Identification of key genes that is correlated with long-term maintenance of cytotoxic activity in WT1 specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25830116
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Tumor therapeutics
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: MORIMOTO Soyoko 大阪大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 研究員 (10649023)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: WT1特異的CTL / single cell定量PCR

Outline of Final Research Achievements

High frequency of WT1 specific effector-memory CTL involved in the appearance of good clinical response. However key genes specifying such effector-memory CTL were unknown. To find out genes specifying function of WT1 specific CTL which has cytotoxic activity for a long time, we established a method of multiple gene-expression analysis using single-cell real-time PCR. This analysis revealed that WT1 specific effector-memory CTL population from cancer patients could be divided into two groups: the “activated” and “quiescent” states. These results suggest that this unique gene expression in WT1 specific effector-memory T cell contributed to meaningful function of CTL for induction of good clinical response.

Free Research Field

癌免疫