2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Comparative immunological research on tumor-associated immune cells using Drosophila

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K19395
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 47:Pharmaceutical sciences and related fields
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	Nakanishi Yoshinobu 金沢大学, 薬学系, 特任教授 (40172358)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	白土明子札幌医科大学, 医療人育成センター, 教授 (90303297) 永長一茂弘前大学, 地域戦略研究所, 准教授 (70401891)
Project Period (FY)	2018-06-29 – 2020-03-31
Keywords	癌 / 自然免疫 / 腫瘍随伴免疫細胞 / 貪食 / アポトーシス / ショウジョウバエ
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Some types of immune cells in mammals help cancer cells and are called tumor-associated immune cells. In the present study, we verified the possible existence of such immune cells in Drosophila. If the answer is positive, studying tumor-associated immune cells with the aid of genetic approach is made possible. Establishing a Drosophila model of cancer, we first examined the distribution of hemocytes in the vicinity of cancer cells, but this was not the case. We next examined the effects of inhibition of phagocytic activities of immune cells on cancer development, but the data showed an increase, not decrease, of the incident of cancer. Finally, we determined the pattern of gene expression in immune cells isolated from cancer-bearing and normal Drosophila. We found a clear difference in mRNA repertoire between the two groups. This change was toward a decline of immune cells’ activity. Collectively, our study suggests the presence of tumor-associated immune cells in Drosophila.
Free Research Field	免疫生化学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	学術的意義：ヒトを含めた哺乳類で存在が示された腫瘍随伴免疫細胞については不明な点が多く残されている。ショウジョウバエは遺伝学を駆使できるモデル生物であり、今後は腫瘍随伴免疫細胞を遺伝学的に解析することが可能となる。その結果、腫瘍随伴免疫細胞の発生や機能発揮に必要な遺伝子群の網羅的な同定が行われて、研究が大きく進展すると期待される。社会的意義：腫瘍随伴免疫細胞の理解が進めば、この種の免疫細胞の量や質を人工的に改変するなどの、癌を予防・治療するための新たな医療の開発につながると期待される。