Scientific Publications

HuProt PPI: Glioblastoma (GBM) is both the most common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor, associated with high mortality rates and resistance to conventional therapy. Despite recent advancements in knowledge and molecular profiling, recurrence of GBM is nearly inevitable. This recurrence has been attributed to the presence of glioma stem cells (GSCs), a small fraction of cells resistant to standard-of-care treatments and capable of self-renewal and tumor initiation. Therefore, targeting these cancer stem cells will allow for the development of more effective therapeutic strategies against GBM. We have previously identified several 7-amino acid length peptides which specifically target GSCs through in vitro and in vivo phage display biopanning.

• Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2023.1124272/full

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are lymphoid aggregates that often form locally in tissues with chronic infection, autoimmune disease, and cancer. As such, TLS correlate with favorable prognosis in patients with solid tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Further, TLS have recently been associated with superior response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). B cells are predominantly located within TLS and correlate with improved survival and ICB response. Despite the therapeutic promise of B cells and TLS, they have not been investigated as immunotherapeutic targets. Moreover, a mechanistic understanding of TLS formation and function in cancer is lacking.

• Link: https://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(22)01646-X/fulltext#%20

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are lymphoid aggregates that often form locally in tissues with chronic infection, autoimmune disease, and cancer. As such, TLS correlate with favorable prognosis in patients with solid tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Further, TLS have recently been associated with superior response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). B cells are predominantly located within TLS and correlate with improved survival and ICB response. Despite the therapeutic promise of B cells and TLS, they have not been investigated as immunotherapeutic targets. Moreover, a mechanistic understanding of TLS formation and function in cancer is lacking.

• Link: https://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(22)01646-X/fulltext

HuProt DNA RNA: Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is one of the common women reproductive endocrine diseases which adversely impacts female fertility, but the etiology and pathogenesis still remain elusive. Recently increasing researches focus on the roles of lncRNA in POI. LncRNA DANCR was involved in cell differentiation and multiple cancers. It’s highly expressed in ovary while the role of DANCR in POI is still unknown.

• Link: https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13048-023-01115-3

HuProt Review: Early identification of lung cancer (LC) will considerably facilitate the intervention and prevention of LC. The human proteome micro-arrays approach can be used as a “liquid biopsy” to diagnose LC to complement conventional diagnosis, which needs advanced bioinformatics methods such as feature selection (FS) and refined machine learning models.

• Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00432-023-04643-z

HuProt DNA RNA: The therapeutic value of targeted therapies in patients with lung cancer is reduced when tumours acquire secondary resistance after an initial period of successful treatment. However, the molecular events behind the resistance to targeted therapies in lung cancer remain largely unknown.

• Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ctm2.1129

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has evolved rapidly with unprecedented treatment benefits being obtained for cancer patients, including improved patient survival. However, over half of the patients experience immune related adverse events (irAEs) or toxicities, which can be fatal, affect the quality of life of patients and potentially cause treatment interruption or cessation. Complications from these toxicities can also cause long term irreversible organ damage and other chronic health conditions. Toxicities can occur in various organ systems, with common observations in the skin, rheumatologic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, endocrine system and the lungs.

• Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.991433/full

This study aims to discover novel autoantibodies against tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) and establish diagnostic models for assisting in the diagnosis of lung cancer and discrimination of pulmonary nodules (PNs). Ten autoantibodies to TAAbs (TAAbs) were discovered by means of protein microarray and their serum level was also higher in 212 LC patients than that in 212 NC of validation cohort 1 (P < 0.05). The model 1 comprising 4 TAAbs and CEA reached an AUC of 0.813 (95%CI: 0.762–0.864) for diagnosing LC from normal individuals.

• Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S152166162200287X?via%3Dihub

HuProt Autoantibodies: The identification of the high-efficiency and non-invasive biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection is urgently needed. This study aims to screen out potential autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens (TAAbs) and to assess their diagnostic value for HCC. Fifteen potential TAAbs were screened out from the Human Proteome Microarray by 30 HCC sera and 22 normal control sera, of which eight passed multiple-stage validations by ELISA with a total of 1625 human serum samples from normal controls (NCs) and patients with HCC, liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis B, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, and colorectal cancer.

• Link: https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1878-0261.13371

Immunosenescence is a progressive remodeling of immune functions with a multifactorial etiology including aging and chronic antigenic stressors (inflammation, infections, cancer). We showed that a high pretreatment SIP (CD28–CD57+KLRG1+CD8+ circulating T cells>39.5%, SIP+) was associated with resistance to ICB in patients with aNSCLC. Chronic viral infections may speed up immune aging, especially CMV which affects blood T cells phenotype (loss of CD28, overexpression of CD57). We aimed to assess antiviral serological profile and its association with SIP status.

• Link: https://www.esmoiotech.org/article/S2590-0188(22)00056-9/fulltext#%20