Baicalein enhances immune response in TNBC by inhibiting leptin expression of adipocytes

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a special pathological type of breast cancer (BC) with poor prognosis. Obesity is shown to be involved in TNBC tumor progression. The interaction between obesity and BC has generated great attention in recent years, however, the mechanism is still unclear. Here, we showed that leptin secreted by adipocytes upregulated PD-L1 expression in TNBC through the p-STAT3 signaling pathway and that baicalein inhibited PD-L1 expression in tumor microenvironment by suppressing leptin transcription of adipocytes. Collectively, our findings suggest that leptin may be the key factor participating in obesity-related tumor progression and that baicalein can break through the dilemma to boost the anti-tumor immune response.

A common variant SNP rs1937810 in the MPP7 gene contributes to the susceptibility of breast cancer in the Chinese Han population

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) is common cancer caused by environmental factors and genetic ones. Previous evidence has linked gene MAGUK P55 Scaffold Protein 7 (MPP7) to BC, despite that there has been no research evaluating the relationship between MPP7 genetic polymorphisms and BC susceptibility. We aimed to investigate the potential association of the MPP7 gene with the susceptibility to BC in Han Chinese individuals.

METHODS

In total, 1390 patients with BC and 2480 controls were enrolled. For genotyping, 20 tag SNPs were chosen. The serum levels of protein MPP7 were measured in all subjects using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Genetic association analysis was performed in both genotypic and allelic modes, and the relationship between BC patients' clinical features and genotypes of relevant SNPs was examined. The functional implications of significant markers were also evaluated.

RESULTS

After adjusting for Bonferroni correction, SNP rs1937810 was found to be significantly associated with the risk of BC (p = 1.19 × 10-4 ). The odds ratio of CC genotypes in BC patients was 49% higher than in controls (1.49 [1.23-1.81]). Serum MPP7 protein levels were significantly higher in BC patients than in controls (p < 0.001). The protein level of the CC genotype was the highest, and that of the CT and TT genotypes decreased in turn (both p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results linked SNP rs1937810 to the susceptibility of BC and the clinical features of BC patients. This SNP is also proved to be significantly related to the serum level of protein MPP7 in both BC patients and controls.

Integrin β6 deficiency protects mice from experimental colitis and colitis-associated carcinoma by altering macrophage polarization

Background

Given the key role of integrins in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, anti-integrin biologics in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are being investigated in full swing. However, the unsatisfactory efficacy and safety of current anti-integrin biologics in clinical trials limit their widespread use in clinic. Therefore, it is particularly important to find a target that is highly and specifically expressed in the intestinal epithelium of patients with IBD.

Methods

The function of integrin αvβ6 in IBD and colitis-associated carcinoma (CAC) with the underlying mechanisms has been less studied. In the present study, we detected the level of integrin β6 within inflammation including colitis tissues in human and mouse. To investigate the role of integrin β6 in IBD and CAC, integrin β6 deficient mice were hence generated based on the construction of colitis and CAC model.

Results

We noted that integrin β6 was significantly upregulated in inflammatory epithelium of patients with IBD. Integrin β6 deletion not only reduced infiltration of pro-inflammatory cytokines, but also attenuated disruption of tight junctions between colonic epithelial cells. Meanwhile, lack of integrin β6 affected macrophage infiltration in mice with colitis. This study further revealed that lack of integrin β6 could inhibit tumorigenesis and tumor progression in CAC model by influencing macrophage polarization, which was also involved in attenuating the degree of intestinal symptoms and inflammatory responses in mice suffering from colitis.

Conclusions

The present research provides a potentially new perspective and option for the treatment of IBD and CAC.

Stimuli-responsive platinum and ruthenium complexes for lung cancer therapy

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. More efficient treatments are desperately needed. For decades, the success of platinum-based anticancer drugs has promoted the exploration of metal-based agents. Four ruthenium-based complexes have also entered clinical trials as candidates of anticancer metallodrugs. However, systemic toxicity, severe side effects and drug-resistance impeded their applications and efficacy. Stimuli-responsiveness of Pt- and Ru-based complexes provide a great chance to weaken the side effects and strengthen the clinical efficacy in drug design. This review provides an overview on the stimuli-responsive Pt- and Ru-based metallic anticancer drugs for lung cancer. They are categorized as endo-stimuli-responsive, exo-stimuli-responsive, and dual-stimuli-responsive prodrugs based on the nature of stimuli. We describe various representative examples of structure, response mechanism, and potential medical applications in lung cancer. In the end, we discuss the future opportunities and challenges in this field.

