Publications by authors named "A Raffo-Romero"

Article Synopsis
  • Cancer progression and treatment effectiveness are significantly affected by the interactions between tumor cells and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME).
  • The protocol outlined focuses on creating co-cultures of tumor organoids (tumoroids) with macrophages, which can either be semi-liquid or embedded in a Matrigel matrix.
  • The detailed steps include preparing macrophages, establishing the co-culture, and adjusting the medium to ensure cell viability and functionality, primarily aimed at breast cancer but adaptable to other tumors.
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Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell therapy has revolutionized cellular immunotherapy, demonstrating remarkable efficacy in hematological cancers. However, its application in solid tumors faces significant challenges, including limited T-cell infiltration and tumor-induced immunosuppression. Given the prominent role of macrophages in the tumor microenvironment, their phenotypic plasticity and inherent antitumor properties, such as phagocytosis, offer a promising avenue for therapeutic intervention.

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Article Synopsis
  • 3D tumoroids enhance cancer research by mimicking the diversity and complexity of actual tumors, allowing for better understanding of cancer development and treatment responses.
  • The study addresses the limitations of tumoroids by incorporating human macrophages, which are crucial for tumor progression, into three co-culture models to better simulate the tumor microenvironment.
  • Research findings reveal that macrophages affect molecular characteristics of tumoroids and their responses to chemotherapy, highlighting the need for more complex 3D models to accurately represent real-life tumor conditions.
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The dogma "One gene, one protein" is clearly obsolete since cells use alternative splicing and generate multiple transcripts which are translated into protein isoforms, but also use alternative translation initiation sites (TISs) and termination sites on a given transcript. Alternative open reading frames for individual transcripts give proteins originate from the 5'- and 3'-UTR mRNA regions, frameshifts of mRNA ORFs or from non-coding RNAs. Longtime considered as non-coding, recent in-silico translation prediction methods enriched the protein databases allowing the identification of new target structures that have not been identified previously.

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