AUGMENTATION OF IMMUNE FUNCTIONS AND AUTOLOGOUS TUMOR-KILLING ACTIVITY BY KAPPA-SELENOCARRAGEENAN IN MICE BEARING SARCOMA 180

Objective: To study the enhancement of the immune functions and autologous tumor killing (ATK) activity by kappa selenocarrageenan (KSC) in mice bearing sarcoma 180. Methods: To measure the effects of KSC and/or Cyclophosphamide (Cy) on natural killer (NK) activity, lymphokine activated killer (LAK) activity, the produc tion of interleukin 2 (IL 2), ATK activity and the growth of sarcoma 180 (S 180 ). Results: KSC promoted NK activity, LAK activity and ATK activity in vivo , increased IL 2 production at 40 mg/kg/d×9d. It also enhanced the antitumor action of Cy (20 mg/kg/d×9d) and offset the inhibition of Cy on immunocopetent cells. The ATK activity in splenocytes of S 180 bearing mice could be induced and increased by recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL 2) in vitro . Conclusion: KSC has an up regulating effect on the immune functions and ATK activity in tumor bearing mice. It can be used as a biological response modifier (BRM) in cancer biotherapy.

Activities of a Novel Phenanthrene Imine to Kill Tumor Cells

A novel phenanthrene imine was synthesized from 9,10-phenanthrenequinone, 1,4-diazabicyclo octane （Dabco）, 2,6-dimethylaniline, 2,6-diisopropylaniline and TIC14 via standard Schlenk and vacuum-line or glovebox techniques. 3-（4,5-Dimethylthiazolyl-2）-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide（MTT） assay and flow cytometry（FCM） were used to detect the activities of the compound to kill tumor cells and the mechanisms of action were investigated in the study. The results show that the compound is active in killing tumor cells. Mechanistic investigations found that the compound could induce apoptosis of tumor cells.

EMT transcription factors activated circuits:A novel tool to study EMT dynamics and its therapeutic implications

The epithelial mesenchymal transition(EMT)plays significant roles in the progression of cancer and fibrotic disease.Moreover,this process is reversible,resulting in mesenchymal epithelial transition(MET),which plays an important role in cancer metastasis.There is a lack of methods to trace and target EMT cells using synthetic biology circuits,which makes it difficult to study the cell fate or develop targeted treatments.In this study,we introduced responsive EMT sensing circuits,which sense the EMT using specific promoters that respond to transcription factors typical of EMT activation(EMT-TFs).The transcriptional strength of EMT-sensing promoters decreased more than 13-fold in response to the overexpression of the EMT-TF.Then,the NOT gate circuits were built by placing the tetR transcription repressor under the control of EMT sensing promoters and expressed an output signal using the constitutive CMV promoter modified with tetO sites This circuit is named EMT sensing and responding circuits.When the EMT transcription factors was present,we observed a 5.8-fold signal increase in the system.Then,we successfully distinguished mesenchymal breast cancer cells from epithelial cancer cells and repressed the proliferation of EMT tumor cells using our circuits.The EMT sensing and responding circuits are promising tools for the identification of EMT cells,which is crucial for EMT-related disease therapy and investigating the mechanisms underlying the reversible EMT process.