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Autoimmune diseases are the result of the immune system "killing each other", and the core mechanism is the disorder of the immune system's self-recognition function, which leads to inflammatory response and tissue damage. There are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, etc.
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially approved a groundbreaking medical trial - using gene-edited pig livers to treat patients with liver failure! Patients with severe liver failure who cannot receive human organ transplants are temporarily connected to pig livers outside the body, which filter their blood. This is a huge breakthrough in the field of xenotransplantation, and it also brings new hope of survival to countless patients waiting for organ transplants.
Cancer treatment has always been the focus of scientists around the world. From traditional surgery and radiotherapy to today's targeted therapy and immunotherapy, every technological advancement has brought new hope to patients. However, the complexity of cancer requires us to continue to explore the molecular mechanisms behind it.
In the battlefield of cancer treatment, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are like a brave warrior helping immune cells to attack cancer cells more effectively. However, they also face an embarrassing dilemma: among all patients who receive treatment, only less than 20% of them can benefit from it. This means that most patients have to face the cruel reality of ineffective treatment after receiving treatment with hope. This low response rate has undoubtedly cast a shadow on cancer treatment, and it has also made scientists urgently look for new strategies to improve the effect of immunotherapy so that more patients can rekindle the hope of life.
Plasmids as Biologics
Dravet syndrome is a rare and life-changing form of epilepsy. Dravet syndrome affects approximately 1 in 15,700 children, and most cases are caused by mutations in the SCN1A gene. This gene plays a critical role in the brain's ability to regulate activity through flash interneurons. The disease has long made scientists eager to develop more effective treatments due to severe seizures and developmental delays.
Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has demonstrated therapeutic benefits and prolonged survival in cancer patients. However, most patients either fail to respond to ICI therapy or develop resistance to it.
In a new study, researchers from the Jackson Laboratory and UConn Health not only show how cancer hijacks this tightly regulated RNA splicing and rearrangement, but also propose a potential therapeutic strategy to slow down or even shrink aggressive and hard-to-treat tumors. The discovery could change the way people treat aggressive cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer and certain brain tumors, for which current treatment options are limited.
Stem cells are immature cells that have a fundamental regenerative role in almost all tissues. They are usually in a quiescent, slowly dividing state. But after injury, they can repair damaged tissues by switching to an activated state so that they can rapidly proliferate and become mature, functional cells. For example, hematopoietic stem cells mostly reside in the bone marrow and remain quiescent until they are stimulated or "mobilized" into the blood.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is a promising cancer treatment, but how to enhance its efficacy has always been a mystery. Recently, in a research report titled "Cullin-5 deficiency promotes chimeric antigen receptor T cell effector functions potentially via the modulation of JAK/STAT signaling pathway" published in the international journal Nature Communications, researchers from Nagoya University and other institutions in Japan have discovered a way to improve the effectiveness of this potential cancer therapy. By modifying a specific gene, the ability of immune cells to fight cancer can be enhanced for a long time, which may reduce the chance of cancer recurrence.
