Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Determining The Role Of Dendritic Cells During Response To Treatment With Paclitaxel/Anti-Tim-3, Alycia Gardner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intratumoral CD103+ dendritic cells (cDC1) are required for anti-tumor immune responses. In tumors that are poorly responsive to immunotherapeutic approaches targeting T cells, targeting cDC1 represents an alternative approach that may be useful in improving patient response rates. As such, it is critical to understand cDC1 function within tumors, and what may be preventing optimal function of cDC1. TIM-3 is a receptor that is highly expressed by cDC1 in murine and human mammary tumors, and TIM-3 blocking antibodies are currently being evaluated in clinical trials for a number of solid and hematological malignancies. In order to best design combinatorial therapeutic …

Therapeutic Peptide-Based Vaccination Strategies Against Hpv-Induced Cancers, Kelly Barrios Marrugo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an urgent need for the development of an effective therapeutic vaccine against cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). We focused on HPV-induced malignancies because of their high worldwide prevalence (e.g., cervical carcinoma and head & neck cancer). A successful therapeutic vaccine could prevent the 250 000 deaths/year worldwide and the 2.25 billion dollars that

are expended in related care in the US.

We used an HPV-induced mouse cancer model to test vaccines

composed of a CD8 T cell peptide epitope administered with potent adjuvants designed to generate vast numbers of high avidity cytotoxic T lymphocytes specific for …