SARS病毒免疫学性状的结构基础分析

运用生物信息学技术 ,对SARS冠状病毒基因组及其编码区进行了全序列分析 ,根据其基因和推导蛋白结构特点及同源性分析 ,探索SARS病毒主要结构蛋白免疫学性状的结构基础及进一步进行免疫学研究的线索 。

Isolation, chemical characteristics and immunity activity of an extracellular polysaccharide EPS I isolated from Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp.S-15-13

A new extracelluar polysaccharide （EPS） was isolated and purified from Antarctic bacterium S-15-13, identified as Pseudoalteromonas sp. After being separated and purified by DEAE-Sephadex A-50 ionexchange and Sephadex G-100 gel chromatography, two mains fractions （EPS I and EPS Ⅱ ） were ob-tained. EPS I was composed of mannose, glucose and galactose with a molecular weight of 23kDa and EPS Ⅱ was composed of mannose only with a molecular weight of 62kDa. The effect of the polysaccharide EPS I on the cellular immune response of mice was investigated. Results demonstrated that EPS I could markedly facilitate lymphocyte proliferation, and might be a strong immunomodulator.

Intraductal neoplasm of the intrahepatic bile duct: Clinicopathological study of 24 cases

AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological features of intraductal neoplasm of the intrahepatic bile duct (INihB). METHODS: Clinicopathological features of 24 cases of INihB, which were previously diagnosed as biliary papillomatosis or intraductal growth of intrahepatic biliary neoplasm, were reviewed. Mucin immunohistochemistry was performed for mucin (MUC)1, MUC2, MUC5AC and MUC6. Ki-67, P53 and β-catenin immunoreactivity were also examined. We categorized each tumor as adenoma (low grade), borderline (intermediate grade), and malignant (carcinoma in situ , high grade including tumors with microinvasion). RESULTS: Among 24 cases of INihB, we identified 24 tumors. Twenty of 24 tumors (83%) were composed of a papillary structure; the same feature observed in intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct (IPNB). In contrast, the remaining four tumors (17%) showed both tubular and papillary structures. In three of the four tumors (75%), macroscopic mucin secretion was limited but microscopic intracellular mucin was evident. Histologically, 16 tumors (67%) were malignant, three (12%) were borderline, and five (21%) were adenoma. Microinvasion was found in four cases (17%). Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that MUC1 was not expressed in the borderline/adenoma group but was expressed only in malignant lesions (P = 0.0095). Ki-67 labeling index (LI) was significantly higher in the malignant group than in the borderline/adenoma group (22.2 ± 15.5 vs 7.5 ± 6.3, P < 0.01). In the 16 malignant cases, expression of MUC5AC showed borderline significant association with high Ki-67 LI (P = 0.0622). Nuclear expression of β-catenin was observed in two (8%) of the 24 tumors, and these two tumors also showed MUC1 expression. P53 was negative in all tumors. CONCLUSION: Some cases of INihB have a tubular structure, and are subcategorized as IPNB with tubular structure. MUC1 expression in INihB correlates positively with degree of malignancy.

Eukaryotic cell encystation and cancer cell dormancy:is a greater devil veiled in the details of a lesser evil?

Cancer cell dormancy is the main cause of cancer recurrence and failure of therapy as dormant cells evade not only the anticancer drugs but also the host immune system. These dormant cells veil themselves from detection by imaging and/or using biomarkers, which imposes an additional problem in targeting such cells. A similar form of hibernation process known as encystation is studied in detail for pathogenic unicellular eukaryotic microorganisms. By examination using microarray gene expression profiles, immunocytochemistry tools, and siRNAs during the process of encystation, understanding the covert features of cancer cell dormancy as proposed could be possible. This knowledge can be extended to dormant cancer cells to uncover the mechanisms that underlie this ghost, yet dangerous state of human cancers. We propose a strategy to induce dormancy and exit this state by application of knowledge gained from the encystation induction and retrieval processes in pathogenic eukaryotic microorganisms. Given that early detection and characterization of dormant malignant tumor cells is important as a general strategy to monitor and prevent the development of overt metastatic disease, this homology may enable the design of therapies that could either awake the dormant cell from dormancy to make it available for therapies or prolong such a phase to make cancer appear as a chronic disease

Recent advances in the development of nanomaterials for DC-based immunotherapy

As professional antigen presenting cells, dendritic cells(DCs) greatly determine the quality of the innate and adaptive immunities. Therefore, DC-based immunotherapy has been one of the hotspots in cancer immunotherapy in recent years. Although this unique therapeutic strategy has been approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for prostate cancer treatment, the efficacy of DC-based immunotherapy remains to be further improved. Moreover, it is still not completely clear about the immunological basis of DCs, which is another hurdle for the progress of DC-based immunotherapy. Due to their unique physicochemical properties, nanomaterials have shown potentials in addressing these above mentioned problems and have provided important guidelines for optimizing DC-based immunotherapy. However, it is still at the starting stage for this emerging field and there are many critical questions in the rational design of this therapeutic strategy to be answered. Therefore, it is greatly necessary to review and analyze recent progresses in this field. In this review, we mainly focus on the development of various types nanoparticles for DC-based immunotherapy. The existed challenges in this field are also discussed.