Chen Zhijian, Winner of the Science Breakthrough Award: Grasping the "Brake" and "Throttle" of the Immune System

On November 16, 2019, Professor Chen Zhijian, Department of molecular biology, Southwest Medical Center, Dezhou University, attended the science summit of future science awards. In 2015, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was diagnosed with melanoma. Br / >he was lucky to get rid of the most advanced cancer cells in the world within 4 months."now 95 years old, he is still in good health and is the longest lived president of the United States.in his treatment, the key drug is keyruda, a PD-1 inhibitor."at the science summit of the future science awards in 2019, Professor Chen Zhijian, academician of the American Academy of Sciences and winner of the science breakthrough award, started his report with the story of President Carter.in the past decade, cancer immunotherapy has been developing rapidly. While saving the lives of patients, relevant research has also won a number of international scientific awards.in 2011, three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for "discovering toll like receptors". Toll like receptors are expressed in natural immune cells such as dendritic cells, which can recognize a variety of foreign substances and initiate immune responses. In 2018, two scientists won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for "discovering CTLA-4 and PD-1", respectively In the medical award, these two proteins can act as the "brake" of the immune system in different ways. PD-1 inhibitors can destroy the "brake" and restart the immune response, so as to fight cancer. In 2018, Professor Chen Zhijian won the scientific breakthrough Award for "discovery of DNA sensing enzyme CGAs".in this report, he introduced CGAs as as the "accelerator of immune system".CGAs: the accelerator of the immune system, CGAs, whose full name is "cyclic gmp-amp synthetase", is located in the cytoplasm. It can recognize DNA that should not appear in the cytoplasm, and catalyzes GTP and ATP to synthesize "cyclic gmp-amp" (cgamp). Cgamp binds and activates the endoplasmic reticulum protein sting, and then transmits the signal into the nucleus through sting pathway, regulates gene transcription and opens the immune response 。CGAs recognizes exogenous DNA to initiate immune response (i.e., CGAs can recognize intracellular and extracellular DNA to activate immune response, which is the "accelerator" of the immune system.as Chen Zhijian said in his report: CGAs is a gas.CGAs and diseases since CGAs is the accelerator of immune response, it will play a role in immune related diseases.Chen Zhijian mentioned in his report AGS syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus, both of which are the result of abnormal activation of the immune system and hyperactivity.among them, AGS syndrome is a rare congenital immune system disease, which can cause brain calcification, inflammatory reaction and other symptoms, and often die before the age of 20.Chen Zhijian's research group has proved through animal experiments that CGAs inhibitors may be a candidate for the treatment of AGS syndrome.in cancer treatment, we can directly use cgamp, a synthetic product of CGAs, to activate the immune response to fight against cancer cells.in the work of Chen Zhijian's research group, cgamp can activate a variety of T cells and induce interferon synthesis, thus significantly improving the immune response activity.Chen Zhijian also pointed out that the combination of cgamp and PD-L1 inhibitors can play a better anti-cancer effect by stepping on the "accelerator" and releasing the "brake".Chen Zhijian reports: the "brake" (PD1: PD-L1) and "accelerator" (CGAs) of the immune system [photo quality is a little touching] looking for more "brakes" and "accelerators" for human health. In the past 100 years, human beings have achieved brilliant victory in fighting infectious diseases, and the average life expectancy has increased from about 50 years old to about 80 years old, accompanied by immune system diseases Diseases, cancer and other chronic diseases appear widely.how to make full use of the immune system to fight against these chronic diseases is an important problem faced by biomedical researchers.Chen Zhijian believes that "we need to find more 'brakes' and' gas pedals'; we also need to find 'seat belts' to control the possible side effects of immunotherapy; we also need to find a better editable T-cell therapy beyond cart therapy".fortunately, gene therapy, cell therapy and many other therapies have emerged in succession, and AI technology will also help the development of new drugs.Chen Zhijian believes that human beings will be able to achieve "great victory in the fight against disease" within 10 years.by 2030, we will be able to live longer and healthier people on the basis of a better understanding and manipulation of the immune system.plate making editor | skin fish in the past wonderful | 1. 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