My Nonprofit Reviews

The Cancer Research Institute plays a very important role to support the work of scientists who have original ideas of cancer immunotherapy, which are promising, but not yet proven enough for obtaining financial support from commercial groups. In our laboratory we had the idea of localizing on tumor cells, with specific monoclonal antibodies, molecules, such as Major Histocompatibility Complexe (MHC), loaded with viral peptides, which can activate the T lymphocytes to attack the target tumor cells. Thank to a 3 years support provided by CRI, a senior post doc in our group, Dr Alena Donda, we were able to make the first demonstration of this therapeutic strategy in experimental animals (Donda et al. Cancer Immunity 2003). Furthermore, Dr Donda demonstrated that an MHC like molecules, called CD1d, loaded with a glycolipid ligand, called alphaGalCer, also targeted to the tumor cells by monoclonal antibodies, was capable to specifically inhibit tumor growth in vivo (Donda et al. J. Clin. Invest. 2008) and to give a sustained activation of the Natural Killer Cells known to be important in the innate immunity. Later this project was sponsored by industry, and may become a clinically useful form of cancer therapy; but the role of CRI in the initiation of this project was essential.

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