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Cancer cells, as well as surrounding stromal and inflammatory cells, form an inflammatory tumor microenvironment (TME) to promote all stages of carcinogenesis. As an emerging post-translational modification (PTM) of serine and threonine residues of proteins, O-linked-N-Acetylglucosaminylation (O-GlcNAcylation) regulates diverse cancer-relevant processes, such as signal transduction, transcription, cell division, metabolism and cytoskeletal regulation. Recent studies suggest that O-GlcNAcylation regulates the development, maturation and functions of immune cells. However, the role of protein O-GlcNAcylation in cancer-associated inflammation has been less explored. This review summarizes the current understanding of the influence of protein O-GlcNAcylation on cancer-associated inflammation and the mechanisms whereby O-GlcNAc-mediated inflammation regulates tumor progression. This will provide a theoretical basis for further development of anti-cancer therapies.

Proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology is a groundbreaking therapeutic approach with significant clinical potential for degrading disease-inducing proteins within targeted cells. However, challenges related to insufficient target selectivity raise concerns about PROTAC toxicity toward normal cells. To address this issue, researchers are modifying PROTACs using various approaches to enhance their target specificity. This review highlights innovative optically controlled PROTACs as anti-cancer therapies currently used in clinical practice and explores the challenges associated with their efficacy and safety. The development of optically controlled PROTACs holds the potential to significantly expand the clinical applicability of PROTAC-based technology within the realm of drug discovery.

HMGB1 is a highly conserved nuclear protein widely expressed in mammalian cells. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the roles and mechanisms of HMGB1 in different tumors. Original data on HMGB1 expression, localization, potential interacting proteins, genetics were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Genotype-Tissue Expression, Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, Human Protein Atlas, Compartmentalized Protein-Protein Interaction and cBioPortal databases. Then, correlation between HMGB1 expression levels and tumor stage, prognosis, potential pathways, tumor microenvironment, ESTIMATE score, immune-related genes, immune cell infiltration, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, or anti-tumor drug resistance was investigated. The above results consistently indicated that high expression of HMGB1 protein may be related to clinical prognosis of HCC patients. Therefore, clinical tissues of HCC patients were selected to verify the differential expression of HMGB1 protein in HCC. The sensitivity of HMGB1-siRNA transfected HepG2 cells to sorafenib was assessed. HMGB1 was found to be differentially expressed in many tumors and normal tissues. HMGB1 was mainly located in the nucleus and might interact with proteins such as TLR2 and TLR4. Furthermore, HMGB1 expression was closely related to tumor stage, prognosis, tumor microenvironment, immune-related genes, immune cell infiltration, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, and anti-tumor drug resistance and might be involved in different pathways of various tumors. Immunohistochemistry results further verified the differential expression of HMGB1 in HCC and paracancerous tissues. HMGB1-siRNA transfected HepG2 cells had a tendency to be more insensitive to sorafenib treatment compared to the control group. HMGB1 was differentially expressed in most tumors and normal tissues, and was closely related to the clinical stage, prognosis, immune infiltration, tumor microenvironment, and drug resistance of tumors. Therefore, HMGB1 may serve as a novel biomarker for predicting tumor prognosis, efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors, and a potential target for anti-tumor therapy.

BackgroundPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive and lethal malignancies. Treatments such as surgical resection, radiation and chemotherapy have limited efficiency due to the dense stromal and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). The interaction between the microenvironment and cancer cells remains to be further elucidated. In this study, we characterized the prognostic value of P311 in PDAC and aimed to examine the interaction between tumor-derived P311 and M2 macrophage and investigate the underlying mechanisms.MethodsExpression datasets of PDAC patients were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The immune score was calculated by applying the ESTIMATE algorithm to the matrix data. The deconvolution algorithm (CIBERSORT) was used to assess 22 tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) for their amounts in the PDAC microenvironment. Stable PANC-1 cells expressing P311 were generated from lentiviral particles. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was conducted to investigate gene-expression profiling from P311 overexpressed PANC-1 cells. The association between P311 expression and M2 macrophage polarization was determined by flow cytometry.ResultsP311 was overexpressed in tissues of PDAC patients compared with the adjacent normal tissues and associated with poor overall survival (OS). Based on ESTIMATE algorithm, P311 positively correlated with ESTIMATE score and stromal score. CIBERSORT algorithm analysis showed that the two common TIICs in PDAC tissues were macrophages and T lymphocytes. The proportions of M2 macrophages were significantly higher in P311 high group compared with P311 low group(P<0.001). Additionally, a positive association was shown between P311 mRNA expression and transcript levels of IL10 and CSF-1 in PDAC. Moreover, the percentages of CD68/CD163 double-positive cells indicative of M2 macrophages were higher in PMA-stimulated THP-1 cells cocultured with the conditioned medium obtained from P311 overexpressed PANC-1 cells than those from vector control cells.ConclusionsCollectively, our studies provide evidence for a novel role for P311 in M2 macrophage polarization and infiltration, uncovering the underlying oncogenic role of P311 in PDAC. Targeting P311 may serve as a novel potential therapeutic option to reset TAM polarization toward an antitumor state in PDAC.

Background: HMGB1 is a highly conserved nuclear protein widely expressed in mammalian cells. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the roles and mechanisms of HMGB1 in different tumors. Methods: Original data on HMGB1 expression, localization, potential interacting proteins, genetics were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Genotype-Tissue Expression, Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, Human Protein Atlas, Compartmentalized Protein-Protein Interaction and cBioPortal databases. Then, correlation between HMGB1 expression levels and tumor stage, prognosis, potential pathways, tumor microenvironment, ESTIMATE score, immune-related genes, immune cell infiltration, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, or anti-tumor drug resistance was investigated. The above results consistently indicated that high expression of HMGB1 protein may be related to clinical prognosis of HCC patients. Therefore, clinical tissues of HCC patients were selected to verify the differential expression of HMGB1 protein in HCC. The sensitivity of HMGB1-siRNA transfected HepG2 cells to sorafenib was assessed. Results: HMGB1 was found to be differentially expressed in many tumors and normal tissues. HMGB1 was mainly located in the nucleus and might interact with proteins such as TLR2 and TLR4. Furthermore, HMGB1 expression was closely related to tumor stage, prognosis, tumor microenvironment, immune-related genes, immune cell infiltration, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, and anti-tumor drug resistance and might be involved in different pathways of various tumors. Immunohistochemistry results further verified the differential expression of HMGB1 in HCC and paracancerous tissues. HMGB1-siRNA transfected HepG2 cells had a tendency to be more insensitive to sorafenib treatment compared to the control group. Conclusions: HMGB1 was differentially expressed in most tumors and normal tissues, and was closely related to the clinical stage, prognosis, immune infiltration, tumor microenvironment, and drug resistance of tumors. Therefore, HMGB1 may serve as a novel biomarker for predicting tumor prognosis, efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors, and a potential target for anti-tumor therapy. Keywords: high mobility group box 1, pan-cancer analysis, tumor, bioinformatics, prognosis

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are non-viral nucleic acid delivery systems that show great potential in vaccine development and disease treatment. Although LNPs are particularly advantageous for in vivo delivery, the wide application of LNPs is impeded as their systemic delivery of nucleic acid drugs to extrahepatic tissues remains highly challenging. To address this issue, we developed lung-targeted polyzwitterionic LNPs with zwitterionic polymer poly(2-methyacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC) modified 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycerol lipid for the delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA). Three libraries with 90 PMPC-LNPs@siRNA were established. The polyzwitterionic PMPC-LNPs had high siRNA encapsulation efficiency of about 90%. The findings revealed that polyzwitterionic PMPC-LNPs@siRNA absorbed protein corona with the main component of Vitronectin, mediating lung-targeted delivery of siRNA. With good cellular uptake and endo/lysosomal escape ability, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that polyzwitterionic PMPC-LNPs with siRNA against tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) could significantly down-regulate the TNF-α in mRNA and protein levels, and improved the pathological features of lung inflammation. Polyzwitterionic PMPC-LNPs@siRNA achieved safe and efficient treatment of lung inflammation. Therefore, this work offered a promising siRNA therapeutic approach for lung diseases.