Physiological Responses of the Firefly Pyrocoelia analis (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) to an Environmental Residue From Chemical Pesticide Imidacloprid

Imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, is widely applied to control insect pests across a broad spectrum. Though the impact of residues from this chemical pesticide on non-target organisms in the field has been reported, it was not well characterized across a wide range of ecosystems, especially for some species considered as environmental indicators that live in forests. The effects of sublethal dose of imidacloprid on firefly, Pyrocoelia analis, were analyzed physiologically and biochemically in this study to better understand the impact of chemical pesticide application on environmental indicators such as fireflies. After imidacloprid treatment, the midgut tissues of the larva presented an abnormal morphology featured as atrophy of fat body cells, shrinking cells, and the destruction of a midgut structure. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase were noticeably increased during early exposure to sublethal imidacloprid and then decreased at later stages. The malondialdehyde content significantly increased after 12 h of exposure to imidacloprid compared with the control. Similarly, the enzyme activities of polyphenol oxidase and acetylcholinesterase were increased after the imidacloprid treatment and then decreased at the later stage. In summary, a sublethal dose of imidacloprid caused destructive change in the tissue structure, and this damage was followed by an excessive reactive oxygen species that could not be eliminated by antioxidant enzymes. Our results indicated that the residues of imidacloprid might cause severe toxicity to non-target insects in the environment even far away from the agro-ecosystem where the chemicals were applied.

Exploring Immune-Related Prognostic Signatures in the Tumor Microenvironment of Colon Cancer

Background: Colon cancer is a common malignant tumor with poor prognosis. The aim of this study is to explore the immune-related prognostic signatures and the tumor immune microenvironment of colon cancer.

Methods: The mRNA expression data of TCGA-COAD from the UCSC Xena platform and the list of immune-related genes (IRGs) from the ImmPort database were used to identify immune-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then, we constructed an immune-related risk score prognostic model and validated its predictive performance in the test dataset, the whole dataset, and two independent GEO datasets. In addition, we explored the differences in tumor-infiltrating immune cell types, tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite status, and expression levels of immune checkpoints and their ligands between the high-risk and low-risk score groups. Moreover, the potential value of the identified immune-related signature with respect to immunotherapy was investigated based on an immunotherapeutic cohort (Imvigor210) treated with an anti-PD-L1 agent.

Results: Seven immune-related DEGs were identified as prognostic signatures. The areas under the curves (AUCs) of the constructed risk score model for overall survival (OS) were calculated (training dataset: 0.780 at 3 years, 0.801 at 4 years, and 0.766 at 5 years; test dataset: 0.642 at 3 years, 0.647 at 4 years, and 0.629 at 5 years; and the whole dataset: 0.642 at 3 years, 0.647 at 4 years, and 0.629 at 5 years). In the high-risk score group of the whole dataset, patients had worse OS, higher TMN stages, advanced pathological stages, and a higher TP53 mutation rate (p < 0.05). In addition, a high level of resting NK cells or M0 macrophages, and high TMB were significantly related to poor OS (p < 0.05). Also, we observed that high-risk score patients had a high expression level of PD-L1, PD-1, and CTLA-4 (p < 0.05). The patients with high-risk scores demonstrated worse prognosis than those with low-risk scores in multiple datasets (GSE39582: p = 0.0023; GSE17536: p = 0.0008; immunotherapeutic cohort without platinum treatment: p = 0.0014; immunotherapeutic cohort with platinum treatment: p = 0.0027).

Conclusion: We developed a robust immune-related prognostic signature that performed great in multiple cohorts and explored the characteristics of the tumor immune microenvironment of colon cancer patients, which may give suggestions for the prognosis and immunotherapy in the future.