Publications by authors named "Beatrice Macino"

Clinical and genetic understanding of chromaffin tumors has been greatly enhanced in the last few years. Although some pheochromocytoma genes may still be unknown, the role of RET, VHL, SDHB, SDHD and NF1 genes is unequivocal and phenotypes are also being better characterized. The loss of function of VHL and NF1 genes can lead to a variety of tumors including phechromocytoma and their mechanism of action is under intensive investigation.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explores the effects of peritumoral CpG-oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) treatment on activating tumor-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes in mice with a weakly immunogenic B16 melanoma, using TRP-2 as a tracking antigen for the immune response.
  • - Although CpG-ODN treatment increased IFN-gamma production in TRP-2 specific T lymphocytes, it did not significantly change their number, and these activated T cells offered only marginal protection against tumor rechallenge, indicating limited effectiveness in controlling tumor growth.
  • - The findings suggest that while CpG treatment can activate antitumor T cells, simply stimulating these cells may not be enough for a successful clinical outcome, as
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Endogenous retrovirus (ERV) products are recognized by T lymphocytes in mice and humans. As these Ags are preferentially expressed by neoplastic tissues, they might represent an ideal target for active immunization by genetic vaccination. However, i.

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The weakly immunogenic murine P1A Ag is a useful experimental model for the development of new vaccination strategies that could potentially be used against human tumors. An i.m.

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The TS/A mouse mammary adenocarcinoma is a poorly immunogenic tumor widely used in preclinical models of cancer immunotherapy. CTLs have often been indicated as important in TS/A tumor destruction, but their generation in this model has been rarely studied, nor have their precise target(s) been identified. We hypothesized that the gp70 Env product of an endogenous murine leukemia virus could be a target antigen for TS/A-specific CTLs and investigated this possibility in four different TS/A cell lines engineered with the genes that encode IFN-alpha, IFN-gamma, interleukin-4, and B7.

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It is widely accepted that the repertoire of Melan-A-specific T cells naturally selected in melanoma patients is diverse and mostly nonoverlapping among different individuals. To date, however, no studies have addressed the TCR profile in different tumor sites and the peripheral blood from the same patient. We compared the TCR usage of Melan-A-specific T cells from different compartments of a single melanoma patient to evaluate possible clonotype expansion or preferential homing over a 4-mo follow-up period.

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