Expression of SART3 antigen and induction of CTLs by SART3-derived peptides in breast cancer patients

We recently reported the SART3 tumour-rejection antigen as possessing tumour epitopes capable of inducing HLA-class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). This study investigated expression of the SART3 antigen in breast cancer to explore an appropriate molecule for use in specific immunotherapy of breast cancer patients. The SART3 antigen was detected in all of the breast cancer cell lines tested, 30 of 40 (75%) breast cancer tissue samples, and 0 of 3 non-tumourous breast tissue samples. SART3 derived peptides at positions 109–118 and 315–323 induced HLA-A24 restricted CTLs that reacted to breast cancer cells from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of breast cancer patients. Therefore, the SART3 antigen and its peptides could be an appropriate molecule for use in specific immunotherapy of the majority of HLA-A24-positive breast cancer patients. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaignhttp://www.bjcancer.co

WIMPs search by means of the highly segmented scintillator

The highly sensitive method to search for WIMPs dark matter particles is proposed. An array of thin NaI(Tl) plate has the great selectivity for distinguishing the WIMPs events and background ones. The principle of signal selection for WIMPs is described. The high sensitivity for SD (spin-dependent) type WIMPs is expected by applying multi-layer system of NaI(Tl) detector.Comment: 11 pages, added some sentences to make the arguments clea

Multi-layer scintillation detector for the MOON double beta decay experiment: Scintillation photon responses studied by a prototype detector MOON-1

An ensemble of multi-layer scintillators is discussed as an option of the high-sensitivity detector Mo Observatory Of Neutrinos (MOON) for spectroscopic measurements of neutrino-less double beta decays. A prototype detector MOON-1, which consists of 6 layer plastic-scintillator plates, was built to study the sensitivity of the MOON-type detector. The scintillation photon collection and the energy resolution, which are key elements for the high-sensitivity experiments, are found to be 1835+/-30 photo-electrons for 976 keV electrons and sigma = 2.9+/-0.1% (dE/E = 6.8+/-0.3 % in FWHM) at the Qbb ~ 3 MeV region, respectively. The multi-layer plastic-scintillator structure with good energy resolution as well as good background suppression of beta-gamma rays is crucial for the MOON-type detector to achieve the inverted hierarchy neutrino mass sensitivity.Comment: 8 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Nucl.Instrum.Met

Anti-Allergic Cromones Inhibit Histamine and Eicosanoid Release from Activated Human and Murine Mast Cells by Releasing Annexin A1

PMCID: PMC3601088This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Detection of peptide-specific CTL-precursors in peripheral blood lymphocytes of cancer patients

Development of therapeutic vaccines is one of the major areas of tumour immunotherapy today. However, clinical trials of peptide-based cancer vaccines have rarely resulted in tumour regression. This failure might be due to an insufficient induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the current regimes, in which cytotoxic T lymphocytes-precursors in pre-vaccination peripheral blood mononuclear cells are not measured. Initiation of immune-boosting through vaccination could be better than that of immune-priming with regard to induction of prompt and strong immunity. If this is also the case for therapeutic vaccines, pre-vaccination measurement of peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes-precursors will be important. In the present study, we investigated whether cytotoxic T lymphocytes-precursors reacting to 28 kinds of peptides of vaccine candidates (13 and 15 peptides for HLA-A24+ and HLA-A2+ patients, respectively) were detectable in pre-vaccination peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 80 cancer patients. Peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes-precursors were found to be detectable in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the majority of cancer patients (57 out of 80 cases, 71%). The mean numbers of positive peptides were 2.0 peptides per positive case. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells incubated with positive peptides, not with negative peptides, showed significant levels of HLA-class-I-restricted cytotoxicity to cancer cells. The profiles of positive peptides entirely varied among patients, and were not influenced by the cancer origin. These results may provide a scientific basis for the development of a new approach to cancer immunotherapy, e.g.) cytotoxic T lymphocytes-precursor-oriented peptide vaccine