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.
ObjectiveTo summarize the research progress of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on tumor microenvironment immunophenotyping.MethodThe related literatures of basic and clinical studies on HCC immunophenotyping in the recent years were reviewed.ResultsHCC could be divided into different immunophenotypes based on tumor microenvironment, and it showed different immune molecular characteristics, immune cell infiltration characteristics, and anti-tumor ability. At the same time, the HCC immunophenotype was significantly associated with patients’ survival and had been proved to be able to better evaluate the prognosis of HCC patients. According to the relevant molecular characteristics in the HCC immune microenvironment, it could provide guidance for the drug regimen of immunotherapy.ConclusionHCC immunophenotyping is still in the early stage of research, and its clinical application value has been preliminarily shown for the evaluation of patients’ prognosis and immunotherapy decision-making, which is a new idea of individualized treatment of HCC in the future.
ObjectiveTo summarize the latest advances in copper and cuproptosis in the field of breast cancer, and to provide a reference for clinical treatment decisions. MethodThe literatures related to copper and cuproptosis in recent years were read and summarized, and the research progress on the role of copper in breast cancer, the application of cuproptosis in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer were reviewed. ResultsCuproptosiswas a novel form of programmed cell death, which occurred via direct binding of copper to lipoylated components of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, this resulted in lipoylated protein aggregation and subsequent iron-sulfur cluster protein loss, leading to proteotoxic stress and ultimately cell death. Cuproptosis induced proliferation and migration of breast cancer cell , mediated personalized immunotherapy, and participated in endocrine and chemotherapeutic drug resistance. ConclusionExploring the mechanism of cuproptosis provides potential applications for subsequent immunotherapy, endocrine therapy, and chemotherapy for breast cancer, leading to new effective strategies for patients.
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.
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.
ObjectiveTo construct a prognostic prediction model for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on disulfidptosis-associated genes (DAGs) and ferroptosis-associated genes (FAGs) using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) databases and explore the immune characteristics and antitumor drug sensitivity of HCC patients with high- and low-risk score. MethodsThe transcriptomic and clinical data of HCC were downloaded from the TCGA and ICGC databases. The expression levels of DAGs and FAGs were extracted. Subsequently, the differentially expressed and prognostically relevant DAGs and FAGs (DFAGs) were screened through differential expression and prognostic analysis. A prognostic prediction model for HCC was constructed by LASSO regression analysis. The prognostic value of risk factors was evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, receiver operating characteristic curves, principal component analysis, and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed to further elucidate the mechanisms of genes associated with HCC prognosis. The impact of risk factors on immune cells and immune cells functions was analyzed using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis. Based on the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer database, the oncoPredict package was used to predict responses to antitumor drugs in for different risk groups. ResultsFour DFAGs (SLC7A11, SLC1A5, G6PD, and LRPPRC) with respective risk coefficients of 0.0350, 0.0442, 0.1597, and 0.0132 were selected to construct the prognostic prediction model. The risk score of prognostic prediction model was calculated as: Risk score =(0.0350×SLC7A11 expression level) + (0.0442×SLC1A5 expression level) + (0.159 7×G6PD expression level) + (0.013 2×LRPPRC expression level). The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that a high-risk score was an independent risk factor for HCC patient survival [HR (95%CI) = 5.414 (1.918, 15.279), P<0.001]. Both TCGA and ICGC datasets demonstrated that the high-risk patients had significantly worse survival than low-risk patients (P<0.001 and P=0.003, respectively). Enrichment analysis revealed that the risk-associated genes influenced HCC progression through multiple pathways, such as immune response, cell cycle, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis. Immune analysis showed that the high-risk patients exhibited increased infiltration of immunosuppressive cells, such as activated dendritic cells, macrophages, and regulatory T cells, while natural killer cell infiltration was significantly reduced. The drug sensitivity analysis suggested that the high-risk HCC patients might respond better to 5-fluorouracil, afatinib, cyclophosphamide, and lapatinib, whereas the low-risk patients might benefit more from oxaliplatin and sorafenib. ConclusionsHCC prognosis prediction model based on DFAGs in this study suggests a certain predictive value for the survival of HCC patients in the data from both TCGA and ICGC datasets. There are significant differences in pionts of immune cells infiltration and immune cells functions between high-risk and low-risk HCC patients. Additionally, significant differences exist in sensitivity to targeted drugs and chemotherapeutic drugs. This model can provide some references for immunotherapy, personalized treatment, and prognosis evaluation of HCC patients.
ObjectiveTo investigate the influence of programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibody on the anti-lung cancer effect of cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) which were programmed in vitro. MethodsPeripheral blood mononuclear cells from 20 patients (8 males and 12 females with an average age of 56.45±5.89 years ranging from 42 to 65 years) diagnosed with advanced lung cancer from January to May 2019 at the Department of Oncology of Dalian Central Hospital were collected and induced to amplify into CIK cells in vitro. PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined with CIK cell culture group, individual cell culture group and PD-1 monoclonal antibody group were set up to detect the cell killing activity of CIK cells against lung cancer under different effective target ratio conditions, and the ratio of perforin and granzyme positive expression in PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined CIK cell culture group and individual CIK cell culture group was detected by flow cytometry. ELISA method was used to detect the interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) cytokine secretion levels in the two groups.ResultsThe killing effect of CIK cells on A549 lung cancer cells increased with the increase of effective target ratio by CCK8, and PD-1 monoclonal antibody increased the killing effect of CIK cells on A549 lung cancer cells under different effective target ratio, E∶T=5∶1 (28.5%±1.9% vs. 20.3%±1.8%), 10∶1 (40.6%±2.4% vs. 31.7%±2.1%), 20∶1 (57.4%±3.5% vs. 44.7%±3.8%), 40∶1 (74.1%±8.3% vs. 60.8%±5.3%). The killing effect of PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined with CIK cells and CIK cells alone on A549 lung cancer cells was statistically different (P<0.05). The killing effect of cells in both groups on lung cancer A549 cells was stronger than that of the PD-1 monoclonal antibody group (P<0.01). The results of flow cytometry showed that PD-1 monoclonal antibody increased the positive ratio of perforin and granzyme release in CIK cells, and the positive ratios of perforin release (46.7%±3.5%% vs. 35.1%±2.2%) and granzyme release (34.6%±3.8% vs. 25.7%±3.3%) in PD-1 monoclonal antibody combination with CIK cells group and CIK cells group were statistically different (P<0.05). Similarly, the secretion levels of IL-2, TNF-α, and IFN-γ cytokines were also increased in the PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined with CIK cells group compared with the CIK group (5 409.0±168.8 pg/mL vs. 4 300.0±132.3 pg/mL, 252.7±16.7 pg/mL vs. 172.5±8.6 pg/mL, 327.2±23.5 pg/mL vs. 209.7±16.0 pg/mL, P<0.05).ConclusionPD-1 monoclonal antibody can promote the release of tumoricidal substances in CIK cells and improve the killing effect of CIK cells on lung cancer A549 cells. It is speculated that the infusion of PD-1 monoclonal antibody before CIK cell adoption in lung cancer patients may be more beneficial to the treatment of disease. PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined with CIK cell therapy is promising as a new type of lung cancer immunotherapy.
ObjectiveTo recognize the latest research progress of immunotherapy for advanced gastric cancer (AGC). MethodThe domestic and international literature on immunotherapy for AGC in recent years were retrieved and reviewed. ResultsThe immunotherapy for AGC mainly focused on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), cellular immunity, and antitumor vaccines. The most immunotherapy researched was ICIs, especially for programmed death protein-1 / programmed death protein ligand 1, cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen 4, and lymphocyte activating gene 3. The cellular immunotherapy and tumor vaccine therapy were less relatively. Although immunotherapy alone did not have a particularly good effect, its therapeutic effect was not inferior to that of chemotherapy alone and the incidence of adverse reactions was lower. Moreover, most studies had concluded that the use of immunotherapy in combination with other therapy had shown a good clinical efficacy, especially in combination with anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 antibody, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells targeting Claudin 18.2 site had promising results in the AGC. ConclusionsWith the development of immunotherapy research, the strategies of immunotherapy for AGC are also constantly improving. Precision medicine is important in the process of immunotherapy. Targeted screening suitable patients and adopting precise treatment can further benefit the survival of patients with AGC.
Objective To summarize the changes in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in the context of immunotherapy and their impact on treatment outcomes. MethodsA systematic review of recent studies on the TME of PDAC was carried out to analyze the immune properties, intercellular interactions, and biological functions of its cellular and non-cellular components, disclose the molecular mechanisms of immunotherapy affects on the TME, explore the advancements in targeted therapy and potential biomarkers, and analyze the challenges in clinical applications and their impacts on the quality of life of patients. ResultsThe TME of PDAC exhibits highly immunosuppressive and heterogeneous characteristics, rich in diverse cells (such as pancreatic cancer cells, stellate cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, immune cells) and non-cellular components (such as extracellular matrix). Immunotherapy is capable of regulating the immune balance in the TME and enhancing the anti-tumor response. Despite the progress made in multiple immunotherapy strategies (such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor cell therapy), challenges such as difficulty in selecting targets, drug resistance, and side effects still persist. Meanwhile, potential biomarkers such as leukemia inhibitory factor offer new directions for individualized treatment. ConclusionsThe TME of PDAC undergoes continuous changes during immunotherapy. In the future, it is requisite to integrate new technologies to deeply explore targets and biomarkers, optimize multimodal precise treatment strategies, enhance the safety and efficacy of immunotherapy, and improve the prognosis of patients.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common types of cancer in the world and is an important cause for cancer death. Although the application of immunotherapy in recent years has greatly improved the prognosis of NSCLC, there are still huge challenges in the treatment of NSCLC. The immune microenvironment plays an important role in the process of NSCLC development, infiltration and metastasis, and they can interact and influence each other, forming a vicious circle. Notably, single-cell RNA sequencing enables high-resolution analysis of individual cells and is of great value in revealing cell types, cell evolution trajectories, molecular mechanisms of cell differentiation, and intercellular regulation within the immune microenvironment. Single-cell RNA sequencing is expected to uncover more promising immunotherapies. This article reviews the important researches and latest achievements of single-cell RNA sequencing in the immune microenvironment of NSCLC, and aims to explore the significance of applying single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the immune microenvironment of NSCLC.