condition which will finally cause a higher rate of mortality. Recovering responses from CD8+ T cells is a purpose of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this review is to discuss the CD8+ T cellular state in SARS-CoV-2-induced disease and in cancer and to present some strategies for recovering the functionality of these critical cells.

(Im)maturity in Tumor Ecosystem

Tumors have special features that make them distinct from their normal counterparts. Immature cells in a tumor mass and their critical contributions to the tumorigenesis will open new windows toward cancer therapy. Incomplete cellular development brings versatile and unique functionality in the cellular tumor ecosystem, such as what is seen for highly potential embryonic cells. There is evidence that maturation of certain types of cells in this ecosystem can recover the sensitivity of the tumor. Therefore, understanding more about the mechanisms that contributed to this immaturity will render new therapeutic approaches in cancer therapy. Targeting such mechanisms can be exploited as a supplementary to the current immunotherapeutic treatment schedules, such as immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. The key focus of this review is to discuss the impact of (im)maturity in cellular tumor ecosystems on cancer progression, focusing mainly on immaturity in the immune cell compartment of the tumor, as well as on the stemness of tumor cells.

Tumor promoting roles of IL-10, TGF-β, IL-4, and IL-35: Its implications in cancer immunotherapy

Cytokines play a critical role in regulating host immune response toward cancer and determining the overall fate of tumorigenesis. The tumor microenvironment is dominated mainly by immune-suppressive cytokines that control effector antitumor immunity and promote survival and the proliferation of cancer cells, which ultimately leads to enhanced tumor growth. In addition to tumor cells, the heterogeneous immune cells present within the tumor milieu are the significant source of immune-suppressive cytokines. These cytokines are classified into a broad range; however, in most tumor types, the interleukin-10, transforming growth factor-β, interleukin-4, and interleukin-35 are consistently reported as immune-suppressive cytokines that help tumor growth and metastasis. The most emerging concern in cancer treatment is hijacking and restraining the activity of antitumor immune cells in the tumor niche due to a highly immune-suppressive environment. This review summarizes the role and precise functions of interleukin-10, transforming growth factor-β, interleukin-4, and interleukin-35 in modulating tumor immune contexture and its implication in developing effective immune-therapeutic approaches.

CONCISE CONCLUSION

Recent effort geared toward developing novel immune-therapeutic approaches faces significant challenges due to sustained mutations in tumor cells and a highly immune-suppressive microenvironment present within the tumor milieu. The cytokines play a crucial role in developing an immune-suppressive environment that ultimately dictates the fate of tumorigenesis. This review critically covers the novel aspects of predominant immune-suppressive cytokines such as interleukin-10, transforming growth factor-β, interleukin-4, and interleukin-35 in dictating the fate of tumorigenesis and how targeting these cytokines can help the development of better immune-therapeutic drug regimens for the treatment of cancer.

Lysosomal peptidases – Intriguing roles in cancer progression and neurodegeneration

Lysosomal peptidases are hydrolytic enzymes capable of digesting waste proteins that are targeted to lysosomes via endocytosis and autophagy. Besides intracellular protein catabolism, they play more specific roles in several other cellular processes and pathologies, either within lysosomes, upon secretion into the cell cytoplasm or extracellular space, or bound to the plasma membrane. In cancer, lysosomal peptidases are generally associated with disease progression, as they participate in crucial processes leading to changes in cell morphology, signaling, migration, and invasion, and finally metastasis. However, they can also enhance the mechanisms resulting in cancer regression, such as apoptosis of tumor cells or antitumor immune responses. Lysosomal peptidases have also been identified as hallmarks of aging and neurodegeneration, playing roles in oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, abnormal intercellular communication, dysregulated trafficking, and the deposition of protein aggregates in neuronal cells. Furthermore, deficiencies in lysosomal peptidases may result in other pathological states, such as lysosomal storage disease. The aim of this review was to highlight the role of lysosomal peptidases in particular pathological processes of cancer and neurodegeneration and to address the potential of lysosomal peptidases in diagnosing and treating patients.

