Cover illustration
Homoharringtonine, a gift from the nature, brings hope to sick baby with fatal disease. Courtesy of Dr. Shuhong Shen.
(See pages 378-387 by Xiaoxiao Chen et al. for more information.)
Malignant cell transformation could be considered as a series of cell reprogramming events driven by oncogenic transcription factors and upstream signalling pathways. Chromatin plasticity and dynamics are critical determinants in the control of cell reprograming. An increase in chromatin dynamics could therefore constitute an essential step in driving oncogenesis and in generating tumour cell heterogeneity, which is indispensable for the selection of aggressive properties, including the ability of cells to disseminate and acquire resistance to treatments. Histone supply and dosage, as well as histone variants, are the best-known regulators of chromatin dynamics. By facilitating cell reprogramming, histone under-dosage and histone variants should also be crucial in cell transformation and tumour metastasis. Here we summarize and discuss our knowledge of the role of histone supply and histone variants in chromatin dynamics and their ability to enhance oncogenic cell reprogramming and tumour heterogeneity.
Lung transplantation is increasingly practiced for patients with end-stage lung disease. The successful outcome of solid organ transplantation today is severely impeded by the production of alloantibodies, mainly directed against the protein products of the HLA complex of the organ donor. While the association between antibody mediated rejection and allograft damage has been well established in renal and heart transplantation, it has not yet been well characterized in lung transplantation. This review addresses the question of HLA matching in lung transplantation and current knowledge of the allogenicity of different HLA class I and II antigens. The role of the antibody mediated immune response is discussed as well as the importance of pre-transplant or de novo post-transplant circulating antibodies. Finally, potential mechanisms, which may act individually or in combination, of antibody mediated damage to solid organ transplants are considered.
The biological relevance of cytokines is known for more than 20 years. Evidence suggests that adipogenesis is one of the biological events involved in the regulation of cytokines, and pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNFα and IL-1β) inhibit adipogenesis through various pathways. This inhibitory effect can constrain the hyperplastic expandability of adipose tissues. Meanwhile, chronic low-grade inflammation is commonly observed in obese populations. In some individuals, the impaired ability of adipose tissues to recruit new adipocytes to adipose depots during overnutrition results in adipocyte hypertrophy, ectopic lipid accumulation, and insulin resistance. Intervention studies showed that pro-inflammatory cytokine antagonists improve metabolism in patients with metabolic syndrome. This review focuses on the cytokines currently known to regulate adipogenesis under physiological and pathophysiological circumstances. Recent studies on how inhibited adipogenesis leads to metabolic disorders were summarized. Although the interplay of cytokines and lipid metabolism is yet incompletely understood, cytokines represent a class of potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of metabolic disorders.
Alternative splicing is a tightly regulated process that contributes to cancer development. CRNDE is a long noncoding RNA with alternative splicing and is implicated in the pathogenesis of several cancers. However, whether deregulated expression of CRNDE is common and which isoforms are mainly involved in cancers remain unclear. In this study, we report that CRNDE is aberrantly expressed in the majority of solid and hematopoietic malignancies. The investigation of CRNDE expression in normal samples revealed that CRNDE was expressed in a tissue- and cell-specific manner. Further comparison of CRNDE expression in 2938 patient samples from 15 solid and hematopoietic tumors showed that CRNDE was significantly overexpressed in 11 malignancies, including 3 reported and 8 unreported, and also implicated that the overexpressed isoforms differed in various cancer types. Furthermore, anti-cancer drugs could efficiently repress CRNDE overexpression in cancer cell lines and primary samples, and even had different impacts on the expression of CRNDE isoforms. Finally, experimental profiles of 12 alternatively spliced isoforms demonstrated that the spliced variant CRNDE-g was the most highly expressed isoform in multiple cancer types. Collectively, our results emphasize the cancer-associated feature of CRNDE and its spliced isoforms, and may provide promising targets for cancer diagnosis and therapy.
