趋化因子CXCL12 及其受体CXCR4 在胶质瘤中的研究进展

CXCL12是趋化因子家族成员之一,是能够特异性结合其受体CXCR4发挥趋化性作用的细胞因子。最初,CXCL12及CXCR4被发现于炎症细胞,参与机体炎症、免疫等病理反应。接下来的几年中发现,它在机体发育、成熟过程中也有重要作用。如今,大量研究表明它与肿瘤的生长、侵袭及转移密切相关。据报道,在乳腺癌、肺癌、卵巢癌等二十余种肿瘤组织中发现CXCL12及CXCR4的表达,其中也包括中枢系统肿瘤-胶质瘤。CXCL12/CXCR4参与胶质瘤生长过程的多个步骤,包括肿瘤增殖、侵袭、转移等。有实验指出,转移灶的CXCR4表达水平较原发灶高,CXCR4有可能成为抑制胶质瘤生长、转移的重要靶目标。     

趋化因子CXCL12及其受体CXCR4在胶质瘤中的研究进展

CXCL12是趋化因子家族成员之一,是能够特异性结合其受体CXCR4发挥趋化性作用的细胞因子。最初,CXCL12及CXCR4被发现于炎症细胞,参与机体炎症、免疫等病理反应。接下来的几年中发现,它在机体发育、成熟过程中也有重要作用。如今,大量研究表明它与肿瘤的生长、侵袭及转移密切相关。据报道,在乳腺癌、肺癌、卵巢癌等二十余种肿瘤组织中发现CXCL12及CXCR4的表达,其中也包括中枢系统肿瘤-胶质瘤。CXCL12/CXCR4参与胶质瘤生长过程的多个步骤,包括肿瘤增殖、侵袭、转移等。有实验指出,转移灶的CXCR4表达水平较原发灶高,CXCR4有可能成为抑制胶质瘤生长、转移的重要靶目标。     

抗血管生成治疗联合免疫检查点抑制剂 在NSCLC中的研究进展

血管生成是非小细胞肺癌(NSCLC)生长、复发和转移的关键环节。抗血管生成治疗可以通过使肿瘤血管及微环境正常化,改善肿瘤血供和含氧量,增强放、化疗效果。也可以抑制肿瘤内毛细血管生长,使肿瘤细胞进入休眠状态,并诱导其凋亡。因此,靶向抗血管生成已成为NSCLC治疗研究的主要方向。贝伐珠单抗和雷莫芦单抗已被批准用于联合一线标准化疗治疗局部晚期或转移性NSCLC。然而,在这一治疗过程中,肿瘤会逐渐对抗血管生成药物产生耐药,这可能与肿瘤微环境(tumor microenvironment,TME)的改变有关。最近,免疫检查点抑制剂(immune checkpoint inhibitors,ICI)已经取得了相当大的成功,但是反应率仍然被认为不是最佳的。因此,为了提高疗效,各种组合疗法正在测试中。临床前数据表明促血管生成因子具有免疫抑制作用,为ICI和抗血管生成药物联合使用提供了合理的解释。并且有研究认为,抗血管生成治疗与肿瘤免疫治疗相联合可能是一种相互增益的治疗策略。     

炎症细胞因子在肿瘤微环境中的作用及其作为治疗靶点的研究进展

肿瘤相关炎症是近年来肿瘤免疫领域的研究热点。炎症被称为恶性肿瘤的第八大生物学特征,其在肿瘤发生发展、侵袭转移过程中发挥重要作用。肿瘤微环境中存在大量的炎症细胞因子,如IL-1、IL-6、IL-12、IL-17、TNF-α和TGF-β,它们不仅可以募集炎症细胞到肿瘤部位,放大炎症效应,还可促进肿瘤细胞生长和转移,促进肿瘤血管、淋巴管生成。现主要从炎症细胞因子及肿瘤微环境入手,旨在探讨炎症细胞因子介导的慢性炎症在肿瘤发生发展过程中的重要作用,及其作为肿瘤治疗靶点的转化医学的研究进展及展望。     

