Neuroimaging Clin N Am
February 2015
Despite comprehensive therapy, which includes surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme is very poor. Diagnosed individuals present an average of 12 to 18 months of life. This article provides an overview of the molecular genetics of these tumors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent reports have established an important role of CD4+CD25+ T cells in the immune regulation of infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and cancer. In the present work, we investigated whether these cells had a regulatory role during Trypanosoma cruzi infection, using the Colombian strain. Inactivation of CD4+CD25+ cells in vivo conferred mice slightly more resistant to infection with the Colombian strain of T.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVaccine-induced protection against leishmaniasis is largely dependent on cell-mediated type 1 response and IL-12-driven IFN-gamma production. Surprisingly, our previous data showed that IL-12/23p40(-/-) mice could be vaccinated against L. amazonensis and were able to produce limited amounts of IFN-gamma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses to endogenous retroviral envelope glycoprotein gp90 generate protective immunity to murine colon carcinoma CT26. A panel of I-A(d)-restricted T cell hybridomas recognize gp90 synthesized by CT26 cells but not by other gp90-expressing tumors. Here we report that antigenicity resides in an incompletely folded form of gp90 that is unique to CT26.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe apparent discrepancy between the intensity of inflammatory reaction and scarce number of parasites in chronic chagasic myocarditis prompt several investigators to hypothesize that an autoimmune process was involved in the pathogenesis of Chagas disease. Here, we recapitulate diverse molecular and cellular mechanisms of innate and acquired immunity involved in the control of parasite replication and in the build up of myocarditis observed during infection with Trypanosoma cruzi. In addition, we review the immunoregulatory mechanisms responsible for preventing excessive immune response elicited by this protozoan parasite.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCD25+ regulatory T cells comprise 5-10% of CD4+ T cells in naïve mice and have been shown in several in vivo murine models to prevent the induction of autoimmune disease and inflammatory disease. Since T cells, which mediate autoimmunity, can through recognition of self-antigens also target tumour cells, it was postulated that CD25+ regulatory cells would also inhibit the generation of immune responses to rumours. Depletion of these cells using CD25-specific monoclonal antibodies has indeed been shown to promote rejection of several transplantable murine tumour cell lines including melanoma, leukaemia and colorectal carcinoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough it is known that the immune system can mount responses to a variety of tumors it is clear that most tumors exhibit weak or even undetectable immunogenicity. Recent findings suggest that the lack of tumor immunogenicity is partly due to a population of cells called CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells since depletion of these cells in mice can result in tumor rejection. These cells have also been shown to inhibit the development of organ-specific autoimmune diseases suggesting that they inhibit immune responses to tissue-specific self-antigens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTumor cells express a range of antigens including self-antigens (those whose expression is shared by normal host tissue) and non-self antigens (such as those that arise as a result of mutations in normal cellular genes or in the case of some tumors, viral antigens). Immune responses to both types of antigen have been identified in human patients with cancer and in murine tumor models. In both cases, these responses are typically weak and generally fail to result in tumor rejection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudies were performed on humoral and cellular immune responses of patients from areas in Brazil endemic for hookworm and Ascaris lumbricoides, and either endemic or non-endemic for Schistosoma mansoni. Humoral and cellular responses were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation assays against larval hookworm antigens, A. lumbricoides egg antigens, and soluble egg antigens (SEA) or soluble whole adult antigenic preparation (SWAP) from S.
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