Immunosuppressive activity of sera from patients with colorectal and gynecological carcinomas as evaluated by impaired IFN-gamma, IL-1 alpha and TNF-alpha production of human peripheral mononuclear cells

Effective litmus gene test for monitoring the quality of blood samples: Application to Alzheimer's disease diagnostics

Gene expression profiles reflect the biologically diverse activities of cells under specific cell environments. Using the transcriptional response of cultured cells to blood composition, we developed a litmus gene assay to discriminate blood samples reflecting different sample qualities or disease conditions. This cell-based litmus gene assay identified six genes (CCL20, CEMIP, IL1B, IL8, PRG2, PTGS2) as potential biomarkers of plasma quality control and the SPC25 gene as a diagnostic biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In addition, the SPC25 gene expression level was significantly increased in the cell-based assay using serum samples from patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In conclusion, we demonstrated the effectiveness and potential of a litmus gene assay to detect the orchestrated effects of circulating systemic factors, leading to the successful diagnosis of AD and MCI. This method is broadly applicable to the diagnosis of disease subtypes or patho-physiological stages of complex diseases and tumors.

Distinct cytokine patterns exist in peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures of patients with prostate cancer

In this study, we have concurrently assayed for IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma in 24-h serum-free cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from seventeen patients with prostate cancer (CaP) per cytokine bead array analysis. The purpose of the study is to examine the nature of the cytokine profile operating among patients and to correlate with their physical, biochemical, and clinical parameters. Unstimulated PBMC cultures from patients with hormone-sensitive metastatic disease demonstrated elevated level of baseline TNF-alpha compared to patients with high-risk, locally advanced disease. Younger patients exhibited significantly higher levels of IL-4 and TNF-alpha compared to older patients following PHA stimulation. Similarly, significantly higher ratios of IFN-gamma/IL-4, IFN-gamma/IL-10, and IL-2/IL-4, a favorable type-1 cytokine pattern, were observed in patients with lower serum PSA compared to patients with high serum PSA. These results indicate the existence of distinct cytokine patterns among patients with CaP.

The immunology and immunotherapy of breast cancer: an update

Adenocarcinomas of the breast behave clinically and epidemiologically in ways that show host resistance factors are important for outcome in addition to grade and stage of malignancy. Immune reactivity to autologous tumors is indicated by the general presence of lymphoid infiltration (LI) and regional lymph node changes; however, these changes predict favorable outcome only in non-metastatic disease. LI is characterized by CD4+ and CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes reflecting latent cell-mediated immunity (CMI). CMI and humoral immune reactivity have been demonstrated to autologous tumor and a variety of tumor-associated antigens (TAA) have been implicated including CEA, HER-2/neu, MAGE-1, p53, T/Tn and MUC-1. Immune incompetence involving CMI is progressive with the stage of breast cancer and is prognostically significant. Immunotherapy of several types has been designed to address this immunodeficiency and the TAAs involved. Animal models have employed drug therapy, cytokine transfection, vaccines with autologous tumor, cytokines like interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) and interleukin-2 (IL-2), TAA tumor vaccines, and immunotoxins with evidence of tumor regression by immunologic means. Immunotherapy of human breast cancer is a rapidly growing experimental area. Positive results have been obtained with natural IFN and interleukins, particularly in combination strategies (but not with high dose recombinant IFN or IL-2), with autologous tumor vaccine (but not yet with transfected autologous tumor); with a mucin carbohydrate vaccine (Theratope) in a combination strategy (but not with mucin core antigen) and with several immunotoxins. Combination strategies involving immunorestoration, contrasuppression, adjuvant, and immunotoxins are suggested for the future.