Aim To investigate the effects of ursolic acid from loquat leaves on proliferation inhibition and expression of PPAR-γ 、TGF-β1 in rat hepatic stellate cells, so as to explore the mechanism of anti-hepatic fibrosis of UA.Methods HSC-T6 cells were randomly divided into blank group, rosiglitazone control group, the low, medium and high concentration of UA group to detect the cell proliferation inhibition by CCK-8 after 24,48,72 h.The content of type collagen Ⅰ in cell culture supernatant of each group was examined by ELISA.The expression of PPAR-γ mRNA, TGF-β1 mRNA in HSC-T6 cells exposured were examined by real-time quantitative PCR.Effects on HSC-T6 PPAR-γ and TGF-β1 protein from each group were detected by immunocytochemical method.Results CCK-8 results showed that the inhibitory rate of UA on cell proliferation increased with the prolongation of drug action time(P<0.01).ELISA results showed that with the increase of the concentration of UA, the content of type Ⅰ collagen content decreased(P<0.01).Real-time PCR results showed that with the increase of the concentration of UA, and the expression of PPAR-γ mRNA increased, the expression of TGF-β1 mRNA decreased(P<0.01).The results of immunocytochemistry showed that the expression of PPAR-γ protein was increased, and the expression of TGF-β1 protein was decreased with the increase of the concentration of UA(P<0.01).All effects mentioned above were dose-dependent.Moreover, the effects in the high concentration groups were stronger than those in control group.Conclusion UA can inhibit the proliferation of HSC-T6 cells, Which may be associated with the up-regulation of PPAR-γ expression and the down-regulation of TGF-β1 expression.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to optimize a peptide (nABP284) that binds to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) by a computer-based protocol in order to increase its affinity. Then, this study aimed to determine the inhibitory effects of this peptide on cancer immune escape by coculturing improving cytokine-induced killer (ICIK) cells with cancer cells. Materials and Methods: nABP284 that binds to PD-1 was identified by phage display technology in our previous study. AutoDock and PyMOL were used to optimize the sequence of nABP284 to design a new peptide (nABPD1). Immunofluorescence was used to demonstrate that the peptides bound to PD-1. Surface plasmon resonance was used to measure the binding affinity of the peptides. The blocking effect of the peptides on PD-1 was evaluated by a neutralization experiment with human recombinant programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein. The inhibition of activated lymphocytes by cancer cells was simulated by coculturing of human acute T lymphocytic leukemia cells (Jurkat T cells) with human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells (Cal27 cells). The anticancer activities were determined by coculturing ICIK cells with Cal27 cells in vitro. Results: A high-affinity peptide (nABPD1, KD=11.9 nM) for PD-1 was obtained by optimizing the nABP284 peptide (KD=11.8 μM). nABPD1 showed better efficacy than nABP284 in terms of increasing the secretion of interkeulin-2 by Jurkat T cells and enhancing the in vitro antitumor activity of ICIK cells. Conclusion nABPD1 possesses higher affinity for PD-1 than nABP284, which significantly enhances its ability to block the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and to increase ICIK cell-mediated antitumor activity by armoring ICIK cells.

Objective:To characterize the histopathological subtypes and their clinicopathological parameters of gender and onset age by common, rare and sparse primary esophageal malignant tumors (PEMT).Methods:A total of 272 437 patients with PEMT were enrolled in this study, and all of the patients were received radical surgery. The clinicopathological information of the patients was obtained from the database established by the State Key Laboratory of Esophageal Cancer Prevention & Treatment from September 1973 to December 2020, which included the clinical treatment, pathological diagnosis and follow-up information of esophagus and gastric cardia cancers. All patients were diagnosed and classified by the criteria of esophageal tumor histopathological diagnosis and classification (2019) of the World Health Organization (WHO). The esophageal tumors, which were not included in the WHO classification, were analyzed separately according to the postoperative pathological diagnosis. The χ 2 test was performed by the SPSS 25.0 software on count data, and the test standard α=0.05. Results:A total of 32 histopathological types were identified in the enrolled PEMT patients, of which 10 subtypes were not included in the WHO classification. According to the frequency, PEMT were divided into common (esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, ESCC, accounting for 97.1%), rare (esophageal adenocarcinoma, EAC, accounting for 2.3%) and sparse (mainly esophageal small cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, etc., accounting for 0.6%). All the common, rare, and sparse types occurred predominantly in male patients, and the gender difference of rare type was most significant (EAC, male∶ female, 2.67∶1), followed with common type (ESCC, male∶ female, 1.78∶1) and sparse type (male∶ female, 1.71∶1). The common type (ESCC) mainly occurred in the middle thoracic segment (65.2%), while the rare type (EAC) mainly occurred in the lower thoracic segment (56.8%). Among the sparse type, malignant melanoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma were both predominantly located in the lower thoracic segment (51.7%, 66.7%), and the others were mainly in the middle thoracic segment.Conclusion:ESCC is the most common type among the 32 histopathological types of PEMT, followed by EAC as the rare type, and esophageal small cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma as the major sparse type, and all of which are mainly occur in male patients. The common type of ESCC mainly occur in the middle thoracic segment, while the rare type of EAC mainly in the lower thoracic segment. The mainly sparse type of malignant melanoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma predominately occur in the lower thoracic segment, and the remaining sparse types mainly occur in the middle thoracic segment.