The role of the soluble CD30 serum level in colorectal cancer: a possible marker for a patient subset which could benefit from IL-2 biotherapy

Unveiling the Physical and Functional Niches of FAM26F by Analyzing Its Subcellular Localization and Novel Interacting Partners

The knowledge of a protein's subcellular localization and interacting partners are crucial for elucidating its cellular function and associated regulatory networks. Although FAM26F (family with sequence similarity 26, member F) has been recognized as a vital player in various infections, stimulation studies, cancer, and immune pathogenesis, the precise location and function of FAM26F are not well understood. The current study is the first to focus on functional characterization of FAM26F by analyzing its subcellular localization and identifying its novel interacting partners using advanced proteome approaches. The immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy results revealed FAM26F to be largely localized within the Golgi apparatus of the cell. However, its minor presence in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) pointed toward the probable retrograde transfer of FAM26F from Golgi to ER during adverse conditions. Moreover, co-immunoprecipitation and MS/MS results demonstrated a total of 85 proteins, 44 of which significantly copurified with FAM26F. Interestingly, out of these 44 MS/MS identified proteins, almost 52% were involved in innate immunity, 38.6% in neutrophil degranulation, and remaining 10% were either involved in phosphorylation, degradation, or regulation of apoptosis. Further characterization through Ingenuity Pathway Analysis showed that majority of these proteins was involved in maintaining calcium homeostasis of cell. Consequently, the validation of selected proteins uncovered the key interaction of FAM26F with Thioredoxin, which essentially paved the way for depicting its mechanism of action under stress or disease conditions. It is proposed that activation and inhibition of the cellular immune response is essentially dependent on whether FAM26F or Thioredoxin considerably interact with CD30R.

Blocking CD30 on T Cells by a Dual Specific CAR for CD30 and Colon Cancer Antigens Improves the CAR T Cell Response against CD30- Tumors

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells are efficacious in controlling advanced leukemia and lymphoma, however, they fail in the treatment of solid cancer, which is thought to be due to insufficient T cell activation. We revealed that the immune response of CAR T cells with specificity for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was more efficacious against CEA⁺ cancer cells when simultaneously incubated with an anti-CD30 immunotoxin or anti-CD30 CAR T cells, although the targeted cancer cells lack CD30. The same effect was achieved when the anti-CD30 single-chain variable fragment (scFv) was integrated into the extracellular domain of the anti-CEA CAR. Improvement in T cell activation was due to interfering with the T cell CD30-CD30L interaction by the antagonistic anti-CD30 scFv HRS3; an agonistic anti-CD30 scFv or targeting the high-affinity interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor was not effective. T cells with the anti-CD30/CEA CAR showed superior immunity against established CEA⁺ CD30^- tumors in a mouse model. The concept is broadly applicable since anti-CD30/TAG72 CAR T cells also showed improved elimination of TAG72⁺ CD30^- cancer cells. Taken together, targeting CD30 on CAR T cells by the HRS3 scFv within the anti-tumor CAR improves the redirected immune response against solid tumors.

Ageing gender-specific "Biomarkers of Homeostasis", to protect ourselves against the diseases of the old age

