Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Analysis of pancreatic cancer-infiltrating T-lymphocytes reveals that ENO-specific Tregs inhibit the effector T-cells

6^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

August 17-19, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Amedeo Amedei

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive disease with dismal prognosis. Surgical resection is the recommended treatment
for long-term survival, but patients with resectable PC are in the minority (with a 5-year survival rate of 20%). Therefore,
development of novel therapeutic strategies, such as anti-PC immunotherapy, is crucial. α-Enolase (ENO1) is an enzyme
expressed on the surface of pancreatic cancer cells and is able to promote cell migration and cancer metastasis. The capacity
of ENO1 to induce an immune response in PC patients renders its true tumor-associated antigen. We have characterized the
effector functions of ENO1-specific T cells isolated from PC patients, and we specifically evaluated the successful role of intratumoral
T-helper 17 (Th17) cells and the inhibitory role of regulatory T (Tregs) cells in respectively promoting or reducing the
cancer-specific immune response. For the first time we have demonstrated that ENO1-specific Th17 cells have a specific anticancer
effector function in PC patients, and that there are decreased levels of these cells in cancer compared to healthy mucosa.
Conversely, there are elevated levels of ENO1-specific Tregs in PC patients which lead to inhibition of the antigen-specific
effector T cells, thus highlighting a possible role in promoting PC progression.

Biography :

Amedeo Amedei has done her Diploma of Biologist Qualification from University of Florence, Italy. She completed her thesis on “Helicobacter pylori infection: Model
of Th1 immune response”. She was designated as Immunology Researcher in Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence and Indentured Researcher
in Department of Internal Medicine. She was the Contractor of Nurex Company ‘Development and production of reagents for monitoring immune sheep’. She has
published 94 papers in reputed journals, 6 chapters in the books and she holds 45 congress participations. Her research interest includes, Role of immune response
versus Helicobacter pylori on pathogenesis diseases correlate with human bacterium infection: Ulcer-gastritis, gastric cancer, MALT-lymphoma.