MOTAWA E. EL-HOUSEINI¹, MOSTAFA S. ARAFAT², AHMED M. EL-HUSSEINY³, ISLAM M. KASEM², MAHMOUD M. KAMEL⁴, AHMED H. EL-HABASHY⁵, MEDHAT M. KHAFAGY⁶, ENAS M. RADWAN⁴, MAHA H. HELAL⁷, MONA S. ABDELLATEIF^1,*

Oncology Research, Vol.29, No.5, pp. 319-329, 2021, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.025249 - 10 October 2022

Abstract Immunotherapy becomes a promising line of treatment for breast cancer (BC) however, its success rate is still limited. Methods: The study was designed to optimize the condition for producing an effective dendritic cell (DCs) based immunotherapy by using DCs and T lymphocytes together with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor-infiltrating DCs (TIDCs), treated with anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibodies. This mixture of immune cells was co-cultured with autologous breast cancer cells (BCCs) isolated from 26 BC females. Results: There was a significant upregulation of CD86 and CD83 on DCs (P = 0.001 and 0.017, respectively), similarly upregulation of… More >

Yudie Yang^*1, Xia Zhang^†1, Yajie Gao^*, Yan Dong^*, Di Wang^*, Yanping Huang^*, Tianhao Qu^*, Buqun Fan^*, Qizheng Li^*, Chunxia Zhang^*, Xiaonan Cui^*, Bin Zhang^*

Oncology Research, Vol.29, No.1, pp. 63-74, 2021, DOI:10.3727/096504022X16462176651719

Abstract Lung cancer is a malignant tumor with high incidence and mortality across the world. The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for lung cancer has improved the prognosis of some lung cancer patients to a greater extent and provided a new direction for the clinical treatment of lung cancer. Immunotherapy still has limitations in terms of its appropriate population and adverse reactions. Particularly for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, there has been no major breakthrough in current immunotherapy. Whether immunotherapy can bring new benefits after drug resistance is More >

Mengdan Ma^1,2, Yuchen Liu^1,*, Weiren Huang^1,*

Oncologie, Vol.23, No.4, pp. 463-492, 2021, DOI:10.32604/oncologie.2022.019415 - 31 December 2021

Abstract The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system, which is an RNA-guided nuclease system, plays an important role in the adaptive immune response of bacteria, and it is a rapidly developing gene editing technology. It has been widely used in a variety of cells, microorganisms, plants, and animals. This technique has helped to overcome the limitations of previous gene editing methods, and it has promoted the development of synthetic biology, genetics, and proteomics. The ability of the CRISPR-Cas system to modify the genetic components of a system has led to various practical applications, such… More >

Sridha Ganesh¹, Rui Wang¹, Honglei Chen^1,2

Oncologie, Vol.23, No.3, pp. 335-350, 2021, DOI:10.32604/oncologie.2021.018610 - 26 September 2021

Abstract Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes about 84% of lung cancer. Hence, increased efforts have been fueled into immunotherapy of NSCLC with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). ICIs have recently taken off as promising immune-therapeutic methods that have slowed down the progress of NSCLC and equipped patients with survival advantages. However, the long-term respondents tally is less than 20% of the population. This low response rate warrants the need for dynamic biomarkers which will provide insight into the possible response of patients to ICIs. Biomarkers are biological molecules that predict the pathologic state of patients and… More >

Weifeng Ren^1,2,#, Xiaomeng Cai^2,3,#, Jun Chen^2,3,#, Lifo Ruan^2,3, Huiru Lu², Jiayu Zhang^2,3, Yi Hu^2,3,*, Jimin Gao^1,*

Oncologie, Vol.23, No.3, pp. 359-371, 2021, DOI:10.32604/Oncologie.2021.018605 - 26 September 2021

Abstract This study reported the construction of GM-CSF-loaded chitosan/graphene oxide nanoparticles for photothermal therapy-assisted immunotherapy against murine orthotopic bladder cancer. The encapsulated GM-CSF in chitosan/graphene oxide nanoparticles facilitated their immobilization on biotinylated mouse orthotopic bladder cancer surface, resulting in slow release of antitumor immune adjuvant. Locally released GM-CSF efficiently recruited dendritic cells to bladder tumor sites, thereby promoting immune responses in mice. Thus, the activated immune response in mice provided enhanced antitumor effects. Meanwhile, the thermal effect from the nanoparticles upon light irradiation induced a significant increase in dendritic cells and T cells compared with other More >

