Molecular Biology Commons^™

Muc4 Based Immunotherapy For Pancreatic Cancer, Kasturi Banerjee

Theses & Dissertations

Pancreatic Cancer (PC) is a lethal disease claiming approximately 45000 lives in the US in 2018, and it establishes an elaborate immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that aids in disease pathogenesis. Immunotherapy has emerged as a strategy to target tumor cells by reprogramming patient’s immune system. Challenges present in PC immunotherapy are: i) identifying a tumor-associated antigen that could be targeted, ii) identifying adjuvants that could efficiently deliver antigens, iii) eliciting robust anti-tumor responses and iv) overcoming peripheral tolerance and immunosuppression elicited by the tumor.

Firstly, we detected circulating autoantibodies to MUC4 present in PC patients and observed that IgM autoantibodies to …

Interferon Gamma (Ifn-Gamma) Is Necessary For The Genesis Of Acetylcholine Receptor-Induced Clinical Experimental Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis In Mice., Balaji Balasa, Caishu Deng, Jae Lee, Linda M. Bradley, Dyanna K. Dalton, Premkumar Christadoss, Nora Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Regenerative Medicine

Experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) is an animal model of human myasthenia gravis (MG). In mice, EAMG is induced by immunization with Torpedo californica acetylcholine receptor (AChR) in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). However, the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of EAMG is not clear. Because EAMG is an antibody-mediated disease, it is of the prevailing notion that Th2 but not Th1 cytokines play a role in the pathogenesis of this disease. To test the hypothesis that the Th1 cytokine, interferon (IFN)-gamma, plays a role in the development of EAMG, we immunized IFN-gamma knockout (IFN-gko) (-/-) mice and wild-type (WT) …