The ß-catenin/CBP signaling axis participates in sepsis-induced inflammatory lung injury.

Sepsis-induced inflammatory lung injury is a key factor causing failure of the lungs and other organs, as well as death, during sepsis. In the present study, a caecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis model was established to investigate the effect of ß-catenin on sepsis-induced inflammatory lung injury and the corresponding underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into five groups, namely, the sham, CLP, ß-catenin knockout (KO) + CLP, XAV-939 + CLP, and ICG-001 + CLP groups; the XAV-939 + CLP and ICG-001 + CLP groups were separately subjected to intraperitoneal injections of the ß-catenin inhibitors XAV-939 and ICG-001 for 1 week preoperatively and 2 days postoperatively, respectively. Forty-eight hours after CLP, we measured ß-catenin expression in lung tissues and evaluated mouse mortality, histopathological characteristics of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained lung tissues, serum cytokine (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α, interleukin [IL]-10, and IL-1ß) levels, lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and the number of apoptotic cells in the lung tissues. Our results indicated that both the inhibition of ß-catenin expression and blockage of ß-catenin/CREB-binding protein (CBP) interactions by ICG-001 effectively decreased mouse mortality, alleviated pathological lung injury, and reduced the serum TNF-α, IL-10, and IL-1ß levels, in addition to reducing the lung MPO activity and the number of apoptotic cells in lung tissues of the sepsis model mice. Therefore, it can be deduced that the ß-catenin/CBP signaling axis participates in regulating sepsis-induced inflammatory lung injury.

Increased expression of TIGIT and KLRG1 correlates with impaired CD56bright NK cell immunity in HPV16-related cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

BACKGROUND: The onset and progression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) are closely associated with the persistent infection of high-risk HPV (especially type16), which is mainly caused by immune escape. Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role against virally infected cells and tumor cells through a fine balance of signals from multiple surface receptors. Overexpression of non-MHC-I specific inhibitory receptors TIGIT, KLRG1, Siglec-7, LAIR-1, and CD300a on NK cells correlates with cellular exhaustion and immune evasion, but these receptors have not been investigated in CIN. The aim of the present study was to examine the potential role of NK cell non-MHC-I specific inhibitory receptors expression in immune escape from HPV16(+)CIN patients. METHODS: The subset distribution, IFN-γ and TNF-α expression levels and immunophenotype of TIGIT, KLRG1, Siglec-7, LAIR-1, and CD300a of NK cells were investigated in peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples by flow cytometry from 82 women who were HPV16(+) with CIN grades 0, I, II-III or HPV(-) CIN 0. Immunohistochemistry was applied to detect the expression of ligands for NK receptors in the cervical tissues. HPV types were identified by PCR assays. RESULTS: The HPV16(+) subjects with high-grade lesions had an increased number of circulating peripheral blood CD56bright NK cells with reduced functionality and IFN-γ secretion. The expression levels of the inhibitory molecules TIGIT and KLRG1 on CD56bright NK cells increased in parallel with increasing CIN grade. In addition, TIGIT and KLRG1 related ligands, Poliovirus receptor (PVR), N-Cadherin and E-Cadherin expression level was also elevated with increasing CIN grade. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that up-regulation of the inhibitory TIGIT, KLRG1 and their ligands may negatively regulate cervical CD56bright NK-mediated immunity to HPV16 and contribute to the progression of CIN. These results may facilitate the development of early-warning immune predictors and therapeutic strategies for HPV16(+) CIN based on the TIGIT and KLRG1 inhibitory pathways of NK cells.

Effect of immunotherapy on the immune microenvironment in advanced recurrent cervical cancer.

This study evaluated the basic immune status of cervical cancer and the influences of immunotherapy on the immune microenvironment, and analyzed the correlation between changes in the immune microenvironment and prognosis. We retrospectively analyzed the treatment status of 8 patients with advanced recurrent cervical cancer treated with PD-1 inhibitors and detected the tumor-infiltrating immune markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD56, CD68, PD-1, and PD-L1) by immunohistochemistry. All patients showed good tolerance during the treatment. Complete response (CR), partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD) was observed in 3, 2, and 3 patients, respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis showed immunotherapy resulted in increased infiltration of T lymphocytes, natural killer cells, and B cells, especially among those who responded well. The expression of B cells in 4 of the 5 patients with clinical benefit was relatively high, and the expression of PD-L1 in these 5 patients showed a combined positive score > 3. PD-L1 expression increased significantly after treatment with PD-1 inhibitors. Second-generation sequencing showed that the tumor mutation burden of two patients with adenocarcinoma was high, and after immunotherapy, one case recurred after cure and the other remained stable. PR was also observed in squamous cell carcinoma patients with dMMR (p.R2165H/c.6494G > A) and PIK3CA (p.E545K(E9)) mutations. The expression of B cells and PD-L1 has certain predictive effect for the efficacy of immunotherapy in cervical cancer under the condition of high or low T cell infiltration, and can inform treatment decision-making for patients with advanced cervical cancer.

UPLC-Q-TOF/MS-based plasma metabolome to identify biomarkers and time of injury in traumatic brain injured rats.

BACKGROUND: To identify the potent metabolic biomarkers and time of injury of traumatic brain injured (TBI). METHODS: A total of 70 Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish the TBI model in this study. The serum was collected at 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 3 days and 7 days after surgery. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was performed to analyze metabolic changes in the serum of the TBI rats from different groups. The differences between the metabolic profiles of the rats in seven groups were analyzed using partial least squares discriminant analysis. RESULTS: Metabolic profiling revealed significant differences between the sham-operated and other groups. A total of 49 potential TBI metabolite biomarkers were identified between the sham-operated group and the model groups at different time points. Among them, six metabolites (methionine sulfone, kynurenine, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid, 3-Indolepropionic acid, citric acid and glycocholic acid) were identified as biomarkers of TBI to estimate the injury time. CONCLUSION: Using metabolomic analysis, we identified new TBI serum biomarkers for accurate detection and determination of the timing of TBI injury.