NKG2D及其配体在肿瘤免疫中的研究进展

活化性受体NKG2D（natural-killer group 2,member D）及其配体在NK、γδ＋T和CD8＋T细胞介导的肿瘤免疫应答中扮演了重要角色。深入理解NKG2D及其配体在肿瘤免疫中的作用有助于临床预防和治疗肿瘤。该文阐述了NKG2D的分子结构特性、表达调控及其配体的分类和表达调控;主要介绍了NKG2D及其配体在肿瘤免疫中的作用;最后分析了NKG2D免疫途径中存在的问题和治疗应用前景。     

MICA 脱落与肿瘤免疫逃逸：肿瘤免疫治疗新靶标和新策略

MHC Ⅰ类链相关分子（MICA）是自然杀伤细胞和T 细胞上NKG2D 受体的主要活化性配体,在上皮源性肿瘤细胞表面过表达。NKG2D 与MICA 的结合可有效刺激效应细胞对肿瘤细胞的细胞毒作用。然而,临床观察表明,MICA 会在肿瘤的增殖过程中脱落而形成可溶性MICA（sMICA）,这被认为是肿瘤细胞逃脱NKG2D 介导的免疫监视的重要原因。综述在肿瘤细胞中MICA 和NKG2D 的表达与功能、sMICA 的形成与肿瘤免疫逃逸的关联以及介导MICA 脱落的机制,由此探讨肿瘤免疫治疗的新靶点和新策略。     

NKG2D免疫受体及其配体的作用

受到感染或损伤的细胞通过中间受体将信号传导至机体的免疫系统,NKG2D即是这样一种典型的具有较高免疫原性的免疫受体,它的主要作用是传导受损伤细胞产生的信号,诱导机体产生免疫应答。该文总结了近期关于NKG2D和其配体的多样性,以及NKG2D和其配体在信号传导,刺激免疫细胞产生,肿瘤细胞的监督和疾病预防方面的新发现。     

乳腺癌与MICA基因多态性的相关性研究

目的:研究海南汉族人群MICA等位基因的多态性与乳腺癌的相关性。方法:采用PCR-SSP和PCRSBT方法对样本MICA等位基因的多态性进行检测分析。结果:乳腺癌患者中有检测出10种MICA等位基因,其中MICA*002/019基因型频率较对照组显著偏低(OR=0.32,Pc0.05)。结论:MICA*002/019基因型可能与乳腺癌的保护相关。     

肿瘤免疫逃逸与T淋巴细胞关系的研究进展

阐明肿瘤免疫逃逸是防止肿瘤发生、诊断肿瘤发展以及治愈肿瘤的关键。肿瘤逃避免疫监视(immunosurveillance)已知与宿主免疫低下、T细胞无能,和肿瘤抗原缺失和调变、肿瘤漏逸、缺乏共刺激通路信号等相关,总结了近期研究进展,围绕肿瘤和T淋巴细胞相互关系,从T细胞对肿瘤识别和耐受、肿瘤下调识别分子导致活化T细胞丧失识别能力、肿瘤抵抗凋亡助其逃逸免疫、肿瘤通过抑制性受体和分子诱导T细胞无能耐受和凋亡、肿瘤细胞攻击T细胞逃避免疫、和肿瘤依赖Treg和MDSC抑制免疫等方面总结了理解思路,对肿瘤免疫消除(elimination)、免疫相持(equilibrium)和免疫逃逸(escape)三个阶段对抗T细胞免疫监视的机理提供参考,对肿瘤治疗具有重要意义。     

MICA/B分子研究进展

MICA/B基因具有高度多态性,所编码的蛋白是NKG2D的主要配体,MICA/B蛋白结合NKG2D后介导NK和T细胞等的活化及细胞杀伤效应.应激条件下,MICA/B蛋白高表达于细胞表面,并以游离的sMICA/B蛋白分子形式进入细胞外液.越来越多的研究证实MICA/B分子与肿瘤、感染、移植排斥、自身免疫病等多种炎性疾病相关,因此对其表达调控的研究是当前的热点.主要从MICA/B分子与疾病相关性、表达调控及其临床应用等方面近年来的研究进展进行综述.     

