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Subjects

Immunotherapy, Cancer -- Treatment, Antineoplastic agents, Immune response -- Regulation

Abstract

Breakthroughs in immunotherapy have led to cancer therapeutics that activate the immune system by blocking inhibitory mechanisms. This class of therapeutics has resulted in longer survival rates for cancer patients, some living over 10 years after being diagnosed as terminally ill. However, only a small fraction of patients who receive immunotherapy drugs respond favorably.Recent studies suggest that certain anticancer agents (both cytotoxic chemotherapeutics and targeted drugs) stimulate immune recognition of cancers. Identification of such immunomodulatory anticancer agents would make ideal partners for current immunotherapy treatments, thus increasing the proportion of the treated patients who benefit from immunotherapy. This study aimed to identify the immunomodulatory effects of several anticancer agents by using a novel cell co-culture assay that modeled recognition of breast cancer cells by natural killer cells (NK cells). This physiologically relevant assay was used to systematically characterize effects of anticancer drugs on NK cell function. This assay successfully identified four types of immunomodulatory effects: antagonistic (suppressive), synergistic (enhancing), additive, and no effect on NK cell function. Further investigation confirmed the modulatory effects of those compounds that had been identified as antagonistic or synergistic.

DOI

10.15760/mcnair.2017.04

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20578

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