Bei Zhang

While cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy regimens (gemcitabine-cisplatin [GP] and docetaxel-cisplatin-5-fluorouracil [TPF]) remain standard treatments for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), 30-40% of patients exhibit intrinsic chemoresistance, resulting in therapeutic failure. The molecular underpinnings of this resistance are poorly characterized. Through integrative multi-omics profiling, we identified Mitochondrial Ribosomal Protein S7 (MRPS7) and Mitochondrial Ribosomal Protein S23 (MRPS23) as novel drivers of cisplatin resistance in NPC. Mechanistically, integrated single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analysis, mass spectrometry, and functional studies revealed that MRPS7 and MRPS23 stabilized β-catenin by inhibiting its ubiquitination, thereby promoting β-catenin-mediated cancer stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to establish cisplatin resistance in NPC. Additionally, we identified Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 10 (USP10) as a critical upstream regulator that protects MRPS7/23 from proteasomal degradation and sustaining their oncogenic activity. Notably, Spautin-1, a potent USP10 inhibitor, demonstrates synergistic therapeutic activity with cisplatin in diminished tumor growth and metastasis in NPC mice. This research established the USP10-MRPS7/MRPS23-β-catenin axis as a promising precision medicine strategy to combat metastatic dissemination and reverse cisplatin chemoresistance in advanced NPC, which offers a promising opportunity to develop cisplatin sensitizers for the clinical translation of NPC therapies.

Background: Drug use disorders (DUDs) is a serious global health crisis, particularly affecting adolescents and young people. The increasing prevalence of DUDs has led to the development of chronic diseases, including cancer, although it has significant impacts on health and life, it is often overlooked in research.Method: This study utilized GBD 2021 data to assess the burden of four drug use disorders in the young adult population. The data, covering 1991 to 2021, included metrics such as age-sex-year incidence, prevalence, deaths, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Age-standardized rates were used for comparing burden across years and regions, and joinpoint analysis evaluated trends. The Bayesian Age-Period-Cohort model was employed to project future burden. The study also examined the relationship between DUDs burden and socio-economic conditions using the Social Development Index (SDI) and stratified data by WHO regions. Additionally, population attributable fractions were calculated within the GBD comparative risk assessment framework.Results: Cannabis use disorder (CUDs) emerged as the most prevalent, the ASPR was 617.22/100,000 in 2021. The highest age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) and age-standardized DALYs rates (ASDR) was observed in OUDs, at (1.46 [1.37-1.55]) and (236.61[185.21-292.47]), respectively. The region of the Americas accounted for the largest proportion of this burden. Opioid use disorders (OUDs) exhibited a notable rising trend, with the age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) of 359.62/100,000 in 2021, with a concentration primarily in the European region and the region of the Americas. Male had a higher burden of DUDs than female in the young adults. The burden of DUDs was mainly concentrated under the age of 25, especially CUDs and OUDs. The ASMR and ASDR of DUDs also showed significant growth trends in high SDI areas. Drug use’s contribution to cancer risk, particularly liver cancer due to hepatitis C virus (HCV), had been progressively increasing.Conclusions: The burden of OUDs and CUDs, continued to escalate annually, especially among young adult males who face heightened risks. Notably, drug use is increasingly contributing to liver cancer mortality and DALYs, emphasizing the urgency of interventions. This study provides evidence for evaluating the burden transfer between different demographic data.

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains a therapeutic challenge due to its aggressive nature and limited treatment efficacy. Traditional Chinese Medicine, particularly Qingdu Zengye Decoction (QZD), has shown clinical potential, but its mechanistic basis in NPC treatment requires elucidation.Purpose: This study aims to elucidate the mechanisms of action of QZD in the treatment of NPC, focusing on its multi-target regulatory effects on cell apoptosis, oncogenic signaling pathways, and tumor immune microenvironment.Methods: An integrative approach combining computational pharmacology, functional experiments, and single-cell transcriptomic profiling was employed to dissect QZD’s anti-NPC mechanisms. Network pharmacology and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis was used to identify potential QZD targets. Functional assays (cell proliferation, apoptosis, colony formation) and Western blotting were used to validate key pathways. Molecular docking was applied to assessed ligand-target binding affinities. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was used to analyzed spatial expression patterns in NPC tumor samples.Results: QZD suppressed tumor progression by inducing apoptosis through modulating Bax in a dose-dependent manner and inhibiting the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Network pharmacology analysis identified AKT1, MTOR, HIF1A, SRC, and ESR1 as core regulatory genes. scRNA-seq revealed compartment-specific target localization: AKT1/ESR1 in tumor cells, SRC/IL6 in myeloid cells, and MTOR/HIF1A across stromal compartments. Molecular docking confirmed strong interactions between QZD compounds (e.g., quercetin, luteolin) and these targets. Upregulation of IL6 was observed and its dual immune-modulatory effects involving tumor suppression and microenvironment reprogramming was suggested.Conclusion: QZD exerts anti-tumor effects in NPC through apoptosis induction, PI3K-Akt pathway suppression, and multi-compartmental tumor microenvironment modulation. Its ability to concurrently target oncogenic signaling and immune regulation positions QZD as a promising therapeutic strategy for advanced NPC.