FRANCESCO MAININI^*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1171-1173, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.017399 - 12 July 2021

Abstract Adoptive cell therapy and Immune Checkpoint Blockade Inhibitors have recently revolutionized the field of oncology. However, these types of immunotherapeutic approaches have limited success in treating solid tumors. In particular, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells efficacy is hampered by immunosuppressive signals in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and by a limited infiltration of re-infused T cells to the tumor site. The field of nanobiotechnology applied to oncology is also rapidly expanding. Nanoparticles-based delivery systems can be employed to modulate the activity of immune cells present in the TME enhancing the efficacy of CAR-T cells. Interestingly, nano-backpacks More >

ZHIXIONG WANG^1,2, NA RISU², JIAYU FU², HUI LIU³, GUOMIN ZHOU³, QIAN LIU³, YAN ZOU⁴, JIAXING TANG⁴, LONG LI⁴, XUEKAI ZHU^4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.1, pp. 157-165, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.010261 - 26 January 2021

Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is mostly limited to hematological malignancies and has a poor effect on solid tumors. CAR T cells as a kind of immune cell may be affected by some immunomodulatory drugs such as pomalidomide, so the use of pomalidomide may improve the effect of CAR T cells on solid tumors. In this study, CD133- or HER2-specific CAR T cells were chosen to investigate whether pomalidomide can regulate the function of CAR T cells in vitro. We found that pomalidomide can significantly enhance the ability of CD133-CAR T cells and HER2-CAR T More >

Lili Deng^*1, Xue Yang^†1, Jun Fan^*, Yuedi Ding^*, Ying Peng^*, Dong Xu^*, Biao Huang^*‡, Zhigang Hu^†

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.6, pp. 579-590, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X15942028641011

Abstract Colorectal cancer is an aggressive malignancy for which there are limited treatment options. Oncolytic vaccinia virus is being developed as a novel strategy for cancer therapy. Arming vaccinia virus with immunostimulatory cytokines can enhance the tumor cell-specific replication and antitumor efficacy. Interleukin-24 (IL-24) is an important immune mediator, as well as a broad-spectrum tumor suppressor. We constructed a targeted vaccinia virus of Guang9 strain harboring IL-24 (VG9-IL-24) to evaluate its antitumor effects. In vitro, VG9-IL-24 induced an increased number of apoptotic cells and blocked colorectal cancer cells in the G₂ /M phase of the cell cycle. More >

Bo Ling, Zuliang Huang, Suoyi Huang, Li Qian, Genliang Li, Qianli Tang

Oncology Research, Vol.28, No.6, pp. 561-578, 2020, DOI:10.3727/096504020X15907428281601

Abstract There is growing evidence on the clinical significance of tumor microenvironment (TME) cells in predicting prognosis and therapeutic effects. However, cell interactions in tumor microenvironments have not been thoroughly studied or systematically analyzed so far. In this study, 22 immune cell components in the lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) TME were analyzed using gene expression profile from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The TME-based molecular subtypes of LUAD were defined to evaluate further the relationship between molecular subtypes, prognosis, and clinical characteristics. A TME risk score model was constructed by using the More >

Longwei Liu¹, Praopim Limsakul¹, Shaoying (Kathy) Lu¹, Peter Yingxiao Wang^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 82-82, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07360

Abstract Genetically-encoded biosensors based on Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET biosensors) have been widely used to dynamically track the activity of Protein Tyrosine Kinases (PTKs) in living cells because of their sensitive ratiometric fluorescence readout, high spatiotemporal resolution. However, the limitation in sensitivity, specificity, and dynamic range of these biosensors have hindered their broader applications, and there was a lack of efficient ways to optimize FRET biosensors. Here we established a rapid, systematic and universal approach for FRET biosensor optimization through directed evolution which involves generating genetic diversity and screening for protein variants with desired properties… More >