Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer in the world. In 2018, there were over 2 million new cases of lung cancer and over 1.7 million deaths were attributed to lung cancer. Targeted therapy has ...emerged as an important mean of the disease management for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Herein, we review and analyze recent literature, discuss the targeting pathways and ongoing clinical trials in lung cancer. Chemotherapy is no longer the best available treatment for all patients. Therapeutic decisions should be guided by an understanding of the molecular features of patient's tumor tissues. The future gains will likely emerge from finding optimal ways of combining targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy.
Exosomes hold great potential in therapeutic development. However, native exosomes usually induce insufficient effects in vivo and simply act as drug delivery vehicles. Herein, we synthesize ...responsive exosome nano‐bioconjugates for cancer therapy. Azide‐modified exosomes derived from M1 macrophages are conjugated with dibenzocyclooctyne‐modified antibodies of CD47 and SIRPα (aCD47 and aSIRPα) through pH‐sensitive linkers. After systemic administration, the nano‐bioconjugates can actively target tumors through the specific recognition between aCD47 and CD47 on the tumor cell surface. In the acidic tumor microenvironment, the benzoic‐imine bonds of the nano‐bioconjugates are cleaved to release aSIRPα and aCD47 that can, respectively, block SIRPα on macrophages and CD47, leading to abolished “don't eat me” signaling and improved phagocytosis of macrophages. Meanwhile, the native M1 exosomes effectively reprogram the macrophages from pro‐tumoral M2 to anti‐tumoral M1.
Ok, take a bite: Responsive exosome nano‐bioconjugates were constructed by engineering M1 exosomes with aCD47 and aSIRPα linked with a pH‐sensitive bond. After systemic administration, the synergism of specific targeting by aCD47, blocking of “don't eat me” signaling by aCD47 and aSIRPα, and M2 reprogramming by M1 exosomes resulted in a potent anticancer effect.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold great potential in both disease treatment and drug delivery. However, accurate drug release from EVs, as well as the spontaneous treatment effect cooperation of EVs ...and drugs at target tissues, is still challenging. Here, an engineered self‐activatable photo‐EV for synergistic trimodal anticancer therapy is reported. M1 macrophage‐derived EVs (M1 EVs) are simultaneously loaded with bis2,4,5‐trichloro‐6‐(pentyloxycarbonyl) phenyl oxalate (CPPO), chlorin e6 (Ce6), and prodrug aldoxorubicin (Dox‐EMCH). After administration, the as‐prepared system actively targets tumor cells because of the tumor‐homing capability of M1 EVs, wherein M1 EVs repolarize M2 to M1 macrophages, which not only display immunotherapy effects but also produce H2O2. The reaction between H2O2 and CPPO generates chemical energy that activates Ce6, creating both chemiluminescence for imaging and singlet oxygen (1O2) for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Meanwhile, 1O2‐induced membrane rupture leads to the release of Dox‐EMCH, which is then activated and penetrates the deep hypoxic areas of tumors. The synergism of immunotherapy, PDT, and chemotherapy results in potent anticancer efficacy, showing great promise to fight cancers.
Self‐activatable photo‐extracellular vesicles are constructed by loading M1‐macrophage‐derived EVs with bis2,4,5‐trichloro‐6‐(pentyloxycarbonyl)phenyl oxalate, chlorin e6, and prodrug aldoxorubicin. These skillfully engineered extracellular vesicles can actively target tumors owing to their inherent tumor‐homing ability, wherein they exhibit potent trimodal therapy effects in an intersynergistic and self‐controllable way, attributed to the interaction between the engineered EV and the special tumor microenvironment.
During their lifetime, plants encounter numerous biotic and abiotic stresses with diverse modes of attack. Phytohormones, including salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), jasmonate (JA), abscisic acid ...(ABA), auxin (AUX), brassinosteroid (BR), gibberellic acid (GA), cytokinin (CK) and the recently identified strigolactones (SLs), orchestrate effective defense responses by activating defense gene expression. Genetic analysis of the model plant
has advanced our understanding of the function of these hormones. The SA- and ET/JA-mediated signaling pathways were thought to be the backbone of plant immune responses against biotic invaders, whereas ABA, auxin, BR, GA, CK and SL were considered to be involved in the plant immune response through modulating the SA-ET/JA signaling pathways. In general, the SA-mediated defense response plays a central role in local and systemic-acquired resistance (SAR) against biotrophic pathogens, such as Pseudomonas syringae, which colonize between the host cells by producing nutrient-absorbing structures while keeping the host alive. The ET/JA-mediated response contributes to the defense against necrotrophic pathogens, such as
, which invade and kill hosts to extract their nutrients. Increasing evidence indicates that the SA- and ET/JA-mediated defense response pathways are mutually antagonistic.
A wide array of microorganisms, including many novel, phylogenetically deeply rooted taxa, survive and thrive in extreme environments. These unique and reduced-complexity ecosystems offer a ...tremendous opportunity for studying the structure, function and evolution of natural microbial communities. Marker gene surveys have resolved patterns and ecological drivers of these extremophile assemblages, revealing a vast uncultured microbial diversity and the often predominance of archaea in the most extreme conditions. New omics studies have uncovered linkages between community function and environmental variables, and have enabled discovery and genomic characterization of major new lineages that substantially expand microbial diversity and change the structure of the tree of life. These efforts have significantly advanced our understanding of the diversity, ecology and evolution of microorganisms populating Earth's extreme environments, and have facilitated the exploration of microbiota and processes in more complex ecosystems.
