Phototherapy Facilitates Tumor Recruitment and Activation of Natural Killer T cells for Potent Cancer Immunotherapy.

Adoptively transferred natural killer T (NKT) cells confer distinct cancer surveillance without causing obvious side effects, making them a promising candidate for cancer immunotherapy. However, their therapeutic efficacy is limited by inefficient tumor infiltration and inadequate activation in an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. To overcome these obstacles, we develop a strategy of using photothermal therapy (PTT) to promote the antitumor ability of adoptively transferred NKT cells. The transferred NKT cells are efficiently recruited to PTT-treated tumors in response to PTT-created inflammation. Moreover, PTT treatment promotes the activation of NKT cells and enhances the NKT cell-initiated immune cascade. As a consequence, the combined therapy of PTT plus NKT cell transfer exhibits excellent growth inhibition of local tumors. Moreover, it efficiently rejects distant tumors and elicits long-term immunological memory to prevent tumor recurrence. Overall, the current study opens new paths to the clinical translation of NKT cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Antiviral chromones from the stem of Cassia siamea.

Seven new chromones, siamchromones A-G (1-7), and 12 known chromones (8-19) were isolated from the stems of Cassia siamea. Compounds 1-19 were evaluated for their antitobacco mosaic virus (anti-TMV) and anti-HIV-1 activities. Compound 6 showed antitobacco mosaic virus (anti-TMV) activity with an inhibition rate of 35.3% and IC50 value of 31.2 µM, which is higher than that of the positive control, ningnamycin. Compounds 1, 10, 13, and 16 showed anti-TMV activities with inhibition rates above 10%. Compounds 4, 6, 13, and 19 showed anti-HIV-1 activities with therapeutic index values above 50.