Project description:RATIONALE: Studying the genes expressed in samples of tissue from patients with cancer may help doctors identify biomarkers related to cancer.
PURPOSE: This laboratory study is using gene expression profiling to evaluate normal tissue and tumor tissue from patients with colon cancer that has spread to the liver, lungs, or peritoneum.
Project description:Most humans are infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a cancer-causing virus. While EBV generally persists silently in B lymphocytes, periodic lytic (re-)activation of latent virus is central to its life cycle and to most EBV-related diseases. However, a substantial fraction of EBV-infected B cells and tumor cells in a population is refractory to lytic activation. This resistance to lytic activation directly and profoundly impacts viral persistence and effectiveness of oncolytic therapy for EBV+ cancers. To identify the mechanisms that underlie susceptibility to EBV-lytic activation, we used host protein-expression profiling of separated-lytic and -refractory cells.
Project description:B-lymphocytes constitute an important aspect of mammalian immune systems by virtue of their ability to produce highly specific antibodies in response to foreign antigens and pathogens. When B-lymphocytes encounter the particular antigen that they are responsive to, they differentiate into two types of cells: short-lived antibody-secreting plasma cells and long-lived memory cells. While the plasma B cells are responsible for the rapid resolution of a current infection or immune challenge, the memory B cells are responsible for mounting a rapid response to subsequent exposures. Previous work had demonstrated that treatment of mice with a single dose of anti-CD40 at the time of immunization leads to improved secondary responses, suggesting an enhancement of the memory B cell pool. We are currently studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of memory B cells, using CD40 signalling as a tool. We have carried out a microarray analysis of genome-wide gene expression patterns in naïve B-lymphocytes following CD40 signalling over multiple time points.
Project description:Most humans are infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a cancer-causing virus. While EBV generally persists silently in B lymphocytes, periodic lytic (re-)activation of latent virus is central to its life cycle and to most EBV-related diseases. However, a substantial fraction of EBV-infected B cells and tumor cells in a population is refractory to lytic activation. This resistance to lytic activation directly and profoundly impacts viral persistence and effectiveness of oncolytic therapy for EBV+ cancers. To identify the mechanisms that underlie susceptibility to EBV-lytic activation, we used host protein-expression profiling of separated-lytic and -refractory cells.
Project description:In vivo antigen (Ag)-induced differentiation of B lymphocytes into plasma cells (PCs) takes place in extra-follicular foci and germinal centers of the secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs). Most of these SLO PCs are short-living and only relatively few PCs, characterized by secreting high-affinity antibodies (Ab), travel through the circulation and finally home in specialized survival niches of the bone marrow (BM) and, at a lesser extent, in the SLOs, where they become long-living Ab-secreting PCs. We have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with the potential to distinguish between human circulating Ag-induced PCs in comparison with tonsil and BM PCs distinctively regulate genes involved in cell proliferation. Gene expressions in human plasma cells isolated from tonsil (7 samples), blood (6 samples) and bone marrow (7samples) were measured. Each sample was isolated from a different donor.
Project description:The tumoral clone of Waldenstrons macroglobulinemia (WM) shows a wide morphological heterogeneity which ranges from B-lymphocytes (BL) to plasma cells (PC). By means of genome-wide expression profiling we have been able to identify genes exclusively deregulated in BL and PC from WM, but with a similar expression pattern in their corresponding cell-counterparts from CLL and MM, as well as normal individuals. The differentially expressed genes have important functions in B-cell differentiation and oncogenesis. Thus, two of the genes down-regulated in WM-BL were IL4R, which plays a relevant role in CLL B cell survival, and BACH2 that participates in the development of class-switched PC. Interestingly, one of the up-regulated genes in WM-BL was IL6. A set of 4 genes was able to discriminate clonal B-lymphocytes from WM and CLL: LEF1 (WNT/ßcatenin pathway), MARCKS, ATXN1 and FMOD. We also found deregulation of genes involved in plasma cell differentiation such as PAX5 which was overexpressed in WM-PC, and IRF4 and BLIMP1 which were underexpressed. In addition, three of the target genes activated by PAX5 -CD79, BLNK and SYK- were up-regulated in WM-PC. In summary, these results indicate that both PC and BL from WM are genetically different from the MM and CLL cell-counterpart. Keywords: Waldenstrons macroglobulinemia, expression profiling, microarrays, Affymetrix. Bone marrow (BM) samples from 10 patients with Waldenstrons macroglobulinemia (WM), 12 with multiple myeloma (MM) and 11 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were included in the study. All samples corresponded to newly diagnosed untreated patients. In addition, 8 normal B lymphocytes samples (NBL) from peripheral blood and 5 normal plasma cells (NPC) from bone marrow of healthy donors were also selected in order to relate the deregulation of GEP of clonal populations to normal condition. The study was approved by the local research ethics committee and written informed consent was obtained from all patients and healthy donors.
Project description:Transcriptome comparison of untreated murine IgD+B cell with LPS treated IgD+B cell B-lymphocytes constitute an important aspect of mammalian immune systems by virtue of their ability to produce highly specific antibodies in response to foreign antigens and pathogens. When B-lymphocytes encounter the particular antigen that they are responsive to, they differentiate into two types of cells: short-lived antibody-secreting plasma cells and long-lived memory cells. While the plasma B cells are responsible for the rapid resolution of a current infection or immune challenge, the memory B cells are responsible for mounting a rapid response to subsequent exposures. Previous work had demonstrated that treatment of mice with a single dose of anti-CD40 at the time of immunization lead to improved secondary responses, suggesting an enhancement of the memory B cell pool. We are currently studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of memory B cells, using CD40 signalling as a tool. We have carried out a Microarray analyses of genome wide gene expression patterns in naïve B-lymphocytes following CD40 signalling, over multiple time points.