Tumor progression is facilitated by regulatory T cells (Treg) and restricted by effector T cells. In this study, we document parallel regulation of CD8(+) T cells and Foxp3(+) Tregs by programmed death-1 (PD-1, PDCD1). In addition, we identify an additional role of CTL antigen-4 (CTLA-4) inhibitory receptor in further promoting dysfunction of CD8(+) T effector cells in tumor models (CT26 colon ...

BACKGROUND Radiation therapy is the most widely used treatment for cancer, but it causes the side effect of mucositis due to intestinal damage. We examined the protective effect of genistein in tumor-bearing mice after abdominal irradiation by evaluation of apoptosis and intestinal morphological changes. METHODS Mouse colon cancer CT26 cells were subcutaneously injected at the flank of BALB/c...

DESI2 (also known as PNAS-4) is a novel pro-apoptotic gene activated during the early response to DNA damage. We previously reported that overexpression of DESI2 induces S phase arrest and apoptosis by activating checkpoint kinases. The present study was designed to test whether combination of DESI2 and IP10 could improve the therapy efficacy in vitro and in vivo. The recombinant plasmid co-exp...

OBJECTIVES Several studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of various nanoparticles exposed to radiofrequency (RF) waves on cancerous tissues. In this study, a colon carcinoma tumor model was irradiated by RF in the presence of gold-gold sulfide (GGS) nanoshells. MATERIALS AND METHODS Synthesis and characterization of GGS nanoshells were initially performed. CT26 cells were su...

PURPOSE Targeted immunotherapy using dendritic cells (DCs) has been employed in numerous investigations aiming at combating neoplasms. We previously showed that copulsing of an antigen with a helper protein could considerably enhance antigen presenting capacity of ex vivo-generated DCs. In this study, we attempted to administer an effective treatment in a murine model of colon cancer with DCs p...

UNLABELLED Many solid tumors overexpress EphB4 receptor, a member of the ephrin receptor tyrosine kinase family. Noninvasive imaging of EphB4 could potentially increase early detection rates, monitor response to therapy directed against EphB4, and improve patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a novel (64)Cu-labeled peptide with high receptor binding affinity for PET of Eph...

Tumors engineered to express the costimulatory molecule B7-1 can elicit CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-dependent antitumor responses in immunocompetent mice. It has been postulated that this result reflects direct priming of CTL by the modified tumor in vivo. Previous studies of the immune response to a B7-1- murine colon carcinoma expressing influenza nucleoprotein (NP) as a model tumor ant...

We have previously generated antihuman HER2/neu-humanized IgG3 fused to interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-12, or granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) [monofunctional fusion proteins (mono-AbFP)] or fused to IL-2 and IL-12 or IL-12 and GM-CSF [bifunctional fusion proteins (bi-AbFP)]. These AbFPs retained cytokine and antigen-binding activities. We have now further characterized the A...

The induction of tumor-specific T-cell responses that are effective in eradicating disseminated tumors and in mounting a persistent tumor-protective immunity is one of the major goals of tumor immunotherapy. Here, we demonstrate that we achieved this goal by directing interleukin 2 (IL-2) to the tumor microenvironment of colon carcinoma metastases in syngeneic mice with a recombinant antibody-I...

Tumors survive and progress by evading killing mechanisms of the immune system, and by generating a tumor microenvironment (TME) that reprograms macrophages in situ to produce factors that support tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis. We have previously shown that by blocking the translation of the enzyme inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), miR-146a-5p inhibits nitric oxide (NO) produ...