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Targeting immune checkpoints such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) have been approved for treating melanoma, gastric cancer (GC) and bladder cancer with clinical benefit. Nevertheless, many patients failed to respond to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment, so it is necessary to seek an alternative strategy for traditional PD-1/PD-L1 targeting immunotherapy. Here with the data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and our in-house tissue library, PD-L1 expression was found to be positively correlated with the expression of ubiquitin-specific processing protease 7 (USP7) in GC. Furthermore, USP7 directly interacted with PD-L1 in order to stabilize it, while abrogation of USP7 attenuated PD-L1/PD-1 interaction and sensitized cancer cells to T cell killing in vitro and in vivo. Besides, USP7 inhibitor suppressed GC cells proliferation by stabilizing P53 in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings indicate that in addition to inhibiting cancer cells proliferation, USP7 inhibitor can also downregulate PD-L1 expression to enhance anti-tumor immune response simultaneously. Hence, these data posit USP7 inhibitor as an anti-proliferation agent as well as a novel therapeutic agent in PD-L1/PD-1 blockade strategy that can promote the immune response of the tumor., Graphical abstract This study supports that small molecule USP7 inhibitors may be used as novel promoter of the tumor immune response.Image 1

Histone lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) has become a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer. Discovery and develop novel and potent LSD1 inhibitors is a challenge, although several of them have already entered into clinical trials. Herein, for the first time, we reported the discovery of a series of 5-cyano-6-phenylpyrimidine derivatives as LSD1 inhibitors using flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) similarity-based designing strategy, of which compound 14q was finally identified to repress LSD1 with IC50 = 183 nmol/L. Docking analysis suggested that compound 14q fitted well into the FAD-binding pocket. Further mechanism studies showed that compound 14q may inhibit LSD1 activity competitively by occupying the FAD binding sites of LSD1 and inhibit cell migration and invasion by reversing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Overall, these findings showed that compound 14q is a suitable candidate for further development of novel FAD similarity-based LSD1 inhibitors., Graphical abstract In this work, series II compounds (14a–w) were designed and synthesized based on the flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) similarity strategies. Further mechanism studies showed that compound 14q is an FAD competitive LSD1 inhibitor, which inhibits cell migration and invasion by reversing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT).Image 1

Sanggenon O (SO) is a Diels-Alder type adduct extracted fromMorus alba, which has been used for its anti-inflammatory action in the Oriental medicine. However, whether it has regulatory effect on human cancer cell proliferation and what the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, we found that SO could significantly inhibit the growth and proliferation of A549 cells and induce its pro-apoptotic action through a caspase-dependent pathway. It could also impair the mitochondria which can be reflected by mitochondrial membrane permeabilization. Besides, SQSTM1 up-regulation and autophagic flux measurement demonstrated that exposure to SO led to autophagosome accumulation, which plays a protective role in SO-treated cells. In addition, knocking down of LC3B increased SO triggered apoptotic cell rates. These results indicated that SO has great potential as a promising candidate combined with autophagy inhibitor for the treatment of NSCLC. In conclusion, our results identified a novel mechanism by which SO exerts potent anticancer activity.

In this study, the copolymer of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate-co-poly(methylacrylic acid) [poly(mPEGMA-co-MAA)] was synthesized via radical polymerization. Based on this copolymer, novel chitosan-modified poly(mPEGMA-co-MAA) nanoparticles (CS/NPs) were developed to improve the bio-availability of ibuprofen (IBU). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectra were used to confirm the synthesis of the copolymers. The morphology of CS/NPs was investigated with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to reveal the thermodynamic properties of the CS/NPs. The cytotoxicity of CS/NPs was assessed by the cell viability of 293T cells. FTIR and 1H NMR spectra confirmed the synthesis of the novel copolymer. TEM photographs showed that the CS/NPs had a core-shell structure. High cell viability indicated that the CS/NPs were nontoxic. The in vitro release profiles suggested that the CS/NPs released IBU in pH 7.4 buffer in a continuous manner. Furthermore, the IBU-CS/NPs showed a long antifebrile effect. Animal experiments showed that the IBU-CS/NPs had obvious antifebrile effects. Therefore, CS/NPs could reduce the dosing frequency of IBU, and improve its bio-availability.