Emerging evidence has shown that dynamic crosstalk among cells in the tumor microenvironment modulates the progression and chemotherapeutic responses of cancer. Extracellular vesicles comprise a ...crucial form of intracellular communication through horizontal transfer of bioactive molecules, including long non–coding RNA (lncRNA), to neighboring cells. Three main types of extracellular vesicles are exosomes, microvesicles and apoptotic bodies, exhibiting a wide range of sizes and different biogenesis. Over the last decade, dysregulation of extracellular vesicle lncRNA has been revealed to remodel the tumor microenvironment and induce aggressive phenotypes of tumor cells, thereby facilitating tumor growth and development. This review will focus on extracellular vesicle lncRNA‐mediated crosstalk between tumor cells and recipient cells, including tumor cells as well as stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment, and overview the mechanisms by which lncRNA are selectively sorted into extracellular vesicles, which may pave the way for their clinical application in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Emerging evidence has shown that dynamic crosstalk among cells in the tumor microenvironment modulates the progression and chemotherapeutic responses of cancer. Recently, dysregulation of extracellular vesicle lncRNA has been revealed to remodel the tumor microenvironment and induce an aggressive phenotype of cancer cells, thereby facilitating tumor growth and development. This review focuses on extracellular vesicle lncRNA‐mediated crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment and the mechanisms by which lncRNA are selectively sorted into extracellular vesicles, which may pave the way for its clinical application in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as novel nanomaterials, have received significant interest in the field of biomedical applications. It is worth noting that a large amount of research is devoted to ...GQDs-based nanocomposites for cancer treatment, especially for photodynamic therapy (PDT), in that they can act not only as more favorable photosensitizers (PSs) but also nanoplatforms for delivering PSs. In this review, the biological behavior and physicochemical properties of GQDs for PDT are described in detail, and the application of GQDs-based nanocomposites in improved PDT and PDT-based combination therapies is analyzed, which may provide a new strategy for designing efficient PDT systems for cancer treatment.
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•The synthesis methods of GQDs have important effects on their physicochemical properties.•GQDs exhibit excellent biocompatibility and optical properties.•GQDs have great potential in photodynamic therapy.•PDT-based combination therapies show good synergistic effects.•Precisely tailoring properties of GQDs plays a key role in their application.
The tumor-related myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), important immunosuppressive cells in tumor microenvironment, play an important role in the cancer progression. This study is aimed to ...investigate the crosstalk between MDSCs and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells and their role in the malignant progression of OSCC.
Immunochemistry (IHC) was used to investigate the expression of CD33 in 200 OSCC, 36 premalignant. CD33+ MDSCs were sorted and enriched via magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) from OSCC patients or health donor, and their phenotypes were identified by flow cytometry. With a co-culture system of MDSCs and OSCC, the effects of MDSCs on OSCC proliferation, apoptosis, migration invasion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and vasculogenic mimicry formation (VM) formation were assessed, respectively. Besides, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from health donor were cultured with OSCC supernatant, the level of MDSCs and expressions of Arginase (Arg-1) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were measured.
The number of MDSCs was increased in tumor tissues of OSCC patients, and was positively related to the T stage, pathological grade, lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis. Tumor-related MDSCs of the co-culture system promoted OSCC progression by contributing to cell proliferation, migration and invasion as well as inducing EMT and VM. In turn, OSCC cells had potential to induce MDSCs differentiation from PBMCs and increase the expression of Arg-1 and iNOS.
These indicated that the crosstalk between MDSCs and tumor cells facilitated the malignant progression of OSCC cells and the immune suppressive properties of MDSCs, which may provide new insights into tumor treatment on targeting tumor-associated immunosuppressive cells.
Cancer cells collectively invading as a cohesive and polarized group is termed collective invasion, which is a fundamental property of many types of cancers. In this multicellular unit, cancer cells ...are heterogeneous, consisting of two morphologically and functionally distinct subpopulations, leader cells and follower cells. Leader cells at the invasive front are responsible for exploring the microenvironment, paving the way, and transmitting information to follower cells. Here, in this review, we will describe the important role of leader cells in collective invasion and the emerging underlying mechanisms of leader cell formation including intrinsic properties and the support from neighboring cells. It will help us to elucidate the essence of collective invasion and provide new anticancer therapeutic clues.
To become leader cells, cancer cells need intrinsic properties to confer them with the potential to acquire leader cell phenotype and the support from the neighboring cells can convert the potential into specific leader cell behavior. Intrinsic properties include the distinct genetic expression, protein synthesis, and signaling cascades to promote cytoskeletal rearrangements, structural reorganization, and morphological polarization. Meanwhile, follower and stromal cells in the microenvironment can steer the potential leader cells to initiate appropriate polarization, exert leader cell behavior, and consolidate leadership by cell–cell junctions, the stimulation of multiple chemokines, and growth factors and modification of the microenvironment.
Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been demonstrated to closely associate with gene regulation and encompass the well-known microRNAs (miRNAs), as well as the most recently acknowledged long noncoding RNAs ...(lncRNAs). Current evidence indicates that lncRNAs can interact with miRNAs and these interactions play crucial roles in cancer metastasis, through regulating critical events especially the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This review summarizes the types of lncRNA-miRNA crosstalk identified to-date and discusses their influence on the epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity and clinical metastatic implication.
