Biomedical research with heavy ions at the IMP accelerators

The main ion-beam acceleration facilities and research activities at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences are briefly introduced. Some of the biomedical research with heavy ions such as heavy-ion biological effect, basic research related to heavy-ion cancer therapy and radiation breeding at the IMP accelerators are presented.

Conformal irradiation to moving targets in heavy ion radiotherapy with raster-scanning beam delivery system: (II) feasibility experiments

Within the framework of the pilot heavy-ion therapy facility at GSI equipped with an active beam delivery system of advanced raster scanning technique, a feasibility study on actively conformal heavy-ion irradiation to moving tumors has been experimentally conducted. Laterally, real-time corrections to the beam scanning parameters by the raster scanner, leading to an active beam tracing, compensate for the lateral motion of a target volume. Longitudinally, a mechanically driven wedge energy degrader (called depth scanner) is applied to adjust the beam energy so as to locate the high-dose Bragg peak of heavy ion beam to the slice under treatment for the moving target volume. It has been experimentally shown that compensations for lateral target motion by the raster scanner and longitudinal target shift by the depth scanner are feasible.

Enhanced biological effect induced by a radioactive C-9-ion beam at the depths around its Bragg peak

To explore the potential of double irradiation source, radioactive C-9-ion beam, in tumor therapy, a comparative study oil the surviving effect of human salivary gland cells at different penetration depths between C-9 and C-12-ion beams has been carried out. The 9C-ion C beam, especially at the distal side of the beam came out more efficient in cell killing at the depths around its Bragg peak than the 12 Bragg peak. Compared to the C-12 beam, an increase in RBE by a factor of up to 2.13 has been observed at the depths distal to the Bragg peak of the 9C beam. The 9C beam showed an enhanced biological effect at the penetration depths around its Bragg peak, corresponding to the stopping region of the incident C-9-ions and where the delayed low-energy particles were emitted. Further analysis revealed that cell lethality by the emitted particles from the stopping C-9-ions is responsible for the excessive biological effect at the penetration depths around the Bragg peak of the C-9 beam.

OVERVIEW ON THE HIRFL-CSR FACILITY

The status of the HIRFL (Heavy Ion Facility in Lanzhou) - Cooler Storage Ring (CSR) at the IMP is reported. The main physics goals at the HIRFL-CSR are the researches on nuclear structure and decay property, EOS of nuclear matter, hadron physics, highly charged atomic physics, high energy density physics, nuclear astrophysics, and applications for cancer therapy, space industries, materials and biology sciences. The HIRFL-CSR is the first ion cooler-storage-ring system in China, which consists of a main ring (CSRm), an experimental ring (CSRe) and a radioactive beamline (RIBLL2). The two existing cyclotrons SFC (K=70) and SSC (K=450) are used as its injectors. The 7MeV/u12C6+ ions were stored successfully in CSRm with the stripping injection in January 2006. After that, realized were the accelerations of C-12(6+), Ar-36(18+), Kr-78(28+) and Xe-129(27+) ions with energies of 1GeV/u, 1GeV/u, 450 MeV/u and 235 MeV/u, respectively, including accumulation, electron cooling and acceleration. In 2008, the first two isochronous mass measurement experiments with the primary beams of Ar-36(18+) and Kr-78(28+) were performed at CSRe with the Delta p/p similar to 10(-5).

深层治癌束运线极高、超高真空系统

本论文根据已有的设计方案及图纸，验证设计方案的可行性。主要内容如下：第一，根据公式估算深层治癌束运线各段的真空度，并用VAKTRAK程序模拟出压力分布曲线；第二，运用ANSYS程序对烘烤段各真空管道，尤其是盒形真空室（二极铁真空室）进行力学分析，验证设计尺寸是否可行；第三，根据力学分析，确定超薄壁拱形真空管道的波宽和波高，能够满足使用要求。第四，参考德国GSI有关资料，对膜窗材料进行了计算和验证，并成功的运用到实际中去。 目前，深层治癌束运线真空系统已经安装完毕，经过抽空、检漏，各元件均已达到设计要求，非烘烤段的真空度已达标，烘烤段已达到烘烤前应有的真空度，现正在安装烘烤外套及烘烤控制装置

