Biologic therapies improved dramatically the outcome of psoriatic arthritis and moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis. Anti-TNF agents were developed approximately one decade ago by rheumatologists and today represent one of the most effective classes of drugs in severe psoriasis resistant to 2 out of 3 "classic" systemic therapies (methotrexate, cyclosporine, and PUVA). Recent studies on...

glioblastoma multiforme and other malignant gliomas continue to be associated with a dismal prognosis despite advances in diagnosis and therapy.1,2 Mean survival from the time of diagnosis is less than one year in most cases. This has spurred investigation of new treatment modalities such as immunogene ABSTRACT: Background: Cancer immunogene therapy is based on vaccination with radiated, autolo...

Cell-based gene therapy after cytokine gene transfer is being investigated for autologous and allogeneic vaccination in cancer therapy. Here we show that mice vaccinated with 3-5 x 10(6) interleukin 12 (IL-12) gene-transduced CT26 colon cancer cells developed a long-lasting antitumor immune memory able to reject not only parental cells but also syngeneic, LM3 mammary, and MCE fibrosarcoma tumor...

Innate and type 1 cell-mediated cytotoxic immunity function as important extracellular control mechanisms that maintain cellular homeostasis. Interleukin-12 (IL12) is an important cytokine that links innate immunity with type 1 cell-mediated cytotoxic immunity. We recently observed in vitro that tumor-derived Wnt-inducible signaling protein-1 (WISP1) exerts paracrine action to suppress IL12 sig...

Endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase-1 (ERAP1) is a multifunctional, ubiquitously expressed enzyme whose peptide-trimming role during antigen processing for presentation by MHC I molecules is well established, however, a role for ERAP1 in modulating global innate immune responses has not been described to date. Here we demonstrate that, relative to wild type mice, mice lacking ERAP1 exhibit exa...

introduction: hepatitis b is a potentially life-threatening infection that causes acute infection and chronic hepatitis with progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). interleukin-12 (il12) is responsible for activation of th1 immune responses, leading to possible clearance of hbv infection from the host’s body. the host’s immune-genetic background plays an important role in t...

Classically-activated (M1) macrophages are known to play a role in the development of chronic inflammation associated with impaired wound healing in Type 2 diabetes (T2D); however, the mechanism responsible for the dominant pro-inflammatory (M1) macrophage phenotype in T2D wounds is unknown. Since epigenetic enzymes can direct macrophage phenotypes, we assessed the role of histone methylation i...

Non-HLA gene polymorphisms have been shown to be associated with the risk of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and outcome of allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT). This study aims to investigate the role of IL6, TNFα, IL10, IL2 and IL12 gene polymorphisms in the outcome of AHSCT in a South East Asian population. A total of 67 patients and 59 donors who underwent HLA-identi...

Adoptive cellular therapy, in which activated tumor-reactive T cells are transferred into lymphodepleted recipients, is a promising cancer treatment option. Activation of T cells decreases IL7 responsiveness; therefore, IL15 is generally considered the main driver of effector T-cell responses in this setting. However, we found in lymphodepleted mice that CD8(+) T cells activated with IL12 showe...