Publications by authors named "Esther M Lafuente"

Article Synopsis
  • Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a significant role in the tumor microenvironment of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and primarily originate from circulating monocytes that differentiate locally.
  • Research showed that cell culture media from OSCC cell lines, H413 and TR146, encourages monocytes to become M2 macrophages, which are characterized by high CD163 and CD206 expression and low levels of activation markers.
  • Additionally, the study identified specific soluble proteins in the media that promote this differentiation and linked it to an immunosuppressive profile that hinders T cell activation, shedding light on how OSCCs support tumor growth by altering immune cell behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bacteria are well known to provide heterologous immunity against viral infections through various mechanisms including the induction of innate trained immunity and adaptive cross-reactive immunity. Cross-reactive immunity from bacteria to viruses is responsible for long-term protection and yet its role has been downplayed due the difficulty of determining antigen-specific responses. Here, we carried out a systematic evaluation of the potential cross-reactive immunity from selected bacteria known to induce heterologous immunity against various viruses causing recurrent respiratory infections.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

EPIPOX is a specialized online resource intended to facilitate the design of epitope-based vaccines against orthopoxviruses. EPIPOX is built upon a collection of T cell epitopes that are shared by eight pathogenic orthopoxviruses, including variola minor and major strains, monkeypox, cowpox, and vaccinia viruses. In EPIPOX, users can select T cell epitopes attending to the predicted binding to distinct major histocompatibility molecules (MHC) and according to various features that may have an impact on epitope immunogenicity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) control immune responses and are essential to maintain immune homeostasis and self-tolerance. Hence, it is no coincidence that autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorders are associated with defects in Tregs. These diseases have currently no cure and are treated with palliative drugs such as immunosuppressant and immunomodulatory agents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Activation of the integrin phagocytic receptors CR3 (αβ, CD11b/CD18) and CR4 (αβ, CD11c/CD18) requires Rap1 activation and RIAM function. RIAM controls integrin activation by recruiting Talin to β subunits, enabling the Talin-Vinculin interaction, which in term bridges integrins to the actin-cytoskeleton. RIAM also recruits VASP to phagocytic cups and facilitates VASP phosphorylation and function promoting particle internalization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The oral mucosa constantly encounters various stimuli that require specific immune responses, and previous research showed that oral epithelial cells (OECs) can suppress immune activity against bacteria.
  • In this study, the researchers further investigated how these OECs inhibit T cell activation and discovered that this suppression is not related to Treg polarization and occurs at the genetic level.
  • OECs perform their immunosuppressive function effectively but can be disrupted by conditions such as viral mimicry or the blocking of specific pathways, indicating their role in maintaining oral immune balance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The oral mucosa plays a crucial role in the immune system, acting as a defense against harmful pathogens while also interacting with various harmless substances like food and beneficial bacteria.
  • - Understanding how the oral mucosa maintains immune tolerance—especially through dendritic and regulatory T cells—remains a complex area of study, with ongoing research defining these mechanisms.
  • - The contribution of epithelial cells in the oral mucosa is significant, as they help modulate both innate and adaptive immunity, highlighting the interconnected nature of immune tolerance mechanisms in this region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prediction of linear B cell epitopes is of interest for the production of antigen-specific antibodies and the design of peptide-based vaccines. Here, we present BCEPS, a web server for predicting linear B cell epitopes tailored to select epitopes that are immunogenic and capable of inducing cross-reactive antibodies with native antigens. BCEPS implements various machine learning models trained on a dataset including 555 linearized conformational B cell epitopes that were mined from antibody-antigen protein structures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Leukocytes are key components of the immune system and play roles in both innate and adaptive immune responses, needing integrin activation for functions like cell adhesion and T cell activation.
  • The Rap1/RIAM pathway is essential for inside-out integrin signaling in hematopoietic cells, facilitating activation, actin remodeling, and cytoskeletal changes.
  • RIAM is crucial for processes like phagocytosis, which involves particle recognition and the ability to engulf and digest material, highlighting its importance in immune cell function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Approximately 25% of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients develop peritoneal metastasis, a condition associated with a bleak prognosis. The CRC peritoneal dissemination cascade involves the shedding of cancer cells from the primary tumor, their transport through the peritoneal cavity, their adhesion to the peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) that line all peritoneal organs, and invasion of cancer cells through this mesothelial cell barrier and underlying stroma to establish new metastatic foci. Exosomes produced by cancer cells have been shown to influence many processes related to cancer progression and metastasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human rhinovirus (RV) is the most common cause of upper respiratory infections and exacerbations of asthma. In this work, we selected 14 peptides (6 from RV A and 8 from RV C) encompassing potential CD4 T cell epitopes. Peptides were selected for being highly conserved in RV A and C serotypes and predicted to bind to multiple human leukocyte antigen class II (HLA II) molecules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: We previously introduced PCPS (Proteasome Cleavage Prediction Server), a web-based tool to predict proteasome cleavage sites using n-grams. Here, we evaluated the ability of PCPS immunoproteasome cleavage model to discriminate CD8 T cell epitopes.

