Ferecide di Atene e il mito argonautico: istanze locali e intrecci panellenici

L’impresa argonautica doveva rivestire un ruolo di grande rilievo all’interno delle Storie di Ferecide di Atene, come è del resto documentato dal numero dei frammenti conservati, circa una trentina. Molti sono i particolari del racconto che, accanto ad alcuni frammenti che ne riportano stralci più articolati, mostrano come nei primi decenni del V secolo una versione ateniese dell’impresa argonautica conciliò tradizioni più antiche e di varia provenienza per raccontare una storia del mito efficace e coerente con il proprio contesto culturale.In the Histories of Pherecydes of Athens, the quest of the Argonauts must have had a role of some considerable significance, discernible from the number of fragments that remain (around thirty). Many of the details are still preserved and, together with some more articulate fragments of the story, they show how, in the opening decades of the 5th century BCE, an Athenian version of the quest of the Argonauts brought together older traditions from various geographical origins to tell a legendary story which was effective and coherent with its own cultural context

Ferecide di Atene e il mito argonautico: istanze locali e intrecci panellenici

L’impresa argonautica doveva rivestire un ruolo di grande rilievo all’interno delle Storie di Ferecide di Atene, come è del resto documentato dal numero dei frammenti conservati, circa una trentina. Molti sono i particolari del racconto che, accanto ad alcuni frammenti che ne riportano stralci più articolati, mostrano come nei primi decenni del V secolo una versione ateniese dell’impresa argonautica conciliò tradizioni più antiche e di varia provenienza per raccontare una storia del mito efficace e coerente con il proprio contesto culturale. In the Histories of Pherecydes of Athens, the quest of the Argonauts must have had a role of some considerable significance, discernible from the number of fragments that remain (around thirty). Many of the details are still preserved and, together with some more articulate fragments of the story, they show how, in the opening decades of the 5th century BCE, an Athenian version of the quest of the Argonauts brought together older traditions from various geographical origins to tell a legendary story which was effective and coherent with its own cultural context

Reverse immunoediting: When immunity is edited by antigen

Immune selective pressure occurring during cancer immunoediting shapes tumor features revealed at clinical presentation. However, in the "Escape" phase, the tumor itself has the chance to influence the immunological response. Therefore, the capacity of the immune response to sculpt the tumor characteristics is only one side of the coin and even the opposite is likely true, i.e. that an antigen can shape the immune response in a sort of "reverse immunoediting". This reciprocal modeling probably occurs continuously, whenever the immune system encounters a tumor/foreign antigen, and can be operative in the pathogen/immune system interplay, thus possibly permeating the protective immunity as a whole. In line with this view, the characterization of a T cell response as well as the design of both active and passive immunotherapy strategies should also take into account all Ag features (type, load and presentation). Overall, we suggest that the "reverse immunoediting" hypothesis could help to dissect the complex interplay between antigens and the immune repertoire, and to improve the outcome of immunotherapeutic approaches, where T cell responses are manipulated and reprogrammed

Impact of γ-chain cytokines on EBV-specific T cell cultures

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent preclinical adoptive immunotherapy studies in murine models prompt to employ "proper" rather than "as many as possible" antigen-specific T cells to gain better therapeutic results. Ideally, "proper" T cells are poorly differentiated <it>in vitro</it>, but retain the capacity to fully differentiate into effector cells <it>in vivo</it>, where they can undergo long-term survival and strong proliferation. Such requirements can be achieved by modifying culture conditions, namely using less "differentiating" cytokines than IL-2.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To evaluate this issue in human T cell cultures, we exploited a well characterized and clinical-grade protocol finalized at generating EBV-specific CTL for adoptive immunotherapy. In particular, we studied the impact of IL-7, IL-15 and IL-21 compared to IL-2 on different aspects of T cell functionality, namely growth kinetics, differentiation/activation marker expression, cytokine production, and short-term and long-term cytotoxicity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results disclosed that the culture modifications we introduced in the standard protocol did not improve activity nor induce substantial changes in differentiation marker expression of EBV-specific CTL.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data indicated that the addition of γ-chain cytokines other than IL-2 for the generation of EBV-specific T cell cultures did not produce the improvements expected on the basis of recent published literature. This fact was likely due to the intrinsic differences between murine and human models and highlights the need to design <it>ad hoc </it>protocols rather than simply modify the cytokines added in culture.</p