Several abundant but yet uncultivated bacterial groups exist in extreme iron- and sulfur-rich environments, and the physiology, biodiversity, and ecological roles of these bacteria remain a mystery. ...Here we retrieved four metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from an artificial acid mine drainage (AMD) system, and propose they belong to a new deltaproteobacterial order, Candidatus Acidulodesulfobacterales. The distribution pattern of Ca. Acidulodesulfobacterales in AMDs across Southeast China correlated strongly with ferrous iron. Reconstructed metabolic pathways and gene expression profiles showed that they were likely facultatively anaerobic autotrophs capable of nitrogen fixation. In addition to dissimilatory sulfate reduction, encoded by dsrAB, dsrD, dsrL, and dsrEFH genes, these microorganisms might also oxidize sulfide, depending on oxygen concentration and/or oxidation reduction potential. Several genes with homology to those involved in iron metabolism were also identified, suggesting their potential role in iron cycling. In addition, the expression of abundant resistance genes revealed the mechanisms of adaptation and response to the extreme environmental stresses endured by these organisms in the AMD environment. These findings shed light on the distribution, diversity, and potential ecological role of the new order Ca. Acidulodesulfobacterales in nature.
This study examines the influence of affective and reactive factors, as well as two mediators of consumers' online impulse buying behavior in social commerce, by following the ...stimulus-organism-response (SOR) paradigm, social capital theory, and flow theory. Social interactions and content are important stimuli on social networking websites. This study conducts structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze data from an online questionnaire. Four main findings emerge. First, the urge to buy differs from impulse buying, and significantly predicts impulse buying behavior. Second, internal processing exists between the stimuli and responses, per the SOR paradigm. Third, peers' opinions on social networking websites exert considerable influence on consumers' impulsive desire to purchase. Fourth, the fsQCA results show ways to increase consumers' desire to purchase impulsively, including reactive and affective factors. The method for impulse buying only includes social capital, peer communication, urge to buy, and vividness.
Alzheimer disease (AD) accounts for 60-70% of dementia cases. Given the seriousness of the disease and continual increase in patient numbers, developing effective therapies to treat AD has become ...urgent. Presently, the drugs available for AD treatment, including cholinesterase inhibitors and an antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, can only inhibit dementia symptoms for a limited period of time but cannot stop or reverse disease progression. On the basis of the amyloid hypothesis, many global drug companies have conducted many clinical trials on amyloid clearing therapy but without success. Thus, the amyloid hypothesis may not be completely feasible. The number of anti-amyloid trials decreased in 2019, which might be a turning point. An in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the contribution of amyloid beta and other factors of AD is crucial for developing novel pharmacotherapies.In ongoing clinical trials, researchers have developed and are testing several possible interventions aimed at various targets, including anti-amyloid and anti-tau interventions, neurotransmitter modification, anti-neuroinflammation and neuroprotection interventions, and cognitive enhancement, and interventions to relieve behavioral psychological symptoms. In this article, we present the current state of clinical trials for AD at clinicaltrials.gov. We reviewed the underlying mechanisms of these trials, tried to understand the reason why prior clinical trials failed, and analyzed the future trend of AD clinical trials.
Mind–body dissonance (MBD) is the psychological experience of one’s bodily expressions contradicting one’s mental states. Across four experiments (total N = 887), the current research proposes and ...demonstrates that MBD can enhance creativity by facilitating an atypicality mind-set. First, two different instantiations of MBD (i.e., assuming a high-power/low-power role while adopting a constricted/expansive posture, or recalling a happy/sad memory while frowning/smiling) increased performance on creative association, insight, and generation tasks (Experiments 1 and 2). A third study showed that an atypicality mind-set was an underlying mechanism for the creativity effect (Experiment 3). Finally, the frequency of past MBD experiences was found to reduce MBD’s creativity effect (Experiment 4). The present research offers evidence for the positive functions of bodily expressions that contradict mental states and highlights the significance of understanding the interactive effects of psychological states and their physical analogues in studying creativity.
Predicting novel microRNA (miRNA)-disease associations is clinically significant due to miRNAs' potential roles of diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for various human diseases. Previous ...studies have demonstrated the viability of utilizing different types of biological data to computationally infer new disease-related miRNAs. Yet researchers face the challenge of how to effectively integrate diverse datasets and make reliable predictions. In this study, we presented a computational model named Laplacian Regularized Sparse Subspace Learning for MiRNA-Disease Association prediction (LRSSLMDA), which projected miRNAs/diseases' statistical feature profile and graph theoretical feature profile to a common subspace. It used Laplacian regularization to preserve the local structures of the training data and a L1-norm constraint to select important miRNA/disease features for prediction. The strength of dimensionality reduction enabled the model to be easily extended to much higher dimensional datasets than those exploited in this study. Experimental results showed that LRSSLMDA outperformed ten previous models: the AUC of 0.9178 in global leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) and the AUC of 0.8418 in local LOOCV indicated the model's superior prediction accuracy; and the average AUC of 0.9181+/-0.0004 in 5-fold cross validation justified its accuracy and stability. In addition, three types of case studies further demonstrated its predictive power. Potential miRNAs related to Colon Neoplasms, Lymphoma, Kidney Neoplasms, Esophageal Neoplasms and Breast Neoplasms were predicted by LRSSLMDA. Respectively, 98%, 88%, 96%, 98% and 98% out of the top 50 predictions were validated by experimental evidences. Therefore, we conclude that LRSSLMDA would be a valuable computational tool for miRNA-disease association prediction.
PDF
