Nanotherapy: New Approach for Impeding Hepatic Cancer Microenvironment via Targeting Multiple Molecular Pathways

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironment has been recognized as a key contributor for cancer progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. The crosstalk between tumor cells, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) signaling networks mediates immunoinhibitory impact and facilitates tumor angiogenesis. The current investigation aimed at exploring the potent anti-cancer activity of the newly designed nano-based anti-cancer therapy comprising anti-VEGF drug, avastin (AV), and CCR2 antagonist (CR) to counteract HCC and tracking its mode of action in vivo. Methods: The prepared AV, CR, and AVCR nanoprototypes were characterized by nanoscale characterization techniques in our previous work. Here, they are applied for unearthing their anti-cancer properties / mechanisms in hepatic cancer-induced rats via analyzing protein levels and genetic expression of the elements incorporated in the angiogenesis, apoptosis, and metastasis signalling pathways. Results: The present results revealed a significant down-regulation in the angiogenesis, survival and metastasis indices along with up-regulation in the pro-apoptotic mediators upon treatment of hepatic cancer-bearing rats with the novel synthesized nanomaterials when compared with the untreated counterparts. We showed across HCC model that anti-VEGF in combination with CCR2 antagonism therapy leads to sensitization and enhanced tumor response over anti-VEGF or CCR2 antagonism monotherapy, particularly in its nanoscale formulation. Conclusion: The present approach provides new mechanistic insights into the powerful anti-hepatic cancer advantage of the novel nanoprototypes which is correlated with modulating critical signal transduction pathways implicated in tumor microenviroment such as angiogenesis, apoptosis and metastasis. This research work presents a substantial foundation for future studies focused on prohibiting cancer progression and recovery by targeting tumor microenviroment.     

Special issue “The advance of solid tumor research in China”: Multi-omics analysis based on 1311 clear cell renal cell carcinoma samples identifies a glycolysis signature associated with prognosis and treatment response

In clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), glycolysis is enhanced mainly because of the increased expression of key enzymes in glycolysis. Hence, the discovery of new molecular biomarkers for glycolysis may help guide and establish a precise system of diagnosis and treatment for ccRCC. Expression profiles of 1079 tumor samples of ccRCC patients (including 311 patients treated with everolimus or nivolumab) were downloaded from public databases. Proteomic profiles of 232 ccRCC samples were obtained from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC). Biological changes, tumor microenvironment and prognostic differences were explored between samples with various glycolysis characteristics. There were significant differences in CD8⁺ effector T cells, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and pan-fibroblast TGFb between the Low and High glyScore groups. The tumor mutation burden of the Low glyScore group was lower than that of the High glyScore group. And higher glyScore was significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS) in 768 ccRCC patients (P < .0001). External validation in FUSCC cohort also indicated that glyScore was of strong ability for predicting OS (P < .05). GlyScore may serve as a biomarker for predicting everolimus response in ccRCC patients due to its significant associations with progression-free survival (PFS). And glyScore may also predict overall survival in patients treated with nivolumab. We calculated the glyScore in ccRCC and the defined glyScore was of strong ability for predicting OS. In addition, glyScore may also serve as a biomarker for predicting PFS in patients treated with everolimus and could predict OS in patients treated with nivolumab.     

Immunotherapy: A new standard in the treatment of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Renal cell cancer (RCC) represents 2%-3% of all adulthood cancers and is the most common malignant neoplasm of the kidney (90%). In the mid-nineties of the last century, the standard of treatment for patients with metastatic RCC was cytokines. Sunititib and pazopanib were registered in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and have since been the standard first-line treatment for metastatic clear cell RCC (mccRCC). Renal cell cancer is a highly immunogenic tumor with tumor infiltrating cells, including CD8+ T lymphocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cells (NK) and macrophages. This observation led to the design of new clinical trials in which patients were treated with immunotherapy. With the growing evidence that proangiogenic factors can have immunomodulatory effects on the host’s immune system, the idea of combining angiogenic drugs with immunotherapy has emerged, and new clinical trials have been designed. In the last few years, several therapeutic options have been approved [immunotherapy and immunotherapy/tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI)] for the first-line treatment of mccRCC. Nivolumab/ipilimumab is approved for the treatment of patients with intermediate and poor prognoses. Several checkpoint inhibitors (pembrolizumab, nivolumab, avelumab) in combination with TKI (axitinib, lenvatinib, cabozantinib) are approved for the treatment of patients regardless of their International mRCC Database Consortium prognostic group and PD-L1 expression. There is no specific and ideal biomarker that could help in selecting the ideal patient for the appropriate first-line treatment.     

