The significance and occurrence of TNF receptor polymorphisms in the Saudi population

Prognostic value of TIGIT in East Asian patients with solid cancers: A systematic review, meta-analysis and pancancer analysis

Background

T-cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT) participates in tumor immune escape by delivering inhibitory signals to T cells. The purpose of this article was to assess the prognostic value of TIGIT and its immunological function in solid cancers.

Methods

Three databases were searched for relevant articles. The main endpoints were overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and disease-free survival (DFS). Hazard ratios (HR) were pooled by using fixed-effects or random-effects models. Pancancer analysis of TIGIT was performed based on public online databases, mainly The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), and UCSC Xena. The possible relationships between TIGIT expression and the tumor microenvironment (TME), infiltration of immune cells, immune-related genes, tumor mutation burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) were revealed in this article.

Results

Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. High expression of TIGIT was associated with worse OS [HR= 1.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.50, 1.99], PFS (HR = 1.53, 95% CI [1.25, 1.88]), RFS (HR = 2.40, 95% CI [1.97, 2.93]), and DFS (HR= 6.57, 95% CI [0.73, 59.16]) in East Asian patients with solid cancers. TIGIT expression was positively correlated with immune infiltration scores and infiltration of CD8 T lymphocytes in all of the cancers included. TIGIT was found to be coexpressed with the genes encoding immunostimulators, immunoinhibitors, chemokines, chemokine receptors, and major histocompatibility complex (MHC), especially in gastroesophageal cancer. TMB and MSI were also associated with TIGIT upregulation in diverse kinds of cancers.

Conclusion

High expression of TIGIT is associated with poorer prognosis in East Asian patients with solid cancers. TIGIT is a novel prognostic biomarker and immunotherapeutic target for various solid cancers because of its activity in cancer immunity and tumorigenesis.

A Novel Drug Combination of Mangiferin and Cinnamic Acid Alleviates Rheumatoid Arthritis by Inhibiting TLR4/NFκB/NLRP3 Activation-Induced Pyroptosis

Growing evidence shows that Baihu-Guizhi decoction (BHGZD), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-originated disease-modifying anti-rheumatic prescription, may exert a satisfying clinical efficacy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy. In our previous studies, we verified its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities. However, bioactive compounds (BACs) of BHGZD and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, an integrative research strategy combining UFLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS, gene expression profiling, network calculation, pharmacokinetic profiling, surface plasmon resonance, microscale thermophoresis, and pharmacological experiments was carried out to identify the putative targets of BHGZD and underlying BACs. After that, both in vitro and in vivo experiments were performed to determine the drug effects and pharmacological mechanisms. As a result, the calculation and functional modularization based on the interaction network of the “RA-related gene–BHGZD effective gene” screened the TLR4/PI3K/AKT/NFκB/NLRP3 signaling-mediated pyroptosis to be one of the candidate effective targets of BHGZD for reversing the imbalance network of “immune-inflammation” during RA progression. In addition, both mangiferin (MG) and cinnamic acid (CA) were identified as representative BACs acting on that target, for the strong binding affinities between compounds and target proteins, good pharmacokinetic features, and similar pharmacological effects to BHGZD. Notably, both BHGZD and the two-BAC combination of MG and CA effectively alleviated the disease severity of the adjuvant-induced arthritis-modified rat model, including elevating pain thresholds, relieving joint inflammation and bone erosion via inhibiting NF-κB via TLR4/PI3K/AKT signaling to suppress the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, leading to the downregulation of downstream caspase-1, the reduced release of IL-1β and IL-18, and the modulation of GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis. Consistent data were obtained based on the in vitro pyroptosis cellular models of RAW264.7 and MH7A cells induced by LPS/ATP. In conclusion, these findings offer an evidence that the MG and CA combination identified from BHGZD may interact with TLR4/PI3K/AKT/NFκB signaling to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation and modulate pyroptosis, which provides the novel representative BACs and pharmacological mechanisms of BHGZD against active RA. Our data may shed new light on the mechanisms of the TCM formulas and promote the modernization development of TCM and drug discovery.

Evaluation of skin expression profiles of patients with vitiligo treated with narrow-band UVB therapy by targeted RNA-seq

BACKGROUND

Vitiligo is characterized by a lack of pigmentation in the skin. To date, there are no studies that analyze the changes in gene expression in the skin of vitiligo patients in response to narrow-band ultraviolet B (nb-UVB) phototherapy treatment.

OBJECTIVE

Explore the usefulness of new generation RNA sequencing in the identification of gene expression changes in the skin of vitiligo patients treated with nb-UVB phototherapy.

METHODS

Four skin biopsies (4mm in diameter) were collected from 45 Mexican vitiligo vulgaris patients, 2 specimens before and 2 after treatment with nb-UVB phototherapy, obtained from pigmented and non-pigmented tissue. RNA extracted from the biopsies was analyzed using the Illumina TruSeq Targeted RNA Expression protocol to study the expression of genes that participate in pathways of skin homeostasis. The 2 groups were compared using Student's t-test and the Mann-Whitney U-test.

RESULTS

The expression analysis identified differences in 12 genes included in this study after comparing the samples obtained before and after treatment: 5 genes involved in skin pigmentation, 2 genes involved in apoptosis, 2 genes involved in cell survival, 2 genes involved in oxidative stress responses and 1 gene involved in signal transduction mechanisms (p<0.05).

STUDY LIMITATIONS

The small size of skin biopsies limits the amount of RNA obtained, the number of genes to be analyzed and the use of conventional techniques such as RT-qPCR.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrated usefulness of new generation RNA sequencing in the identification of gene expression changes, in addition to identifying new targets in the study of vitiligo.