Professor Ping's team, Science, published a paper that solved the mystery of lupus with new ideas for fighting cancer.

▎ academic longitude / report: in the past decade, the advent of tumor immunotherapy has completely changed the pattern of cancer treatment.scientists have identified several key "brake molecules," such as the famous immune checkpoint PD-1, which can limit the immune system from killing cancer cells.therefore, therapies developed for these immunosuppressive factors can release the body's natural defense ability and effectively attack tumors.Professor Chen Liping of Yale University is a pioneer in tumor immunotherapy.he was the first to discover the existence of PD-L1, and proved that PD-L1 plays an important role in tumor survival.now, inhibitors of the molecular pathway PD-1 / PD-L1 have been successfully applied to the treatment of several cancers.} Professor Chen Liping is a pioneer in the field of tumor immunity (photo source: Yale University website). In addition to the PD-1 / PD-L1 pathway, Professor Chen has identified many new molecules and pathways in the field of tumor immunity, among which pd-1h (also known as Vista) is one of them.they found that pd-1h (i.e., PD-1 homologue) is an inhibitory molecule expressed on the surface of T lymphocytes and myeloid cells.in a new paper published in Science Translational Medicine, this research team reported the new function of pd-1h, which broadened our understanding of immunosuppressive factors and helped us understand lupus erythematosus, a disease in urgent need of new treatment.this time, in contrast to treating cancer, they are "binding" the immune system to conquer human diseases.readers who are familiar with American TV series may have heard the name of lupus through "house".lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease, that is to say, the immune system "defected" to attack the body's own organs and tissues.there are two common types of lupus erythematosus. One is discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), which mainly affects the skin. The butterfly shaped lupus erythematosus (SLE) on the face is the classic manifestation of the patient; the other is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which affects not only the skin, but also the internal organs. In severe cases, heart, lung, kidney and other organs will be damaged and life-threatening.due to the fact that the pathogenesis and progression factors of this disease are still unclear, the treatment of lupus erythematosus is very limited.in fact, in the past 60 years, only one drug has been approved for SLE in the world, while dle has not yet been approved.understanding the key factors of lupus erythematosus will undoubtedly provide great help for the development of new drugs.} lupus erythematosus is more common in young women. If you know a patient named qingwufeiyang, you are exposed to age (photo source: 123rf) in this study, scientists found that when mice were lack of immunosuppressive factor pd-1h, more than one-third of young female mice developed skin damage symptoms such as hair loss and lupus erythematosus, and half of them developed heart and other organ problems. The histological characteristics were very similar to those of human lupus erythematosus. in addition, the characteristic antinuclear antibodies of lupus erythematosus also increased with age in these female mice lacking pd-1h. "these findings also suggest that ph-1h deficient mice may be a new animal model for studying the complex pathological factors of lupus erythematosus. "the authors said in the paper. } pd-1h knockout female mice developed skin damage symptoms similar to those of lupus erythematosus (photo source: reference [1]). To further confirm the relationship between pd-1h and lupus erythematosus, the skin tissue of DLE patients and blood samples of SLE patients were examined. compared with the healthy control group, pd-1h was highly expressed in a variety of immune cells in patients with lupus erythematosus. "this molecule is obviously associated with the inhibition of lupus erythematosus. it seems to be selective, because it does not have the same effect in several other autoimmune diseases. "said Professor Chen. } skin samples from patients with lupus erythematosus show higher gene activity in the immune system (photo source: reference [2]). In this case, can pd-1h be used as a target for the treatment of lupus erythematosus? To test this hypothesis, the scientists used a monoclonal antibody that activates pd-1h in mice with lupus erythematosus. the effect is very obvious! After using pd-1h monoclonal antibody agonist, mice not only delayed the onset of the disease, but also significantly improved their skin problems. in addition, the expansion of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and immune cells was significantly reduced, indicating that the immune system was less aggressive to its own tissues. In addition to revealing the key role of pd-1h in the pathogenesis of lupus erythematosus (photo source: reference [1]), the researchers also mentioned in the paper that as an immune checkpoint, the role of pd-1h was more focused on tumor progression in the past, and cancer immunotherapy has been carried out by blocking pd-1h Clinical trials. therefore, "in the future, understanding which autoimmune diseases have high expression of pd-1h may help to predict possible organ-specific immune related adverse events. "said the author in the discussion section. we congratulate Professor Chen Liping's team for publishing new research results, and we also hope that this discovery will enable people to better understand immunosuppressive factors and autoimmune diseases, and bring good news to patients as soon as possible. reference [1] Xue Han et al., (2019) pd-1h (Vista) - mediated suppression of autoimmunity in systemic and cubaneous lupus erythematosus. Science Translational Medicine. Doi: 10.1126/ scitranslmed.aax1159 [2] Flipping the script on novel cancer therapy leads to insights into lupus. Retrieved Dec. 13, 2019, from