Category Technology

A group from Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China, etc. has reported that targeting TGF-β1 pathway might be a promising approach to enhance immune checkpoint blockade PD-1/PD-L1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35311117/

It is well known that PD-L1, programmed death ligand-1, is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed by tumor cells and PD-L1 inhibits T cells activity and promotes immune evasion through binding to its receptor PD-1 on T cells.

TGF-β is a multifunctional cytokine with an important role in both physiologic and pathologic processes, including cancer. The aberrantly upregulated production of TGF-β has been strongly implicated in tumor progression, angiogenesis, and metastasis, as well as immune escape. TGF-β has been regarded as a critical immunosuppressive cytokine, which suppresses the antitumor activity of effector cells, including CD8⁺ T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and macrophages.

In this study, it was confirmed that PD-L1 was heavily glycosylated in NPC, and found that TGF-β1 played an important role in N-glycosylation of PD-L1.
Inhibition of TGF-β1 by a TGF-β type I receptor inhibitor (SB431542) reduced not only PD-L1 expression but also PD-L1 glycosylation. The reduction of PD-L1 glycosylation was confirmed by loss of PD-L1 binding ability to ConA lectin.

Authors found that the glycosylation of PD-L1 was affected by TGF-β1 through c-Jun/STT3A signaling pathway, suggesting that targeting TGF-β1 pathway might be a promising approach to enhance immune checkpoint blockade in NPC avoiding deglycosylatin of PD-L1.

Co-culture of NPC cells (5-8F cells) and Jurkat T cells, conducted with STT3A-knockdown (shSTT3Acells), SB431542 and tunicamycin (TM) pretreatments on T cells.

A group from Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21511, Egypt, etc. has reported about alleviation of salinity stress in eggplants by using a biofertilizer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8912713/

Chemical fertilizers have been widely used to achieve maximum crop productivity in conventional agricultural systems. Nevertheless, when chemical fertilizers exceed the threshold level, they accelerate soil acidification, pollute groundwater, and harm the environment overall. It is recommended to apply biofertilizers as eco-friendly alternatives as they play a pivotal role in phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation, production of ammonia, enzymes, siderophores, and secretion of variable phytohormones. Furthermore, they exhibit biocontrol activity against a wide variety of phytopathogenic agents.

In this study, the effect of selected bioinoculum (plant growth promoting rhizobcteria and rhizo fungi) on salinity stress in eggplants (Solanum melongena L.) was investigated as a biofertilizer.

Comparative experimental conditions were as follows:
(C): one irrigated with distilled water as a control,
(I): the second one inoculated with the selected inoculum and irrigated with distilled water,
(S): the third one irrigated with 200 mM NaCl, and
(S + I): the fourth one irrigated with 200 mM NaCl and inoculated with selected inoculum.
Two strains of rhizobacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas sp.) and three strains of rhizofungi (Trichoderma harzianum, Aspergillus terrus, and Penicillium citrinum) were used as the inoculum (as a biofertilizer).

Salinity stress significantly decreased leaf area, root fresh and dry weights, in addition to root water content by (59.14, 95.87, 96.30, and 95.66%, respectively) compared to control, but the inoculating the soil of salt-stressed eggplants showed a significant increase in leaf area (LA), total fresh weight (TFW), total dry weight (TDW), and total water content(TWC) as shown below.

The gene expression of photosystem II D2, glutathione reductase, and glutathione S transferase was upregulated in inoculated salt-stressed eggplants with respect to stressed ones, that of protease I and protease II (cell-wall degrading enzymes to suppress pathogen growth) was also upregulated in inoculated salt-stressed eggplants with respect to stressed ones, and that of lipase was downregulated conversely in inoculated salt-stressed eggplants with respect to stressed ones.
These changes suggest that defense mechanism related genes are upregulated in inoculated eggplants.

A group from Gansu Gaolan Field Scientific Observation and Research Station for Agricultural Ecosystem, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China, etc. has reported that the combined application of a bacterial inoculant and sucrose can improve the growth and quality of Rheum palmatum suppressing pathogen Fusarium spp.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835959/

There are many bacterial and fungal species that can function as (plant growth-promoting microbes) PGPM, of which Bacillus members are well-described in the literature for successfully promoting plant growth in diverse ways. Bacillus isolates colonize host plant roots and promote plant growth by producing bio compounds, such as the hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), as well as spermidine and 2,3-butanediol, by defending against pests and pathogens by producing antibiotic substances such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), chitinase, and siderophores.

In general, soil is usually a carbon-limited state, and less than 5% of total bacteria are in an active state under such conditions. Carbon sources, especially the most common sucrose, could impact bacteria as a direct energy source for growth. So, in this work, it was evaluated how Baillus spp. respond to the small molecular carbon addition such as sucrose and their co-effects on the rhizosphere microecology.

