1.Nanomedicine-driven tumor glucose metabolic reprogramming for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.
Chenwei JIANG ; Minglu TANG ; Yun SU ; Junjie XIE ; Qi SHANG ; Mingmei GUO ; Xiaoran AN ; Longfei LIN ; Ruibin WANG ; Qian HUANG ; Guangji ZHANG ; Hui LI ; Feihu WANG
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(6):2845-2866
Tumors exhibit abnormal glucose metabolism, consuming excessive glucose and excreting lactate, which constructs a tumor microenvironment that facilitates cancer progression and disrupts immunotherapeutic efficacy. Currently, tumor glucose metabolic dysregulation to reshape the immunosuppressive microenvironment and enhance immunotherapy efficacy is emerging as an innovative therapeutic strategy. However, glucose metabolism modulators lack specificity and still face significant challenges in overcoming tumor delivery barriers, microenvironmental complexity, and metabolic heterogeneity, resulting in poor clinical benefit. Nanomedicines, with their ability to selectively target tumors or immune cells, respond to the tumor microenvironment, co-deliver multiple drugs, and facilitate combinatorial therapies, hold significant promise for enhancing immunotherapy through tumor glucose metabolic reprogramming. This review explores the complex interactions between tumor glucose metabolism-specifically metabolite transport, glycolysis processes, and lactate-and the immune microenvironment. We summarize how nanomedicine-mediated reprogramming of tumor glucose metabolism can enhance immunotherapy efficacy and outline the prospects and challenges in this field.
2.GALM Alleviates Aβ Pathology and Cognitive Deficit Through Increasing ADAM10 Maturation in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.
Na TIAN ; Junjie LI ; Xiuyu SHI ; Mingliang XU ; Qian XIAO ; Qiuyun TIAN ; Mulan CHEN ; Weihong SONG ; Yehong DU ; Zhifang DONG
Neuroscience Bulletin 2025;41(8):1377-1389
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder worldwide, causing dementia and affecting millions of individuals. One prominent characteristic in the brains of AD patients is glucose hypometabolism. In the context of galactose metabolism, intracellular glucose levels are heightened. Galactose mutarotase (GALM) plays a crucial role in maintaining normal galactose metabolism by catalyzing the conversion of β-D-galactose into α-D-galactose (α-D-G). The latter is then converted into glucose-6-phosphate, improving glucose metabolism levels. However, the involvement of GALM in AD progression is still unclear. In the present study, we found that the expression of GALM was significantly increased in AD patients and model mice. Genetic knockdown of GALM using adeno-associated virus did not change the expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and APP-cleaving enzymes including a disintegrin and metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10), β-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1), and presenilin-1 (PS1). Interestingly, genetic overexpression of GALM reduced APP and Aβ deposition by increasing the maturation of ADAM10, although it did not alter the expression of BACE1 and PS1. Further electrophysiological and behavioral experiments showed that GALM overexpression significantly ameliorated the deficits in hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial learning and memory in AD model mice. Importantly, direct α-D-G (20 mg/kg, i.p.) also inhibited Aβ deposition by increasing the maturation of ADAM10, thereby improving hippocampal CA1 LTP and spatial learning and memory in AD model mice. Taken together, our results indicate that GALM shifts APP processing towards α-cleavage, preventing Aβ generation by increasing the level of mature ADAM10. These findings indicate that GALM may be a potential therapeutic target for AD, and α-D-G has the potential to be used as a dietary supplement for the prevention and treatment of AD.
Animals
;
ADAM10 Protein/metabolism*
;
Alzheimer Disease/pathology*
;
Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/metabolism*
;
Disease Models, Animal
;
Humans
;
Mice
;
Amyloid beta-Peptides/metabolism*
;
Male
;
Mice, Transgenic
;
Membrane Proteins/metabolism*
;
Cognitive Dysfunction/pathology*
;
Mice, Inbred C57BL
;
Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor/metabolism*
;
Female
;
Hippocampus/metabolism*
;
Long-Term Potentiation/physiology*
3.Effect of calumenin on metastasis and invasion of gastric cancer and prognosis of patients
Zhixiang REN ; Jiajia LIU ; Zhongyi QIN ; Junjie WANG ; Yiming ZHENG ; Bin WANG ; Feng QIAN
Journal of Army Medical University 2025;47(5):435-442
Objective To investigate the expression of calumenin(CALU)in gastric cancer and its effect on metastasis and invasion of gastric cancer,and analyze its relationship with the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.Methods The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)database was used to analyze the expression level of CALU in gastric cancer and its impact on patient prognosis.A total of 102 pairs of gastric cancer and paracancerous tissue samples were collected from 189 gastric cancer patients who underwent partial gastrectomy in First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from January 2018 to December 2022.The expression of CALU in gastric cancer and paracancerous tissues was detected by immunohistochemical assay,and the relationship of its expression with clinicopathological parameters was statistically analyzed.After gastric cancer cells with CALU knockdown and overexpression were constructed,and the efficiencies of knockdown and overexpression were evaluated by Western blotting as well as RT-qPCR.Transwell assay was applied to determine the effect of CALU on the migration and invasion abilities of gastric cancer cells.Results Bioinformation analysis found that CALU was significantly highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues(P<0.05),and its expression level was negatively correlated with the prognosis of patients(P<0.05).Immunohistochemical results showed that the expression level of CALU was obviously highly in gastric cancer tissues than the paracancerous tissues(P<0.01),and its level was positively correlated with the depth of infiltration(P<0.01),lymph node metastasis(P<0.01),and TNM stage(P<0.05).Statistical analysis revealed that the clinical data of 102 patients showed that CALU expression was positively correlated with the TNM stage(P=0.021)and T stage(P<0.001)and N stage(P=0.028).CALU knockdown significantly inhibited the migration and invasion abilities of gastric cancer cells(P<0.01),while over-expression obtained the opposite results.Conclusion CALU is highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues and promotes metastasis and invasion of gastric cancer and thus leads to poor prognosis in patients.
4.Cancer staging diagnosis based on transcriptomics and variational autoencoder
Jiarui LI ; Li QIAN ; Junjie SHEN ; Honglin GUO ; Maoyang QIN ; Yazhou WU
Journal of Army Medical University 2025;47(6):613-622
Objective To conduct an in-depth analysis and feature extraction of the transcriptomics data of 10 types of cancers in order to realize the staging diagnosis of cancer samples.Methods The transcriptomics data of the top 10 cancers having the highest incidence were amassed from the UCSC Xena website,which comprised 4 938 samples and 59 428 genes.With the aid of variational autoencoder,we developed an incremental feature ranking and selection variational autoencoder(IFRSVAE)based on feature importance ranking and incorporating the masking algorithm and the Incremental Feature Selection(IFS).Subsequently,the performance efficiency of our IFRSVAE model was evaluated in conjunction with Random Forest(RF),Support Vector Machine(SVM),and eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGboost),and it was also compared with other methods.Results Our research extracted 21 features for the ensuing classification.In comparison to the conventional variational autoencoder,recursive feature elimination,and Lasso regression models,the IFRSVAE model attained more favorable performance across all 3 classifiers(highest AUC value,and well performed other indicators).Notably,the IFRSVAE-RF exhibited the most outstanding performance,with an AUC value reaching 85.49%(95%CI:83.24%~87.74%).Moreover,Shapley additive explanations(SHAP)interpretable model illustrated well contributions of the features in our model.Conclusion Our developed IFRSVAE shows certain effectiveness in feature extraction.The constructed IFRSVAE-RF model demonstrates relatively good performance in the task of cancer staging diagnosis,which providing a new and referable idea for research orientation of deep-learning-based diagnostic methods for cancer staging.
