Targeting tumor-associated macrophage: an adjuvant strategy for lung cancer therapy

The emergence of immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment landscape for various types of cancer. Nevertheless, lung cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide due to the development of resistance in most patients. As one of the most abundant groups of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play crucial and complex roles in the development of lung cancer, including the regulation of immunosuppressive TME remodeling, metabolic reprogramming, neoangiogenesis, metastasis, and promotion of tumoral neurogenesis. Hence, relevant strategies for lung cancer therapy, such as inhibition of macrophage recruitment, TAM reprograming, depletion of TAMs, and engineering of TAMs for drug delivery, have been developed. Based on the satisfactory treatment effect of TAM-targeted therapy, recent studies also investigated its synergistic effect with current therapies for lung cancer, including immunotherapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (anti-EGFR) treatment, or photodynamic therapy. Thus, in this article, we summarized the key mechanisms of TAMs contributing to lung cancer progression and elaborated on the novel therapeutic strategies against TAMs. We also discussed the therapeutic potential of TAM targeting as adjuvant therapy in the current treatment of lung cancer, particularly highlighting the TAM-centered strategies for improving the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (anti-PD-1/PD-L1) treatment

Genome-Wide Identification, Evolutionary Analysis and Expression Profiles of LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES DOMAIN Gene Family in Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula.

The LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES DOMAIN (LBD) gene family has been well-studied in Arabidopsis and play crucial roles in the diverse growth and development processes including establishment and maintenance of boundary of developmental lateral organs. In this study we identified and characterized 38 LBD genes in Lotus japonicus (LjLBD) and 57 LBD genes in Medicago truncatula (MtLBD), both of which are model legume plants that have some specific development features absent in Arabidopsis. The phylogenetic relationships, their locations in the genome, genes structure and conserved motifs were examined. The results revealed that all LjLBD and MtLBD genes could be distinctly divided into two classes: Class I and II. The evolutionary analysis showed that Type I functional divergence with some significantly site-specific shifts may be the main force for the divergence between Class I and Class II. In addition, the expression patterns of LjLBD genes uncovered the diverse functions in plant development. Interestingly, we found that two LjLBD proteins that were highly expressed during compound leaf and pulvinus development, can interact via yeast two-hybrid assays. Taken together, our findings provide an evolutionary and genetic foundation in further understanding the molecular basis of LBD gene family in general, specifically in L. japonicus and M. truncatula

Experimental Study on the Workability and Stability of Steel Slag Self-Compacting Concrete

There is important application value and economic value in exploring the potential use of steel slag to prepare self-compacting concrete (SCC) and make full use of solid waste resources. In this paper, steel slag self-compacting concrete (SSCC) with relatively ideal workability is prepared by using steel slag instead of natural fine aggregate based on mix proportion optimization and SSCC performance research. The filling ability, passing ability and resistance segregation were tested to evaluate the workability of SSCC. The results show that when the content of steel slag sand is 20%, the workability performance of SSCC is similar to that of SCC with natural aggregates. When the content of steel slag sand is less than 60%, the performance of SSCC can also meet the workability requirements after adjusting the amount of raw materials

The functional divergence analysis between classes or subclasses.

<p>The estimated mean coefficients of Type-I (θI) and type-II (θII) functional divergence based on the aligned LOB domain sequences from <i>Lotus japonicus</i> and <i>Medicago truncatula</i>.</p

The phylogenetic tree of LBD proteins form <i>Lotus japonicus</i> and <i>Medicago truncatula</i>.

<p>The amino acid sequences of the LBD proteins were aligned with Clustal X, and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using the neighbor-joining method of MEGA 5.0 software.</p

Expression profiles of LBD genes in <i>Lotus japonicus</i>.

<p>(A) Heatmap showing LBD gene expression patterns in different tissues/organs/development stages. The scale at the bottom represents log2 value. (B) Some genes highly expressed in leaf (the blue box) were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. The expression level of stem sample was normalized to 1.</p

Amino acid sequence alignments of LOB domain region from <i>Lotus japonicus</i> and <i>Medicago truncatula</i>.

<p>The N-terminal LOB domain includes cysteine C block, GAS block and leucine-zipper-like regions is displayed. The valine (V) and leucine (L) residues required for motor organ specification in pea were denoted by red arrow and red frame. An arginine (R) in the GAS block required for motor organ specification was denoted by red arrow.</p