The combinations of three concentrations of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens EZ99 inoculant (1.0 × 10⁵, 1.0 × 10⁶, and 1.0 × 10⁷ colony-forming units (CFU)/mL, denoted as LB, MB, and HB, respectively) and with three sucrose concentrations (0.15, 1.5, and 15 g/L, denoted as LS, MS, and HS, respectively) were evaluated on R. palmatum growth and yield.

Although the HB treatment increased the growth of R. palmatum (plant length, crown weight, leaf length, and leaf weight) comparing with control (CK), it decreased the growth when coupled with sucrose, especially under the highest concentration of sucrose (HS). This indicates that a high level of bacterial inoculant (1.0 × 10⁷ CFU/mL) amended with a high level of sucrose (15 g/L) suppressed the plant growth-promoting function of PGPM. And, further, the fresh weight of R. palmatum roots were the most significantly improved under the LB + LS and LB + MS treatments (see below)

Typical differences observed in the comparisons are as follows:

• Eight kinds of anthraquinones, the major constituents of rhubarb, were differentially identified in the comparisons. The LB + LS group accumulated the highest level of aurantio-obtusin-6-O-glucoside and torachrysone-8-O-glucoside, but reduced levels of torachrysone and laccaic acid D, while the rhubarbs under the LB treatment accumulated only 2-acetoxymethyl-anthraquinone.
• The co-effects of PGPM and sucrose in the LB + LS treatment did not lead to a significant net difference in the total contents of soil nutrients, but they significantly increased the contents of total potassium which could mediate the bioavailability of potassium and nutrients’ cycling in the soil.
• As for rhizobacteria community, sucrose addition had little impact on bacterial community structure in LS soil, yet it modulated the diversity induced by the PGPM addition in LB + LS soil.
• As for fungal community, the Ascomycota and Mortierellomycota were the two most abundant phyla, together accounting for more than 92.5% of the relative abundance of the total fungal sequences. The most abundant phylum Ascomycota was enriched the most in CK (79.1%), and diminished the most in LB + LS (71.6%) treatment. At the genus level, compared with CK, the first dominant genus Fusarium was decreased, whereas the second dominant genus Mortierella was increased in all treatments, with the highest increase recorded in the LB + LS treatment.

A group from Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama 641-0012, Japan, etc. has reported on diagnostic application of C-mannosyl Tryptophan.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6924205/

C-Mannosyl tryptophan (CMW) is a glycosylated amino acid first isolated from human urine with a unique glycan structure in which an α-mannose is bound to the indole C2 carbon of a Trp residue through a C-C linkage. CMW was also identified in human ribonuclease 2 (RNase2) as a post-translational modification.

In medical field, it was first reported that blood CMW is elevated in patients with renal dysfunction, including renal diseases associated with type 2 diabetes. In cancer biology, it was recently reported that C-mannosylation of R-spondin 2 activates Wnt/β-catenin signaling and migration activity in various human tumor cells. This study suggested that C-mannosylation of R-spondin 2 is involved in the promotion of cancer progression. Furthermore, spondin 2 (mindin), a substrate protein for C-mannosylation, is increased in the blood of ovarian cancer patients. These studies suggest that protein C-mannosylation and CMW may be involved in the pathophysiological processes of cancer progression.

Plasma CMW in ovarian cancer was significantly higher in the malignant tumor group than in the borderline and benign tumor groups compared with healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of plasma CMW distinguished malignant tumors from borderline/benign tumors (AUC=0.905). Discrimination performance was greater than that of conventional cancer antigen CA125 (AUC=0.835), and CMW + CA125 combined achieved even greater discrimination (AUC=0.913, 81.8% sensitivity, 87.5% specificity).

CMW in biological samples was analyzed and quantified by chromatographic assay. The samples were injected into an UPLC system, and CMW was quantified by measuring the fluorescence (excitation at 285 nm/emission at 350 nm).

A group from National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsu, Japan, etc. has reported on biocontrol activity of nonpathogenic Fusarium oxysporum strains against pathogenic Fusarium wild type strains.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8828976/

The idea of using nonpathogenic F. oxysporum to control Fusarium diseases came from studies of soils naturally suppressive to Fusarium wilt disease.

In this report, the following strains were used to demonstrate biocontrol activities of nonpathogenic mutants of F. oxysporum against pathogenic fusarium wild types.
Pathogenic Fusarium wild type strains: F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis strain Mel020120, and F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici strain CK3-1
Nonpathogenic Fusarium strains: F. oxysporum strain MFG6, ΔFOW2 Mel02010 MF2-1, and ΔFOW2 CK3-1 LF2-1