Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a type of adoptive cellular therapy by harvesting infiltrated lymphocytes from tumors, culturing and amplifying them in vitro and then infusing back to treat patients. Its diverse TCR clonality, superior tumor-homing ability, and low off-target toxicity endow TIL therapy unique advantages in treating solid tumors compared with other adoptive cellular therapies. Nevertheless, the successful application of TIL therapy currently is still limited to several types of tumors. Herein in this review, we summarize the fundamental work in the field of TIL therapy and the current landscape and advances of TIL clinical trials worldwide. Moreover, the limitations of the current TIL regimen have been discussed and the opportunities and challenges in the development of next-generation TIL are highlighted. Finally, the future directions of TIL therapy towards a broader clinical application have been proposed.

The umbilical cord provides a rich source of primitive mesenchymal stem cells (human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs)), which have the potential for transplantation-based treatments of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Our pervious study indicated that adenovirus-associated virus-mediated intrastriatal delivery of human vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF 165) conferred molecular protection to the dopaminergic system. As both VEGF and HUMSCs displayed limited neuroprotection, in this study we investigated whether HUMSCs combined with VEGF expression could offer enhanced neuroprotection. HUMSCs were modified by adenovirus-mediated VEGF gene transfer, and subsequently transplanted into rotenone-lesioned striatum of hemiparkinsonian rats. As a result, HUMSCs differentiated into dopaminergic neuron-like cells on the basis of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) (neuronal marker), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) (astrocyte marker), nestin (neural stem cell marker) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) (dopaminergic marker) expression. Further, VEGF expression significantly enhanced the dopaminergic differentiation of HUMSCs in vivo. HUMSC transplantation ameliorated apomorphine-evoked rotations and reduced the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the lesioned substantia nigra (SNc), which was enhanced significantly by VEGF expression in HUMSCs. These findings present the suitability of HUMSC as a vector for gene therapy and suggest that stem cell engineering with VEGF may improve the transplantation strategy for the treatment of PD.

Bispecific antibodies (bsAb) that target two independent epitopes or antigens have been extensively explored in translational and clinical studies since they were first developed in the 1960s. Many bsAbs are being tested in clinical trials for treating a variety of diseases, mostly cancer. Here, we provide an overview of various types of bsAbs in clinical studies and discuss their targets, safety profiles, and efficacy. We also highlight the current challenges, potential solutions, and future directions of bsAb development for cancer treatment.

Based on spin-polarized DFT calculations, we have studied the interaction mechanism of recently synthesized blue phosphorene (BlueP) monolayers towards selected key volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as acetone, ethanol and propanal. Our binding energy analysis shows that pristine BlueP weakly binds the VOCs and that this binding does not appreciably change the electronic properties of the monolayer -a prerequisite for any sensing material. However, mono, di, and tri-vacancy defects and Si/Ssubstitutional doping significantly enhance the binding energies with VOCs. Density of state (DOS) calculations show that upon adsorption of VOCs, mono-vacancy and Ssubstituted BlueP monolayers undergo a major change in electronic structure, which make them potential candidates for VOCs sensing materials. By contrast, binding of VOCs to di-and tri-vacancy and Si-substitution sites does alter the electronic structure of BlueP monolayers drastically, therefore, are not qualified for VOCs sensing applications.