Dasatinib is a highly effective second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In 2007, a pivotal phase-2 study of dasatinib as second-line treatment was initiated in 140 Chinese CML patients. This report from the 4-year follow-up revealed that 73% of 59 patients in chronic phase (CML-CP) and 32% of 25 patients in accelerated phase (CML-AP) remained under treatment. The initial dosage of dasatinib for CML-CP and CML-AP patients were 100 mg once daily and 70 mg twice daily (total= 140 mg/day), respectively. The cumulative major cytogenetic response (MCyR) rate among patients with CML-CP was 66.1% (versus 50.8% at 18 months), and the median time to MCyR was 12.7 weeks. All CML-CP patients who achieved MCyR after a 4-year follow-up also achieved a complete cytogenetic response. The cumulative complete hematological response (CHR) rate among patients with CML-AP was 64% (16/25), with three CML-AP patients achieving CHR between 18 months and 4 years of follow-up; the median time to CHR was 16.4 weeks. The adverse event (AE) profile of dasatinib at 4 years was similar to that at 6 and 18 months. The most frequently reported AEs (any grade) included pleural effusion, headache, and myelosuppression. These long-term follow-up data continue to support dasatinib as a second-line treatment for Chinese patients with CML.
The efficacy of minimal residual disease (MRD)-directed immunotherapy, including interferon-α (IFN-α) treatment and chemotherapy plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-primed donor leukocyte infusion (chemo-DLI), was investigated in patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who were MRD-positive after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). High-risk MDS patients who received non-T-cell-depleted allo-HSCT at the Peking University Institute of Hematology and were MRD-positive after allo-HSCT were studied (n=47). The MRD-positive status was considered if leukemia-associated aberrant immune phenotypes or Wilms’ tumor gene 1 expression is present in a single bone marrow sample. The cumulative incidence of the relapse and non-relapse mortality 2 years after immunotherapy were 14.5% and 21.4% (P=0.377) and 9.1% and 0.0% (P=0.985) for patients in the IFN-α and chemo-DLI groups, respectively. The probability of disease-free and overall survival 2 years after immunotherapy were 76.4% and 78.6% (P=0.891) and 84.3% and 84.6% (P=0.972) for patients in the IFN-α and chemo-DLI groups, respectively. Persistent MRD after immunotherapy was associated with poor survival. Thus, the MRD-directed immunotherapy was effective for patients with high-risk MDS who were MRD-positive after allo-HSCT, and the efficacy was comparable between chemo-DLI and IFN-α treatment.
Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is a major infectious complication in patients with hematological malignancies. In this study, we examined 4889 courses of chemotherapy in patients with hematological diseases to establish a training dataset (n=3500) by simple random sampling to develop a weighted risk score for proven or probable IFD through multivariate regression, which included the following variables: male patients, induction chemotherapy for newly diagnosed or relapsed disease, neutropenia, neutropenia longer than 10 days, hypoalbuminemia, central-venous catheter, and history of IFD. The patients were classified into three groups, which had low (0–10, ~1.2%), intermediate (11–15, 6.4%), and high risk (>15, 17.5%) of IFD. In the validation set (n=1389), the IFD incidences of the groups were ~1.4%, 5.0%, and 21.4%. In addition, we demonstrated that anti-fungal prophylaxis offered no benefits in low-risk patients, whereas benefits were documented in intermediate (2.1% vs. 6.6%, P=0.007) and high-risk patients (8.4% vs. 23.3%, P=0.007). To make the risk score applicable for clinical settings, a pre-chemo risk score that deleted all unpredictable factors before chemotherapy was established, and it confirmed that anti-fungal prophylaxis was beneficial in patients with intermediate and high risk of IFD. In conclusion, an objective, weighted risk score for IFD was developed, and it may be useful in guiding antifungal prophylaxis.
