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Topic Review
PD-L1 Expression in Anti-PD-(L)1 Immunotherapy
PD-L1 expression on tumor tissues as assessed by immunohistochemistry has been shown to be an imperfect biomarker that only applies to a limited number of cancers, whereas many patients with PD-L1-negative tumors still respond to anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy. Anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) or anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunotherapy (anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy) has achieved unprecedented clinical efficacy for patients with various types and stages of cancers. PD-L1 expression on tumor tissues has clearly shown the predictive value in many types of cancers, as patient responses to anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy are linearly associated with increased levels of PD-L1 expression in many types of cancers. However, positive PD-L1 expression can only partially predict which patients benefit from therapy, as a subset of patients whose tumors lack expression of PD-L1 has also been shown to respond positively to anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy.
  • 970
  • 01 Jun 2022
Topic Review
A Mycobacteriophage-Based Vaccine Platform for SARS-CoV-2
Bacteriophage-based vaccines can generate a protective immune response by safely introducing foreign antigens displayed on, encapsidated within, or genetically encoded by phage. Here authors describe recombinants of mycobacteriophage Bxb1 (a phage infecting Mycobacterium smegmatis) that covalently display and express antigenic peptides of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. Several of these vaccine candidates produced Spike-specific antibodies in immunized mice, but the responses were not neutralizing. This mycobacteriophage-based vaccine platform can likely be improved if delivery of larger antigens is achieved. 
  • 969
  • 06 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Mitochondrial Dysfunction Involved in the Pathogenesis of ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease, the pathogenesis of which is based on alternations in the mitochondria of motor neurons, causing their progressive death. A growing body of evidence shows that more efficient mitophagy could prevent and/or treat this disorder by suppressing mitochondrial dysfunction-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. Mitophagy has been considered one of the main mechanisms responsible for mitochondrial quality control.
  • 968
  • 22 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Parvovirus-Based Combinatorial Cancer Immunotherapy
Resistance to anticancer treatments poses continuing challenges to oncology researchers and clinicians. The underlying mechanisms are complex and multifactorial. However, the immunologically “cold” tumor microenvironment (TME) has recently emerged as one of the critical players in cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. Therefore, TME modulation through induction of an immunological switch towards inflammation (“warming up”) is among the leading approaches in modern oncology. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are seen today not merely as tumor cell-killing (oncolytic) agents, but also as cancer therapeutics with multimodal antitumor action. Due to their intrinsic or engineered capacity for overcoming immune escape mechanisms, warming up the TME and promoting antitumor immune responses, OVs hold the potential for creating a proinflammatory background, which may in turn facilitate the action of other (immunomodulating) drugs. This review deals with the smallest among all OVs, the H-1 parvovirus (H-1PV), and focuses on H-1PV-based combinatorial approaches, whose efficiency has been proven in preclinical and/or clinical settings. Special focus is given to cancer types with most devastating impact on life expectancy that urgently call for novel therapies.
  • 967
  • 11 Oct 2021
Topic Review
microRNA and Adipose Tissue Function in Obesity
Obesity-induced adipose tissue dysfunction is bolstered by chronic, low-grade inflammation and impairs systemic metabolic health. Adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) perpetuate local inflammation but are crucial to adipose tissue homeostasis, exerting heterogeneous, niche-specific functions. Diversified macrophage actions are shaped through finely regulated factors, including microRNAs, which post-transcriptionally alter macrophage activation.
  • 967
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Immune Checkpoint Blockade for Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most prevalent form of liver cancer in the world. Annually, HCC affects approximately 900,000 individuals, and over 70% of new cases are diagnosed in Asia. The etiology of HCC is complicated due to the multiple risk factors involved.
  • 966
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Macrophages and Atherosclerosis
Macrophages are the key inflammatory cell type involved in all stages of atherosclerosis development and progression, as demonstrated by numerous studies. Correspondingly, macrophages are currently regarded as a promising therapeutic target for the development of new treatment approaches. The macrophage population is heterogeneous and dynamic, as these cells can switch between a number of distinct functional states with pro- and anti-atherogenic activity in response to various stimuli. An atherosclerotic plaque microenvironment defined by cytokine levels, cell-to-cell interactions, lipid accumulation, hypoxia, neoangiogenesis, and intraplaque haemorrhage may guide local macrophage polarization processes within the lesion.
  • 964
  • 04 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Immune Evasion of Mycoplasma bovis
Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) causes various chronic inflammatory diseases, including mastitis and bronchopneumonia, in dairy and feed cattle. It has been found to suppress the host immune response during infection, leading to the development of chronic conditions.
  • 963
  • 30 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics
Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. 
  • 963
  • 16 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Immunological Nudging
The constant activation and deactivation of immunological processes in harmony due to physiological processes is the basis of the immunological homeostasis. Activation may be chemical or physical such as by mechano-transduction. The immunological system in a healthy system can never be deactivated, i.e. silenced without increasing the risk for sudden and complete incapacitation and malfunction. The functionality of this system and it’s often vital reactivity  depends on the immediate “on demand” availability of all major components in the regulatory mechanisms involved.  This is only possible  by constant and subtle, subclinical  activation and deactivation of this system. This is in contrast  to the temporary or occasional nudging of immunological reactions that is intended to provoke specific immune responses.