重离子治癌装置的束流位置控制系统

近代物理所依托兰州重离子冷却储存环（HIRFL-CSR）开展重离子治癌研究。在重离子治癌过程中，需要对束流位置十分精确的控制。本文实现了精确控制重离子束对肿瘤实现三维适形扫描。 对肿瘤切片方向定位采用主动磁扫描方式，通过控制X、Y 扫描铁电源实现束流对肿瘤一层切片中各点的扫描，在治疗过程中需要实现位置变化与辐照剂量的联动。为满足束流位置切换时扫描铁电源的阶跃响应过程，采用了一种新的加速器电源控制方式，通过控制频率变化实现扫描铁电源阶跃响应过程。该方法具有精度高、参数少、响应速度快和实时性好的特点。本文提出了扫描铁电源电压控制的数学模型和实现结构，通过FPGA+DSP+DDS的硬件平台实现该电源控制方法。最终完成了对扫描铁电源高精度的控制。 肿瘤深度方向定位实质上是重离子束流Bragg峰的定位。Bragg峰与束流能量的关系要求重离子束在不同能量间切换，因而需要加速器实现变能加速。本文设计完成了适应变能加速的高频控制器，介绍了高频控制器实现方法，从而满足不同深度肿瘤切片对束流能量的要求。 核心及创新点：(1)实现重离子治癌过程中束流位置和剂量的联动; (2)基于频率调节的扫描铁电源控制器; (3)满足变能加速的高频控制器 从现场的测试和应用结果表明位置控制系统达到了设计要求

重离子束治癌相关生物学效应及机理研究

重离子束治癌是当今放射治疗中最科学、最先进、最有效的方法，是有代表性的高技术。目前仅有美、日、德实现了该技术，并已取得常规疗法难以实现的疗效。我国近年来开展了“重离子束治癌技术的基础研究”，其中，放射生物学及机理研究是重要内容。本论文从细胞、DNA分子、以及动物个体的三个不同层次上分别研究了重离子束治癌相关的生物学问题。在细胞研究方面。采用HeLa、B 16两种细胞分别研究了X一射线和重离子在水介质中入射的深度与相应细胞的存活率(1一失活率)，结果表明：X一射线对细胞的损伤随深度而逐渐衰减(或细胞存活随深度逐渐增加)，而重离子对细胞的损伤则为Bragg曲线(或细胞存活为倒Bragg曲线)。研究了25MeV／u ~(40)Ar~(14+)辐照人肝癌细胞SMMC一7721的微核及存活的动态变化，结果表明： 单次照射与分次照射的微核率随时间的变化规律在96h内没有明显区别，受照(单次、分次) 肝癌细胞的存活数随时间表现出衰减趋势，微核率与细胞存活数关系的动态变化为负相关性。研究了6MV X-射线和125．5keV／μm的重离子辐照B 1 6、V79细胞的2Gy存活率(SF2)，结果表明：B16和V79细胞的存活率(P<0．01)依赖于不同的辐射性质(X-射线、~(12)C离子)，其X-射线与~(12)C离子辐射这两种细胞的存活率之比分别为5．4和1．43，即~(12)C离子辐射增强了X-射线抗性细胞系的敏感性，从而显示了重离子治疗癌症的优势。研究了125．5keV／um的碳离子辐照小鼠黑色素瘤B16、人的宫颈癌HeLa、中国仓鼠肺V79、人的肝癌SMMC-7721四种细胞的相对生物学效率(RBE)，得．到了RBE依赖于细胞种类的关系、RBE随细胞存活水平的升高而增加的关系、以及当LET≥125．5keV／μm时，RBE随着LET的增大而变小的关系。在DNA分子研究方面。研究了125．5keV／μm~(12)C~(6+)辐照小鼠黑色素瘤B 16、中国仓鼠肺V79、人的宫颈癌HeLa、人的肝癌SMMC一7721细胞的灵敏度(由D50表示)、DNA双链断裂(DSB)和DNA双链断裂片段分布，结果表明：细胞敏感性与DNA双链断裂之间没有一致的关系，提出了细胞辐射敏感性的一种可能的分子机理，即DNA序列敏感性位点协同DNA双链断裂互补性机理。由此解释了四种细胞系的不同敏感性问题。在动物个体研究方面。研究了57．28MeV／u氧离子50Gy一次性局部照射对B16黑色素瘤小鼠肿瘤生长的抑制作用，并观测了受照小鼠的死亡情况，结果表明：照射B16黑色素瘤后第10天观察，肿瘤生长延迟为6天、肿瘤抑制率为66％，耐受剂量小于50Gy。研究了50MeV／u ~(12)C~(6+)离子辐照对小鼠移植性肿瘤S180的抑制作用、控制率、治愈率和病理组织学变化，结果表明：各剂量组对S180肉瘤的抑制作用均大于90％，高剂量组抑瘤作用明显强于低、中剂量组(P

Recent developments in intelligent biomedical polymers

Intelligent polymers or stimuli-responsive polymers may exhibit distinct transitions in physical-chemical properties, including conformation, polarity, phase structure and chemical composition in response to changes in environmental stimuli. Due to their unique 'intelligent' characteristics, stimuli-sensitive polymers have found a wide variety of applications in biomedical and nanotechnological fields. This review focuses on the recent developments in biomedical application of intelligent polymer systems, such as intelligent hydrogel systems, intelligent drug delivery systems and intelligent molecular recognition systems. Also, the possible future directions for the application of these intelligent polymer systems in the biomedical field are presented.

