Biochemical mechanisms implemented by human acute myeloid leukemia cells to suppress host immune surveillance

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a blood/bone marrow cancer originating from myeloid cell precusors capable of self-renewing. AML cells implement biochemical mechanisms which allow them not only to survive, but also to successfully escape immune surveillance. ln this work, we discuss crucial molecular mechanisms used by human AML cells in order to evade immune attack

Manganese Enhances Prion Protein Survival in Model Soils and Increases Prion Infectivity to Cells

Prion diseases are considered to be transmissible. The existence of sporadic forms of prion diseases such as scrapie implies an environmental source for the infectious agent. This would suggest that under certain conditions the prion protein, the accepted agent of transmission, can survive in the environment. We have developed a novel technique to extract the prion protein from soil matrices. Previous studies have suggested that environmental manganese is a possible risk factor for prion diseases. We have shown that exposure to manganese is a soil matrix causes a dramatic increase in prion protein survival (∼10 fold) over a two year period. We have also shown that manganese increases infectivity of mouse passaged scrapie to culture cells by 2 logs. These results clearly verify that manganese is a risk factor for both the survival of the infectious agent in the environment and its transmissibility

The Immunosuppressive Ligands PD-L1 and CD200 are Linked in AML T-cell Immunosuppression: Identification of a New Immunotherapeutic Synapse

Long-term remission in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is generally not durable only being achieved in <50% of patients. Consequently there is a need to establish new treatments to prevent relapse. A promising approach is to augment the anti-tumor immune response in these patients; however, it is well established that overexpression of immunosuppressive molecules such as CD200 on the surface of AML cells directly suppresses the antitumor response. Nevertheless, blocking CD200:CD200R, only partially restores T-cell activity, suggesting that alternative immunosuppressive mechanisms need to be explored if the antitumor response in AML is to be optimally exploited