Neutrophils are the most abundant myeloid-derived eukaryotic cells in human blood with increasingly recognized as important regulators of cancer progression. However, the functional importance of tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) is often overlooked due to their short-lived, terminally differentiated, non-proliferative properties. In recent years, a wealth of evidences obtained from experimental tumor models and cancer patients had indicated that TANs had obvious heterogeneity in morphology and function, and TANs had dual functions of pro- and anti-tumor in cancer patients. This review provides an adequate overview of the heterogeneity and distinct roles of neutrophils.
Fungal infection is an important clinical problem for patients with immune deficiency or immunosuppression. With deadly fungus infection case increasing, the development of antifungal vaccine attracts the attention of researchers. Dendritic cell (DC) is the unique antigen presenting cell (APC) to trigger the antifungal immune reaction, and recent studies indicate that the targeted vaccination strategy based on DC have prospective antifungal potentials. In this paper, we review the antifungal immunity mechanism and recent development of the targeted DC antifungal strategy.
Mitochondrial quality control includes mechanisms such as mitochondria-derived vesicles, fusion / fission and autophagy. These processes rely on the collaboration of a variety of key proteins in the inner and outer membranes of mitochondria to jointly regulate the morphological structure and functional integrity of mitochondria, repair mitochondrial damage, and maintain the homeostasis of their internal environment. The imbalance of mitochondrial quality control is associated with leukemia. Therefore, by exploring the mechanisms related to mitochondrial quality control of various leukemia cells and their interactions with immune cells and immune microenvironment, this article sought possible targets in the treatment of leukemia, providing new ideas for the immunotherapy of leukemia.
Objective To explore the effect of CD3AK cells on T lymphocyte subsets and its functions of patients with primary liver carcinoma (PLC). MethodsFiftyeight patients with PLC were divided into two groups, CD3AK group (n=37), control group (n=21). Eleven blood donors were taken as normal control. All patients from the treatment group were given 2×109 CD3AK cells once a day for 5 days on the 1st day after operation, having received IL2 at a dose of 100 units per 24 hour by intravenous injection starting 30 minutes before administration of CD3AK cells. T lymphocyte subsets, IL2R, NK activity, LAK activity and proliferative activity were determined. ResultsThe CD4/CD8 ratio, expression of IL2R, proliferative activity, NK activity and LAK activity of T lymphocytes from the treatment group were significantly higher than those of control respectively.Conclusion The adoptive transfer of CD3AK cells could improve the disorder of T lymphocyte subsets and its functions and provide the patients with PLC with fresh abundant effectors against tumor.
Great progress has been made in immunotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in recent years. However, for thoracic surgeons, immunotherapy is still a new thing and they lack enough experience. Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss some hot issues of immunotherapy, including the indications, side effects, clinical efficacy and evaluation of efficacy. The author hopes that this article will help and attract the attention of thoracic surgeons.
Objective To assess the effectiveness of dust mite sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) for treating allergic rhinitis. Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about SLIT treating allergic rhinitis were collected in MEDLINE, EMbase, The Cochrane library (Issue 10, 2012), CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data and CBM from inception to October, 2012. Two reviewers independently screened the literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the quality, and then the meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.1 software. Results A total of 8 RCTs involving 788 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with the control group, SLIT showed no obvious difference in the total effective rate (RR=1.15, 95%CI 0.88 to 1.50, P=0.29), but it was superior in decreasing the scores of both nasal symptom (SMD= −1.13, 95%CI −2.07 to −0.20, P=0.02) and drug intake (SMD= −0.60, 95%CI −1.06 to −0.15, P=0.009). Conclusion SLIT can improve the symptoms of patients with allergic rhinitis, and it can also decrease the using frequency of antihistamine, beta-blocker and nasal spray steroids.