Tumor-induced erythroid precursor-differentiated myeloid cells mediate immunosuppression and curtail anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment efficacy

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Chronic acidosis rewires cancer cell metabolism through PPARα signaling

The mechanisms linking tumor microenvironment acidosis to disease progression are not understood. Here, we used mammary, pancreatic, and colon cancer cells to show that adaptation to growth at an extracellular pH (pH_e) mimicking acidic tumor niches is associated with upregulated net acid extrusion capacity and elevated intracellular pH at physiological pH_e, but not at acidic pH_e. Using metabolic profiling, shotgun lipidomics, imaging and biochemical analyses, we show that the acid adaptation-induced phenotype is characterized by a shift toward oxidative metabolism, increased lipid droplet-, triacylglycerol-, peroxisome content and mitochondrial hyperfusion. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARA, PPARα) expression and activity are upregulated, at least in part by increased fatty acid uptake. PPARα upregulates genes driving increased mitochondrial and peroxisomal mass and β-oxidation capacity, including mitochondrial lipid import proteins CPT1A, CPT2 and SLC25A20, electron transport chain components, peroxisomal proteins PEX11A and ACOX1, and thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), a negative regulator of glycolysis. This endows acid-adapted cancer cells with increased capacity for utilizing fatty acids for metabolic needs, while limiting glycolysis. As a consequence, the acid-adapted cells exhibit increased sensitivity to PPARα inhibition. We conclude that PPARα is a key upstream regulator of metabolic changes favoring cancer cell survival in acidic tumor niches.     

黄芩苷改善肿瘤缺氧微环境抑制乳腺癌移植瘤的生长＊

目的 通过观察黄芩苷对乳腺癌组织毛细血管通透性（Capillary Vessel Permeability，CVP）、赖氨酰氧化酶（Lysyl Oxidase，LOX）及血清丙二醛（Malondialdehyde，MDA）等相关指标的影响，探讨黄芩苷可能的抗乳腺癌作用机制。方法 通过在裸鼠皮下接种MDA-MB-231乳腺癌细胞株建立乳腺癌移植瘤模型；实验分为模型组、黄芩苷组、阿霉素组、黄芩苷+阿霉素组。于接种第7日开始：黄芩苷组每天灌胃黄芩苷水溶液（100 mg·kg^-1），连续14天；阿霉素组每3天腹腔注射一次阿霉素（5mg·kg^-1），共用药5次；模型组每天灌胃生理盐水（10 mL·kg^-1），连续14天；黄芩苷+阿霉素组每天灌胃黄芩苷水溶液（100 mg·kg^-1），连续14天，并每3天腹腔注射一次阿霉素5 mg·kg^-1，共5次。给药期间监测移植瘤体积；紫外可见分光光度计620 nm下测OD值来反映黄芩苷对肿瘤毛细血管通透性的影响；硫代巴比妥酸（Thiobarbituric acid，TBA）比色法检测黄芩苷对裸鼠血清中丙二醛（MDA）的影响；免疫组化染色法检测乳腺癌组织中赖氨酰氧化酶（LOX）的表达情况。结果 ①与模型组比较，黄芩苷组、阿霉素组、黄芩苷+阿霉素组瘤体重量均明显减轻（P<0.05）；黄芩苷+阿霉素组瘤体重量较阿霉素组明显减轻（P<0.05）。②与模型组比较，黄芩苷组降低乳腺癌组织毛细血管的通透性，而阿霉素组则增加肿瘤组织中毛细血管的通透性，差异均具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。③黄芩苷组能够明显抑制荷瘤裸鼠血清MDA的表达，与模型组比较差异有显著统计学意义（P<0.01）；阿霉素组促进MDA的表达，与模型组比较差异有统计学意义；黄芩苷+阿霉素组促进MDA的表达，与模型组比较差异无统计学意义。④与模型组比较，黄芩苷组裸鼠乳腺癌组织LOX的表达显著下调（P<0.01），阿霉素组肿瘤组织中LOX表达增加（P<0.05）；黄芩苷+阿霉素组能下调裸鼠乳腺癌组织LOX的表达，与模型组比较差异无统计学意义。结论 黄芩苷能够明显抑制乳腺癌移植瘤的生长，其机制可能与黄芩苷降低肿瘤组织毛细血管的通透性，抑制裸鼠血清中丙二醛、乳腺癌组织中赖氨酰氧化酶的表达，从而改变肿瘤缺氧微环境有关。     