Over the past 10 years, cancer immunotherapy has made significant progress in multiple cancer types and has been gradually been applied to clinical cancer care, in which the programmed cell death ...protein-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway is one of the most attractive targets. Compared with traditional therapies, the emerging PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy exhibited more satisfactory curative effects and lower toxicity for patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This review analyzes the expression characteristics and clinical significance of PD-1/PD-L1 in HNSCC, the immunosuppressive roles of tumor cell and stromal cell expressing PD-1/PD-L1 in this disease, and presents the development landscape of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, which may provide new curative alternatives for recurrent or metastatic HNSCC.
The enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), known as a member of the polycomb group (PcG) proteins, is an oncogene overexpressed in a variety of human cancers. Here, we found that EZH2 correlated with ...poor survival of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients using immunohistochemistry staining. EZH2 overexpression led to a significant induction in tumour glycolysis, Epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration and invasion of OSCC cells. Conversely, silencing of EZH2 inhibited tumour glycolysis, EMT, migration and invasion in OSCC cells. Ectopic overexpression of EZH2 increased phosphorylation of STAT3 at pY705 and decreased FoxO1 expression, and FoxO1 expression was enhanced when inhibiting STAT3. In addition, EZH2 overexpression led to a significant decrease in FoxO1 mRNA levels in nude mice xenograft. These results indicated that regulation of EZH2 might have the potential to be targeted for OSCC treatment.
Oral epithelial barrier consists of closely controlled structure of the stratified squamous epithelium, which is the gateway to human bodies and encounters a huge burden of microbial, airborne and ...dietary antigens, as well as masticatory damage. Once this barrier is destroyed, it will trigger bone loss, tissue damage and microbial dysbiosis and lead to diseases, such as periodontitis, oral mucosal diseases and oral cancer. Recently, increasing evidences showed that different factors including microorganism, saliva, proteins and immune components have been considered to play a critical role in the disruption of oral epithelial barrier. Herein, we discussed mechanisms governing the maintenance of oral epithelial barrier. Besides, the role of oral epithelial barrier failure in oral carcinogenesis will also be talked about.
Oral epithelial barrier is made up of keratinocytes and is maintained by intercellular junctions and cornified envelope. Keratins are crucial proteins that constitute both cytoskeleton and tight junctions, among which the defects of keratin 5 (k5) and k14 result in epidermolysis bullosa simplex. Keratins could also be dissolved by proteases produced by P. gingivalis, leading to gingival barrier failure, attachment loss and periodontal destruction in periodontitis. The cornified envelop of stratum corneum is composed of extracellular proteins like keratins that provide for mechanical resilience, and special lipids such as ceramides which fill extracellular spaces and regulate the permeability of the oral epithelial barrier. Display omitted
Who is who in oral cancer? Zhang, Wei-long; Wang, Sha-sha; Wang, Hao-fan ...
Experimental cell research,
11/2019, Volume:
384, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Great attention has been attached to explore the association between oral bacteria and oral cancer. Recently, four common inhabitants of oral cavity, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium ...nucleatum, Treponema denticola and Streptococcus anginosus, have been identified as potential etiologic bacterial agents for oral carcinogenesis. They might promote the oncogenesis and progression of oral cancer by induction of chronic inflammation, enhancement of migration and invasiveness, inhibition of cell apoptosis, augment of cell proliferation, suppression of immune system and production of carcinogenic substances. Thus, this review will focus on the possible mechanisms of these oral bacteria contributing to occurrence and development of oral cancer, and the potential clinical implications of utilizing oral bacteria on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of oral cancer will be discussed.
2D nanomaterials have attracted broad interest in the field of biomedicine owing to their large surface area, high drug‐loading capacity, and excellent photothermal conversion. However, few studies ...report their “enzyme‐like” catalytic performance because it is difficult to prepare enzymatic nanosheets with small size and ultrathin thickness by current synthetic protocols. Herein, a novel one‐step wet‐chemical method is first proposed for protein‐directed synthesis of 2D MnO2 nanosheets (M‐NSs), in which the size and thickness can be easily adjusted by the protein dosage. Then, a unique sono‐chemical approach is introduced for surface functionalization of the M‐NSs with high dispersity/stability as well as metal‐cation‐chelating capacity, which can not only chelate 64Cu radionuclides for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, but also capture the potentially released Mn2+ for enhanced biosafety. Interestingly, the resulting M‐NS exhibits excellent enzyme‐like activity to catalyze the oxidation of glucose, which represents an alternative paradigm of acute glucose oxidase for starving cancer cells and sensitizing them to thermal ablation. Featured with outstanding phototheranostic performance, the well‐designed M‐NS can achieve effective photoacoustic‐imaging‐guided synergistic starvation‐enhanced photothermal therapy. This study is expected to establish a new enzymatic phototheranostic paradigm based on small‐sized and ultrathin M‐NSs, which will broaden the application of 2D nanomaterials.
A 2D enzymatic MnO2 nanosheet, M‐NS, is developed by a novel one‐step wet‐chemical synthesis and followed by a unique sono‐chemical modification. The M‐NS, with a small and ultrathin morphology, exhibits intriguing glucose‐oxidase‐like catalytic activity and excellent phototheranostic performance. An effective photoacoustic‐imaging‐guided synergistic starvation‐enhanced photothermal therapy is successfully achieved, broadening the application of 2D nanomaterials in biomedicine.