ABSTRACT
The twelfth annual workshop of the European Network for Breast Development and Cancer focused on methods in mammary gland biology and breast cancer, was scheduled to take place on March 26-28, 2020, in Weggis, Switzerland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was rescheduled twice and eventually happened as a virtual meeting on April 22 and 23, 2021. The main topics of the meeting were branching and development of the mammary gland, tumor microenvironment, circulating tumor cells, tumor dormancy and breast cancer metastasis. Novel and unpublished findings related to these topics were presented, with a particular focus on the methods used to obtain them. Virtual poster sessions were a success, with many constructive and fruitful interactions between researchers and covered many areas of mammary gland biology and breast cancer.
Subject(s)
Biomedical Research/methods , Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Mammary Glands, Human/pathology , Biomarkers, Tumor/metabolism , Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis , Breast Neoplasms/metabolism , Breast Neoplasms/therapy , Combined Modality Therapy , Europe , Female , Humans , Mammary Glands, Human/growth & development , Mammary Glands, Human/metabolism , Neoplasm Metastasis , Neoplasm Staging , Neoplastic Cells, Circulating , Prognosis , Tumor MicroenvironmentABSTRACT
This work reports novel chitosan functionalized graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites combined fluorescence imaging and therapeutic functions in one agent, which can serve as a promising alternative to alleviate related diseases caused hyperinflammation. Briefly, GO was designed to be conjugated with chitosan, fluorescein-labeled peptide, toll-like receptor 4 antibody and hydroxycamptothecin/aloe emodin. We have demonstrated that such nanocomposites could effectively achieve active targeted delivery of pro-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory drugs into inflammatory cells and cause cells apoptosis by acid-responsive drug release. Moreover, confocal fluorescence imaging confirms that the drug-induced inflammatory cells apoptosis could be visualized the light-up fluorescence of fluorescein activated by caspase-3. Meanwhile, inflammatory-related biomarkers have down-regulated after the nanocomposites' treatment in both vitro and vivo experiments consistent with the results in histological sections. In summary, the bifunctional nanocomposites that possess anti-inflammation and fluorescence imaging could serve as a promising therapeutic agent for reducing hyperinflammation caused by numerous diseases.