肠道微生物群对肺部免疫微环境稳态影响的研究进展

肠道微生物群是与宿主共生的最大的微生态系统的重要组成部分,它们通过调节宿主的内分泌、代谢、神经和免疫微环境影响人体的多种基本功能。近年来,肠道微生物群对机体局部和远端免疫器官的影响引起了科学家们的广泛关注。肠道微生物和肺之间的相互作用被称为“肠-肺轴”,对肺部免疫微环境稳态的维持至关重要。研究表明,肠道微生物群失调与哮喘、肺炎和囊性纤维化等多种肺部疾病密切相关。本文将对肠道微生物群对肺部免疫微环境稳态的影响及在多种肺部疾病中的作用进行阐述,为临床通过调整肠道微生物群来治疗肺部疾病和维持肺部免疫微环境稳态提供理论依据。     

小窝蛋白-1：肿瘤细胞氧化应激靶标

细胞内异常的氧化代谢是肿瘤发生的标志之一。氧化代谢过程中产生的过量活性物质可能通过诱导基因突变和激活致癌通路促进细胞癌变。因此,抗氧化治疗被认为是肿瘤防治的重要策略。小窝蛋白-1 (caveolin-1, Cav-1)是胞膜窖的重要组成蛋白质,其分子量为22～24 kDa。Cav-1不仅直接参与胞膜窖结构的形成、膜泡运输、胆固醇稳态维持,还通过其"脚手架"结构域与众多信号分子相互作用,调控细胞的生长、发育和分化,具有非常广泛的生理和病理作用。研究表明,Cav-1能够通过调节氧化应激介导多种肿瘤的发生和发展,靶向激活Cav-1还可以清除氧化应激过程中产生的活性物质。细胞氧化应激产生的活性物质反过来也可以调节Cav-1的表达、降解、翻译后修饰和其介导的膜转运。多种抗氧化剂可以调节肿瘤细胞中Cav-1介导的信号转导途径从而发挥抗肿瘤活性。本文简要综述了Cav-1及氧化应激在肿瘤发生和发展中作用的最新研究进展,旨在为临床肿瘤防治提供新思路。     

间充质干细胞与肿瘤的关系

最近的研究表明问充质干细胞(mesenchymal stem cells,MSCs)与多种肿瘤的发生发展有密切关系.MSCs对多种肿瘤具有趋向性,外源性(局部混合注射或静脉注射)MSCs可参与肿瘤间质的形成,同时MSCs的免疫抑制作用可以促进肿瘤在体内的生长.通过细胞因子介导或直接的细胞接触,MSCs与多种肿瘤细胞之间存在相互作用.MSCs可以抑制肿瘤细胞的的凋亡,促进肿瘤细胞的增殖及肿瘤的转移.由于MSCs易于分离、体外扩增及进行基因修饰,因此可以利用MSCs对肿瘤的趋向性,使MSCs携带抗肿瘤基因来实现对肿瘤的靶向治疗.     

神经-免疫调控在呼吸道疾病中的研究进展

神经系统和免疫系统相对独立又相互作用,神经-免疫调控对于呼吸系统抵御外界有害刺激、维持稳态至关重要。神经-免疫之间密切关联、相互作用,参与了呼吸道疾病的发生与发展过程,形成了对炎症等反应监测和调节的环路。本文综述呼吸系统的神经-免疫调控及其在呼吸道疾病中的作用,为深入了解神经-免疫的交联效应、探索其在呼吸道疾病中的作用机制提供理论基础,为呼吸系统疾病的防治提供新思路。     

