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Leukemia, notably Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a prominent subtype, is a major health concern worldwide, marked by high mortality rates. Despite
the recent improvements of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, there remain significant gaps in their efficacy, tolerability and resistance,
necessitating innovative therapeutic strategies. This study addresses this need by developing murine models of AML more closely emulating the clinical
setting for improved therapeutic evaluations.

Cancer research has long been impaired by the limitations of the use of animal models characterized by an environment highly dissimilar to the human one, frequently resulting in promising but ultimately clinically ineffective treatments. The engraftment of CD34+ haematopoietic stem cells in the triple knockout NCG mouse allows the reconstitution of a complete human immune system, with mature T cells, NK cells and macrophages. The human immune system could also be enhanced by the expression of human cytokines that will improve the immune system development. In order to recapitulate human tumor micro-environment, tumor cell lines from different tissue origins were engrafted on these advanced humanized immune system mice (HM). The obtained model allows the examination of xenograft growth in the context of a human immune system and resultant tumor microenvironment.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) refers to chronic intestinal immune-mediated diseases including two main disease manifestations: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Epidemiological, clinical, and preclinical evidence has highlighted the potential anti-inflammatory properties of naturally occurring alkaloids. In the present study, we investigated the potential anti-inflammatory activities of the tobacco alkaloids nicotine and anatabine in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC mouse model with a fully humanized immune system.

The BCL-2 prosurvival protein is implicated in HIV persistence and is a potential therapeutic target for HIV eradication efforts. We now know that cells harboring HIV are preferentially enriched for high BCL-2 expression, enabling their survival, and that the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax promotes the death of actively replicating HIV-infected cells in vitro and ex vivo. Herein, we assess the effect of venetoclax on immune clearance of infected cells and show that BCL-2 inhibition significantly enhances target cell killing induced by Fas ligand, TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), and perforin/granzyme B and synergistically enhances autologous NK (natural killer) and CD8 cells’ killing of target cells.

The hostile tumor microenvironment (TME) is a major challenge for the treatment of solid tumors with T-cell receptor (TCR)-modified T-cells (TCR-Ts), as it negatively influences T-cell efficacy, fitness, and persistence. These negative influences are caused, among others, by the inhibitory checkpoint PD-1/PD-L1 axis. The Preferentially Expressed Antigen in Melanoma (PRAME) is a highly relevant cancer/testis antigen for TCR-T immunotherapy due to broad expression in multiple solid cancer indications.

The clinical activity of new immunotherapies in cancer, such as anti-Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/Programmed death-ligand 1, has revealed the importance of the patient’s immune system in controlling tumor development. As in infectious diseases, dendritic cells (DCs) are critical for inducing immune responses in cancer. Unfortunately, autologous DC-based vaccines have not yet demonstrated their clinical benefit. Here, we review recent research using allogeneic DCs as alternatives to autologous DCs to develop innovative therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Tissue invasion by tumor cells induces a host inflammatory response that variably impacts tumorigenesis. This has been well documented for tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) that could play a pro/M2- or an anti/M1-tumoral function. TAMs frequently infiltrate diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an aggressive neoplasm arising from germinal center-experienced B cells. However, the pathway leading to the presence of TAMs in DLBCL remains unknown, and their impact is unclear.

Long-term immunity to coronaviruses likely stems from T cell activity. We present here a novel approach for the selection of immunoprevalent SARS-CoV-2-derived T cell epitopes using an in silico cohort of HLA-genotyped individuals with different ethnicities. Nine 30-mer peptides derived from the four major structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 were selected and included in a peptide vaccine candidate to recapitulate the broad virus-specific T cell responses observed in natural infection. PolyPEPI-SCoV-2-specific, polyfunctional CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were detected in each of the 17 asymptomatic/mild COVID-19 convalescents’ blood against on average seven different vaccine peptides.

Genomic instability is generally considered as a hallmark of tumorigenesis and a prerequisite condition for malignant transformation. Aluminium salts are suspected environmental carcinogens that transform mammary epithelial cells in vitro through unknown mechanisms. We report here that long-term culture in the presence of aluminium chloride (AlCl3) enables HC11 normal mouse mammary epithelial cells to form tumours and metastases when injected into the syngeneic and immunocompetent BALB/cByJ strain.