Low-grade inflammatory state causes the development of the principal chronic-degenerative pathologies related with ageing. Consequently, it is required a better comprehension of the physiologic origins and the consequences of the low-grade inflammatory state for the identification of 1) the basic mechanisms that lead to the chronic inflammatory state and, after that, to the progression toward the pathologies and 2) the parallel identification of the prognostic biomarkers typical of these passages. These biomarkers could bring to several improvements in the health quality, allowing an early diagnosis and more effective treatments for: a) the prevention strategies on the healthy population, to assure a healthy longevity and b) the identification of personalized treatment in patients, to assure the benefit of the therapy. For the identification of these biomarkers it is necessary to consider that the ageing processes produce alterations of the physiologic systems and that these modifications compromise the communications between these networks: this state constitutes an obstacle for an appropriate physiologic homeostasis, that plays a fundamental role for the safeguard of the health. It is also to be considered that immune senescence affects both men and women, but it does it in different ways: a sexual dimorphism of immune pathways in the setting of immune response homeostasis is normally present, as we previously underlined. Therefore we hypothesize that, in order to prevent the development of the chronic-degenerative pathologies related with ageing, it is important to identify "Biomarkers of Homeostasis " specific for each gender: these are biologic molecules that should be measurable in a practical and no-invasive way and whose variations can quantify the male and female risk of losing the physiologic system homeostatic capacity. This competence is not only critical in the control of inflammation, but it is also prognostic for the passages from low-grade inflammatory state to the chronic inflammation and to the progression toward the degenerative pathologies. Beginning from the actual results, our intent is 1) to discuss and underline the importance of these new research perspectives in the definition of ageing gender-specific clinical "Biomarkers of Homeostasis" and 2) to propose homeostasis biomarkers, already present in the research results.

The potential role of thioredoxin 1 and CD30 systems as multiple pathway targets and biomarkers in tumor therapy

Our progress in understanding pathological disease mechanisms has led to the identification of biomarkers that have had a considerable impact on clinical practice. It is hoped that the move from generalized to stratified approaches, with the grouping of patients into clinical/therapeutic subgroups according to specific biomarkers, will lead to increasingly more effective clinical treatments in the near future. This success depends on the identification of biomarkers that reflect disease evolution and can be used to predict disease state and therapy response, or represent themselves a target for treatment. Biomarkers can be identified by studying relationships between serum, tissue, or tumor microenvironment parameters and clinical or therapeutic parameters at onset and during the progression of the disease, using systems biology. Given that multiple pathways, such as those responsible for redox and immune regulation, are deregulated or altered in tumors, the future of tumor therapy could lie in the simultaneous targeting of these pathways using extracellular and intracellular targets and biomarkers. With this aim in mind, we evaluated the role of thioredoxin 1, a key redox regulator, and CD30, a cell membrane receptor, in immune regulation. Our results lead us to suggest that the combined use of these biomarkers provides more detailed information concerning the multiple pathways affected in disease and hence the possibility of more effective treatment.

Soluble CD30: a biomarker for evaluating the clinical risk versus benefit of IFNbeta1A treatment in multiple sclerosis patients

Aberrant redox regulation occurs in immune and neurological pathologies, hence targeting the pathways involved in the regulation of the redox system could provide further insights into these diseases and open up new avenues for therapy. Soluble (s) CD30 is of key clinical importance in this respect, as its levels reflect the functionality of the CD30 receptor (CD30R), the specific lymphocyte receptor for thiol disulfide/oxidoreductase thioredoxin 1 (Trx1) which is known to regulate important immune and neurological processes. Increased levels of sCD30 appear to be a common element of oxidative stress, immunological alterations and neurological deficit, therefore these increases could be used as a clinical biomarker and target for therapy. We targeted sCD30 in our study of dendritic cell (DC) regulation of the T helper (Th) cell network in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, as abnormalities in T regulatory (Treg)/Th1/Th17 pathways contribute to the pathogenesis of this immunological/neurological disease. DC profiles in Treg/Th1/Th2/Th17-types of cytokine production in culture supernatants were used as they determine the type of Th differentiation. Our results show that sCD30 levels increase significantly in MS patients, reflecting the disruption in the regulation of the Treg/Th1/Th17 cell network. A fall in the level of soluble CD30, induced by IFNbeta1a therapy, opposed the increase of neurological deficit through increasing IL10 and TGFbeta levels, thus re-establishing network homeostasis but only when this was accompanied by an increase in IL12p70 levels. Since IL12p70 cytokine production is regulated by Trx1, our results indicate that redox system alterations may be the cause of IFNbeta1a therapeutic inefficacy. We conclude that an increase in the level of IL10, TGFbeta and IL12p70 and a fall in the level of sCD30 represent a means of evaluating the clinical risk/benefit of IFNbeta1a treatment.

