The chemokine system in experimental and clinical hematology. Preface

Immunoproteomics Methods and Techniques

The varied landscape of the adaptive immune response is determined by the peptides presented by immune cells, derived from viral or microbial pathogens or cancerous cells. The study of immune biomarkers or antigens is not new, and classical methods such as agglutination, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or Western blotting have been used for many years to study the immune response to vaccination or disease. However, in many of these traditional techniques, protein or peptide identification has often been the bottleneck. Recent progress in genomics and mass spectrometry have led to many of the rapid advances in proteomics approaches. Immunoproteomics describes a rapidly growing collection of approaches that have the common goal of identifying and measuring antigenic peptides or proteins. This includes gel-based, array-based, mass spectrometry-based, DNA-based, or in silico approaches. Immunoproteomics is yielding an understanding of disease and disease progression, vaccine candidates, and biomarkers. This review gives an overview of immunoproteomics and closely related technologies that are used to define the full set of protein antigens targeted by the immune system during disease.

Rat embryonic fibroblasts immortalized by MRPS18-2 protein are target for NK-cells

Overexpression of the human mitochondrial ribosomal protein MRPS18-2 (S18-2) led to immortalization of primary rat embryonic fibroblasts (REFs). The derived cells (18IM) expressed embryonic stem cell markers. Noteworthy, genes encoding the COX family proteins were up-regulated significantly. It is known that the COX family proteins are involved in the regulation of immune response. In the present work we demonstrate that 18IM cells behave like stem cells when subjected to directed differentiation in vitro. However, unlike stem cells, 18IM cells do not develop tumors in vivo, in SCID mice. This phenomenon is observed due to the strong natural killer (NK) cell immunogenicity. 18IM cells were better recognized by NK cells, compared with primary REFs, as was shown by a standard NK killing assay. Our data explain asymmetry in behavior of stem-like cells in vivo and in vitro, and this support the notion that stem and/or cancer-initiating cells are preferred targets for NK-cells. Concluding, the S18-2 protein is a putative target for cancer vaccines.

Multiple sclerosis and the role of immune cells

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease with many different immune cells involved in its pathogenesis, and in particular T cells as the most recognized cell type. Recently, the innate immune system has also been researched for its effect on the disease. Hence, cells of the immune system play vital roles in either ameliorating or exacerbating the disease. The genetic and environmental factors, as well as the etiology and pathogenesis are of utmost importance for the development of MS. An insight into the roles play by T cells, B cells, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells in MS and the animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, will be presented. Understanding the mechanisms of action for current therapeutic modalities should help developing new therapeutic tools to treat this disease and other autoimmune diseases.