Extracellular‐signal‐regulated kinase/mitogen‐activated protein kinase signaling as a target for cancer therapy: an updated review

Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway is activated in a wide spectrum of human tumors, exhibiting cardinal oncogenic roles and sustained inhibition of this pathway is considered as a primary goal in clinic. Within this pathway, receptor tyrosine kinases such as epithelial growth factor receptor, mesenchymal–epithelial transition, and AXL act as upstream regulators of RAS/RAF/MEK/extracellular‐signal‐regulated kinase. MAPK signaling is active in both early and advanced stages of tumorigenesis, and it promotes tumor proliferation, survival, and metastasis. MAPK regulatory effects on cellular constituent of the tumor microenvironment is for immunosuppressive purposes. Cross‐talking between MAPK with oncogenic signaling pathways including WNT, cyclooxygenase‐2, transforming growth factor‐β, NOTCH and (in particular) with phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase is contributed to the multiplication of tumor progression and drug resistance. Developing resistance (intrinsic or acquired) to MAPK‐targeted therapy also occurs due to heterogeneity of tumors along with mutations and negative feedback loop of interactions exist between various kinases causing rebound activation of this signaling. Multidrug regimen is a preferred therapeutic avenue for targeting MAPK signaling. To enhance patient tolerance and to mitigate potential adversarial effects related to the combination therapy, determination of a desired dose and drug along with pre‐evaluation of cancer‐type‐specific kinase mutation and sensitivity, especially for patients receiving triplet therapy is an urgent need.     

肿瘤微环境中ROS介导IgG表达对膀胱癌细胞增殖和侵袭能力的影响

摘要 目的：探讨肿瘤微环境（TME）中活性氧（ROS）介导免疫球蛋白G（IgG）表达对膀胱癌EJ细胞增殖、迁移和侵袭能力的影响。方法：临床收集的18例膀胱癌患者样本,通过Western blot法检测膀胱癌和癌旁正常组织样本中IgG表达量。利用免疫荧光染色（IF）技术分别对膀胱癌组织和癌旁正常组织中ROS和IgG分子进行共定位和相对定量分析。将活性氧清除剂N-乙酰基-L-半胱氨酸（NAC）加入膀胱癌细胞EJ中,实验分为3组：空白组（EJ细胞）、阴性对照组（EJ+PBS）、实验组（EJ+PBS+NAC）,10 mM NAC药物处理48小时后,运用DHE-ROS荧光探针技术和Western blot实验检测药物NAC对ROS和IgG相对表达水平的影响;通过克隆集落形成实验、划痕实验、Transwell实验检测去除ROS后对膀胱癌细胞增殖、迁移和侵袭的影响。结果：人体膀胱癌组织中ROS和IgG分子表达水平显著高于癌旁正常组织（P<0.001）;荧光显微镜显示膀胱肿瘤组织中正常膀胱尿路上皮细胞组织被肿瘤细胞严重破坏,结构紊乱不规则,IgG和ROS表达水平均升高,而癌旁组织膀胱尿路上皮组织的结构均匀规则;NAC药物处理EJ细胞后,与空白组和阴性对照组相比ROS和IgG表达显著降低,同时实验组细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭能力明显下降（P<0.01）。结论：ROS和IgG在临床膀胱癌组织和体外膀胱癌细胞株EJ中均显著高表达,在肿瘤微环境中ROS通过调控IgG表达,从而促进膀胱癌细胞的增殖、迁移、侵袭。ROS和IgG可能成为膀胱癌早期诊断和生物治疗的临床新靶点。     

Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of prion protein gene in Xiji donkey in China

Prion diseases are a group of human and animal neurodegenerative disorders caused by the deposition of an abnormal isoform prion protein (PrP^Sc) encoded by a single copy prion protein gene (PRNP). Prion disease has been reported in many herbivores but not in Equus and the species barrier might be playing a role in resistance of these species to the disease. Therefore, analysis of genotype of prion protein (PrP) in these species may help understand the transmission of the disease. Xiji donkey is a rare species of Equus not widely reared in Ningxia, China, for service, food and medicine, but its PRNP has not been studied. Based on the reported PrP sequence in GenBank we designed primers and amplified, cloned and sequenced the PRNP of Xiji donkey. The sequence analysis showed that the Xiji donkey PRNP was consisted of an open reading frame of 768 nucleotides encoding 256 amino acids. Amino acid residues unique to donkey as compared with some Equus animals, mink, cow, sheep, human, dog, sika deer, rabbit and hamster were identified. The results showed that the amino acid sequence of Xiji donkey PrP starts with the consensus sequence MVKSH, with almost identical amino acid sequence to the PrP of other Equus species in this study. Amino acid sequence analysis showed high identity within species and close relation to the PRNP of sika deer, sheep, dog, camel, cow, mink, rabbit and hamster with 83.1–99.7% identity. The results provided the PRNP data for an additional Equus species, which should be useful to the study of the prion disease pathogenesis, resistance and cross species transmission.     

CD73; a key ectonucleotidase in the development of breast cancer: Recent advances and perspectives

Tumor cell invasion and metastasis are the definitive cause of mortality in breast cancer (BC). Hypoxia and pro-inflammatory cytokines upregulate the CD73 gene in the tumor microenvironment. Subsequently, CD73 triggers molecular and cellular signaling pathways by both enzymatic and nonenzymatic pathways, which finally leads to breast tumor progression and development. In this paper, we summarize current advances in the understanding of CD73-driven mechanisms that promote BC development and mortality. Furthermore, we evaluate the therapeutic potential of CD73 targeting in BC.     

