Day 1 :
- Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy
Location: Webinar
Session Introduction
Assel Issabekova
National Center for Biotechnology, Kazakhstan
Title: In vitro study of the immunostimulating potential of dendritic vaccines and the cytotoxic activity of human CIK cells
Biography:
Assel Issabekova has completed her PhD at the age of 27 years from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She is the senior researcher of National Center For Biotechnology. She has published more than 3 papers in reputed journals.
Abstract:
Adoptive cell therapy is the promising strategy in cancer immunotherapy. We studied the effect of human dendritic cells (DCs) treated with antigens of the colorectal tumor cell line SW-620 on the cytotoxic activity of human cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells. Immunogenic apoptotic cells, lysates and total RNAs of tumor were obtained by various methods, including the exposure of SW-620 to various chemotherapy drugs (staurosporine, oxaliplatin, mitoxantrone, 5-fluorouracil). All tumor cells were preliminarily subjected to heat shock. Effect of DC was investigated on ex vivo expanded CD56+ CIK cells of whole blood or blood mononuclear cells. Antigen-loaded DCs were cultured with CD56+ CIK cells at a 10:1 ratio for 48 hours. Cytotoxicity was assessed by MTT-assay using SW-620 cells as targets. In accordance with results the highest lytic activity was found in the group with CIK cells of total blood activated by Mo-DC, loaded with oxaliplatin, staurosporine -induced apoptotic tumor cells, total tumor RNA, and tumor lysates. Comparison of the activation potential of T-lymphocytes revealed that CIK cells of whole blood have a higher cytotoxicity compared to CIK cells of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Additional stimulation of DC maturation by TNF-α enhances the cytotoxic activity of CIK cell.
Supported by a grant AP05135467 "Development of production technology of dendritic vaccines and cytokine-induced killer cells for combination therapy in colorectal cancer" from the MES RK.
Arta Fejzullahu
Marmara University, Turkey
Title: Bcl-3 gene expression in metastatic breast cancer patients
Biography:
Arta Fejzullahu graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2008 and earned her master's degree on Molecular Biology & Genetics and Biotechnology Program from the same university. She continues her doctoral studies at Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Biology & Genetics and has been a lecturer at Istanbul Aydin University since 2014. Her main research areas are metastatic breast cancer, pharmacogenomic and epigenetic biomarkers.
Abstract:
Bcl-3 is a proto-oncogene candidate that plays a critical role in the regulation of transcription activation of NF-kB target genes. Studies demostrate that Bcl-3 is involved in metastasis formation. In this line, our study aims to delineate the expression level of Bcl-3 gene and its interacting partners (TGF-β1 and SMAD3) in metastatic breast cancer patients.
25 metastatic breast cancer patients and 25 healthy control donors were included in the study. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee (No: 09.2019.204) and supported by Marmara University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit under grant number SAG-C-DRP-120619-0222. 45% of metastatic patients were de novo metastatic and were receiving chemotherapy. Expression profile of target genes was detected by qPCR technique. To evaluate the results of expression levels the SPSS program was performed. Difference was considered statistical significant at p < .05.
Bcl-3 expression level was found significantly downregulated in metastatic breast cancer patients compared to the expression level of healthy controls (p = .000). On the other hand, neither TGF-β1 nor SMAD3 expression showed statistical difference between two groups (p = .276 and p = .259, respectively).
In this study, downregulated expression of Bcl-3 gene may present an important clinical biomarker for early detection of metastasis. Furthermore, because our patients were already receiving chemotherapy, we think that chemotherapy might affect the expression level of Bcl-3. Consequently, further studies in large scale are needed to understand the exact role of Bcl-3 together with other interactive partners in breast cancer metastasis detection.
He Li
National Cancer Center/ National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, China
Title: An initial screening strategy based on epidemiological information in the esophageal cancer screening: A prospective evaluation in a community-based cancer screening cohort in rural China
Biography:
He Li, studying in the office of cancer screening in National Cancer center/Cancer Hospital of Peking Union Medical College. She became a graduate in 2017, majoring in epidemiology and biostatistics, She have been a research assistant in several population-based multicentric screening and clinical researches, participating in the routine research management and quality control under the supervision and help of Professor Wanqing Chen, the director of Office of Cancer Screening in National Cancer center of China.
Abstract:
Background and Aims:
In China, regional organized esophageal cancer screening programs have been implemented since 2005; however, the implementation of these screening programs is still an overwhelming undertaking, especially for identifying high-risk population. This study aimed to evaluate the risk stratification potential of the current initial assessment strategy used in a mass esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) screening program in China. Materials: A total of 43,875 participants without prior cancer history enrolled in a mass ESCC screening program in China from 2007 to 2010 who had initial assessment results were included in this study and were followed until December 31, 2015. Eight potential risk factors for ESCC composed the initial assessment strategy. A comprehensive evaluation of the association of the initial assessment results with ESCC risk was performed by propensity score matching and Cox regression analysis. Results: During a median 5.5 years of follow-up, 272 individuals developed ESCC. Participants with a positive baseline assessment result had a higher risk of ESCC than those with a negative result, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 3.30 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.51-4.33) after adjustment for sex, age, education level, income level, and body mass index. Additionally, the initial assessment results were significantly associated with the risk of all esophageal cancers (HR=3.30, 95% CI: 2.51-4.33) and upper gastrointestinal cancers (HR=3.42, 95% CI: 2.37-4.95). Conclusions: Positive assessment results in the current initial screening strategy in the mass esophageal cancer screening program in China are associated with an increased incidence of major upper gastrointestinal cancers.