Results: We first assembled an epitope dataset consisting of 844 unique virus-specific CD8 T cell epitopes and their source proteins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Human Rhinovirus (HRV) is a leading cause of common cold and worsens conditions like asthma, yet specific CD8 T cell responses that help control the virus are not well understood.
  • Researchers identified 9 HRV-specific CD8 T cell epitopes from the most common HRV subtypes (A and C) in patients with respiratory diseases, showing that these epitopes can activate CD8 T cells and trigger immune responses.
  • One unique finding was a 16-mer epitope peptide (HRVC) that can also elicit responses, suggesting these epitopes could play a crucial role in developing a future vaccine against HRV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Integrins are adhesion receptors that mediate many intercellular and cell-extracellular matrix interactions with relevance in physiology and pathology. Unlike other cellular receptors, integrins critically require activation for ligand binding. Through interaction in cis with other molecules and the formation of tetraspanin-enriched membrane microdomains (TEMs), the tetraspanin CD9 regulates integrin activity and avidity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phagocytic integrins are endowed with the ability to engulf and dispose of particles of different natures. Evolutionarily conserved from worms to humans, they are involved in pathogen elimination and apoptotic and tumoral cell clearance. Research in the field of integrin-mediated phagocytosis has shed light on the molecular events controlling integrin activation and their effector functions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The phagocytic integrins and complement receptors αβ/CR3 and αβ/CR4 are classically associated with the phagocytosis of iC3b-opsonized particles. The activation of this receptor is dependent on signals derived from other receptors (inside-out signaling) with the crucial involvement of the Rap1-RIAM-Talin-1 pathway. Here, we analyze the implication of RIAM and its binding partner VASP in the signaling events occurring downstream of β integrins (outside-in) during complement-mediated phagocytosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

After publication of the original article [1], we were notified that legends of Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 have been swapped.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus affecting approximately 90% of the world population. HCMV causes disease in immunologically naive and immunosuppressed patients. The prevention, diagnosis and therapy of HCMV infection are thus crucial to public health.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The oral mucosa acts as a defense against pathogens while tolerating food antigens and resident bacteria, with oral epithelial cells (OECs) playing a crucial yet understudied role in regulating immune responses.
  • - The study investigated two human OEC lines and primary OECs, showing that OECs can modulate the immune response by affecting dendritic cell (DC) maturation and cytokine release when co-cultured with bacteria.
  • - OECs hinder T cell activation, causing a reduction in key markers and cytokines, and this inhibition is dependent on direct cell contact, indicating that OECs might help prevent excessive immune reactions to normal bacteria in the mouth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epstein-Barr virus is a very common human virus that infects 90% of human adults. EBV replicates in epithelial and B cells and causes infectious mononucleosis. EBV infection is also linked to various cancers, including Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinomas, and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lymphocyte activation requires adhesion to antigen-presenting cells. This is a critical event linking innate and adaptive immunity. Lymphocyte adhesion is accomplished through LFA-1, which must be activated by a process referred to as inside-out integrin signaling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Concerns that variola viruses might be used as bioweapons have renewed the interest in developing new and safer smallpox vaccines. Variola virus genomes are now widely available, allowing computational characterization of the entire T-cell epitome and the use of such information to develop safe and yet effective vaccines. To this end, we identified 124 proteins shared between various species of pathogenic orthopoxviruses including variola minor and major, monkeypox, cowpox, and vaccinia viruses, and we targeted them for T-cell epitope prediction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Peptide binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules is the most selective requisite for T-cell recognition. Therefore, prediction of peptide-MHC binding is the main basis for anticipating T-cell epitopes. A very popular and accurate method to predict peptide-MHC binding is based on motif-profiles and here we show how to make them using EPIMHC (http://imed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF