Chemotherapy

Research Project

Studies for the biological roles of chemokine and chemokine receptors on cancer or infection.
Identification of novel oncogenes and their functional analysis in ATL.
Development of a novel systemic/mucosal therapeutic and prophylactic system.
Keywords: chemokine, vaccine, ATL, microneedle, nanotechnology.

Introduction

Chemokines are critical mediators of cell migration during immune surveillance, inflammation, and development. Our research group has identified several chemokine and chemokine receptors and clarified their biological functions on cancer or infection. Although chemokines can serve to benefit the host, inappropriate regulation or utilization of these proteins can contribute to cause many diseases. Therefore, a viable chemokine system is considered necessary as a means to target molecules for drug development.
We promote scientific research on the development of novel drugs, vaccines, or treatment strategies based on chemokine function on several diseases. For example, our previous report on ectopic expression of CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) on adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) lead to the development and practical use of the anti-CCR4 antibody drug “POTELIGEO” (Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.) for ATL in 2012. Currently, the prognosis for ATL leukemia is poor and its development mechanism has yet to be revealed. We have found that an activating a protein 1 (AP1) family member, FBJ murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog (FOS)-related antigen 2 (FRA2), is consistently expressed at a high level in ATL. On the basis of this cascade, we are attempting to elucidate a more detailed molecular mechanism for the treatment of ATL.
In addition, we found that conventional vaccination procedures such as transcutaneous immunization (TCI) or intranasal immunization induced mainly antigen-specific antibody responses, but failed to induce antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses. Therefore, some modifications are required. CTL plays a critical role in the protection of viral infection(s) or cancer treatment. We conduct research on the development of a chemokine-based vaccine adjuvant to modulate immune responses induced by protein, peptide, DNA, or nanoparticle-based vaccines.