Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

Effects Of Gm-Csf On Dendritic Cells And Regulatory T Cells In Parkinson’S Disease Patients And Models Of Parkinson’S Disease, Charles Schutt

Theses & Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. Pathologically, loss of nigrostriatal neurons and dopamine released by these neurons are responsible for PD motor symptoms. During PD, activation of resident microglia and infiltrating lymphocytes leads to progressive neuroinflammation and reduction in the number and function of regulatory immune cells. Neuroinflammation contributes to progressive neurodegeneration and declining motor function. Reducing neuroinflammation is the target for novel PD therapeutics. Our goal is to increase the number and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in PD patients to decrease neuroinflammation and reduce PD symptoms. One potential therapy is granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating …

Defining The Role Of Neuropilin-2 In Macrophages: Implications In Tumor Associated Macrophages In Pancreatic Cancer, Sohini Roy

Theses & Dissertations

Macrophages are extremely heterogeneous and highly plastic hematopoietic cells that reside in all tissues and act as a bridge between the innate and adaptive arms of the immune responses. Besides, they undertake a wide array of housekeeping functions like, clearance of cellular debris that arise due to regular turnover in tissues, iron homeostasis, immune surveillance as well as tissue repair processes post inflammation. They are also causally associated with several clinical conditions, including cancer where the infiltration of macrophages contribute to disease progression, metastasis and therapy resistance, and thereby poor clinical outcome.

Neuropilins (NRPs) are non-tyrosine kinase cell surface glycoproteins …

Redirection Of The Immune Response To Staphylococcus Aureus Biofilm Infection, Anna G. Staudacher

Theses & Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a leading cause of community- and healthcare-associated infections and has a propensity to form biofilms. Biofilm infections are recalcitrant to host immune-mediated clearance as well as antibiotics, making them exceptionally difficult to eradicate. The biofilm environment has been shown to skew the host immune response towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype, characterized by alternatively activated macrophages, recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), and minimal neutrophil and T cell infiltrates. Our laboratory has attempted to redirect the host immune response towards one that would favor bacterial clearance by employing strategies to augment pro-inflammatory mechanisms. One such …

Development Of C5ar-Targeted Nanoparticles For Delivery Of Vaccines, Shailendra Bharadwaj Tallapaka Venkata Sesha

Theses & Dissertations

Since the early attempts of Benjamin Jesty at inducing immunity against smallpox and the pioneering work of Edward Jenner, vaccination has been, and continues to remain, the principal method of protection from diseases. However, most of the successful vaccines have been against pathogens that do not have major mechanisms to evade the immune system. So far, many life-threatening diseases like hepatitis C, HIV infection, malaria etc., have been resistant to existing vaccination strategies. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new vaccination strategies that can generate long-lived protective immunity against such pathogens.

The purpose of this thesis is to …

Requirement Of Ehd Family Of Endocytic Recycling Regulators For T-Cell Functions, Fany M. Iseka

Theses & Dissertations

T-cells use the endocytic pathway for key cell biological functions, including receptor turn-over and maintenance of the immunological synapse. Some of the established players include the Rab GTPases, SNARE complex proteins, and others which in non-T-cell systems function together with Eps15 Homology Domain-containing (EHD) proteins. To date, the role of the EHD protein family in T-cell function remains unexplored. We generated conditional EHD1/3/4 knockout mice using CD4-Cre and crossed these with mice bearing a myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-specific TCR transgene. We found that CD4⁺ T-cells from these mice exhibited a reduced antigen-driven cell proliferation and IL-2 secretion in vitro. …