Homoharringtonine (HHT), a plant alkaloid from Cephalotaxus harringtonia, exhibits a unique anticancer mechanism and has been widely used in China to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) since the 1970s. Trial SCMC-AML-2009 presented herein was a randomized clinical study designed based on our previous findings that pediatric AML patients younger than two years old may benefit from HHT-containing chemotherapy regimens. Patients randomized to arm A were treated with a standard chemotherapy regimen comprising mainly of anthracyclines and cytarabine (Ara-C), whereas patients in arm B were treated with HHT-containing regimens in which anthracyclines in all but the initial induction therapy were replaced by HHT. From February 2009 to November 2015, 59 patients less than 2 years old with de novo AML (other than acute promyelocytic leukemia) were recruited. A total of 42 patients achieved a morphologic complete remission (CR) after the first course, with similar rates in both arms (70.6% vs.72.0%). At the end of the follow-up period, 40 patients remained in CR and 5 patients underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in CR, which could not be considered as events but censors. The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) was 60.2%±9.6% for arm A and 88.0%±6.5% for arm B (P=0.024). Patients in arm B experienced shorter durations of leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia and had a lower risk of infection during consolidation chemotherapy with high-dosage Ara-C. Consequently, the homoharringtonine-based regimen achieved excellent EFS and alleviated hematologic toxicity for children aged younger than 2 years with de novo AML compared with the anthracycline-based regimen.
Collaboration of c-KIT mutations with AML1–ETO (AE) has been demonstrated to induce t(8; 21) acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Targeted therapies designed to eliminate AE and c-KIT oncoproteins may facilitate effective treatment of t(8; 21) AML. Homoharringtonine (HHT) features activity against tumor cells harboring c-KIT mutations, whereas oridonin can induce t(8; 21) AML cell apoptosis and AE cleavage. Therefore, studies should explore the efficacy of combination therapy with oridonin and HHT in t(8; 21) AML. In this study, we investigated the synergistic effects and mechanism of oridonin combined with HHT in t(8; 21) AML cell line and mouse model. The two drugs synergistically inhibited cell viability and induced significant mitochondrial membrane potential loss and apoptosis. Oridonin and HHT induced significant downregulation of c-KIT and its downstream signaling pathways and promoted AE cleavage. HHT increased intracellular oridonin concentration by modulating the expressions of MRP1 and MDR1, thus enhancing the effects of oridonin. The combination of oridonin and HHT prolonged t(8; 21) leukemia mouse survival. In conclusion, oridonin and HHT exert synergistic effects against t(8; 21) leukemia in vivo and in vitro, thereby indicating that their combination may be an effective therapy for t(8; 21) leukemia.
Increased serum urotensin II (UII) levels in human cirrhotic populations have been recently shown, but the long-term effects of UII receptor antagonist on the cirrhosis have not been investigated. To investigate the therapeutic effects of urotensin II receptor (UT) antagonist palosuran on rats with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced cirrhosis, the hepatic and systemic hemodynamics, liver fibrosis, the metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13)/ tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) ratio, hepatic Rho-kinase activity, and the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity are measured in CCl4-cirrhotic rats treated with palosuran or vehicle for 4 weeks. Primary hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are used to investigate the changes in UII/UT expression and the in vitro effect of palosuran. Compared with the vehicle-treated cirrhotic rats, treatment with palosuran can reduce the portal pressure (PP), decrease the risk of liver fibrosis and the level of α smooth muscle actin, collagen-I (COL-I), and transforming growth factor β expression. However, treatment with palosuran can increase MMP-13/TIMP-1, p-vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (p-VASP), and p-eNOS expression. Moreover, in vitro UII/UT mRNA expression increases during HSC activation. MMP-13/TIMP-1, COL-I, and p-VASP are inhibited after palosuran treatment. Our data indicate that long-term administration of palosuran can decrease PP in cirrhosis, which results from decreased hepatic fibrosis and enhanced eNOS-dependent HSC vasodilatation.