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Peng-Da Guo,1,* Zhong-Wen Sun,1,* Hui-Jun Lai,2 Jie Yang,1 Ping-Ping Wu,1 Yun-Di Guo,1 Jing Sun1 1Institute of Medical Technology, Suzhou Vocational Health College, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215009, China; 2Department of Ultrasound, Suzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215007, China*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: (PD-L2), a ligand of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), is an inhibitory receptor of T cells and activated B cells. Many studies have focused on PD-L1, another ligand of PD-1, and the prognostic significance of PD-L1 has been reported in many tumors. However, the expression of PD-L2 in relation to clinical outcomes has not been fully investigated in cancer patients.Patients and methods: In this study, we investigated the expression of PD-L2 via immunohistochemistry (IHC) in the pathological specimens of 348 patients treated for colorectal cancer (CRC).Results: Strong PD-L2 expression was found in the cancer tissues from 41% of the CRC patients who also had a high TNM stage and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentration. We also carried out functional studies in vitro, which showed that PD-L2 did not influence the growth of the CRC cell line HCT116, but increased cell invasion.Conclusion: Collectively, these findings suggest that PD-L2 may be a potential therapeutic target for CRC.Keywords: PD-L2, colorectal cancer, migration, therapeutic target

Both membrane-bound and soluble forms of costimulatory molecules play important roles in immune-regulatory networks. B7-H3, a member of the B7 family, has been found with aberrant expression in tumors and infectious disease. However, the significance of sB7-H3 expression in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has not been investigated. Using the peripheral blood of 78 SLE patients, we established a comprehensive database containing clinical data and relevant laboratory tests. We found that sB7-H3 expression in SLE patients was significantly lower compared with the healthy individuals. In addition, sB7-H3 levels in the patients were positively correlated with the disease activity as indicated by SLE disease activity index score, rashes, fever, and inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, sB7-H3 was associated with the counts of red blood cells and hemoglobin. Our findings suggest that sB7-H3 might counteract the aberrant immune response and potentially serve as a monitoring indicator of disease progression and therapeutic target in SLE treatment.

The aim of this study is to investigate the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of constituents from the seeds of Millettia pachycarpa Benth. Fourteen compounds (1–14) including one novel chalcone (10) were isolated as active principles from Chinese herbal medicine M. pachycarpa Benth. Their structures were identified by using spectroscopic methods. All isolates were then evaluated for their cytotoxic effects against several cancer cell lines (HepG2, C26, LL2 and B16) with cisplatin as a positive control. And their apoptosis-inducing effects were tested against HeLa-C3 cells with taxol as a positive control. Both studies showed that compounds 1, 2, 7 and 10 demonstrated significant cytotoxic and apoptotic effects against cancer cells. Moreover, in the apoptosis assay the novel chalcone (10) showed strong apoptosis inducing effects at a concentration of 2 μM within 36 h. It was found to be the most potent apoptotic inducer of the compounds isolated from M. pachycarpa Benth.