A new TLR2 agonist promotes cross-presentation by mouse and human antigen presenting cells.

Cross-presentation is the process by which professional APCs load peptides from an extracellularly derived protein onto class I MHC molecules to trigger a CD8(+) T cell response. The ability to enhance this process is therefore relevant for the development of antitumor and antiviral vaccines. We investigated a new TLR2-based adjuvant, Small Molecule Immune Potentiator (SMIP) 2.1, for its ability to stimulate cross-presentation. Using OVA as model antigen, we demonstrated that a SMIP2.1-adjuvanted vaccine formulation induced a greater CD8(+) T cell response, in terms of proliferation, cytokine production and cytolytic activity, than a non-adjuvanted vaccine. Moreover, using an OVA-expressing tumor model, we showed that the CTLs induced by the SMIP2.1 formulated vaccine inhibits tumor growth in vivo. Using a BCR transgenic mouse model we found that B cells could cross-present the OVA antigen when stimulated with SMIP2.1. We also used a flow cytometry assay to detect activation of human CD8(+) T cells isolated from human PBMCs of cytomegalovirus-seropositive donors. Stimulation with SMIP2.1 increased the capacity of human APCs, pulsed in vitro with the pp65 CMV protein, to activate CMV-specific CD8(+) T cells. Therefore, vaccination with an exogenous antigen formulated with SMIP2.1 is a successful strategy for the induction of a cytotoxic T cell response along with antibody production.

Developmental and oncogenic effects of insulin-like growth factor-I in Ptc1+/- mouse cerebellum.

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma is amongst the most common malignant brain tumors in childhood, arising from neoplastic transformation of granule neuron precursors (GNPs) of the cerebellum via deregulation of pathways involved in cerebellar development. Deregulation of the Sonic hedgehog/Patched1 (Shh/Ptc1) signaling pathway predisposes humans and mice to medulloblastoma. In the brain, insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) plays a critical role during development as a neurotrophic and neuroprotective factor, and in tumorigenesis, as IGF-I receptor is often activated in medulloblastomas. RESULTS: To investigate the mechanisms of genetic interactions between Shh and IGF signaling in the cerebellum, we crossed nestin/IGF-I transgenic (IGF-I Tg) mice, in which transgene expression occurs in neuron precursors, with Ptc1+/- knockout mice, a model of medulloblastoma in which cancer develops in a multistage process. The IGF-I transgene produced a marked brain overgrowth, and significantly accelerated tumor development, increasing the frequency of pre-neoplastic lesions as well as full medulloblastomas in Ptc1+/-/IGF-I Tg mice. Mechanistically, tumor promotion by IGF-I mainly affected preneoplastic stages through de novo formation of lesions, while not influencing progression rate to full tumors. We also identified a marked increase in survival and proliferation, and a strong suppression of differentiation in neural precursors. CONCLUSIONS: As a whole, our findings indicate that IGF-I overexpression in neural precursors leads to brain overgrowth and fosters external granular layer (EGL) proliferative lesions through a mechanism favoring proliferation over terminal differentiation, acting as a landscape for tumor growth. Understanding the molecular events responsible for cerebellum development and their alterations in tumorigenesis is critical for the identification of potential therapeutic targets.