1.
Hedbrant, Alexander, 1987-
(author)
Cancer and Inflammation : Role of Macrophages and Monocytes
2015
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Macrophages are cells of the innate immune system that can be found in large quantities in cancer tumors and affect cancer progression by regulating growth and invasiveness of cancer cells. There are two main phenotypes of macrophages denoted M1 and M2. In this thesis, the M1 and M2 phenotype of human macrophages were characterized, and effects of the macrophages on the growth and invasiveness of colon and lung cancer cells were studied.Macrophages of the M1 phenotype, but not the M2 phenotype, inhibited growth of both colon and lung cancer cells, and the inhibition for some of the cancer cell lines was induced by cell cycle arrest in the G1/G0 and/or G2/M cell cycle phases. In the colon cancer cell line, the macrophage induced cell cycle arrest was found to attenuate the cytotoxic effect of the chemotherapeutic drug 5-FU. Macrophages were also shown to express high levels of proteases (matrix metalloproteinase-2 and 9) and high levels of proteins of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) system, in comparison to the lung cancer cell lines studied. Expression of these has been found to predict poor outcome in lung cancer, and the results suggest macrophages to be important contributors of these in lung tumors. Furthermore, the M1 phenotype was found to express higher levels of the uPA receptor than the M2 phenotype.Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a potent inflammatory molecule expressed by e.g. macrophages and monocytes, and inhibition of its expression has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Green tea and black tea was found to be potent inhibitors of PGE2 formation in human monocytes, and the inhibitory effects of green tea was likely due to its content of the polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate. Rooibos tea also inhibited PGE2 formation, but was less potent than green and black tea. The primary mechanism for the inhibition was via inhibition of expression of enzymes in the PGE2 formation pathway, and primarily microsomal prostaglandin synthase-1.
2.
Holm, Patrik, 1975-
(author)
Functional mapping and in vivo metabolism of the monoclonal antibody TS1 and its single-chain fragment : Its interaction with the antigen and the anti-idiotype
2006
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Antibodies are proteins capable of specific interactions to a wide range of molecules. These interactions are facilitated by the complementary determining regions (CDR).Carcinomas are the most common of human cancers and they release significant amount of cytokeratins (CK) in the necrotic areas of the tumors. The CKs stay in the tumor, since they have low solubility. The antibody studied in this thesis, the anti-CK 8 antibody TS1, has shown to be effective in tumor targeting and is proposed to be useful in therapy.Single-chain antibodies (scFv) are recombinant antibodies which are much smaller than the intact IgG. This is an advantage when used in tumor therapy, since they can penetrate the tumors more easily than the larger IgG. Moreover, they are expressed by one single gene which make them easy to modify, for example by site-directed mutagenesis.The anti-idiotypic antibody αTS1 can be used to clear the TS1 form the circulation and thereby clear the body from non-tumor bound TS1 in therapy. To be able to modify the binding of an antibody to its antigen and or anti-idiotype, these interactions must be studied. In this study this is accomplished by chemical modifications of the IgGs TS1 and αTS1 and the antigen CK 8. Guided by these results, amino acid residues were mutated by using site-directed mutagenesis in the TS1-218 scFv and the effects were studied. From mutational study results, the functional epitope could be mapped and it was found that there are mainly tyrosines, but also charged residues, serine and a tryptophan that are important for both interactions. The binding of TS1-218 to both αTS1 and CK 8 could be improved by changing the negatively charged side-chains by mutations to their corresponding amide or alanine.Both the IgG and scFv versions of TS1 were administered in vivo. The IgG αTS1 was used to clear the TS1 from the circulation by forming immune complexes. The immune complexes, consisting of four or more antibodies, were mainly metabolized by the liver. The scFv TS1-218 could localize to the tumor in a tumor xenograft mouse model, although a higher uptake would be desired in a therapeutic strategy. The scFv was cleared rapidly by the kidneys, but the clearance could be slowed by pre-formed immune complexes with anti-TS1 scFv in vitro, prior to administration in vivo.
