A promising natural product in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma therapy by targeting PIM1.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common and aggressive type of B-cell lymphoma. Unfortunately, about one-third of patients either relapse after the initial treatment or are refractory to first-line therapy, indicating a need for new treatment modalities. PIM serine/threonine kinases are proteins that are associated with genetic mutations, overexpression, or translocation events in B-cell lymphomas. We conducted an integrative analysis of whole-exome sequencing in 52 DLBCL patients, and no amplification, mutation, or translocation of the PIM1 gene was detected. Instead, analyses of TCGA and GTEx databases identified that PIM1 expression was increased in DLBCL samples compared to normal tissue, and high expression levels were associated with poor overall survival. Moreover, interference of PIM1 significantly suppressed DLBCL cell proliferation. In addition, we identified anwulignan, a natural small-molecule compound, as a PIM1 inhibitor. Anwulignan directly binds to PIM1 and exerts antitumor effects on DLBCL in vitro and in vivo by inducing apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, and autophagic cell death. Furthermore, we identified an effective synergistic combination between anwulignan and chidamide. Our findings suggested that PIM1 could be a therapeutic target and prognostic factor for DLBCL, and anwulignan holds promise for future development as a natural product for treatment.

Haptoglobin is an early indicator of survival after radiation-induced severe injury and bone marrow transplantation in mice.

BACKGROUND: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the main treatment for acute radiation sickness, especially after fatal radiation. The determination of HSCT for radiation patients is mainly based on radiation dose, hemogram and bone marrow injury severity. This study aims to explore a better biomarker of acute radiation injury from the perspective of systemic immune response. METHODS: C57BL/6J female mice were exposed to total body irradiation (TBI) and partial body irradiation (PBI). Changes in haptoglobin (Hp) level in plasma were shown at different doses and time points after the exposure and treatment with amifostine or bone marrow transplantation. Student's t-test/two tailed test were used in two groups. To decide the Hp levels as a predictor of the radiation dose in TBI and PBI, multiple linear regression analysis were performed. The ability of biomarkers to identify two groups of different samples was determined by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Significance was set at P value < 0.05, and P value < 0.01 was set as highly significant. Survival distribution was determined by log-rank test. RESULTS: In this study, we found that Hp was elevated dose-dependently in plasma in the early post-irradiation period and decreased on the second day, which can be used as a molecular indicator for early dose assessment. Moreover, we detected the second increase of Hp on the 3rd and 5th days after the lethal irradiation at 10 Gy, which was eliminated by amifostine, a radiation protection drug, while protected mice from death. Most importantly, bone marrow transplantation (BMT) on the 3rd and 5th day after 10 Gy radiation improved the 30-days survival rate, and effectively accelerated the regression of secondary increased Hp level. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that Hp can be used not only as an early molecule marker of radiation injury, but also as an important indicator of bone marrow transplantation therapy for radiation injury, bringing new scientific discoveries in the diagnosis and treatment of acute radiation injury from the perspective of systemic immunity.

BPIFA2 as a Novel Early Biomarker to Identify Fatal Radiation Injury After Radiation Exposure.

Background: Current dosimeters cannot cope with the two tasks of medical rescue in the early stage of nuclear accident, the accurate determination of radiation exposure and the identification of patients with fatal radiation injury. As radiation can cause alterations in serum components, it is feasible to develop biomarkers for radiation injury from serum. This study aims to investigate whether serum BPIFA2 could be used as a potential biomarker of predicting fatal radiation injury in the early stage after nuclear accident. Methods: A rabbit anti-mouse BPIFA2 polyclonal antibody was prepared to detect the expression of BPIFA2. C57BL/6J female mice were exposed to total body radiation (TBI) at different dose and Partial body radiation (PBI) at lethal dose to detect the dynamic changes of BPIFA2 in serum at different time points after irradiation by Western blot assay. Results: BPIFA2 in mice serum were significantly increased at 1-12 h post-irradiation at .5-10 Gy, and increased again significantly at 3 d after 10 Gy irradiation with associated with mortality closely. It also increased rapidly after PBI and was closely related to injury degree, regardless whether the salivary glands were irradiated. Conclusions: The increase of serum BPIFA2 is a novel early biomarker not only for identifying radiation exposure, but also for fatal radiation injury playing a vital role in rational use of medical resources, and greater efficiency of medical treatment to minimize casualties.