Carboxyl-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes selectively induce human telomeric i-motif formation

As the leading nanodevice candidate, single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWNTs) have potential therapeutic applications in gene therapy and novel drug delivery. We found that SWNTs can inhibit DNA duplex association and selectively induce human telomeric i-motif DNA formation by binding to the 5'-end major groove under physiological conditions or even at pH 8.0. SWNT binding to telomeric DNA was studied by UV melting, NMR, S1 nuclease cleavage, CD, and competitive FRET methods. These results suggest that SWNTs might have the intriguing potential to modulate human telomeric DNA structures in vivo, like biologically relevant B-A and B-Z DNA transitions, which is of great interest for drug design and cancer therapy.

Interaction between Thymidylate Synthase and Its Cognate mRNA in Zebrafish Embryos

Thymidylate synthase (TS), which catalyzes the de novo synthesis of dUMP, is an important target for cancer therapy. In this report, the effects of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and ZD1694 on the regulation of TS gene expression were evaluated in zebrafish embryos. Our results revealed that the expression of TS was increased by about six-fold when embryos were treated with 1.0 mu M 5-FU and there was a greater than 10-fold increase in the TS protein level after treatment with 0.4 mu M ZD1694. Northern blot analysis confirmed that expression of TS mRNA was identical in treated or untreated embryos. Gel shift and immunoprecipitation assays revealed that zebrafish TS was specifically bound with its cognate mRNA in vitro and in vivo. We identified a 20 nt RNA sequence, TS:N20, localized to the 5'-UTR of TS mRNA, which corresponded to nt 13-32; TS:N20 bound to the TS protein with an affinity similar to that of the full-length TS mRNA. The MFold program predicted that TS:N20 formed a stable stem-loop structure similar to that of the cis-acting element found in human TS mRNA. Variant RNAs with either a deletion or mutation in the core motif of TS:N20 were unable to bind to the TS protein. In vitro translation experiments, using the rabbit lysate system, confirmed that zebrafish TS mRNA translation was significantly repressed when an excess amount of TS protein was included in the system. Additionally, a TS stability experiment confirmed that treatment of zebrafish embryos with 5-FU could increase the TS stability significantly, and the half life of TS protein was about 2.7 times longer than in untreated embryos. Our study revealed a structural requirement for the interaction of TS RNA with TS protein. These findings also demonstrated that the increase in TS protein induced by 5-FU occurs at the post-transcriptional level and that increased stability and translation efficiency both contributed to the increase in TS protein levels induced by TS inhibitors.

Interaction between Thymidylate Synthase and Its Cognate mRNA in Zebrafish Embryos

Thymidylate synthase (TS), which catalyzes the de novo synthesis of dUMP, is an important target for cancer therapy. In this report, the effects of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and ZD1694 on the regulation of TS gene expression were evaluated in zebrafish embryos. Our results revealed that the expression of TS was increased by about six-fold when embryos were treated with 1.0 mu M 5-FU and there was a greater than 10-fold increase in the TS protein level after treatment with 0.4 mu M ZD1694. Northern blot analysis confirmed that expression of TS mRNA was identical in treated or untreated embryos. Gel shift and immunoprecipitation assays revealed that zebrafish TS was specifically bound with its cognate mRNA in vitro and in vivo. We identified a 20 nt RNA sequence, TS:N20, localized to the 5'-UTR of TS mRNA, which corresponded to nt 13-32; TS:N20 bound to the TS protein with an affinity similar to that of the full-length TS mRNA. The MFold program predicted that TS:N20 formed a stable stem-loop structure similar to that of the cis-acting element found in human TS mRNA. Variant RNAs with either a deletion or mutation in the core motif of TS:N20 were unable to bind to the TS protein. In vitro translation experiments, using the rabbit lysate system, confirmed that zebrafish TS mRNA translation was significantly repressed when an excess amount of TS protein was included in the system. Additionally, a TS stability experiment confirmed that treatment of zebrafish embryos with 5-FU could increase the TS stability significantly, and the half life of TS protein was about 2.7 times longer than in untreated embryos. Our study revealed a structural requirement for the interaction of TS RNA with TS protein. These findings also demonstrated that the increase in TS protein induced by 5-FU occurs at the post-transcriptional level and that increased stability and translation efficiency both contributed to the increase in TS protein levels induced by TS inhibitors.

In vitro selected peptides bind with thymidylate synthase mRNA and inhibit its translation

Thymidylate synthase (TS), an essential enzyme for catalyzing the biosynthesis of thymidylate, is a critical therapeutic target in cancer therapy. Recent studies have shown that TS functions as an RNA-binding protein by interacting with two different sequences on its own mRNA, thus, repressing translational efficiency. In this study, peptides binding TS RNA with high affinity were isolated using mRNA display from a large peptide library (>10(13) different sequences). The randomized library was subjected up to twelve rounds of in vitro selection and amplification. Comparing the amino acid composition of the selected peptides (12th round, R12) with those from the initial random library (round zero, R0), the basic and aromatic residues in the selected peptides were enriched significantly, suggesting that these peptide regions might be important in the peptide-TS mRNA interaction. Categorizing the amino acids at each random position based on their physicochemical properties and comparing the distributions with those of the initial random pool, an obvious basic charge characteristic was found at positions 1, 12, 17 and 18, suggesting that basic side chains participate in RNA binding. Secondary structure prediction showed that the selected peptides of R12 pool represented a helical propensity compared with R0 pool, and the regions were rich in basic residues. The electrophoretic gel mobility shift and in vitro translation assays showed that the peptides selected using mRNA display could bind TS RNA specifically and inhibit the translation of TS mRNA. Our results suggested that the identified peptides could be used as new TS inhibitors and developed to a novel class of anticancer agents.

Zebrafish thymidylate synthase binds to its own mRNA in vitro and in vivo

Thymidylate synthase (TS), an essential enzyme for DNA de novo synthesis, is a critical therapeutic target in cancer therapy. Previous study has shown that TS was able to bind to its own mRNA in human and E.coli, resulting in translational repression. Zebrafish is the best animal model for vertebrate study. In order to study the regulatory mechanism of zebrafish TS, the enzyme were expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) and it was purified to homogeneity. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) was used to detect the interaction of zebrafish TS protein and its own TS transcript in vitro and the results showed that zebrafish TS could bound with its own mRNA specifically. Further study revealed that zebrafish TS was able to interact with its own mRNA in vivo using immunoprecipitation : RT-PCR technique. The results provide evidence that zebrafish may be developed as an useful model for studying the anti-metabolism agents.

Nanomedicinas para o Cancro

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Optimisation of immune effector function within the tumour microenvironment

Cancer represents a leading of cause of death in the developed world, inflicting tremendous suffering and plundering billions from health budgets. The traditional treatment approaches of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have achieved little in terms of cure for this deadly disease. Instead, life is prolonged for many, with dubious quality of life, only for disease to reappear with the inevitable fatal outcome. “Blue sky” thinking is required to tackle this disease and improve outcomes. The realisation and acceptance of the intrinsic role of the immune system in cancer pathogenesis, pathophysiology and treatment represented such a “blue sky” thought. Moreover, the embracement of immunotherapy, the concept of targeting immune cells rather than the tumour cells themselves, represents a paradigm shift in the approach to cancer therapy. The harnessing of immunotherapy demands radical and innovative therapeutic endeavours – endeavours such as gene and cell therapies and RNA interference, which two decades ago existed as mere concepts. This thesis straddles the frontiers of fundamental tumour immunobiology and novel therapeutic discovery, design and delivery. The work undertaken focused on two distinct immune cell populations known to undermine the immune response to cancer – suppressive T cells and macrophages. Novel RNAi mediators were designed, validated and incorporated into clinically relevant gene therapy vectors – involving a traditional lentiviral vector approach, and a novel bacterial vector strategy. Chapter 2 deals with the design of novel RNAi mediators against FOXP3 – a crucial regulator of the immunosuppressive regulatory T cell population. Two mediators were tested and validated. The superior mediator was taken forward as part of work in chapter 3. Chapter 3 deals with transposing the RNA sequence from chapter 2 into a DNA-based construct and subsequent incorporation into a lentiviral-based vector system. The lentiviral vector was shown to mediate gene delivery in vitro and functional RNAi was achieved against FOXP3. Proof of gene delivery was further confirmed in vivo in tumour-bearing animals. Chapter 4 focuses on a different immune cell population – tumour-associated macrophages. Non-invasive bacteria were explored as a specific means of delivering gene therapy to this phagocytic cell type. Proof of delivery was shown in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, in vivo delivery of a gene by this method achieved the desired immune response in terms of cytokine profile. Overall, the data presented here advance exploration within the field of cancer immunotherapy, introduce novel delivery and therapeutic strategies, and demonstrate pre-clinically the potential for such novel anti-cancer therapies.