靶向CCL21/CCR7轴治疗肿瘤转移的研究进展

转移是肿瘤患者死亡最常见的原因,而淋巴转移是大多数肿瘤转移的主要途径之一。近年来,CC趋化因子配体21 (CC chemokine ligand 21,CCL21) 及其受体CC趋化因子受体7型 (CC chemokine receptor type 7,CCR7) 在淋巴转移中的作用逐渐受到关注。CCL21主要由淋巴内皮细胞产生,其与树突状细胞 (Dendritic cells,DCs) 和T细胞等表面CCR7的相互作用是免疫细胞淋巴迁移及淋巴结归巢的主要决定因素。然而,表达CCR7的肿瘤细胞也可以利用类似的机制进入淋巴管进行淋巴转移。如何靶向CCL21/CCR7轴,既能抑制淋巴转移,又不影响抗肿瘤免疫反应已成为肿瘤免疫治疗研究的重要议题。文中将对CCL21/CCR7轴在淋巴转移中的作用及其作为靶点治疗肿瘤转移的临床前和临床试验研究进行综述,为靶向CCL21/CCR7信号轴治疗肿瘤转移的相关研究提供参考。     

免疫微环境对肿瘤干细胞影响研究进展

肿瘤干细胞是肿瘤组织中一小群特殊的未分化的细胞,由于其对化疗药耐受及致瘤潜能,被认为是造成肿瘤发生、复发和转移的根源,所以深入了解肿瘤干细胞特性对提高肿瘤治疗效率有着重要临床意义.肿瘤微环境中的免疫细胞及其分泌的分子与肿瘤干细胞之间存在复杂的相互作用,可以维持肿瘤干细胞的干性及自我更新能力.目前,肿瘤免疫微环境对肿瘤干细胞的影响、肿瘤干细胞对免疫微环境的塑造作用以及靶向肿瘤干细胞或免疫微环境等研究,是肿瘤干细胞研究领域的热点问题.本文就免疫微环境对肿瘤干细胞的影响、靶向肿瘤干细胞及微环境治疗的研究进展进行了综述.     

Involvement of microRNA families in cancer

Collecting representative sets of cancer microRNAs (miRs) from the literature we show that their corresponding families are enriched in sets of highly interacting miR families. Targeting cancer genes on a statistically significant level, such cancer miR families strongly intervene with signaling pathways that harbor numerous cancer genes. Clustering miR family-specific profiles of pathway intervention, we found that different miR families share similar interaction patterns. Resembling corresponding patterns of cancer miRs families, such interaction patterns may indicate a miR family’s potential role in cancer. As we find that the number of targeted cancer genes is a naïve proxy for a cancer miR family, we design a simple method to predict candidate miR families based on gene-specific interaction profiles. Assessing the impact of miR families to distinguish between (non-)cancer genes, we predict a set of 84 potential candidate families, including 75% of initially collected cancer miR families. Further confirming their relevance, predicted cancer miR families are significantly indicated in increasing, non-random numbers of tumor types.     

Platelet-dependent signaling and Low Molecular Weight Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase expression promote aggressive phenotypic changes in gastrointestinal cancer cells

Over the last decades, some members of the protein tyrosine phosphatase family have emerged as cancer promoters. Among them, the Low Molecular Weight Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase (LMWPTP) has been described to be associated with colorectal cancer liver metastasis and poor prostate cancer prognosis. Of importance in the process of cancer progression and metastasis is the interaction between tumor cells and platelets, as the latter are thought to promote several tumor hallmarks. Here, we examine to what extent LMWPTP expression in tumor cells affects their interaction with platelets. We demonstrate that the gene encoding LMWPTP is overexpressed in upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer cell as well as colorectal cancer, and subsequently employ cell line models to show that the level of this phosphatase may be further augmented in the presence of platelets. We demonstrate that tumor-platelet interaction promotes GI tumor cell proliferation. Additionally, using know-down/-out models we show that LMWPTP expression in cancer cells contributes to a more efficient interaction with platelets and drives platelet-induced proliferation. These data are the first to demonstrate that phosphatases play a positive role in the tumor-promoting activities of platelets, with LMWPTP emerging as a key player promoting oncogenic phenotypic changes in tumor cells.     