5.Clustering analysis of risk factors in high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer in Yanting county
Ruiwu LUO ; Heng HUANG ; Hao CHENG ; Siyu NI ; Siyi FU ; Qinchun QIAN ; Junjie YANG ; Xinlong CHEN ; Hanyu HUANG ; Zhengdong ZONG ; Yujuan ZHAO ; Yuhe QIN ; Chengcheng HE ; Ye WU ; Hongying WEN ; Dong TIAN
Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2024;31(03):385-391
Objective To investigate the dietary patterns of rural residents in the high-incidence areas of esophageal cancer (EC), and to explore the clustering and influencing factors of risk factors associated with high-incidence characteristics. Methods A special structured questionnaire was applied to conduct a face-to-face survey on the dietary patterns of rural residents in Yanting county of Sichuan Province from July to August 2021. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the influencing factors of risk factor clustering for EC. Results There were 838 valid questionnaires in this study. A total of 90.8% of rural residents used clean water such as tap water. In the past one year, the people who ate fruits and vegetables, soybean products, onions and garlic in high frequency accounted for 69.5%, 32.8% and 74.5%, respectively; the people who ate kimchi, pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, barbecue, hot food and mildew food in low frequency accounted for 59.2%, 79.6%, 68.2%, 90.3%, 80.9% and 90.3%, respectively. The clustering of risk factors for EC was found in 73.3% of residents, and the aggregation of two risk factors was the most common mode (28.2%), among which tumor history and preserved food was the main clustering pattern (4.6%). The logistic regression model revealed that the gender, age, marital status and occupation were independent influencing factors for the risk factors clustering of EC (P<0.05). Conclusion A majority of rural residents in high-incidence areas of EC in Yanting county have good eating habits, but the clustering of some risk factors is still at a high level. Gender, age, marital status, and occupation are influencing factors of the risk factors clustering of EC.
6.Metformin:A promising clinical therapeutical approach for BPH treatment via inhibiting dysregulated steroid hormones-induced prostatic epithelial cells proliferation
Tingting YANG ; Jiayu YUAN ; Yuting PENG ; Jiale PANG ; Zhen QIU ; Shangxiu CHEN ; Yuhan HUANG ; Zhenzhou JIANG ; Yilin FAN ; Junjie LIU ; Tao WANG ; Xueyan ZHOU ; Sitong QIAN ; Jinfang SONG ; Yi XU ; Qian LU ; Xiaoxing YIN
Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis 2024;14(1):52-68
The occurrence of benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH)was related to disrupted sex steroid hormones,and metformin(Met)had a clinical response to sex steroid hormone-related gynaecological disease.How-ever,whether Met exerts an antiproliferative effect on BPH via sex steroid hormones remains unclear.Here,our clinical study showed that along with prostatic epithelial cell(PEC)proliferation,sex steroid hormones were dysregulated in the serum and prostate of BPH patients.As the major contributor to dysregulated sex steroid hormones,elevated dihydrotestosterone(DHT)had a significant positive rela-tionship with the clinical characteristics of BPH patients.Activation of adenosine 5'-monophosphate(AMP)-activated protein kinase(AMPK)by Met restored dysregulated sex steroid hormone homeostasis and exerted antiproliferative effects against DHT-induced proliferation by inhibiting the formation of androgen receptor(AR)-mediated Yes-associated protein(YAP1)-TEA domain transcription factor(TEAD4)heterodimers.Met's anti-proliferative effects were blocked by AMPK inhibitor or YAP1 over-expression in DHT-cultured BPH-1 cells.Our findings indicated that Met would be a promising clinical therapeutic approach for BPH by inhibiting dysregulated steroid hormone-induced PEC proliferation.
