Mutations in genes encoding mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are linked to diverse diseases. However, the precise mechanisms by which these mutations affect mitochondrial function and disease development are not fully understood.The joint team led by Dr. GE Wanzhong from the Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine and Prof. GUAN Min-Xin from the Institute of Genetics, Zhejiang University published their collaborative research regarding the developmental delay ...

Lung cancer is one of the leading cancer types for human mortality. Even though different medical interventions, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, have contributed to lung cancer treatment in a great deal, the lack of an early diagnosis leads to poor prognosis and low overall survival rate. Less than 20% of patients survive to 5 years after diagnosis. Standard lung cancer screening methods employing computerized tomography (CT) examination encounter the challenge of distingui...

The team led by Prof. CHEN Shuqing and Prof. PAN Liqiang at the Zhejiang University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences published their latest research findings regarding a multivalent biparatopic EGFR-targeting nanobody drug conjugate in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy on September 3. Design of multivalent anti-EGFR nanobody drug conjugateAn antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) is a type of anticancer drug linking an antibody with cytotoxic molecules. It integra...

Satiety in the gut is regulated by the nervous system. The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) in the hypothalamus is known as the brain’s “switchboard” to control appetite and metabolism. It is a popular target for the treatment of such metabolic diseases as obesity by regulating the body’s energy metabolism and eating behavior in response to the simulation of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and agouti-related peptide (AgRP) by various metabolic signals such as leptin and neuropeptide Y. MC4R belongs...

At the 16th China Health Information Technology/ Healthcare Big Data Application Exchange Conference held on July 10, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of the Zhejiang University School of Medicine (ZJU4H) was rated as a Grade V Level B hospital in China Health Information Connectivity Standardization Maturity Assessment, which is the highest level in this regard in China.In May, the assessment panel conducted an on-site inspection of ZJU4H and lauded its remarkable information infrastruc...

Being the fifth morbidity and the third leading cause of tumor mortality worldwide, gastric cancer (GC) remains to be a major health burden. Although alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has been widely applied as a relatively specific marker for liver cancer, some other tumors such as a subgroup of gastric cancer can also produce and secrete AFP, namely AFP producing gastric cancer (AFPGC). AFPGC is a special and rare subtype of gastric cancer, accounting for 1.3-5.4% of GC. Compared with common GC, patient...

On June 17, Prof. LIU Fengqiang, a neurosurgeon from the Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU)，remotely manipulated Remebot, a stereotactic neurosurgery robot, through a 5G network to evacuate the intracerebral hematoma of a patient, who was located 200 kilometers away in Songyang Hospital of Li Shui City. This marked the successful establishment of China’s first 5G-based digital neurosurgery operating theater.During the surgery, the scene of the operat...

Immunotherapeutic drugs, as represented by immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB), have achieved tremendous success in curing various tumors in recent years, thus improving the survival and life quality of some tumor patients in an appreciable manner. Recent data from clinical trials on breast cancer patients suggest that ICB, in combination with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, can improve the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and the event-free survival rate in breast cancer. Neo-adjuvant ICB is e...

Liver cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death globally. It is indeed the second most lethal tumor. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the major type among them. Recently, it was noticed that metabolic dysregulation contributed a lot to the progression of HCC, whereas the roles of metabolic dysregulation in HCC treatment has not been fully revealed. Sorafenib has been a standard targeted therapy for advanced HCC, where metabolic aspect especially ROS is deeply involved. Sorafeni...

Pharmaceutical researchers have developed a new technique that uses a patch with microneedles to perform catalyzed reactions for generating anticancer therapeutics directly inside tumors. Early laboratory tests on mice show it potentiates the effectiveness of drugs and reduces toxicity. The technique was developed by researchers at Zhejiang University, Fuzhou University and the University of California, Los Angeles.“This is a proof of concept, but we’ve demonstrated there is now a new tool for...