Systemic CD4 cytotoxic T cells improve protection against PRRSV-1 transplacental infection

Background

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the major swine pathogens causing reproductive failure in sows. Although modified-live virus (MLV) vaccines are available, only partial protection against heterologous strains is produced, thus vaccinated sows can be infected and cause transplacental infection. The immune effector mechanisms involved are largely unknown.

Methods

The present study investigated the role of cytotoxic lymphocytes, including cytotoxic T cells (CTL), NKT, and NK cells, from blood in preventing PRRSV-1 transplacental infection in vaccinated primiparous sows (two doses vaccinated). Sows from a PRRSV-1 unstable farm were bled just before the last month of gestation (critical period for transplacental infection), then followed to determine whether sows delivered PRRSV-1-infected (n=8) or healthy (n=10) piglets. After that, functions of CTL, NKT, and NK cells in the two groups of sows were compared.

Results

No difference was found through cell surface staining. But upon in vitro re-stimulation with the circulating field virus, sows that delivered healthy piglets displayed a higher frequency of virus-specific CD107a⁺ IFN-γ-producing T cells, which accumulated in the CD4⁺ compartment including CD4 single-positive (CD4 SP) and CD4/CD8α double-positive (CD4/CD8α DP) subsets. The same group of sows also harbored a higher proportion of CD107a⁺ TNF-α-producing T cells that predominantly accumulated in CD4/CD8α double-negative (CD4/CD8α DN) subset. Consistently, CD4 SP and CD4/CD8α DN T cells from sows delivering healthy piglets had a higher virus-specific proliferative response. Additionally, in sows that delivered PRRSV-1-infected piglets, a positive correlation of virus-specific IFN-γ response with average Ct values of umbilical cords of newborn piglets per litter was observed.

Conclusion

Our data strongly suggest that CTL responses correlate with protection against PRRSV-1 transplacental infection, being executed by CD4 T cells (IFN-γ related) and/or CD4/CD8α DN T cells (TNF-α related).

Molecular characterization of type I IFN-induced cytotoxicity in bladder cancer cells reveals biomarkers of resistance

Although anti-tumor activities of type I interferons (IFNs) have been recognized for decades, the molecular mechanisms contributing to clinical response remain poorly understood. The complex functions of these pleiotropic cytokines include stimulation of innate and adaptive immune responses against tumors as well as direct inhibition of tumor cells. In high-grade, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, nadofaragene firadenovec, a non-replicating adenovirus administered locally to express the IFNα2b transgene, embodies a novel approach to deploy the therapeutic activity of type I IFNs while minimizing systemic toxicities. Deciphering which functions of type I IFN are required for clinical activity will bolster efforts to maximize the efficacy of nadofaragene firadenovec and other type I IFN-based therapies, and inform strategies to address resistance. As such, we characterized the phenotypic and molecular response of human bladder cancer cell lines to IFNα delivered in multiple contexts, including adenoviral delivery. We found that constitutive activation of the type I IFN signaling pathway is a biomarker for resistance to both transcriptional response and direct cytotoxic effects of IFNα. We present several genes that discriminate between sensitive and resistant tumor cells, suggesting they should be explored for utility as biomarkers in future clinical trials of type I IFN-based anti-tumor therapies.

Resveratrol Enhances the Cytotoxic Activity of Lymphocytes from Menopausal Women

Nutraceuticals and functional foods are the main sources of antioxidants and have positive effects on health through regulation of the redox balance. Accordingly, they represent a useful nutritional source for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Menopausal women have an increased risk of developing NCDs due to hormonal dysregulation and the ongoing aging process. Accordingly, a healthy lifestyle and good nutritional habits are of utmost importance in this population. Resveratrol (RSV) is a natural polyphenol, and it is used as a nutraceutical given its estrogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of RSV on the lymphocyte cytotoxicity in menopausal women. Lymphocytes from 13 healthy menopausal women (56.18 ± 4.24 years) were isolated, and then cocultured with hTERT-HME1, a breast cell line with a precancerous phenotype. The results showed that, when treated with RSV, lymphocytes significantly increased the TNF-α production (p < 0.001), the formation of immune synapses (p = 0.009), and the target cell lysis (p = 0.002). No effects were detected in the lymphocyte total antioxidant capacity. In conclusion, RSV might enhance the immune surveillance in menopausal women by increasing the cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes.