7.Sinensetin protects against periodontitis through binding to Bach1 enhancing its ubiquitination degradation and improving oxidative stress
Yuan ZHIYAO ; Li JUNJIE ; Xiao FUYU ; Wu YU ; Zhang ZHITING ; Shi JIAHONG ; Qian JUN ; Wu XUDONG ; Yan FUHUA
International Journal of Oral Science 2024;16(3):553-562
Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory and immune reactive disease induced by the subgingival biofilm.The therapeutic effect for susceptible patients is often unsatisfactory due to excessive inflammatory response and oxidative stress.Sinensetin(Sin)is a nature polymethoxylated flavonoid with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.Our study aimed to explore the beneficial effect of Sin on periodontitis and the specific molecular mechanisms.We found that Sin attenuated oxidative stress and inflammatory levels of periodontal ligament cells(PDLCs)under inflammatory conditions.Administered Sin to rats with ligation-induced periodontitis models exhibited a protective effect against periodontitis in vivo.By molecular docking,we identified Bach1 as a strong binding target of Sin,and this binding was further verified by cellular thermal displacement assay and immunofluorescence assays.Chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative polymerase chain reaction results also revealed that Sin obstructed the binding of Bach1 to the HMOX1 promoter,subsequently upregulating the expression of the key antioxidant factor HO-1.Further functional experiments with Bach1 knocked down and overexpressed verified Bach1 as a key target for Sin to exert its antioxidant effects.Additionally,we demonstrated that Sin prompted the reduction of Bach1 by potentiating the ubiquitination degradation of Bach1,thereby inducing HO-1 expression and inhibiting oxidative stress.Overall,Sin could be a promising drug candidate for the treatment of periodontitis by targeting binding to Bach1.
8.Long-term outcomes of intravascular ultrasound-guided drug-eluting stents implantation in patients with acute coronary syndrome: ULTIMATE ACS subgroup
Xiaofei GAO ; Leng HAN ; Xuesong QIAN ; Zhen GE ; Xiangquan KONG ; Shu LU ; Jing KAN ; Guangfeng ZUO ; Junjie ZHANG ; Shaoliang CHEN
Chinese Journal of Cardiology 2024;52(2):137-143
Objective:To explore the long-term effects of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guidance on patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing drug-eluting stents (DES) implantation.Methods:Data used in this study derived from ULTIMATE trial, which was a prospective, multicenter, randomized study. A total of 1 448 all-comer patients were enrolled between 2014 August and 2017 May. Primary endpoint of this study was target vessel failure (TVF) at 3 years, including cardiac death, target-vessel-related myocardial infarction, and clinically-driven target vessel revascularization.Results:ACS was present in 1 136 (78.5%) patients, and 3-year clinical follow-up was available in 1 423 patients (98.3%). TVF in the ACS group was 9.6% (109/1 136), which was significantly higher than 4.5% (14/312) in the non-ACS group (log-rank P=0.005). There were 109 TVFs in the ACS patients, with 7.6% (43/569) TVFs in the IVUS group and 11.6% (66/567) TVFs in the angiography group (log-rank P=0.019). Moreover, patients with optimal IVUS guidance were associated with a lower risk of 3-year TVF compared to those with suboptimal IVUS results (5.4% (16/296) vs. 9.9% (27/273),log-rank P=0.041). Conclusions:This ULTIMATE-ACS subgroup analysis showed that ACS patients undergoing DES implantation were associated with a higher risk of 3-year TVF. More importantly, the risk of TVF could be significantly decreased through IVUS guidance in patients with ACS, especially in those who had an IVUS-defined optimal procedure.
9.Prognostic nomogram for predicting lower limb venous thrombosis in patients after craniocerebral surgery
Zhiqiang GE ; Gang ZUO ; Qian XU ; Jiyao LIANG ; Yibin CHEN ; Junjie HUO ; Ming JIANG
Journal of Clinical Surgery 2024;32(7):701-705
Objective To explore the risk factors for lower limb venous thrombosis in patients after craniocerebral surgery,and establish a prognostic nomogram for the occurrence of lower limb venous thrombosis.Methods A total of 427 patients who underwent craniotomy for craniocerebral trauma and met the inclusion criteria in the First People's Hospital of Taicang from January 2018 to December 2020 were collected as training group,and the nomogram was drawn and verified internally.And 106 patients who underwent surgery from January 2021 to June 2021 were used as test group,and the model was externally verified set.The nomogram was established and internally validated with the data of the training group,and externally validated with the data of the test group.For the training group,multivariate Logistic regression analysis was performed by including all variables with P<0.05 in univariate analysis,and established the prognostic nomogram by R software.In the training group and the test group,the performance of the nomogram was verified by C-index,calibration chart and decision curve analysis respectively.Results In the training group of 427 people,107 had lower limb venous thrombosis,with an incidence rate of 25.1%.Among the 106 people in the test group,33 developed lower limb venous thrombosis,with an incidence rate of 31.1%.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age,lower preoperative GCS score,postoperative lower limb muscle strength<3,hypertension,and diabetes were independent risk factors for the occurrence of lower limb vein thrombosis after craniocerebral surgery.The C-index of this nomogram in the training group and the test group was 0.837(95%CI:0.796-0.878)and 0.933(95%CI:0.886-0.979),respectively.Conclusion The nomogram including the age,preoperative GCS score,postoperative lower limb muscle strength<3,hypertension,and diabetes can predict the probability of lower limb vein thrombosis after craniocerebral surgery with convenient discrimination and clinical utility.
