[Research Progress of Tumor-Associated Neutrophils and Lung Cancer]

Coordination of Neutrophil and Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand in Inflammatory Diseases

As the most abundant innate immune cells, neutrophils play a key role in host's anti-infective activity and tissue damage/repair process of sterile inflammation. Due to the restriction of apoptosis and other regulatory mechanisms, neutrophils have a short survival time in vivo. Because of the death domain of cytoplasmic regions, some members of tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily (TNFRSF) are defined as death receptors, such as TNFR-I, Fas and DR4/DR5. TNF-α, FasL and TRAIL, which are known as apoptosis-inducing ligand, can bind to death receptors and activate intracellular apoptosis pathways to induce apoptosis. Accumulating studies found that these three apoptosis-inducing ligands play an important role in the immune system by coordinating with neutrophil, which including neutrophil recruitment/infiltration and function performing. In this review, we summarize existing studies targeting neutrophils as diagnosis and treatment for diseases, and focus on the involvement of neutrophils which regulated by apoptosis-inducing ligands in inflammatory diseases under current cognition.

Predictive value of PD-L1 and TMB for short-term efficacy prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer and construction of prediction models

Objective

To investigate the correlation between programmed death ligand 1(PD-L1), tumor mutation burden (TMB) and the short-term efficacy and clinical characteristics of anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor combination chemotherapy in NSCLC patients. The efficacy of the prediction model was evaluated.

Methods

A total of 220 NSCLC patients receiving first-line treatment with anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor combined with chemotherapy were retrospectively collected. The primary endpoint was short-term efficacy ORR. The correlation between short-term efficacy, PD-L1, TMB, and clinical characteristics using χ2 test or t-test was evaluated. Screen the independent prognostic factors using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, and construct a nomogram prediction model using the "rms" package in R software. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to evaluate the independent Prognostic factors and the prediction model. Using decision curve analysis (DCA) to verify the superiority of the prediction model.

Results

The mean values of PD-L1, TMB, neutrophils, lymphocytes, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and albumin were the highest in the ORR group, PD-L1 expression and TMB correlated with epidermal growth factor receptor expression. Multivariate analyses showed that PD-L1, TMB, and neutrophil were independent prognostic factors for ORR. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of the ROC constructed based on these three indicators were 0.7104, 0.7139, and 0.7131, respectively. The AUC value under the ROC of the nomogram model was 0.813. The DCA of the model showed that all three indicators used together to build the prediction model of the net return were higher than those of the single indicator prediction model.

Conclusion

PD-L1, TMB, and neutrophils are independent prognostic factors for short-term efficacy. The nomogram prediction model constructed using these three indicators can further improve predictive efficacy of ICIs in patients with NSCLC.

Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Its Related miRNAs in Tumor Progression

MiRNA is a type of small non-coding RNA, by regulating downstream gene expression that affects the progression of multiple diseases, especially cancer. MiRNA can participate in the biological processes of tumor, including proliferation, invasion and escape, and exhibit tumor enhancement or inhibition. The tumor immune microenvironment contains numerous immune cells. These cells include lymphocytes with tumor suppressor effects such as CD8+ T cells and natural killer cells, as well as some tumor-promoting cells with immunosuppressive functions, such as regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. MiRNA can affect the tumor immune microenvironment by regulating the function of immune cells, which in turn modulates the progression of tumor cells. Investigating the role of miRNA in regulating the tumor immune microenvironment will help elucidate the specific mechanisms of interaction between immune cells and tumor cells, and may facilitate the use of miRNA as a predictor of immune disorders in tumor progression. This review summarizes the multifarious roles of miRNA in tumor progression through regulation of the tumor immune microenvironment, and provides guidance for the development of miRNA drugs to treat tumors and for the use of miRNA as an auxiliary means in tumor immunotherapy.