High Mannose Binding Lectin (PFL) from Pseudomonas fluorescens Down-Regulates Cancer-Associated Integrins and Immune Checkpoint Ligand B7-H4

Structural study and antimicrobial and wound healing effects of lectin from Solieria filiformis (Kützing) P.W.Gabrielson

The SfL-1 isoform from the marine red algae Solieria filiformis was produced in recombinant form (rSfL-1) and showed hemagglutinating activity and inhibition similar to native SfL. The analysis of circular dichroism revealed the predominance of β-strands structures with spectra of βI-proteins for both lectins, which had Melting Temperature (Tm) between 41 °C and 53 °C. The three-dimensional structure of the rSfL-1 was determined by X-ray crystallography, revealing that it is composed of two β-barrel domains formed by five antiparallel β chains linked by a short peptide between the β-barrels. SfL and rSfL-1 were able to agglutinate strains of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and did not show antibacterial activity. However, SfL induced a reduction in E. coli biomass at concentrations from 250 to 125 μg mL-1, whereas rSfL-1 induced reduction in all concentrations tested. Additionally, rSfL-1 at concentrations from 250 to 62.5 μg mL-1, showed a statistically significant reduction in the number of colony-forming units, which was not noticed for SfL. Wound healing assay showed that the treatments with SfL and rSfL-1 act in reducing the inflammatory response and in the activation and proliferation of fibroblasts by a larger and fast deposition of collagen.

The human oral - nasopharynx microbiome as a risk screening tool for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common head and neck cancer with a poor prognosis. There is an urgent need to develop a simple and convenient screening tool for early detection and risk screening of NPC. 139 microbial samples were collected from 40 healthy people and 39 patients with nasopharyngeal biopsy. A total of 40 and 39 oral, eight and 27 nasal cavity, nine and 16 nasopharyngeal microbial samples were collected from the two sets of individuals. A risk screening tool for NPC was established by 16S rDNA sequencing and random forest. Patients with nasopharyngeal biopsy had significantly lower nasal cavity and nasopharynx microbial diversities than healthy people. The beta diversity of the oral microbiome was significantly different between the two groups. The NPC screening tools based on nasopharyngeal and oral microbiomes have 88% and 77.2% accuracies, respectively. The nasopharyngeal biopsy patients had significantly higher Granulicatella abundance in their oral cavity and lower Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter in the nasopharynx than healthy people. This study established microbiome-based non-invasive, simple, no radiation, and low-cost NPC screening tools. Individuals at a high risk of NPC should be advised to seek further examination, which might improve the early detection of NPC and save public health costs.

Inhibition of B7-H4 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cell apoptosis and autophagy through the PI3K signaling pathway

B7-H4 and autophagy can regulate or be induced by the PI3K signaling pathway. However, the association between B7-H4 and autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)remains unclear. The aim of this work was to investigate whether B7-H4 regulates autophagy via the PI3K signaling pathway in HCC cells. Here, western blotting was used to measure the expression of the related proteins involved in changes in of autophagy and apoptosis, such as LC3, P62, cleaved caspase 3, cleaved PARP, BCL-2, and BAX in Huh7 and Hep3B cells. Additionally, PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway proteins were measured. Cell counting kit-8 and flow cytometry were used to analyze the effects of B7-H4 siRNA interference on cell proliferation with the interference of B7-H4 siRNA. We found that B7-H4 siRNA increased HCC cell apoptosis and autophagy, and reduced cell proliferation. Moreover, the apoptosis-related proteins cleaved caspase 3, cleaved PARP and BAX were increased and Bcl-2 was decreased after B7-H4 siRNA interference. The expression level of the autophagy-related protein LC3Ⅱ was upregulated, while expression of the autophagy adaptor P62 expression was decreased in B7-H4 siRNA-pretreated cells. Furthermore, our data revealed that B7-H4 regulated apoptosis and autophagy through the PI3K signaling pathway in HCC cells. Therefore, these results suggested that B7-H4 plays an important role in HCC progression by affecting cell apoptosis and autophagy.