10.A dormant cancer mouse model established by combining preimmune strategy with mVenus-p27K-system
MUTAILIFU MUSITABA ; Junjie WANG ; Yunzhen QIAN ; Suyuan CHEN ; Da SHAO ; Zhigang ZHANG ; Dongxue LI
Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Medical Science) 2024;44(9):1104-1114
Objective·To establish a mouse model with dormant cancer and no obvious metastasis by combining the preimmune strategy with the mVenus-p27K-cell G0 phase indicator system,the DTR-HSV/TK suicide gene system,and the Luc2-tdTomato tracer system.Methods·The KPC1199 mouse pancreatic cancer cell line was transfected with the mVenus-p27K-cell G0 phase indicator system,the DTR-HSV/TK suicide gene system,and the Luc2-tdTomato tracer system to construct a stable expression cell line,KPC1199-PDL.After being cultured in the serum-free condition,KPC1199-PDL cells were sorted into mVenus(+)cells and mVenus(-)cells by flow cytometry,and the expression of G0 phase-related genes was verified by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qPCR).Sensitivity of KPC1199-PDL cells to diphtheria toxin(DTX)and ganciclovir(GCV)was evaluated by CCK-8 assay.A transsplenic portal vein-hepatic metastasis model was constructed in wild-type C57BL/6 mice to validate the function of KPC1199-PDL cells in vivo by immunofluorescence technology.The KPC1199-PDL cells were injected subcutaneously into C57BL/6 mice,followed by in situ injection of DTX and GCV to ablate subcutaneous tumors 5 d later,to obtain preimmunized mice.The transsplenic portal vein-hepatic metastasis models were constructed in these mice.Bioluminescence imaging was used to evaluate subcutaneous tumor ablation and hepatic metastasis in the mice,and immunofluorescence assay was used to detect the distribution and dormant state of tumor cells in the livers of preimmunize mice.Results·The three tool systems were stably expressed in KPC1199-PDL cells,and their proliferative ability was not affected.In the serum starving condition,some KPC1199-PDL cells expressed the mVenus protein,indicating entry into the G0 phase;the mVenus(+)cells sorted out by flow cytometry exhibited significantly higher expression of G0 phase-related genes(all P<0.05)and significantly lower expression of the proliferation-related gene compared with mVenus(-)cells(P<0.05).The CCK-8 assay demonstrated high sensitivity of KPC1199-PDL cells to DTX and GCV.In vivo experiments confirmed that KPC1199-PDL cells could be effectively traced through tdTomato protein expression,and could indicate entry into the G0 phase through mVenus protein expression.Following subcutaneous tumor implantation and drug ablation,preimmunized mice were successfully obtained.In the subsequent transsplenic portal vein-hepatic metastasis model,no metastatic signals were observed in the liver by bioluminescence imaging,but single or small clusters of G0 phase tumor cells expressing both mVenus and tdTomato,not expressing the proliferation marker Ki67,were detected in liver tissue sections by immunofluorescence analysis.Conclusions·A recognizable and traceable dormant cancer model is constructed with the combination of the preimmune mouse model of pancreatic cancer,the mVeneus-p27K-indicator system,the DTR-HSV/TK suicide gene system,and the Luc2-tdTomato tracer system.

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail