Immune evasion and metabolic reprogramming are two fundamental hallmarks of cancer. Interestingly, lactate closely links them together. However, lactate has long been recognized as a metabolic waste product. Lactate and the acidification of the tumor microenvironment (TME) promote key carcinogenesis processes, including angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis, and immune escape. Notably, histone lysine lactylation (Kla) was identified as a novel post-modification (PTM), providing a new perspective on the mechanism by which lactate functions and providing a promising and potential therapy for tumors target. Further studies have confirmed that protein lactylation is essential for lactate to function; it involves important life activities such as glycolysis-related cell functions and macrophage polarization. This review systematically elucidates the role of lactate as an immunosuppressive molecule from the aspects of lactate metabolism and the effects of histone lysine or non-histone lactylation on immune cells; it provides new ideas for further understanding protein lactylation in elucidating lactate regulation of cell metabolism and immune function. We explored the possibility of targeting potential targets in lactate metabolism for cancer treatment. Finally, it is promising to propose a combined strategy inhibiting the glycolytic pathway and immunotherapy.

This study aimed to explore the changes of the vaginal microbiota and enzymes in the women with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and cervical lesions. A total of 448 participants were carried out HPV genotyping, cytology tests, and microecology tests, and 28 participants were treated as sub-samples, in which vaginal samples were characterized by sequencing the bacterial 16S V4 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene region. The study found the prevalence of HR-HPV was higher in patients with BV (P = 0.036). The HR-HPV infection rate was 72.73% in G. vaginalis women, which was significantly higher than that of women with lactobacillus as the dominant microbiota (44.72%) (P = 0.04). The positive rate of sialidase (SNA) was higher in women with HR-HPV infection (P = 0.004) and women diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) (P = 0.041). In HPV (+) women, the α-diversity was significantly higher than that in HPV (−) women. The 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing results showed that Lactobacillus was the dominant bacteria in the normal vaginal microbiota. However, the proportion of Gardnerella and Prevotella were markedly increased in HPV (+) patients. Gardnerella and Prevotella are the most high-risk combination for the development of HPV (+) women. The SNA secreted by Gardnerella and Prevotella may play a significant role in HPV infection progress to cervical lesions.