Are immunological mechanisms involved in colon cancer and are they possible markers for biotherapy improvement?

This paper focuses on our data on colon cancer patients. Our overall results lead us to believe that the suppressive effect of specific cytokines in colon cancer patients alters the functionality of TH1 and TH2 subsets of CD4+ T-cells, with an expansion of TH2 cells and a malfunctioning of TH1 cells. This immunological disregulation appears to increase with stage progression, suggesting a direct role in the mechanisms that allow the tumour to locate and expand within the host. It is also clear that in order to identify disease markers and generate an in vivo immune response that corrects the imbalance between TH1 and TH2 cells, we need to understand how tumour mechanisms cause this imbalance to begin with.

The Study of a Patient's Immune System May Prove to be a Useful Noninvasive Tool for Stage Classification in Colon Cancer

Therapy, and, therefore, prognosis, is strictly related to cancer stage, and hence, screening tests that can contribute to the early classification of disease stage represent a step forward in treatment. Unfortunately, few prognostic indices are available, especially noninvasive ones. Our study of the physiological network of the immune response, however, leads us to believe that it may well be possible to define immunological indices for the classification of cancer stage using blood parameters. In this paper, we show how the study of a patient's immune system can be used as a noninvasive tool for early-stage classification.

CD30 Is Involved in Inhibition of T-Cell Proliferation by Hodgkin’s Reed-Sternberg Cells 1

CD30 is expressed on Hodgkin's Reed-Sternberg (H-RS) cells, the tumor cells in Hodgkin's disease. Increased levels of serum CD30 are observed in Hodgkin's disease patients and are a good marker for predicting a poor prognosis and a poor response to therapy. In this study, we addressed the effect of CD30 on T cells. We showed that CD30, either as a membranous protein on H-RS cells and Chinese hamster ovary cells or as a plate-bound chimeric protein, inhibited T-cell proliferation. Anti-CD3-stimulated T cells in the presence of CD30 failed to increase tritium uptake and failed to express CD25 and CD26 and to produce interleukin 2. The inhibition of T-cell proliferation was, however, reversed with addition of exogenous interleukin 2 or pretreatment of H-RS cells with anti-CD30. Inability of T cells to express CD25 and CD26 in cocultures with H-RS cells or a plate-bound CD30 chimeric protein is in accordance with the results of immunohistochemistry on disease-involved tissues. We conclude that H-RS cells are able to inhibit the proliferation and activation of T cells through CD30-related interaction. The outcome of CD30-related interaction is an ineffective antitumor immunity, which is clearly in favor of the growth and survival of the tumor cells.

Peripheral blood immunological parameters for use as markers of pre-invasive to invasive colorectal cancer

In cancer, the extent to which the disease has spread is probably the most important factor in determining patient prognosis. Hence practical and non-invasive methods are needed to identify disease stage. In a previous paper we showed how diagnostic and prognostic indices for disease progression could be defined by evaluating parameters in peripheral blood. The aim of this study was to identify further serum parameters that could be used. Serum levels of interferon (IFN) gamma, interleukin (IL)4, IL8, IL7, IL1 beta, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), soluble (s) IL2 receptor (R) and sIL6R were studied but only levels of IL4, sIL2R, IL8 and IL7 were found to be significant and would therefore be of use in defining diagnostic and prognostic indices for disease progression. In further detail, our results indicate that when serum levels of sIL2R < 522 U/ml, IL4 < 159 pg/ml and IL8 > 339 pg/ml there is a 95% probability that the disease is in stage I or II where there is no infiltration of lymph nodes; when serum levels of sIL2R > or = 522 Ug/ml, 159 pg/ml < or = IL4 < or = 319 pg/ml, and IL7 < 54 pg/ml, there is a 95% probability that the disease is in stage III and the tumor has invaded the lymph nodes; when the serum levels of IL4 > or = 431 pg/ml and IL7 > or = 54 pg/ml, there is a 95% probability that the disease is in stage IV and there is metastasis.