Data-Driven Discovery of Mathematical and Physical Relations in Oncology Data Using Human-Understandable Machine Learning

For decades, researchers have used the concepts of rate of change and differential equations to model and forecast neoplastic processes. This expressive mathematical apparatus brought significant insights in oncology by describing the unregulated proliferation and host interactions of cancer cells, as well as their response to treatments. Now, these theories have been given a new life and found new applications. With the advent of routine cancer genome sequencing and the resulting abundance of data, oncology now builds an "arsenal" of new modeling and analysis tools. Models describing the governing physical laws of tumor-host-drug interactions can be now challenged with biological data to make predictions about cancer progression. Our study joins the efforts of the mathematical and computational oncology community by introducing a novel machine learning system for data-driven discovery of mathematical and physical relations in oncology. The system utilizes computational mechanisms such as competition, cooperation, and adaptation in neural networks to simultaneously learn the statistics and the governing relations between multiple clinical data covariates. Targeting an easy adoption in clinical oncology, the solutions of our system reveal human-understandable properties and features hidden in the data. As our experiments demonstrate, our system can describe nonlinear conservation laws in cancer kinetics and growth curves, symmetries in tumor's phenotypic staging transitions, the preoperative spatial tumor distribution, and up to the nonlinear intracellular and extracellular pharmacokinetics of neoadjuvant therapies. The primary goal of our work is to enhance or improve the mechanistic understanding of cancer dynamics by exploiting heterogeneous clinical data. We demonstrate through multiple instantiations that our system is extracting an accurate human-understandable representation of the underlying dynamics of physical interactions central to typical oncology problems. Our results and evaluation demonstrate that, using simple-yet powerful-computational mechanisms, such a machine learning system can support clinical decision-making. To this end, our system is a representative tool of the field of mathematical and computational oncology and offers a bridge between the data, the modeler, the data scientist, and the practicing clinician.

Cell Membrane-Coated Mimics: A Methodological Approach for Fabrication, Characterization for Therapeutic Applications, and Challenges for Clinical Translation

Cell membrane-coated (CMC) mimics are micro/nanosystems that combine an isolated cell membrane and a template of choice to mimic the functions of a cell. The design exploits its physicochemical and biological properties for therapeutic applications. The mimics demonstrate excellent biological compatibility, enhanced biointerfacing capabilities, physical, chemical, and biological tunability, ability to retain cellular properties, immune escape, prolonged circulation time, and protect the encapsulated drug from degradation and active targeting. These properties and the ease of adapting them for personalized clinical medicine have generated a significant research interest over the past decade. This review presents a detailed overview of the recent advances in the development of cell membrane-coated (CMC) mimics. The primary focus is to collate and discuss components, fabrication methodologies, and the significance of physiochemical and biological characterization techniques for validating a CMC mimic. We present a critical analysis of the two main components of CMC mimics: the template and the cell membrane and mapped their use in therapeutic scenarios. In addition, we have emphasized on the challenges associated with CMC mimics in their clinical translation. Overall, this review is an up to date toolbox that researchers can benefit from while designing and characterizing CMC mimics.

