POTE is a novel tumor antigen expressed in a variety of cancers including breast, prostate, colon, lung, ovary, and pancreas cancers. POTE has limited expression in normal tissues and therefore a specific target for cancer treatments, including immunotherapy. The researchers seek statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize immunogenic peptides.
Scientists at the NCI's Surgery Branch have developed anti-CD70 chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to treat cancers. CD70 is an antigen that is expressed on a variety of human cancers such as renal cell carcinoma, glioblastoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The anti-CD70 CARs are hybrid proteins consisting of a receptor portion that recognizes CD70 antigen, and intracellular T cell signaling domains selected to optimally activate the CAR expressing T cells.
GBM is the most aggressive form of brain cancer. The current standard of care against GBM is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, after standard treatment, the cancer usually recurs – emphasizing a need for new targets and better alternatives. A promising target is cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5), the hyperactivity of which has been shown to have a role in cancer progression.
Ataxia telangiectasia mutated and Rad3 Related (ATR) protein kinase is essential for regulating DNA damage checkpoints during the cell cycle. ATR, is phosphorylated at threonine 1989 site (T1989) in response to DNA damage and ATR activation leads to activation of downstream substrates, signaling cascades and cell cycle arrest. ATR is a potential target for anticancer therapeutics to induce cancer cell death by inhibiting cell cycle arrest pathways in response to chemotherapeutics.
Natural killer T cells (NKT) are a unique lymphocyte population that has T-cell and NK cell functional properties in order to rapidly elicit an immune response. alpha-galactosylceramide (alpha-GalCer) is a potent NKT stimulator and induces of IFN-gamma release to promote immunity against tumors and infectious agents. Humans have natural antibodies against alpha-galactose, which may be one of the reasons why the human clinical trials of alpha-GalCer or KRN7000 were not very successful.
Many known chemotherapeutic drugs kill abnormal cells through a process called apoptosis. Bcl-2 proteins are negative regulators of apoptosis that control cell survival and death. Increased expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins commonly occurs in up to 30% of all cancers, providing cancer cells a pro-survival advantage to evade cell death, grow, and proliferate. Drugs targeting these specific anti-apoptotic proteins are potential anti-cancer therapeutics.
Topoisomerase 1B (TOP1) is an enzyme that relieves the torsional strain in DNA. To relieve the torsional strain, TOP1B cleaves one strand of DNA and forms a transient complex called a TOP1-DNA covalent cleavage complex (TOP1cc). TOP1 inhibitors – such as camptothecin – stabilize the TOP1cc and prevent relegation of the broken DNA which, when encountered by replication and transcription machinery, triggers cell death. The DNA damage generated by the TOP1cc can be repaired by several pathways, including tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) pathway.
Tissue obtained for both clinical and research purposes is routinely frozen, commonly in Optimal Cutting Temperature (OCT), an embedding media, for eventual downstream analysis, commonly including sectioning on a cryostat. Though OCT is the standard compound used for freezing, there is no standard freezing protocol. Thus, current methods of handling, labeling, and storing OCT-embedded tissue vary widely, and specimens are often damaged or degraded due to undesirable temperature fluctuations during handling and freezing.
The promise of RNA interference based therapeutics is made evident by the recent surge of biotechnological drug companies that pursue such therapies and their progression into human clinical trials. The present invention discloses novel RNA and RNA/DNA nanoparticles including multiple siRNAs, RNA aptamers, fluorescent dyes, and proteins. These RNA nanoparticles are useful for various nanotechnological applications.
Gene therapies offer promising prospects of treating a wide variety of human diseases. In one method, a gene therapy vector can be utilized to deliver an unmutated copy of a gene, called a transgene, to replace a mutated gene in order to treat the genetic disorder. However, lack of expression of a therapeutic transgene and uncontrolled gene silencing are still major obstacles for safety and efficacy of these gene therapy interventions.