0000000000384330
AUTHOR
Elisabetta Melloni
Selection and characterization of a novel agonistic human recombinant anti-Trail-R2 minibody with anti-leukemic activity
Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising natural anticancer therapeutic agent because through its “death receptors”, TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2, it induces apoptosis in many transformed tumor cells, but not in the majority of normal cells. Hence, agonistic compounds directed against TRAIL death receptors have the potential of being excellent cancer therapeutic agents, with minimal cytotoxicity in normal tissues. Here, we report the selection and characterization of a new single-chain fragment variable (scFv) to TRAIL-R2 receptor isolated from a human phage-display library, produced as minibody (MB), and characterized for the in vitro anti-leukemic tumoricid…
Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells display anti-cancer activity in SCID mice bearing disseminated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma xenografts.
Background Although multimodality treatment can induce high rate of remission in many subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), significant proportions of patients relapse with incurable disease. The effect of human bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) on tumor cell growth is controversial, and no specific information is available on the effect of BM-MSC on NHL. Methodology/Principal Findings The effect of BM-MSC was analyzed in two in vivo models of disseminated non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with an indolent (EBV− Burkitt-type BJAB, median survival = 46 days) and an aggressive (EBV+ B lymphoblastoid SKW6.4, median survival = 27 days) behavior in nude-SCID mice. Intra-peritoneal (i.p.) i…
Conjunctival Sac Fluid Contains Elevated Levels of Soluble TRAIL: Implications for the Anti-Tumoral Surveillance of the Anterior Surface of the Eye
Little is known on the ability of different epithelia to release soluble TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and the relevance of TRAIL secretion by epithelial cells is still incompletely understood. On these bases, we have measured the concentration of soluble TRAIL by ELISA in the conjunctival sac fluid. It was the highest ever detected in a biological fluid (mean value of 26,800 pg/ml), being approximately 20-fold greater than that found in human saliva and >200-fold greater than that detected in human serum. On the other hand, osteoprotegerin, the soluble decoy receptor of TRAIL, was almost undetectable in the conjunctival sac fluid. Of note, the levels of soluble TRAIL measur…