Exploring a 7-gene prognostic model based on ferroptosis for efficiently guiding immunotherapy in melanoma patients

PurposeAlthough skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is a relatively immunotherapy-sensitive tumor type, there is still a certain fraction that benefits less from treatment. Ferroptosis has been demonstrated to modulate tumor progression in many cancer types. This study focused on ferroptosis-related genes to construct a prognostic model for SKCM patients.Materials and methodsGene expression profiles of SKCM samples were obtained from public databases. Unsupervised consensus clustering was used to determine molecular subtypes related to ferroptosis. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and stepwise Akaike information criterion (stepAIC) were applied to construct a prognostic model based on differentially expressed genes between two molecular subtypes.ResultsC1 and C2 subtypes were identified with differential prognosis and immune infiltration. A 7-gene prognostic model was constructed to classify samples into high-FPRS and low-FPRS groups. Low-FPRS group with favorable prognosis had higher immune infiltration and more enriched immune-related pathways than the high-FPRS group. The two groups showed distinct sensitivity to immunotherapy, with the low-FPRS group predicted to have more positive response to immunotherapy than the high-FPRS group. A nomogram based on the FPRS score and clinical features was built for more convenient use.ConclusionsThe critical role of ferroptosis involved in SKCM development was further validated in this study. The prognostic model was efficient and stable to be applied in clinical conditions to support clinicians in determining personalized therapy for SKCM patients especially those with metastasis.     

Exploring the potential of exosomes in diagnosis and drug delivery for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a cancer of the digestive system, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) accounts for approximately 90% of all PC cases. Exosomes derived from PDAC (PDAC-exosomes) promote PDAC development and metastasis. Exosomes are nanoscale vesicles secreted by most cells, which can carry biologically active molecules and mediate communication and cargo transportation among cells. Recent studies have focused on transforming exosomes into good drug delivery systems (DDSs) to improve the clinical treatment of PDAC. This review considers PDAC as the main research object to introduce the role of PDAC-exosomes in PDAC development and metastasis. This review focuses on the following two themes: (a) the great potential of PDAC-exosomes as new diagnostic markers for PDAC, and (b) the transformation of exosomes into potential DDSs.     

The role of immunosuppressive agents in the management of severe and refractory immune‐related adverse events

The advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors has improved survival in some types of cancer and brought promising prospects to cancer immunotherapy. Despite their clinical benefits, significant off‐target toxicities resulting from the immune system activation have been observed, namely immune‐related adverse events (irAEs), which pose to clinicians a new challenge of optimal management. With steroids being the mainstay of current management of irAEs, immunosuppressive agents are especially indicated for severe or steroid‐refractory cases, based on current immunopathophysiological knowledge and on extrapolations of treatment options for primary autoimmune disorders. This review focuses on the status and recent clinical progress of immunosuppressive agents in the management of severe and steroid‐refractory irAEs.