It will open up a new direction for tumor immunotherapy research, and the results of Academician Fan Jia’s team have been published in top journals
Recently, the team of Professor Fan Jia, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, and Professor Gao Qiang, together with the Shanghai Institute of Immunology and Infection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the School of Basic Medicine of Zhejiang University, published two important research results in the magazines "Science" and "Cell" respectively. , deeply analyzed the complexity and functional diversity of the tumor immune microenvironment, broke through the previous "T cell-centered immunotherapy" research model, and opened up a new direction for clinical and translational research on tumor immunotherapy.
The paper systematically reveals the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity, dynamic differentiation and epigenetic regulation mechanisms of B cells in the tumor microenvironment. The research team analyzed clinical sample data from multiple cancer types such as liver cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and gallbladder cancer and found that B cells can be divided into 15 subgroups with different functions. One of these subpopulations, called DUSP4 atypical memory B cells, caught the team's attention. This type of cells differentiates into plasma cells through the extrafollicular response pathway, which can secrete antibodies that recognize self-antigens and inhibit the function of T cells, causing the tumor microenvironment to be in an immunosuppressive state, which is not conducive to patient prognosis and anti-cancer immunotherapy.
This discovery provides important clues for the future precise regulation of B cells, identification of new immunotherapy targets, and development of new immune combination treatments.
At present, tumor treatment has entered the era of "precision medicine" with multidisciplinary joint diagnosis and treatment. Immunotherapy represented by "PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies" has been widely used as an emerging tumor treatment method.
Immunotherapy relies on the patient's own immune function to identify and kill cancer cells. It can not only improve the patient's survival, but also avoid the side effects of traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and improve the patient's quality of life. However, due to individual differences and treatment limitations, immunotherapy is not the only path for PD-1/PD-L1, and requires individualized new strategies and combined treatment options.
Professor Gao Qiang from the Department of Liver Tumor Surgery at Zhongshan Hospital said that B cells are a key component of adaptive immunity and play a crucial role in humoral immune response and antibody production. However, due to insufficient relevant research, their further expansion in clinical application has been limited. have been restricted. At the same time, neutrophils, as the first line of defense of the human body's natural immunity, are widely involved in all important aspects of human immunity.
Due to their short half-life and fragile cells, there are currently few relevant large-scale systematic studies, making neutrophils a focus of controversy in tumor immunotherapy. The important findings of this study not only provide new theoretical support for tumor immunotherapy, but also provide key clues to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of immunotherapy and develop more effective treatment methods.
It is reported that in recent years, Zhongshan Hospital has proposed four major innovation models: high-quality innovation, source innovation, policy innovation, and talent training system, as well as the "Zhongshan Science and Technology Ten Steps" to promote the transformation of scientific research results, which has injected new vitality into the development of medical technology. In the past ten years, the hospital has applied for more than 3,000 patents, more than 1,600 of which have been authorized, and more than 370 of which have been transformed, with the contract value exceeding 178 million yuan.