肿瘤免疫疗法中免疫检查点的研究进展

免疫检查点(immune chenkpoint)是存在于免疫系统中的抑制性信号通路,对外周组织中免疫反应强度、持续性予以调节,防止组织损伤,并在维持自身抗原耐受性的过程中发挥作用。T细胞识别、清除肿瘤的过程受到诸多信号通路、配体/受体的严密调控。免疫检查点疗法就是一类通过调节T细胞活性来提高抗肿瘤免疫反应的治疗方法。目前,通过抑制免疫检查点阻断信号以调节T细胞活性增强其抗肿瘤效应是肿瘤治疗热点,例如利用CTLA-4(cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen4)、PD-1(programmed cell death1)、PD-L1(programmed cell death 1 ligand)的拮抗剂以及其它药物干扰免疫检查点,可直接刺激细胞毒性T细胞的活化进而启动抗肿瘤免疫,介导持续的肿瘤抑制过程。而联合使用免疫检查点阻断剂加强肿瘤抑制效果也在进行深入研究。免疫检查点信号通路的生物学机制目前获得诸多进展,本文就一些已应用于临床的免疫检查点及其它新型免疫检查点的研究进展加以综述。     

MICA基因多态性与海南人群HBV易感关联性研究

研究MICA等位基因多态性与海南人群HBV感染易感性之间的关联性。采用PCR-SSP和PCR-SBT方法对样本MICA等位基因的多态性进行检测。HBV感染患者中共检出10种MICA等位基因和5种MICA-STR等位基因,和对照组相比较,MICA*010、MICA-A5等位基因可能对HBV感染易感(MICA*010:OR=3. 88,95%CI:2. 19～6. 85,P=0. 000; MICA-A5:OR=1. 27,95%CI:0. 92～1. 77,P=0. 0068)。MICA*008/045基因型可能对HBV感染不易感,MICA*010/010纯合子基因型可能对HBV易感(MICA*008/045:OR=0. 09,95%CI:0. 01～1. 74,P=0. 0071; MICA*010/010:OR=4. 41,95%CI:1. 26～15. 46,P=0. 0106)。MICA等位基因多态性与海南人群HBV感染的易感性间存在关联性。     

MICA/B基因多态性与血吸虫病相关性研究

本研究采用PCR-SSP与PCR-SBT方法对正常健康对照组与血吸虫病感染组、血吸虫病性重度肝纤维化病人组和轻度肝纤维化病人组中MICA/B基因进行分型,并比较各组基因的多态性。结果在血吸虫感染组与健康对照组中共发现13种MICA等位基因和5种MICA-STR基因型,MICA*012:01(11.58%vs 5.83%)、MI-CA*017(2.11%vs 0.00%)及MICA*027(3.16%vs 0.97%)在对照人群组较血吸虫病人组中分布频率较高,但Pc值显示没有统计学意义(Pc>0.05)。MICA-STR型别分析显示,MICA-STR与血吸虫病易感没有相关性,但MICA*A5基因型的分布频率在重度肝纤维化组显著高于轻度肝纤维化组(45.10%vs 26.92%,Pc<0.05)。在血吸虫病人组中一共检出10种MICB等位基因。在本研究人群中未发现与日本血吸虫感染显著相关的MICB等位基因。同时MICB等位基因多态性在重度纤维化组、轻度纤维化组、以及正常对照组相互之间均无显著的相关性。研究显示在血吸虫病人组中,MICA和MICB具有连锁不平衡,其中单倍型MICB*008-MICA*002:01和MICB*014-MICA*045在血吸虫病人组中显示具有显著的连锁不平衡。     

肿瘤逃逸新机制

基因毒性或细胞应激可诱导自然杀伤细胞活化性受体的表达，即NKG2D受体，从而激活自然杀伤细胞，并向效应T细胞提供共刺激活化信号，继而促进机体免疫系统对抗应激，对机体发挥保护作用。肿瘤发生时，肿瘤相关配体同样激活这条通路，利于机体对肿瘤细胞的清除。然而，人类进展期肿瘤细胞通过水解释放可溶性Ⅰ类主要组织相关性复合体相关的配体MICA，阻断上述通路，从而逃脱这种抗肿瘤机制。     

Clinical significance of the NKG2D ligands,MICA/B and ULBP2 in ovarian cancer: high expression of ULBP2 is an indicator of poor prognosis