  • 959
  • 22 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Biomedical Application of AMPs
In a report by WHO (2014), it was stated that antimicrobial resistance is an arising challenge that needs to be resolved. This resistance is a critical issue in terms of disease or infection treatment and is usually caused due to mutation, gene transfer, long-term usage or inadequate use of antimicrobials, survival of microbes after consumption of antimicrobials, and the presence of antimicrobials in agricultural feeds. One of the solutions to this problem is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are ubiquitously present in the environment. These peptides are of concern due to their special mode of action against a wide spectrum of infections and health-related problems. The biomedical field has the highest need of AMPs as it possesses prominent desirable activity against HIV-1, skin cancer, breast cancer, in Behcet’s disease treatment, as well as in reducing the release of inflammatory cells such as TNFα, IL-8, and IL-1β, enhancing the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-10 and GM-CSF, and in wound healing properties. This review has highlighted all the major functions and applications of AMPs in the biomedical field and concludes the future potential of AMPs. 
  • 958
  • 24 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Nanotherapy: Potential Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the Central Nervous System, characterized by an inflammatory process leading to the destruction of myelin with neuronal death and neurodegeneration. In MS, lymphocytes cross the blood-brain barrier, creating inflammatory demyelinated plaques located primarily in the white matter. MS potential treatments involve various mechanisms of action on immune cells, immunosuppression, inhibition of the passage through the blood-brain barrier, and immunotolerance.
  • 958
  • 13 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Chitin in Controlling the NLRP3 Inflammasome
The role of NLRP3 in the tumour microenvironment is elusive. In some cancers, the activation of NLRP3 causes a worse prognosis and in some cancers, NLRP3 increases chances of survivability. However, in many cases where NLRP3 has a protumorigenic role, inhibition of NLRP3 would be a crucial step in therapy. Consequently, activation of NLRP3 would be of essence when inflammation is required. Chitin and its derivatives are able to upregulate and downregulate the effect of the NLRP3 inflammasome based on its preparation, and these different reactions can be utilised to successfully target a broad range of cancers. Out of chitin, chitosan and chitooligosaccharide (COS), COS seems to be the best approach to actual products due its solubility being the highest, enabling it to be delivered more efficiently when compared to the other two. These specific preparations can be used on a case-by-case basis to help mitigate the negative effects of cancer and can potentially be used as a treatment or an adjuvant to cancer treatment.
  • 957
  • 22 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Cancer Stem Cells in Cancer
Cancer stem cells (CSCs), which have the capacity to self-renew and differentiate into various types of cells, are notorious for their roles in tumor initiation, metastasis, and therapy resistance. Thus, underlying mechanisms for their survival provide key insights into developing effective therapeutic strategies. A more recent focus has been on exosomes that play a role in transmitting information between CSCs and non-CSCs, resulting in activating CSCs for cancer progression and modulating their surrounding microenvironment. The field of CSC-derived exosomes (CSCEXs) for different types of cancer is still under exploration. A deeper understanding and further investigation into CSCEXs’ roles in tumorigenicity and the identification of novel exosomal components are necessary for engineering exosomes for the treatment of cancer.
  • 956
  • 25 Jun 2025
Topic Review
Nanomedicine for Immune Escape in Breast Cancer
Nanomedicine has gained great importance in cancer immunotherapy, as many emerging nanoplatforms with different designs have been recently developed to overcome various mechanisms of cancer immune escape and increase the efficacy of antitumor immune response.
  • 955
  • 11 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Transcriptional Regulation of Immune Checkpoints
The study of immune evasion has gained a well-deserved eminence in cancer research by successfully developing a new class of therapeutics, immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab and nivolumab, anti-PD-1 antibodies. By aiming at the immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), these new therapeutics have advanced cancer treatment with notable increases in overall survival and tumor remission. 
  • 952
  • 05 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Pyroptosis in SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Pyroptosis is a gasdermin-mediated, membrane pore forming, proinflammatory type of cell death. This necrotic form of cell death causes cell swelling and lysis and was initially found to be an infection triggered event occurring mostly in myeloid cells which leads to ion fluxes and release of proteins of the interleukin (IL) family. It was first described in 1992 by a group that saw a Caspase 1-dependent form of cell death in macrophages that were infected with Shigella flexneri and initially thought it was a form of apoptosis because of its caspase dependency. Pyroptosis is an important event in non-infectious diseases as well and therapeutic approaches have been developed in the hope of influencing several of these disease outcomes.
  • 952
  • 22 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Inflammasomes in Teleosts
Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play a crucial role in inducing inflammatory responses; they recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns, damage-associated molecular patterns, and environmental factors. 
  • 951
  • 04 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Bone Marrow as memory organ
The bone marrow (BM) is key to protective immunological memory because it harbors a major fraction of the body’s plasma cells, memory CD4+ and memory CD8+ T-cells. Despite its paramount significance for the human immune system, many aspects of how the BM enables decade-long immunity against pathogens are still poorly understood. In this review, we discuss the relationship between BM survival niches and long-lasting humoral immunity, how intrinsic and extrinsic factors define memory cell longevity and show that the BM is also capable of adopting many responsibilities of a secondary lymphoid organ. Moreover, we discuss what factors determine the establishment of long-lasting immunological memory in the BM and what we can learn for vaccination technologies and antigen design. Finally, we touch on how a more holistic understanding of the BM is necessary for the development of modern and efficient vaccines against the pandemic SARS-CoV-2.
  • 951
  • 24 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Vitamin K and SARS-CoV-2
Prevalent coagulopathy and thromboembolism are observed in severe COVID-19 patients with 40% of COVID-19 mortality being associated with cardiovascular complications. Abnormal coagulation parameters are related to poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. Victims also displayed presence of extensive thrombosis in infected lungs. Vitamin K is well-known to play an essential role in the coagulation system. Latest study revealed an existing correlation between vitamin K deficiency and COVID-19 severity, highlighting a role of vitamin K, probably via coagulation modulation.
  • 948
  • 06 Mar 2021
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