Recently, Dr. He Xiaoyan, a young scholar and teacher from School of Life Science at AHMU, has published her research findings in the world-renowned journal Advanced Materials (IF:25.809). The paper was entitled Aptamer/Peptide-Functionalized Genome-Editing System for Effective Immune Restoration through Reversal of PD-L1-Mediated Cancer Immunosuppression, which came from Dr. He’s collaborative work with Prof. Cheng Sixue from the Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University.
This research employs a natural polymer, the hyaluronic acid which is known for its high-level biosafety, and CaCO3 to model for a new gene-editing delivery system that features specificity in targeting tumor cells. By knocking out the transcriptional co-activator CTNNB1, the researchers successfully downgraded PD-L1 expression, reversed the immune evasion, and rebuilt the immunosurveillance of cytotoxic T cells on tumor cells.
The study started from the mechanism for immune evasion of tumor cells, and proposed a solution that could extirpate immune evasion and thus offers potential for clinical application.