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1615 Poydras Street - Suite 1000
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 Yan Cui, PhD
Louisiana State University Health Sciences – New Orleans Areas of Research: Cancer Immunotherapy The mayor focus and long-term goal of our research is to develop innovative approaches for cancer treatment through active immunotherapy. This relies on enhancing and sustaining the activity of tumor-recognizing immune effector cells. Dendritic cells (DC) are the most potent immune regulators in mediating antigen specific T-cell activation. A new strategy using engineered hematopoeitic stem cells modified to carry a tumor antigen gene was developed to further enhance their ability in augmenting anti-tumor immunity. This is based on the superior ability of activated tumor antigen-presenting DCs from engineered stem cells to sustain immune activation. This approach has demonstrated significant improvement in the survival of mice bearing established hematological malignancies, as well as pulmonary metastases of renal cell carcinoma. This is mediated by augmented activation of effector T-cells and enhaced recruitment of these functional effectors to tumor sites. It has been demonstrated that IL-7 signaling pathway is critical for immune T- & B-cell development, as well as the survival and proliferation of memory T-cells. More, importantly, long-term naive and memory T-cells all express high levels of IL-7 receptor. However, upon activation, IL-7 receptor numbers on the T-cell surface are greatly down-regulated, which might contribute to the observed activation-induced T-cell death that results in the loss of over 90% activated effector T-cells. Therefore, engineering of effector T-cells to provide constitutive expression of IL-7 receptors on their surface may prevent activation-induced cell death and thus prolong cell survival and activity, thereby augmenting anti-tumor immunity. This approach will further enhance therapeutic efficacy for tumor treatment in combination with the above mentioned engineered hematopoeitic stem cell strategy. Selected Publications Zhao P, Liu W and Cui Y. Improvement in early dendritic cell engraftment and immune reconstitution post-bone marrow transplantation with heterogeneous progenitors and GM-CSF treatment. Experimental Hematology, (2006) 34(7): 951-64. Chen, K., Chen, L., Zhao, P., Marrero, L., Keoshkerian, E., Ramsay,
A.L., and Cui, Y. Flourolysometric determination
of cell-mediated cytotoxicity using Green Fluorescent Protein and
Red Fluorescent Protein expressing target cells. Journal of
Immunological Methods, (2005) 300 (1-2): 100-114 |