NK and T Cell Immunological Signatures in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus 2 emerged in Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and has severely challenged the human population. NK and T cells are involved in the progression of COVID-19 infection through the ability of NK cells to modulate T-cell responses, and by the stimulation of cytokine release. No detailed investigation of the NK cell landscape in clinical SARS-CoV-2 infection has yet been reported. A total of 35 COVID-19 hospitalised patients were stratified for clinical severity and 17 healthy subjects were enrolled. NK cell subsets and T cell subsets were analysed with flow cytometry. Serum cytokines were detected with a bead-based multiplex assay. Fewer CD56dimCD16brightNKG2A+NK cells and a parallel increase in the CD56+CD69+NK, CD56+PD-1+NK, CD56+NKp44+NK subset were reported in COVID-19 than HC. A significantly higher adaptive/memory-like NK cell frequency in patients with severe disease than in those with mild and moderate phenotypes were reported. Moreover, adaptive/memory-like NK cell frequencies were significantly higher in patients who died than in survivors. Severe COVID-19 patients showed higher serum concentrations of IL-6 than mild and control groups. Direct correlation emerged for IL-6 and adaptive/memory-like NK. All these findings provide new insights into the immune response of patients with COVID-19. In particular, they demonstrate activation of NK through overexpression of CD69 and CD25 and show that PD-1 inhibitory signalling maintains an exhausted phenotype in NK cells. These results suggest that adaptive/memory-like NK cells could be the basis of promising targeted therapy for future viral infections.

A Radioactive-Free Method for the Thorough Analysis of the Kinetics of Cell Cytotoxicity

The cytotoxic activity of T cells and Natural Killer cells is usually measured with the chromium release assay (CRA), which involves the use of 51Chromium (⁵¹Cr), a radioactive substance dangerous to the operator and expensive to handle and dismiss. The accuracy of the measurements depends on how well the target cells incorporate ⁵¹Cr during labelling which, in turn, depends on cellular division. Due to bystander metabolism, the target cells spontaneously release ⁵¹Cr, producing a high background noise. Alternative radioactive-free methods have been developed. Here, we compare a bioluminescence (BLI)-based and a carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE)-based cytotoxicity assay to the standard radioactive CRA. In the first assay, the target cells stably express the enzyme luciferase, and vitality is measured by photon emission upon the addition of the substrate d-luciferin. In the second one, the target cells are labelled with CFSE, and the signal is detected by Flow Cytometry. We used these two protocols to measure cytotoxicity induced by treatment with NK cells. The cytotoxicity of NK cells was determined by adding increasing doses of human NK cells. The results obtained with the BLI method were consistent with those obtained with the CRA- or CFSE-based assays 4 hours after adding the NK cells. Most importantly, with the BLI assay, the kinetic of NK cells’ killing was thoroughly traced with multiple time point measurements, in contrast with the single time point measurement the other two methods allow, which unveiled additional information on NK cell killing pathways.

Crosstalk between cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment: new findings and future perspectives

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a stromal cell population with cell-of-origin, phenotypic and functional heterogeneity, are the most essential components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Through multiple pathways, activated CAFs can promote tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, along with extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and even chemoresistance. Numerous previous studies have confirmed the critical role of the interaction between CAFs and tumor cells in tumorigenesis and development. However, recently, the mutual effects of CAFs and the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) have been identified as another key factor in promoting tumor progression. The TIME mainly consists of distinct immune cell populations in tumor islets and is highly associated with the antitumor immunological state in the TME. CAFs interact with tumor-infiltrating immune cells as well as other immune components within the TIME via the secretion of various cytokines, growth factors, chemokines, exosomes and other effector molecules, consequently shaping an immunosuppressive TME that enables cancer cells to evade surveillance of the immune system. In-depth studies of CAFs and immune microenvironment interactions, particularly the complicated mechanisms connecting CAFs with immune cells, might provide novel strategies for subsequent targeted immunotherapies. Herein, we shed light on recent advances regarding the direct and indirect crosstalk between CAFs and infiltrating immune cells and further summarize the possible immunoinhibitory mechanisms induced by CAFs in the TME. In addition, we present current related CAF-targeting immunotherapies and briefly describe some future perspectives on CAF research in the end.