Researchers from Anhui Medical University are working to improve the imaging of tumours.Credit: Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images Plus
From improving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to increasing understanding of liver and prostate cancers, researchers at AHMU are advancing oncology research.
Yongqiang Yu, vice-president and director of medical imaging at AHMU, has been working to improve MRI techniques for oncology. In 2020, Yu and his team introduced a self-assembling multifunctional star-shaped polyprodrug molecule as an integrated therpeutic and diagnostic platform for glioma therapy. The molecule was able to cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver anticancer-drugs and contrast agents to glioma cells. They also investigated the enzyme-directed self-aggregation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to improve the efficiency of MRI T2 imaging-guided photothermal therapy.
Yuxian Shen’s team established that the enzyme, SYVN1 promoted degradation of a variant protein linked to SERPINA1/AAT-D, an autosomal recessive disorder, which leads to increased susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer.
They also demonstrated that a protein called MANF, provided a link between endoplasmic reticulum stress (which occurs when proteins are misfolded), and liver inflammation, inhibiting the progression of HCC. A study on the pathogenesis of liver tumours led by Guoping Sun and Hua Wang examined how the endoplasmic reticulum stressed tumour cells and dysfunction of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells hinder treatment efficacy. It also suggested promoting lipid biosynthesis to augment the antitumour efficacy of iNKT cell-based immunotherapies.
Prostate cancer studies, led by researchers such as Chaozhao Liang, is another of AHMU’s strengths. Previous research had found that the N-Myc protein was over expressed in about 40% of neuroendocrine prostate cancer patients and up to 20% of castration-resistant prostate cancer patients, and drove disease progession and resistance to hormonal therapy. In 2019, Liang and his colleagues identified a N-Myc-regulated DNA damage response pathway (N-Myc/miR-421/ATM), that contributes to this. The team suggested a combination therapeutic strategy based on an ATM inhibitor and the hormone treatment, Enzalutamide, to combat this. Liang also led a project which designed and synthesized prostate-specific membrane antigen-targeted arsenic nanosheets, an inorganic metal-free nanoplatform, for prostate cancer therapy. The nanoplatform induced ferroptosis and overrode chemotherapeutic resistance in both in vitro, and in vivo mouse studies.