Feiji Recipe inhibits the growth of lung cancer by modulating T-cell immunity through indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase pathway in an orthotopic implantation model / 中西医结合学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Escape from the body's immune response is a basic characteristic of lung cancer, and indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) plays a key role in mediating immune escape of non-small-cell lung cancer, which leads to recurrence and metastasis. Feiji Recipe, a compound Chinese herbal medicine, has the effect of stabilizing lesions and prolonging survival in patients with lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying the anticancer properties of Feiji Recipe.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>An orthotopic transplant model of mouse Lewis lung cancer, with stable expression of IDO gene, was established in C57BL/6 mice. Optical imaging was used to observe the effects of Feiji Recipe in the treatment of lung cancer in vivo. The effects of Feiji Recipe on the proliferation of mouse Lewis lung cancer cell line 2LL, 2LL-enhanced green fluorescent protein (2LL-EGFP) and 2LL-EGFP-IDO were investigated, and the apoptosis of T-cells was examined by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide using flow cytometry. Chemical composition of Feiji Recipe was validated by high-performance liquid chromatography.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared to the control group, the survival of animals treated with Feiji Recipe was significantly prolonged (P = 0.0074), and the IDO protein level decreased (P = 0.0072); moreover, the percentages of CD4CD25 T-cells and Foxp3 T-cells were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). The molecular mechanism of Feiji Recipe against lung cancer may relate to the regulation of immune cells, such as T-cells and regulatory T-cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The molecular mechanism of Feiji Recipe in treatment of lung cancer is to restore the function of T-cells in the cancer microenvironment through interfering with the IDO pathway.</p>

Let-7b promotes alpaca hair growth via transcriptional repression of TGFßR I.

The young male alpaca ear and the back skins were used to investigate the effect of transforming growth factor receptor-ß I (TGFßR I) on alpaca hair follicles and hair growth. The expression level and location of TGFßR I in alpaca ear and dorsal skin were detected through real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) and paraffin section immunohistochemical technique (ICC-P). The results shown TGFßR I was lower expression in back skin compared to ear skin and the mean density of the positive reaction in ear skin was significantly higher than back skin. The targeted relationship with let-7b was detected using the dual-luciferase reporter vector of TGFßR I, which showed a significant target relationship between let-7b and TGFßR I. After transfection with let-7b eukaryotic expression vector, the relative mRNA expression of TGFßR I in alpaca skin fibroblasts did not differ, while the relative protein level was significantly decreased. In summary, a higher TGFßR I expression level in the ear skin suggests that TGFßR I may inhibit coat hair elongation. Further studies showed TGFßR I protein was downregulated by let-7b through transcriptional repression.