Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is easily accessible in peripheral blood and can be used as biomarkers for cancer diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics. The applications of cfDNA in various areas of cancer management are attracting attention. In this review article, we discuss the potential relevance of using cfDNA analysis in clinical oncology, particularly in cancer screening, early diagnosis, therapeutic evaluation, monitoring disease progression; and determining disease prognosis.

Graphical abstract The pleiotropic effects of chloroquine that including anti-malaria, anti-cancer and anti-viral diseases, which is linked with inhibition of autophagy, tumor vascular normalization, lysosomotropic and immunomodulatory property.

Currently, immunotherapy has shown great efficacy in clinical trials, and monoclonal antibodies directed against immune checkpoint PD-1/PD-L1 have shown encouraging results in first-line or second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer patients. Meanwhile, anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint drugs combined with other treatments, such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy as well as anti-CTLA-4 checkpoint therapy, are considered an attractive treatment with higher efficacy. However, toxicity associated with PD-1/PD-L1 blockade is worth attention. Understanding the adverse effects caused by anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunosuppressive agents is vital to guide the clinical rational use of drug. In this review, we summarized the adverse effects that occurred during the clinical use of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and discussed how to effectively manage and respond to these adverse reactions.

Electronic skin (E‐skin) is an emerging and promising human‐machine interface. Besides skin‐like functions of tactile perception and stretchability, skin‐like comfortabilities, including breathability, moisture permeability, softness, and thermoregulating ability are, also crucial factors for E‐skins. Thermoregulation is one of the most important roles of human skin. People can feel comfortable when their skins are regulated at a certain range of temperature. Moreover, it is a dynamic process according to the surrounding temperature. Current E‐skins do not have the function of dynamically regulating their temperature. Here, a thermoregulating E‐skin (TE‐skin) based on liquid metal as a phase change material with its melting point in the comfortable temperature range of human skin is reported. Compared with conventional E‐skins, the TE‐skin can dynamically termoregulate according to the surrounding temperature through a phase change. Combining with the principle of triboelectric nanogenerator, the TE‐skin is also able to act as a self‐powered sensor. Based on the self‐powered TE‐skin, an intelligent dialing communications system is further developed, which can be used to call a cellphone on human skin. For the first time, this study introduces the dynamic thermoregulating concept to E‐skins and could open up new opportunities for E‐skin developments.

Microfluidic chip is not a chip in the traditional sense. It is technologies that control fluids at the micro level. As a burgeoning biochip, microfluidic chips integrate multiple disciplines, including physiology, pathology, cell biology, biophysics, engineering mechanics, mechanical design, materials science, and so on. The application of microfluidic chip has shown tremendous promise in the field of cancer therapy in the past three decades. Various types of cell and tissue cultures, including 2D cell culture, 3D cell culture and tissue organoid culture could be performed on microfluidic chips. Patient-derived cancer cells and tissues can be cultured on microfluidic chips in a visible, controllable, and high-throughput manner, which greatly advances the process of personalized medicine. Moreover, the functionality of microfluidic chip is greatly expanding due to the customizable nature. In this review, we introduce its application in developing cancer preclinical models, detecting cancer biomarkers, screening anti-cancer drugs, exploring tumor heterogeneity and producing nano-drugs. We highlight the functions and recent development of microfluidic chip to provide references for advancing cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) has been a major issue for effective cancer chemotherapy as well as targeted therapy. One prominent factor that causes MDR is the overexpression of ABCB1 transporter. In the present study, we revealed that the Aurora kinase inhibitor GSK-1070916 is a substrate of ABCB1. GSK-1070916 is a newly developed inhibitor that is currently under clinical investigation. The cytotoxicity assay showed that overexpression of ABCB1 significantly hindered the anticancer effect of GSK-1070916 and the drug resistance can be abolished by the addition of an ABCB1 inhibitor. GSK-1070916 concentration-dependently stimulated ABCB1 ATPase activity. The HPLC drug accumulation assay suggested that the ABCB1-overexpressing cells had lower levels of intracellular GSK-1070916 compared with the parental cells. GSK-1070916 also showed high binding affinity to ABCB1 substrate-binding site in the computational docking analysis. In conclusion, our study provides strong evidence that ABCB1 can confer resistance to GSK-1070916, which should be taken into consideration in clinical setting.

Background: The natural occurring pristimerin, a quinonemethide triterpenoid, is extracted from a variety of species of the Celastraceae and Hippocrateaceae family. This research investigated the in vitro anti-cancer potential of pristimerin on NSCLC cells NCI-H1299 and elucidated the molecular mechanism. Methods: Cell growth inhibition by pristimerin was assessed using the MTT assay. Apoptosis was detected using the Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) test. The colony forming assay was used to investigate the anti-proliferative effects of pristimerin. Wound healing assay and the transwell cell migration assay were utilized to determine the inhibitory effects of migration and invasion, respectively. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression, and real-time-quantitative (RT-q) PCR was used to analyze the mRNA expression. Results: The results showed that pristimerin inhibited the proliferation of H1299 cells with an IC50 value of 2.2 ± 0.34 µM and induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. The colony formation ability was reduced in a dose-dependent manner. A marked inhibition of migration and invasion against H1299 cells was observed in a dose-or time-dependent manner. Moreover, the decreased protein levels of vimentin, F-actin, integrin β1, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP2) and Snail revealed the potential inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The regulated mRNA levels of integrin β1, MMP2 and Snail indicated the great potential in the treatment of NSCLC. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study demonstrated that pristimerin suppressed NSCLC cells NCI-H1299 in vitro, exhibited potent activities of proliferation inhibition and apoptosis induction. Furthermore, the treatment of pristimerin decreased migration and invasion of H1299, which was correlated with EMT-related proteins and mRNA.

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