A novel 3D heterotypic spheroid model for studying extracellular vesicle-mediated tumour and immune cell communication

Cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important mediators of tumour-host interactions, and they have been shown to exert various functional effects in immune cells. In most of the studies on human immune cells, EVs have been isolated from cancer cell culture medium or patients' body fluids and added to the immune cell cultures. In such a setting, the physiological relevance of the chosen EV concentration is unknown and the EV isolation method and the timing of EV administration may bias the results. In the current study we aimed to develop an experimental cell culture model to study EV-mediated effects in human T and B cells at conditions mimicking the tumour microenvironment. We constructed a human prostate cancer cell line PC3 producing GFP-tagged EVs (PC3-CD63-GFP cells) and developed a 3D heterotypic spheroid model composed of PC3-CD63-GFP cells and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The transfer of GFP-tagged EVs from PC3-CD63-GFP cells to the lymphocytes was analysed by flow cytometry and fluorescence imaging. The endocytic pathway was investigated using three endocytosis inhibitors. Our results showed that GFP-tagged EVs interacted with a large fraction of B cells, however, the majority of EVs were not internalised by B cells but rather remained bound at the cell surface. T cell subsets differed in their ability to interact with the EVs - 15.7–24.1% of the total CD3⁺ T cell population interacted with GFP-tagged EVs, while only 0.3–5.8% of CD8⁺ T were GFP positive. Furthermore, a fraction of EVs were internalised in CD3⁺ T cells via macropinocytosis. Taken together, the heterotypic PC3-CD63-GFP and PBMC spheroid model provides the opportunity to study the interactions and functional effects of cancer-derived EVs in human immune cells at conditions mimicking the tumour microenvironment.     

New insights into checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy and its combined therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma: from mechanisms to clinical trials

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most lethal tumors in China and worldwide, although first-line therapies for HCC, such as atezolizumab and bevacizumab, have been effective with good results, the researches on new therapies have attracted much attention. With the deepening research on tumor immunology, the role and operation mechanism of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of HCC have been explained, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) binding to ligand could cause T cell exhaustion and reduce IFN-γ T cell secretion, cytotoxic T lymphocyte 4 (CTLA-4) and CD28 mediate immunosuppression by competing for B7 protein and disrupting CD28 signal transduction pathway, which also lays the foundation for the development and application of more new immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The biological behavior of various immune checkpoints has been proved in HCC, such as PD-1, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), CTLA-4 and so on, leading to a series of clinical trials. Currently, FDA approved nivolumab, pembrolizumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab for the treatment of HCC. However, the treatment of ICI has the disadvantages of low response rate and many side effects, so the combination of ICIs and various other therapies (such as VEGF or VEGFR inhibition, neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy, locoregional therapies) has been derived. Further studies on immune checkpoint mechanisms may reveal new therapeutic targets and new combination therapies in the future.     

Cancer cell-specific cGAS/STING Signaling pathway in the era of advancing cancer cell biology

Pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) are critical to recognizing endogenous and exogenous threats to mount a protective proinflammatory innate immune response. PRRs may be located on the outer cell membrane, cytosol, and nucleus. The cGAS/STING signaling pathway is a cytosolic PRR system. Notably, cGAS is also present in the nucleus. The cGAS-mediated recognition of cytosolic dsDNA and its cleavage into cGAMP activates STING. Furthermore, STING activation through its downstream signaling triggers different interferon-stimulating genes (ISGs), initiating the release of type 1 interferons (IFNs) and NF-κB-mediated release of proinflammatory cytokines and molecules. Activating cGAS/STING generates type 1 IFN, which may prevent cellular transformation and cancer development, growth, and metastasis. The current article delineates the impact of the cancer cell-specific cGAS/STING signaling pathway alteration in tumors and its impact on tumor growth and metastasis. This article further discusses different approaches to specifically target cGAS/STING signaling in cancer cells to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis in conjunction with existing anticancer therapies.     

Tumor-associated macrophage-derived chemokine CCL5 facilitates the progression and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Background: Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) dominate the malignancy of cancers by perturbing the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, the clinical implications of heterogeneous subpopulations of TAMs in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remain to be elucidated.Methods: We comprehensively evaluated the prognostic implications, biological behaviors, and immunogenomics features of the C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5 (CCL5) expression and CCL5⁺ TME in vitro and in 932 real-world ccRCC patients from testing and public validation cohorts. Flow cytometry was used to examine the functional patterns of CCL5⁺ TAMs with TME cell-infiltrating characterizations.Results: Our results identified distinct prognostic clusters with gradual changes in clinicopathological indicators based on CCL5 expression. Knockdown of CCL5 significantly restrained cell viability, migration capabilities of ccRCC cells, and the inhibits the proliferation and chemotaxis of THP1-derived TAMs. Mechanically, down-regulation of CCL5 arrested epithelial-mesenchymal transition by modulating the PI3K/AKT pathway in ccRCC cells. In ccRCC samples with CCL5 upregulation, the proportion of CCL5⁺ TAMs and PD-L1⁺ CD68⁺ TAMs were prominently increased, showing a typical suppressive tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). Besides, intra-tumoral CCL5⁺ TAMs showed distinct pro-tumorigenic TME features characterized by exhausted CD8⁺ T cells and increased expression of immune checkpoints. Furthermore, elevated CCL5⁺ TAMs infiltration was prominently associated with a dismal prognosis for patients with ccRCC.Conclusion: In conclusion, this study first revealed the predictive value of the chemokine CCL5 on the progression and TME of ccRCC. The intra-tumoral CCL5⁺ TAMs could be applied to comprehensively evaluate the prognostic patterns as well as unique TME characteristics among individuals, allowing for the identification of immunophenotypes and promotion of treatment efficiency for ccRCC.     

Genetically modified IL2 bone-marrow-derived myeloid cells reprogram the glioma immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment

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