(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA - A recently identified immune cell that directs other cells to fight infection plays a critical role in regulating the immune system in both health and disease. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how a stimulatory molecule and a protein found on the membrane of another immune cell make T helper 17 cells multi-taskers of sorts. Th17 cells protect the body against infection and cancer, but are also culprits in some autoimmune diseases and out-of-control, cancerous cell growth.
This new understanding that Th17 cells manage to play both sides of the fence suggests that targeting or inhibiting the involved protein pathways might be a new way to treat cancer, chronic infection, and some autoimmune diseases. Previous studies have linked excessive amounts of Th17 cells in the body to such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn's disease.
First author and postdoctoral fellow Chrystal Paulos PhD; senior author Carl June, MD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and colleagues have found that a protein called inducible costimulator (ICOS) is necessary for the growth and function of human Th17 cells, while CD28, a transmembrane protein on CD4 cells, stops the ICOS signal. What's more, human Th17 stimulated with ICOS shrank human tumors implanted in a mouse model faster than those stimulated with CD28. The findings appear in this week's Science Translational Medicine. June is also the Program Director of Translational Research for the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn.
These findings were surprising to the researchers given that CD28 has historically been used by investigators to study and expand human Th17 cells. The new data on Th17 cells raises the possibility that the full inflammatory potential of human Th17 cells had not been fully reflected by previous lab studies.
To move this knowledge closer to the clinic, the team also demonstrated that Th17 cells cannot only be expanded to large numbers, but could also be maintained by stimulating them with ICOS proteins. Th17 polarizing cytokines have previously been shown to support Th17 cells from naïve CD4 cells but this is the first demonstration that the ICOS costimulatory molecule used to expand the Th17 cells is important.
Tilting the balance between spurring and suppressing the growth of Th17 cells may be a key to tailoring immunotherapy, a form of cancer treatment. Adoptive transfer of tumor-specific cells expanded with ICOS and polarized to a Th17 cell type might further improve treatment.
These basic findings on Th17 cells in both peripheral and cord blood cells has broad implications, providing the basis of a new human cancer treatment protocol. T-cell-based therapies that incorporate the ICOS signal are being planned at Penn to treat patients with leukemia.
INFORMATION:
This work was supported by National Cancer Institute.
Other Penn co-authors are Carmine Carpenito, Gabriela Plesa, Megan M. Suhoski, Angel Varela-Rohena, Tatiana N. Golovina, Richard G. Carroll, and James L. Riley.
Editor's Note
A patent for the expansion of Th17 cells using ICOS has been filed based on work reported in published article.
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $3.6 billion enterprise.
Penn's School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools, and is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $367.2 million awarded in the 2008 fiscal year.
Penn Medicine's patient care facilities include:
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania – the nation's first teaching hospital, recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center – named one of the top 100 hospitals for cardiovascular care by Thomson Reuters for six years.
Pennsylvania Hospital – the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751, nationally recognized for excellence in orthopaedics, obstetrics & gynecology, and psychiatry & behavioral health.
Additional patient care facilities and services include Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse, a Philadelphia campus offering inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient care in many specialties; as well as a primary care provider network; a faculty practice plan; home care and hospice services; and several multispecialty outpatient facilities across the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2009, Penn Medicine provided $733.5 million to benefit our community.
Penn study shows 2-sided immune cell could be harnessed to shrink tumors
2010-10-29
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