Nanoparticle mediated cancer immunotherapy.

The versatility and nanoscale size have helped nanoparticles (NPs) improve the efficacy of conventional cancer immunotherapy and opened up exciting approaches to combat cancer. This review first outlines the tumor immune evasion and the defensive tumor microenvironment (TME) that hinders the activity of host immune system against tumor. Then, a detailed description on how the NP based strategies have helped improve the efficacy of conventional cancer vaccines and overcome the obstacles led by TME. Sustained and controlled drug delivery, enhanced cross presentation by immune cells, co-encapsulation of adjuvants, inhibition of immune checkpoints and intrinsic adjuvant like properties have aided NPs to improve the therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines. Also, NPs have been efficient modulators of TME. In this context, NPs facilitate better penetration of the chemotherapeutic drug by dissolution of the inhibitory meshwork formed by tumor associated cells, blood vessels, soluble mediators and extra cellular matrix in TME. NPs achieve this by suppression, modulation, or reprogramming of the immune cells and other mediators localised in TME. This review further summarizes the applications of NPs used to enhance the efficacy of cancer vaccines and modulate the TME to improve cancer immunotherapy. Finally, the hurdles faced in commercialization and translation to clinic have been discussed and intriguingly, NPs owe great potential to emerge as clinical formulations for cancer immunotherapy in near future.

Prospective therapeutic potential of Tanshinone IIA: An updated overview.

In the past decades, the branch of complementary and alternative medicine based therapeutics has gained considerable attention worldwide. Pharmacological efficacy of various traditional medicinal plants, their products and/or product derivatives have been explored on an increasing scale. Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) is a pharmacologically active lipophilic component of Salvia miltiorrhiza extract. Tan IIA shares a history of high repute in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Reckoning with these, the present review collates the pharmacological properties of Tan IIA with a special emphasis on its therapeutic potential against diverse diseases including cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity and neurogenerative diseases. Further, possible applications of various therapeutic preparations of Tan IIA were discussed with special emphasis on nano-based drug delivery formulations. Considering the tremendous advancement in the field of nanomedicine and the therapeutic potential of Tan IIA, the convergence of these two aspects can be foreseen with great promise in clinical application.

Interaction of anticancer drug pinostrobin with lysozyme: a biophysical and molecular docking approach.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

An HIV-1 Broadly Neutralizing Antibody from a Clade C-Infected Pediatric Elite Neutralizer Potently Neutralizes the Contemporaneous and Autologous Evolving Viruses.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) have demonstrated protective effects against HIV-1 in primate studies and recent human clinical trials. Elite neutralizers are potential candidates for isolation of HIV-1 bNAbs. The coexistence of bNAbs such as BG18 with neutralization-susceptible autologous viruses in an HIV-1-infected adult elite controller has been suggested to control viremia. Disease progression is faster in HIV-1-infected children than in adults. Plasma bNAbs with multiple epitope specificities are developed in HIV-1 chronically infected children with more potency and breadth than in adults. Therefore, we evaluated the specificity of plasma neutralizing antibodies of an antiretroviral-naive HIV-1 clade C chronically infected pediatric elite neutralizer, AIIMS_330. The plasma antibodies showed broad and potent HIV-1 neutralizing activity with >87% (29/33) breadth, a median inhibitory dilution (ID50) value of 1,246, and presence of N160 and N332 supersite-dependent HIV-1 bNAbs. The sorting of BG505.SOSIP.664.C2 T332N gp140 HIV-1 antigen-specific single B cells of AIIMS_330 resulted in the isolation of an HIV-1 N332 supersite-dependent bNAb, AIIMS-P01. The AIIMS-P01 neutralized 67% of HIV-1 cross-clade viruses, exhibited substantial indels despite limited somatic hypermutations, interacted with native-like HIV-1 trimer as observed in negative stain electron microscopy, and demonstrated high binding affinity. In addition, AIIMS-P01 neutralized the coexisting and evolving autologous viruses, suggesting the coexistence of vulnerable autologous viruses and HIV-1 bNAbs in the AIIMS_330 pediatric elite neutralizer. Such pediatric elite neutralizers can serve as potential candidates for isolation of novel HIV-1 pediatric bNAbs and for understanding the coevolution of virus and host immune response.IMPORTANCE More than 50% of the HIV-1 infections globally are caused by clade C viruses. To date, there is no effective vaccine to prevent HIV-1 infection. Based on the structural information of the currently available HIV-1 bNAbs, attempts are under way to design immunogens that can elicit correlates of protection upon vaccination. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of an HIV-1 N332 supersite-dependent bNAb, AIIMS-P01, from a clade C chronically infected pediatric elite neutralizer. The N332 supersite is an important epitope and is one of the current HIV-1 vaccine targets. AIIMS-P01 potently neutralized the contemporaneous and autologous evolving viruses and exhibited substantial indels despite low somatic hypermutations. Taken together with the information on infant bNAbs, further isolation and characterization of bNAbs contributing to the plasma breadth in HIV-1 chronically infected children may help provide a better understanding of their role in controlling HIV-1 infection.

Illuminating GPCR Signaling by Cryo-EM.

The wave of resolution revolution in cryo-EM has touched, and made a significant impact on, the structural biology of GPCRs. High-resolution structures of several GPCR-G-protein complexes are now determined by cryo-EM and they illuminate fine structural details of this central macromolecular complex involved in cellular signaling.