Central nervous system germ cell tumors (CNS GCTs) are common malignancies of the central nervous system of children and adolescents. The management of CNS GCTs is complex because of varied tumor sites, clinical presentations, treatments and outcomes. Multidisciplinary integrated treatment involving radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery is the most commonly used approach for CNS GCTs worldwide and is essential for achieving favorable clinical outcomes. The Pediatric Oncology Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (CACA) has formulated the guidelines for the management of CNS GCTs based on domestic and foreign clinical studies and experiences. The guidelines cover the diagnosis and treatment of primary CNS GCT in the pineal region, the sellar region, and the thalamus and basal ganglia region, recurrent, disseminated, and bifocal/multifocal CNS GCT, as well as traditional Chinese medicine. In these guidelines, different treatment regimens are proposed for secretory or non-secretory GCTs. The therapeutic concepts of primary treatment and second-look surgery are also introduced. The hope is to help standardize the diagnosis and treatment, and further improve the outcomes of CNS GCTs patients.

Cancer remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, imposing a significant public health burden. While cannabis and opioids are widely used in cancer pain management, their potential for abuse and addiction has raised concerns regarding their long-term health effects, including possible associations with cancer risk. However, the relationship between substance use disorders (SUDs) and cancer susceptibility remains controversial. This Mendelian randomization (MR) study aimed to investigate the potential causal effects of cannabis use disorder (CUD) and opioids use disorder (OUD) on cancer vulnerability. We conducted a two-sample MR study using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies, including data from FinnGen and UK Biobank. The primary analytical approach was the inverse-variance weighted (IVW), complemented by a range of sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the findings. IVW analysis identified a causal association between OUD and bladder cancer (OR = 1.040, 95% CI 1.004-1.078, P = 0.029, adj. P = 0.125), acute myeloid leukemia (OR = 0.931, 95% CI 0.885-0.978, P = 0.005, adj. P = 0.061) and ovarian cancer (OR = 0.937, 95% CI 0.891-0.984, P = 0.010, adj. P = 0.064). Sensitivity analysis yielded directionally consistent results. Reverse MR analysis provided no statistically significant evidence supporting a causal effect of these cancers on OUD (all P > 0.05). Additionally, no evidence of a significant causal relationship was observed between CUD and any cancer type (P > 0.05). This study suggests a potential causal link between OUD and increased susceptibility to bladder cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, and ovarian cancer, warranting further investigation in larger, multi-ethnic population studies. These results contribute to the ongoing discourse on the long-term health impacts of substance use disorders and highlight the need for further research to elucidate their potential oncogenic effects.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a neoplasm related to inflammation; the expression of cytokines, such as CCL3, CCL4, CCL20, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10, among others, is presumed to be associated with NPC occurrence and development. Therefore, the circulating levels of these cytokines may be potential biomarkers for assessing tumor aggressiveness, exploring cellular interactions, and monitoring tumor therapeutic responses. Numerous scholars have comprehensively explored the putative mechanisms through which these inflammatory factors affect NPC progression and therapeutic responses. Moreover, investigations have focused on elucidating the correlation between the systemic levels of these cytokines and the incidence and prognosis of NPC. This comprehensive review aims to delineate the advancements in research concerning the relationship between inflammatory factors and NPC while considering their prospective roles as novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers in the context of NPC.

Background: The ChaiShao Shugan Formula (CSSGF) is a traditional Chinese medicine formula with recently identified therapeutic value in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study aimed to elucidate the underlying mechanism of CSSGF in TNBC treatment. Methods: TNBC targets were analyzed using R and data were from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The major ingredients and related protein targets of CSSGF were explored via the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database, and an ingredient–target network was constructed via Cytoscape to identify hub genes. The STRING database was used to construct the PPI network. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed via R to obtain the main targets. The online tool Kaplan‒Meier plotter was used to identify the prognostic genes. Molecular docking was applied to the core target genes and active ingredients. MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines were used to verify the efficacy of the various drugs. Results: A total of 4562 genes were screened as TNBC target genes. The PPI network consisted of 89 nodes and 845 edges. Our study indicated that quercetin, beta-sitosterol, luteolin and catechin might be the core ingredients of CSSGF, and EGFR and c-Myc might be the latent therapeutic targets of CSSGF in the treatment of TNBC. GO and KEGG analyses indicated that the anticancer effect of CSSGF on TNBC was mainly associated with DNA binding, transcription factor binding, and other biological processes. The related signaling pathways mainly involved the TNF-a, IL-17, and apoptosis pathways. The molecular docking data indicated that quercetin, beta-sitosterol, luteolin, and catechin had high affinity for EGFR, JUN, Caspase-3 and ESR1, respectively. In vitro, we found that CSSGF could suppress the expression of c-Myc or promote the expression of EGFR. In addition, we found that quercetin downregulates c-Myc expression in two BC cell lines. Conclusion: This study revealed the effective ingredients and latent molecular mechanism of action of CSSGF against TNBC and confirmed that quercetin could target c-Myc to induce anti-BC effects.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an immune-related disease and the relationship between MS and cancer has raised attention. Previous studies of the relationship between MS and cancer have reached conflicting conclusions. In this study, the two-sample MR method is used to investigate whether MS has a causal correlation with cancers and offer scientific evidence for cancer prevention. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to MS were obtained from the genome-wide association study (GWAS) based on International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) and SNPs related to 15 types of cancers were obtained from the GWASs based on UK Biobank. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was mainly used to assess causal effects. Sensitivity analyses were conducted with Cochran’s Q-test, MR Egger intercept, leave-one-out test, and MR Steiger method. IVW analysis showed that MS was only associated with a marginal increased risk of cervical cancer (OR 1.0004, 95% CI 1.0002–1.0007, p = 0.0003). Sensitivity analyses showed that the results of MR analysis were robust and found no heterogeneity, no pleiotropy, and no reverse causation. In conclusion, this study finds no causal relationship between MS and 15 types of cancers except cervical cancer.