Blocking Short-Form Ron Eliminates Breast Cancer Metastases through Accumulation of Stem-Like CD4+ T Cells That Subvert Immunosuppression.

Unlabelled: Immunotherapy has potential to prevent and treat metastatic breast cancer, but strategies to enhance immune-mediated killing of metastatic tumors are urgently needed. We report that a ligand-independent isoform of Ron kinase (SF-Ron) is a key target to enhance immune infiltration and eradicate metastatic tumors. Host-specific deletion of SF-Ron caused recruitment of lymphocytes to micrometastases, augmented tumor-specific T-cell responses, and nearly eliminated breast cancer metastasis in mice.

A pipeline for identification and validation of tumor-specific antigens in a mouse model of metastatic breast cancer.

Cancer immunotherapy continues to make headway as a treatment for advanced stage tumors, revealing an urgent need to understand the fundamentals of anti-tumor immune responses. Noteworthy is a scarcity of data pertaining to the breadth and specificity of tumor-specific T cell responses in metastatic breast cancer. Autochthonous transgenic models of breast cancer display spontaneous metastasis in the FVB/NJ mouse strain, yet a lack of knowledge regarding tumor-bound MHC/peptide immune epitopes in this mouse model limits the characterization of tumor-specific T cell responses, and the mechanisms that regulate T cell responses in the metastatic setting.

Inhibition of RON kinase potentiates anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy to shrink breast tumors and prevent metastatic outgrowth.

The advent of immune checkpoint blockade as a new strategy for immunotherapy has changed the outlook for many aggressive cancers. Although complete tumor eradication is attainable in some cases, durable clinical responses are observed only in a small fraction of patients, underlining urgent need for improvement. We previously showed that RON, a receptor tyrosine kinase expressed in macrophages, suppresses antitumor immune responses, and facilitates progression and metastasis of breast cancer.

Peering into the 'black box' of pathogen recognition by cellular autophagy systems.

Autophagy is an intracellular process that plays an important role in protecting eukaryotic cells and maintaining intracellular homeostasis. Pathogens, including bacteria and viruses, that enter cells can signal induction of selective autophagy resulting in degradation of the pathogen in the autolysosome. Under such circumstances, the specific recognition and targeting of the invading pathogen becomes a crucial step for the subsequent initiation of selective autophagosome formation.

Burkholderia pseudomallei type III secretion system cluster 3 ATPase BsaS, a chemotherapeutic target for small-molecule ATPase inhibitors.

Melioidosis is an infectious disease of high mortality for humans and other animal species; it is prevalent in tropical regions worldwide. The pathogenesis of melioidosis depends on the ability of its causative agent, the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, to enter and survive in host cells. B.

Autophagy and burkholderia.

Autophagy has become increasingly viewed as an important component of the eukaryotic innate immune system. The elimination of intracellular pathogens by autophagy in mammalian cells (xenophagy) results not only in the degradation of invading bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, but also liberation of metabolites that may have been utilized during pathogen infection, thus promoting cell survival. After gaining entry into the cell, intracellular bacterial pathogens attempt to escape from phagosomes (or endosomes) into the cytosol where they endeavour to continue the infection cycle unhindered by host cell protective mechanisms.

Evolutionary analysis of Burkholderia pseudomallei identifies putative novel virulence genes, including a microbial regulator of host cell autophagy.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, contains a large pathogen genome (7.2 Mb) with ∼2,000 genes of putative or unknown function. Interactions with potential hosts and environmental factors may induce rapid adaptations in these B.

LC3-Associated Phagocytosis (LAP): Connections with Host Autophagy.

Autophagy is an intracellular degradative process with a number of roles, one of which can be the protection of eukaryotic cells from invading microbes. Microtubule-associated protein light-chain 3 (LC3) is a key autophagy-related protein that is recruited to the double-membrane autophagosome responsible for sequestering material intended for delivery to lysosomes. GFP-LC3 is widely used as a marker of autophagosome formation as denoted by the formation of green puncta when viewed by fluorescence microscopy.

Microporation is a valuable transfection method for gene expression in human adipose tissue-derived stem cells.

Stem cells are a promising resource for gene therapy. Adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) offer advantages because of their abundance and ease of isolation. However, it is difficult to transduce genes into ADSCs by common transfection methods, especially nonviral methods.