ObjectiveTo summarize advances in immunotherapy for gastric cancer.MethodThe relevant literatures about immunotherapy for gastric cancer in recent years were reviewed.ResultsRecently, the immunotherapy for the tumors mainly included the immune checkpoint blocking, tumor vaccine, and adoptive immunotherapy. There were many studies on the immune checkpoint blocking, mainly targeting the antibodies of programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4). A series of studies had shown that the pembrolizumab was effective in the patients with advanced gastric cancer who expressed PD-1 ligand positive. The nivolumab had become the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer in Asia, and the patients with mismatch repair defects could benefit more from the PD-1 treatment. Although the CTLA-4 targeted immune checkpoint blocking therapy had been reported, some studies had found that the patients with advanced gastric cancer didn’t benefit from the treatment of CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody ipilimumab. The tumor vaccine therapy in the gastric cancer had been reported. Due to the high heterogeneity of tumor cells in the gastric cancer, the tumor vaccine efficacy of autoantibody was not stable, based on the high- throughput sequencing of neoantigens identification and screening process was complex, the vaccine preparation needed the longer period, how to individualized screening the neoantigen, and the selection of antigens that could effectively activate the T cells to recognize and kill the tumor cells still needed to be overcame.ConclusionsTumor immunotherapy has received worldwide attention. Anti-PD-1 and its ligand as representative immune checkpoint statin therapy in treatment of advanced gastric cancer has showed great potential, but at present there are still many problems need to be solved, such as number of applicable patients of immunotherapy is small, curative effect of immune checkpoint inhibitor screening index also is not clear, tumor vaccine and adoptive cell therapy are promising but there is lack of evidence from clinical research data, combined use of existing treatments and immunotherapy on curative effect still needs more clinical trials to explore.
ObjectiveTo investigate the safety and clinical efficacy of dendritic cell (DC)-cytokine induced killer (CIK) cell adoptive immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy in patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy.MethodsForty-eight patients with gastric cancer after the radical gastrectomy receiving the DC-CIK cell adoptive immunotherapy combined with XELOX or FOLFOX chemotherapy were enrolled as a study group in the First Hospital of Lanzhou University from January 2014 to January 2016. In addition, 48 patients with gastric cancer after the radical gastrectomy in the same period and only receiving XELOX or FOLFOX chemotherapy were collected as a control group. The CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3–CD56+ (NK cell), and CD3+CD56+ (NKT cell), toxic reaction, quality of life were evaluated in both groups before and after the treatment, and the long term effect were compared in both groups.Results① There were no significant differences in the gender, age, clinical stage, etc. between the two groups (P>0.05). ② The CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3–CD56+, and CD3+CD56+ cells in the peripheral blood had no significant changes between before and after treatment in the study group (P>0.05), which were decreased after the treatment in the control group as compared with before the treatment and were significantly lower than those in the study group (P<0.05). ③ The levels of CEA, CA19-9, and CA724 in the peripheral blood after the treatment in the study group and the control group were significantly lower than those before the treatment (P<0.05), which in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group after the treatment (P<0.05). ④ The incidences of leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and diarrhea in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). ⑤ Compared with before the treatment, the body function and emotional function after the treatment were significantly improved in the study group (P<0.05). And in the body function, emotion function, role function, cognitive function, and social function were significantly improved than those in the control group (P<0.05) after the treatment. ⑥ The progression-free survival in the study group was significantly better than that in the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the overall survival between the study group and the control group (P>0.05).ConclusionDC-CIK cell adoptive immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy could significantly improve immune status and quality of life of patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy, reduce adverse effects of chemotherapy, improve long term effect, and prolong progression-free survival.
ObjectiveTo summarize the mechanism of action of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibitors, the application in breast cancer in recent years and the advances in the study of their bio-markers of effects. MethodRelevant literatures on PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and the study in the field of breast cancer were reviewed and summarized.ResultsIn recent years, the monotherapy of immune checkpoint inhibitors represented by PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors or in combination with other therapies had brought new hope for patients with breast cancer especially triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, only a small number of patients could benefit from breast cancer immunotherapy. The current researchers think that the efficacy of these drugs is related to PD-L1 expression in tumor tissue, tumor mutation burden (TMB), high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and deficient mismatch repair (dMMR).ConclusionBreast cancer can benefit from the immunotherapy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, but formulating personalized medicine model, finding biomarkers that can predict efficacy and selecting patients with breast cancer who can benefit from it for targeted therapy are the new requirements in the new era of breast cancer immunotherapy.
Objective To understand the latest research progress of chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy drugs in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Method The literature on the efficacy of different treatment drugs for metastatic colorectal cancer in recent years both domestically and internationally was retrieved and reviewed. Results There had been many clinical research progress in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, new drugs had emerged, targeted drugs were particularly prominent, and more trials of therapeutic drugs and drug combination treatment regimens were also being carried out. Different treatment methods were applied to patients according to the mutation status of RAS/RAF and the expression of mismatch repair protein, the survival benefit varied greatly. Conclusion Precision medicine is becoming increasingly important, screening patients to choose appropriate treatment modality can further improve survival benefit.