MicroRNA-106b in cancer-associated fibroblasts from gastric cancer promotes cell migration and invasion by targeting PTEN

It is well established that the interaction between cancer cells and microenvironment has a critical role in tumor development, but the roles of miRNAs in this interaction are rarely known. Here, we have shown that miR-106b is up-regulated in cancer associated fibroblasts compared with normal fibroblasts established from patients with gastric cancer, the expression level of miR-106b is associated with poor prognosis of patients, and CAFs with down-regulated miR-106b could significantly inhibit gastric cancer cell migration and invasion by targeting PTEN. Taken together, these data suggest that miR-106b might be a novel candidate target for the treatment of gastric cancer.     

The functional cross talk between cancer cells and cancer associated fibroblasts from a cancer mechanics perspective

The function of biological tissues in health and disease is regulated at cellular level and is highly influenced by the physical microenvironment, through the interaction of forces between cells and ECM, which are perceived through mechanosensing pathways. In cancer, both chemical and physical signaling cascades and their interactions are involved during cell-cell and cell-ECM communications to meet requirements of tumor growth. Among stroma cells, cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play key role in tumor growth and pave the way for cancer cells to initiate metastasis and invasion to other tissues, and without recruitment of CAFs, the process of cancer invasion is dysfunctional. This is through an intense chemical and physical cross talks with tumor cells, and interactive remodeling of ECM. During such interaction CAFs apply traction forces and depending on the mechanical properties, deform ECM and in return receive physical signals from the micromechanical environment. Such interaction leads to ECM remodeling by manipulating ECM structure and its mechanical properties. The results are in form of deposition of extra fibers, stiffening, rearrangement and reorganization of fibrous structure, and degradation which are due to a complex secretion and expression of different markers triggered by mechanosensing of tumor cells, specially CAFs. Such events define cancer progress and invasion of cancer cells.A systemic knowledge of chemical and physical factors provides a holistic view of how cancer process and enhances the current treatment methods to provide more diversity among targets that involves tumor cells and ECM structure.     

Nervous system and gastric cancer

The nervous system has been recently shown to exert impact on gastric cancer directly and indirectly. Gastric cancer cells invade nerve fibers to induce outgrowth and branching of neural cells, and nerve fibers in turn infiltrate into tumor microenvironment to promote progression of gastric cancer. Additionally, the neuro-immune interaction also plays an important role in gastric cancer development. The interplay of nerves and gastric cancer is mediated by many nervous system-associated factors, which can not only be synthesized and released by both cancer cells and nerve terminals, but also participate in regulation of many aspects of gastric cancer such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis and recurrence. Furthermore, clinical researches indicate that some of these factors are significant diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers for gastric cancer. Herein, we reviewed recent advances and future prospects of the interaction between nervous system and gastric cancer.     

Gastric cancer biomarkers; A systems biology approach

Gastric cancer is one of the most fatal cancers in the world. Many efforts in recent years have attempted to find effective proteins in gastric cancer. By using a comprehensive list of proteins involved in gastric cancer, scientists were able to retrieve interaction information. The study of protein-protein interaction networks through systems biology based analysis provides appropriate strategies to discover candidate proteins and key biological pathways.In this study, we investigated dominant functional themes and centrality parameters including betweenness as well as the degree of each topological clusters and expressionally active sub-networks in the resulted network. The results of functional analysis on gene sets showed that neurotrophin signaling pathway, cell cycle and nucleotide excision possess the strongest enrichment signals. According to the computed centrality parameters, HNF4A, TAF1 and TP53 manifested as the most significant nodes in the interaction network of the engaged proteins in gastric cancer. This study also demonstrates pathways and proteins that are applicable as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for future attempts to overcome gastric cancer.