1. Recently, the team of Associate Professor Fu Weili from the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Center and Professor Zhang Xuegong from Tsinghua University cooperatively published in eLife, a comprehensive journal of biology, an article titled “Cellular features of localized microenvironments in human meniscal degeneration: a single-cell transcriptomic study”, using single-cell sequencing combined with multiple immunofluorescences to construct the cell atlas of meniscus red and white zones in healthy and degenerative states, thus providing an important basis for studying the microenvironment homeostasis inside meniscus and exploring the mechanism of osteoarthritis.
Link：https://elifesciences.org/articles/79585
2. In December 2022, Professor Liu Jingping’s team from the NHC Key Laboratory of Transplant Engineering and Immunology published a research paper entitled “Improving the circulation time and renal therapeutic potency of extracellular vesicles using an endogenous ligand binding strategy” in Journal of Controlled Release (IF: 11.467). Based on an endogenous ligand binding strategy, this study constructed engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) that can specifically bind to endogenous blood albumin, thereby improving the circulation time, kidney retention, and therapeutic index of EVs. This study may provide a versatile platform for treating kidney diseases and indicates that endogenous ligand binding is a potent modification strategy for EV-based drug delivery systems.
Link:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365922007611
3. At the end of 2022, the research team of Professors Ma Liang and Fu Ping from the Institute of Nephrology/Department of Nephrology published a cover article titled “FFAR4 improves the senescence of tubular epithelial cells by AMPK/SirT3 signaling in acute kidney injury” in the famous journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (IF: 38.120). The team explored the versatile function and mechanism of G protein-coupled receptor FFAR4 in acute kidney injury. This study highlighted that FFAR4 regulates the cellular senescence of tubular epithelial cells in AKI, providing robust evidence that FFAR4 might as a target for the potential treatment of AKI.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01254-x
4. On January 26, 2023, Professor Shi Hubing and Associate Professor Ma Xuelei from the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy (SKLB) published a research paper titled “Immune checkpoint HLA-E: CD94-NKG2A mediates evasion of circulating tumor cells from NK cell surveillance” in the form of a cover article in the top journal Cancer Cell (IF: 38.585). In this study, a new immune checkpoint molecule HLA-E: CD94-NKG2A between CTCs and NK cells was discovered, which clarified the new mechanism of CTCs evading host immune surveillance, and then proposed a therapeutic strategy of targeting immune checkpoint HLA-E: CD94-NKG2A to inhibit tumor metastasis.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535610823000016
5. On February 21, 2023, the team of Professor Shao Zhenhua and Associate Professor Yan Wei from the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, together with the team of Professor Wei Xiawei from WCH and the team of Professor Chai Renjie from Southeast University, published a research paper titled “Prospect of acromegaly therapy: molecular mechanism of clinical drugs octreotide and paltusotine” online in Nature Communications (IF: 17.694). This study explored the pharmacological characteristics of a polypeptide drug octreotide and a small molecule drug paltusotine targeting somatostatin receptor (SSTR) for treating acromegaly. Based on the structural analysis and cell pharmacology experiments, the similarities and differences between the two types of drugs in recognizing SSTR2 were revealed, and the relationship between receptor functional signal transduction and disease treatment was deciphered. This research may aid in developing clinical drugs targeting SSTR2 with specific pharmacological profiles.
Link：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36673-z
6. On February 17, 2023, Professor Niu Ting’s team from the Hematology Department published a review paper titled “Epigenetic regulation in hematopoiesis and its implications in the targeted therapy of hematologic malignancies” in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (STTT, IF: 38.120). This paper expounds on the role of DNA modification, histone modification, and non-coding RNA in hematopoiesis and their changes in hematological tumors. It proposes a new strategy for treating hematological tumors through epigenetic regulation.
