Comparative Analysis of the Therapeutic Effects of Fresh and Cryopreserved Human Umbilical Cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Treatment of Psoriasis.

Psoriasis, an inflammatory autoimmune skin disease, is characterized by scaly white or erythematous plaques, which severely influence patients' quality of life and social activities. Mesenchymal stem cells derived from the human umbilical cord (UCMSCs) represent a promising therapeutic approach for psoriasis because of its unique superiority in ethical agreeableness, abundant source, high proliferation capacity, and immunosuppression. Although cryopreservation provided multiple benefits to the cell therapy, it also greatly compromised clinical benefits of MSCs due to impaired cell functions. The current study aims to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of cryopreserved UCMSCs in a mouse model of psoriasis as well as in patients with psoriasis. Our results showed that cryopreserved and fresh UCMSCs have comparable effects on the suppression of psoriasis-like symptoms such as thickening, erythema, and scaling, and serum IL-17 A secretion in mice model of psoriasis. Moreover, psoriatic patients injected with cryopreserved UCMSCs had a significant improvement in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), Physician Global Assessment (PGA), and Patient Global Assessments (PtGAs) scores compared to baseline values. Mechanically, cryopreserved UCMSCs markedly inhibit the proliferation of PHA-activated PBMCs, type 1 T helper (Th1) and type 17 T helper (Th17) cell differentiation and secretion of inflammatory cytokines including IFN-γ, TNF-a and IL-17 A in PBMCs stimulated by anti-CD3/CD28 beads. Taken together, these data indicated that cryopreserved UCMSCs exhibited great beneficial effect on psoriasis. Thus, cryopreserved UCMSCs can be systemically administered as ''off-the-shelf'' cell product for psoriasis therapy. Trial Registration ChiCTR1800019509. Registered on November 15, 2018-Retrospectively registered, http://www.chictr.org.cn/ .

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 2-phenyl pyrimidine derivatives as potent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors.

BTK is an effective target for the treatment of B-cell malignant tumors and autoimmune diseases. In this work, a series of 2-phenyl pyrimidine derivatives were prepared and their preliminary in vitro activities on B-cell leukemia cells as well as the BTK enzyme were determined. The results showed that compound 11g displayed the best inhibitory activity on BTK with an inhibition rate of 82.76% at 100 nM and excellent anti-proliferation activity on three B-cell leukemia lines (IC50 = 3.66 µM, 6.98 µM, and 5.39 µM against HL60, Raji and Ramos, respectively). Besides, the flow cytometry analysis results indicated that 11g inhibited the proliferation of the Raji cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and blocked the Ramos cells at the G0/G1 phase, which is in accordance with the positive control ibrutinib. The mechanism investigation demonstrated that 11g could inhibit the phosphorylation of BTK and its downstream substrate phospholipase γ2 (PLCγ2). All these results showed that 11g was a promising lead compound that merited further optimization as a novel class of BTK inhibitor for the treatment of B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia.

Optimization of novel benzofuro[3,2-b]pyridin-2(1H)-one derivatives as dual inhibitors of BTK and PI3Kδ.

BTK and PI3Kδ play crucial roles in the progression of leukemia, and studies confirmed that the dual inhibition against BTK and PI3Kδ could provide superior anticancer agents to single targeted therapies. Herein, a new series of novel benzofuro[3,2-b]pyridin-2(1H)-one derivatives were optimized based on a BTK/PI3Kδ inhibitor 2 designed by our group. Biological studies clarified that compound 6f exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity (BTK: IC50 = 74 nM; PI3Kδ: IC50 = 170 nM) and better selectivity than 2. Moreover, 6f significantly inhibited the proliferation of Raji and Ramos cells with IC50 values of 2.1 µM and 2.65 µM respectively by blocking BTK and PI3K signaling pathways. In brief, 6f possessed of the potency for further optimization as an anti-leukemic drug by inhibiting BTK and PI3Kδ kinase.