1.Research advances in modulating microglia for intervening in Alzheimer’s disease
Yuan CHANG ; Mageta Samwel MAGETA ; Nibowen LI ; Yingqi TANG ; Huangjuan LI ; Chenggen QIAN
Journal of China Pharmaceutical University 2024;55(5):603-612
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease in the world with dementia as its main manifestation. The pathological regulation strategies based on microglia in immune cells have shown their unique advantages in treating AD by preventing the pathological progression of AD at an early stage. This paper firstly introduces the role of microglia in the pathogenesis of AD, then summarizes the relationship between microglia and the common key pathologies of Aβ, tau proteins, neuroinflammation, and impaired energy metabolism in AD, and finally reviews feasible microglia-targeted intervention strategies against AD with some discussion about some current issues for improvement in each study, in the hope of deepening the understanding of strategies that regulate microglia to block AD pathology and providing some new ideas for the early intervention and treatment of AD patients in the future.
2.Research progress in leveraging biomaterials for enhancing NK cell immunotherapy.
Journal of Zhejiang University. Medical sciences 2023;52(3):267-278
NK cell immunotherapy is a promising antitumor therapeutic modality after the development of T cell immunotherapy. Structural modification of NK cells with biomaterials may provide a precise, efficient, and low-cost strategy to enhance NK cell immunotherapy. The biomaterial modification of NK cells can be divided into two strategies: surface engineering with biomaterials and intracellular modification. The surface engineering strategies include hydrophobic interaction of lipids, receptor-ligand interaction between membrane proteins, covalent binding to amino acid residues, click reaction and electrostatic interaction. The intracellular modification strategies are based on manipulation by nanotechnology using membranous materials from various sources of NK cells (such as exosome, vesicle and cytomembranes). Finally, the biomaterials-based strategies regulate the recruitment, recognition and cytotoxicity of NK cells in the solid tumor site in situ to boost the activity of NK cells in the tumor. This article reviews the recent research progress in enhancing NK cell therapy based on biomaterial modification, to provide a reference for further researches on engineering NK cell therapy with biomaterials.
Humans
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Biocompatible Materials/metabolism*
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Immunotherapy
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Killer Cells, Natural/metabolism*
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Immunotherapy, Adoptive
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Neoplasms/therapy*