The nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), a protein complex that regulates gene transcription, is widely present in eukaryotic cells. It can specifically bind to promoters or enhancers to promote the transcription and expression of multiple genes. The NF-κB signaling pathway is closely bound up with the immune response and critical pathophysiological processes such as cell proliferation, transformation, and apoptosis. The classic NF-κB pathway is dominated by the role of IKKβ, which phosphorylates Iκ...

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality. Chemotherapy is still the most commonly used treatment for cancer patients. It typically relies on drug endocytosis and inhibits tumor cell proliferation via intracellular pathways. However, most chemotherapy drugs damage normal cells since they work by affecting the physiological processes of cell proliferation. The side effects of systemic chemotherapy used to treat cancer are often severe and may damage the tumor‐bearing host, especially the i...

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) develops in patients with chronic liver diseases, regardless of the presence of cirrhosis and represents the common final pathway leading to death. The short-term mortality rate amounts to 50-90% due to the fact that the cause of hepatocyte injury and the pathway involved in ACLF progression remain elusive. The chronic liver failure (CLIF) Consortium Acute-On-Chronic Liver Failure in Cirrhosis (CANONIC) study indicated that an intense systemic inflammatory r...

China is a country with a high incidence of liver cancer. According to the Global Cancer Report, the number of liver cancer cases in China accounts for 46.7% of the total number of cases all over the world. Although appreciable progress in the treatment of HCC has occurred over the past few years, current therapeutic effects are far from satisfactory, and the 5‐year survival rate varies from 14% to 18%. Various kinase inhibitors, such as sorafenib and lenvatinib, come as an enormous boon to live...

For decades, transcription of bacteriophage T4 late genes has served as a model system to investigate mechanisms of transcription regulation. The T4 late promoters consist of a -10-like element placed at the position corresponding to the bacterial promoter -10 element. Nevertheless, there is no sequence conservation at the position corresponding to the bacterial promoter -35 element. In recent years, the research team led by Prof. FENG Yu from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine ...

Human diseases are caused by the interplay between intrinsic molecular dynamics and environmental exposures, which can be broadly defined as biological, chemical, physical and even psychological exposures. Abnormal environmental exposures, especially during early life, can lead to a variety of acute and chronic diseases, including cancer, allergy/asthma and autoimmune diseases. The ‘exposome’ was first proposed by Christopher Wild to encompass the totality of human environmental exposures from...

“I attach immense importance to the breakthrough from 0 to 1 and strive relentlessly to pursue innovation and transcendence, which is a driving force for my constant efforts in the cutting-edge research,” said ZHU Yongqun, a recipient of the 16th China Youth Science and Technology Award.ZHU Yongqun has long been committed to research into dangerous disease-inducing bacteria. He has achieved success in unveiling a multitude of “secret weapons” of pathogenic bacteria to overcome immune de...

Recently, the research teams led by ZHANG Yan from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine and Zhejiang Laboratory for Systems & Precision Medicine, SUN Jinpeng from Peking University and Shandong University, and H. Eric Xu from the CAS Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica co-published an article entitled “Structures of glucocorticoid-bound adhesion receptor GPR97-Go complex” in Nature. It is the first time that the structure of adhesion GPCR–G complexes has been identifi...

As COVID-19 has been raging across the globe in the past year, it has not only constituted tremendous hazards to the safety and well-being of human beings but also incurred immeasurable economic losses. Although most of COVID-19 patients remain asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms, about 20% suffer overt pneumonia and roughly 5% cases progress to life-threatening Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and severe or atypical systemic inflammation. Then how does COVID-19 differ from c...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver tumor with an increasing global incidence. In 2018, HCC was the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Sorafenib is the first FDA-approved targeted therapy for advanced HCC. A previous study showed that sorafenib prolonged the median overall survival (OS) by 2.3−3 months in advanced HCC patients that did not qualify for liver transplantation or resection. However, soraf...