Objective  To investigate the clinical significance of the expression of the NKG2D ligands MICA/B and ULBP2 in ovarian cancer. Methods  Eighty-two ovarian cancer patients and six patients without ovarian cancer from Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Kyoto University Hospital were enrolled in this study between 1993 and 2003. Expression of MICA/B, ULBP2, and CD57 in ovarian cancer tissue and normal ovary tissue was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining, and the relationship of these results to relevant clinical patient data was analyzed. Expression of MICs, ULBP2, and HLA-class I molecules in 33 ovarian cancer cell lines and two normal ovarian epithelial cell lines, as well as levels of soluble MICs and ULBP2 in the culture supernatants, were measured. Results  Expression of MICA/B and ULBP2 was detected in 97.6 and 82.9% of ovarian cancer cells, respectively, whereas neither was expressed on normal ovarian epithelium. The expression of MICA/B in ovarian cancer was highly correlated with that of ULBP2. Strong expression of ULBP2 in ovarian cancer cells was correlated with less intraepithelial infiltration of T cells and bad prognoses for patients, suggesting that ULBP2 expression is a prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer. The expression of NKG2D ligands did not correlate with the levels of the soluble forms of the ligands. Conclusions  High expression of ULBP2 is an indicator of poor prognosis in ovarian cancer and may relate to T cell dysfunction in the tumor microenvironment. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. This work was supported by grants from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (19390426, 19591932, 18209052 and 19659421) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology of Japan.     

Soluble MICB in malignant diseases: analysis of diagnostic significance and correlation with soluble MICA

Expression of ligands of the immunoreceptor NKG2D such as MICA and MICB has been proposed to play an important role in the immunosurveillance of tumors. Proteolytic shedding of NKG2D ligands from cancer cells therefore constitutes an immune escape mechanism impairing anti-tumor reactivity by NKG2D-bearing cytotoxic lymphocytes. Serum levels of sMICA have been shown to be of diagnostic significance in malignant diseases of various origins. Here, we investigated the potential of soluble MICB, the sister molecule of MICA, as a marker in cancer and its correlation with soluble MICA. Analysis of MICB in sera of 512 individuals revealed slightly higher MICB levels in patients with various malignancies (N = 296; 95th percentile 216 pg/ml; P = 0.069) than in healthy individuals (N = 62; 95th percentile 51 pg/ml). Patients with benign diseases (N = 154; 95th percentile 198 pg/ml) exhibited intermediate MICB levels. In cancer patients, elevated MICB levels correlated significantly with cancer stage and metastasis (P = 0.007 and 0.007, respectively). Between MICB and MICA levels, only a weak correlation was found (r = 0.24). Combination of both markers resulted only in a slightly higher diagnostic power in the high specificity range. The reduction of MICA and MICB surface expression on cells by shedding and the effects of sMICA and sMICB in serum on host lymphocyte NKG2D expression might play a role in late stages of tumor progression by overcoming the confining effect of NK cells and CD8 T cells. While MICB levels are not suited for the diagnosis of cancer in early stages, they may provide additional information for the staging of cancer disease.Alexander Steinle and Helmut R. Salih contributed equally to this work.     

MMP9 mediates MICA shedding in human osteosarcomas

The MICA (MHC class I chain-related molecule A) is a ligand for the activating immunoreceptor NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D). NKG2D recognizes MICA expressing at the cell surface for cell elimination. Although MICA is overexpressed in many kinds of tumours, tumour cells can cleverly escape immunosurveillance. One underlying mechanism for immunoescape is tumour-derived MICA shedding. In this study, we report that osteosarcoma-derived MICA results from proteolytic cleavage of MICA α3 ectodomain. sMICA (soluble MICA) might be released in the early stage of disease. A MMP9 (matrix metalloproteinase 9, gelatinase B)-specific inhibitor suppressed sMICA release, indicating that MMP9 is critically involved in the osteosarcoma-associated proteolytic release of sMICA, which facilitates tumour immune escape. Using a specific MMP inhibitor might represent a double-edged sword, where it can inhibit tumour invasion and restore antitumour immune response.     

NKG2D及其配体研究进展

NKG2D在NK细胞以及T细胞参与的免疫过程中占有重要的地位。本文介绍了NKG2D受体复合体的组成、结构、功能及表达调控;同时介绍了NKG2D配体的分类,病原体感染对其表达的诱导作用以及异常NKG2D配体的表型及功能,最后简要分析了NKG2D免疫途径在肿瘤免疫和治疗方面的应用前景。     

Toll样受体与肿瘤免疫

Toll样受体(Toll-like receptor)是天然免疫系统中最重要的模式识别受体,在病原体感染过程中对入侵病原体的识别,激活免疫应答起重要作用。近年发现Toll样受体在多种肿瘤的发生过程中起重要的调控作用。Toll样受体在肿瘤细胞中具有表达,并且Toll样受体信号诱导的促炎症反应是肿瘤发生的必要条件,但是有些Toll样受体的配体仍然表现出极强的抗肿瘤活性,目前,Toll样受体在肿瘤免疫中的机制研究已经成为Toll样受体作为药物靶点的临床应用的关键。本文对Toll样受体在肿瘤免疫中的机制进行综述。