Publications by authors named "M N Theodoraki"
Failure of immunotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients represents an unmet need to augment leverage of adaptive immunity. Immunogenic cancer-testis antigen (CTA) expression as well as lymphocyte differentiation and function are regulated by DNA methylation. Therefore, epigenetic therapy via inhibition of DNA-Methyltransferases by 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC) serves a promising adjuvant in immunotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStress-inducible heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70), which functions as a molecular chaperone and is frequently overexpressed in different cancer cell types, is present on the cell surface of tumor cells and is actively released into the circulation in free and extracellular lipid vesicle-associated forms. Since the exact pathomechanism of endometriosis has not yet been elucidated (although it has been associated with the development of endometrial and ovarian cancer), we asked whether extracellular Hsp70 and circulating endometriotic cells (CECs) reflect the presence and development of endometriosis. Therefore, circulating levels of free and lipid microvesicle-associated Hsp70 were measured using the Hsp70-exo ELISA, and the presence of circulating CECs in the peripheral blood of patients with endometriosis was determined using membrane Hsp70 (mHsp70) and EpCAM monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based bead isolation approaches.
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- Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) is a genetic disorder that causes frequent bleeding in various organs, and diagnosing it can be challenging; researchers investigated exosomes (tiny vesicles) as potential biomarkers for HHT.
- The study involved analyzing exosomes isolated from the blood of 20 HHT patients and 17 healthy donors, focusing on their protein composition and functional effects on human cells; specific proteins like Thrombospondin-1 were found to be significantly higher in HHT patients' exosomes.
- Findings suggest that exosomal proteins, particularly Thrombospondin-1 and soluble Endoglin (sENG), could serve as biomarkers for HHT, offering a promising new
Article Synopsis
- Feto-maternal microchimerism refers to the exchange of cells between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy, impacting health for both parties even into later life.
- The effects of these transferred cells can be harmful for the mother—linked to complications like pre-eclampsia and autoimmune diseases—but may also have beneficial roles in tissue healing and disease recovery.
- Research is limited on how maternal microchimeric cells could contribute to autoimmune conditions in the child, particularly conditions like Type 1 diabetes and neonatal lupus, where these cells might either harm or assist in the immune response.
Background: Exosomes are closely associated with different aspects of tumor-progression in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), such as angiogenesis or immune regulation. As extracellular vesicles they are involved in the intercellular communication by transferring their cargo such as proteins and nucleic acids from one cell to another. However, the influence of tumor related plasma-derived exosomes on the polarization and characteristics of monocyte derived macrophages is not fully understood.
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