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Melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer with increasing incidence and high mortality rates worldwide. However, there is still a lack of efficient and resolutive treatment strategies, particularly in clinical settings. Currently, nanomedicine, an emerging area in the medical field, is being widely investigated in small animal models to afford melanoma theranostics. However, several problems, such as tumor heterogeneity, and drug resistance treatment with a single therapy, remain unresolved. Previous reviews have primarily focused on monotherapy for melanoma in the context of nanomedicine. In this review article, we summarize the recent progress in the application of nanomedicine for melanoma treatment, with particular attention to combination therapy based on nanomedicine to achieve optimized therapeutic output for melanoma treatment. In addition, we also highlight the fluorescence-guided strategies for intraoperative melanoma detection, especially in the near-infrared imaging window with greatly improved imaging contrast and penetration depth.

Melanin, an important virulence factor of pathogenic fungi, has been shown to suppress host immune responses in multiple ways. Autophagy is a vital cellular mechanism underlying the host’s innate immunity against microbial infections. However, the potential influence of melanin on autophagy has not been explored. We investigated the effect of melanin on autophagy in macrophages, which play a key role in controlling Sporothrix spp. infection, as well as the mechanism of melanin interaction with Toll-like receptor (TLR)-induced pathways. Sporothrix globosa conidia (wild-type and melanin-deficient mutant strains) or yeast cells were co-cultured with THP-1 macrophages to demonstrate that, although S. globosa infection led to the activation of autophagy-related proteins and increased autophagic flux, S. globosa melanin suppressed macrophage autophagy. Incubation with S. globosa conidia also increased the expression levels of reactive oxygen species and multiple proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β and interferon-γ) in macrophages. These effects were attenuated as melanin presented. Furthermore, while S. globosa conidia significantly increased the expression of both TLR2 and TLR4 in macrophages, the knockdown of TLR2, but not TLR4, with small interfering RNA suppressed autophagy. Overall, this study revealed the novel immune defense ability of S. globosa melanin to inhibit macrophage functionality by resisting macrophage autophagy through the regulation of TLR2 expression.

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic multi-systemic inflammatory skin disease that presents with erythema, thickness, and scaling of the skin. Genetic and environmental factors are associated with its etiology. Recently systemic immune inflammatory index, has been proposed as a biomarker for prognosis and severity prediction. Although it has been studied in psoriasis in general, no study exists for its association with the individual types of psoriasis. This study thus aimed to determine its association with clinical characteristics of psoriasis subtypes. Materials and Methods: Data were retrospectively retrieved from the hospital electronic medical database from January 2020 to August 2022. Only patients with CBC results were included. Clinical data retrieved were: Patients' age, gender, type of psoriasis diagnosed, body mass index, duration of the disease, family history of psoriasis, history of smoking, diabetes, and hypertension records. Laboratory data retrieved were: Complete blood count (CBC), C-reactive protein, Immunoglobulin E (IgE), Total cholesterol, Triglycerides and Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Data were analyzed in SPSS and GraphPad prism. Results: The study enrolled 85 patients with psoriasis; 56.47% males, and 43.53% females. 7.6% had psoriasis for less than 10 years, while 42.4% had the disease for more than 10 years. Psoriasis vulgaris was the most common diagnosis, 41.2%, followed by p. pustular, 30.6% and then p. erythroderma 28.2%. Mean age ± SD of the p. vulgaris, p. pustular and p. erythroderma patients were 47.3 ± 15.3; 45.3 ± 14.6, and 57.1 ± 11.7 respectively. SII was significantly higher in p. pustular than the rest, (p < 0.0001). SII was significantly associated with hypertension p. pustular patients. C-reactive protein was significantly upregulated in both psoriasis pustular and erythroderma but not vulgaris (all p < 0.001), while leukocytosis was observed in psoriasis pustular. Conclusion: In summary, systemic immune inflammatory index (SII) was significantly higher in psoriasis pustular How to cite this paper