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Immunology and Infectious Disease

The Texas Medical Center Library

Theses/Dissertations

Breast cancer

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Assessing The Outcomes Of Blocking Ccl2-Ccr2 Signaling Axis On Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis, Yutao Qi May 2021

Assessing The Outcomes Of Blocking Ccl2-Ccr2 Signaling Axis On Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis, Yutao Qi

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Breast cancer brain metastases have remained one of the most intense challenges for precision cancer therapeutics, but current treatment options are limited and not curative. Recently, our lab reported that adoptive PTEN downregulation in metastatic breast tumor cells activates PI3K/NF-ƙB signaling and increases the secretion of the chemokine CCL2, which enhances the chemotaxis of CCR2+ myeloid cells, a major subpopulation of bone marrow-derived myeloid cells (BMDMs), from peripheral blood into the brain tumor microenvironment (TME), eventually promoting brain metastasis outgrowth by driving immune suppression. Here, in this project we have been aiming to develop effective therapies by immune-modulating the …


Rerouting Pre-Existing Host Vaccine-Induced Immunity Towards Breast Cancer, Bharat Kumar Reddy Chaganty May 2016

Rerouting Pre-Existing Host Vaccine-Induced Immunity Towards Breast Cancer, Bharat Kumar Reddy Chaganty

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

For decades, investigators have attempted to activate the immune system to prevent cancer metastasis or recurrence; however, owing to host immune tolerance to cancer antigens and the immunosuppressive environment at tumor sites, many such attempts have failed. The recent success of anti-CTLA4, PD-L1 and PD-1 antibodies targeting immune checkpoint pathways and HPV vaccines has renewed hope that patient survival can be increased through enhancing T-cell responses. We propose to test a novel approach that may bypass host immune tolerance to cancer cells. We hypothesize that host T-cell immunity acquired through vaccination against or natural infection with infectious diseases—e.g., influenza—can be …


Cellular Uptake Of Neutrohpil Elastase Links Inflammation To Adaptive Immunity, Elizabeth A. Mittendorf Dec 2012

Cellular Uptake Of Neutrohpil Elastase Links Inflammation To Adaptive Immunity, Elizabeth A. Mittendorf

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Many tumors arise from sites of inflammation providing evidence that innate immunity is a critical component in the development and progression of cancer. Neutrophils are primary mediators of the innate immune response. Upon activation, an important function of neutrophils is release of an assortment of proteins from their granules including the serine protease neutrophil elastase (NE). The effect of NE on cancer has been attributed primarily to its ability to degrade the extracellular matrix thereby promoting invasion and metastasis. Recently, it was shown that NE could be taken up by lung cancer cells leading to degradation of insulin receptor substrate-1 …