Cancer immunoresistance may be partially due to loss of a well-known tumor suppressor gene, according to new research led by Andrew T. Parsa, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.

The findings are reported today (December 10) online and are scheduled to appear in the January issue of Nature Medicine.

It has been known for a long time that cancer cells have many different ways to avoid the immune system, including the common strategies of hiding proteins that are normally expressed on the cell surface or making proteins that act to suppress immune responses, according to Parsa. Some researchers believe that immunoresistance may contribute to cancer progression and development, he added.

Over the past four years, Parsas lab has focused on trying to understand how specific mutations associated with high grade glioma correlate with immunoresistance. Malignant glioma is among the deadliest types of brain cancer for which there currently is no effective treatment.

My colleague James Waldron and I began screening different cell lines for mutations and trying to match these mutations up with proteins that suppress the immune system, Parsa said.

The researchers began to see an interesting trend. Glioma cells with mutation in a specific gene called the phosphatase and tensin homolog gene, or PTEN, seemed more resistant to the immune system than glioma cells with normal PTEN function. Determining the mechanism responsible for the immunoresistance proved more difficult.

Fortunately, Russ Piepers lab here at UCSF had developed a model that took normal human astrocytes and made them act like a malignant glioma. This allowed us to study the effects of PTEN mutation in a very well controlled manner, Parsa said.

In glioma patients who have lost PTEN function, the tumor cells were found to express high levels of B7-H1, a protein that c
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Contact: Carol Hyman
chyman@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-476-2557
University of California - San Francisco
10-Dec-2006