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Therapeutic use of alternative protein binders targeting tumor biomarkers in clinical testing of oncology patients
Tauš, Petr ; Drbal, Karel (advisor) ; Lepšík, Martin (referee)
Almost until the end of the last century, antibodies (aka immunoglobulins) were considered the only class of specific binding proteins. The discovery of hybridoma technology in 1975 had enabled the production of monoclonal antibodies and after twenty years some of them have entered clinical practice. Meanwhile, the first non-immunoglobulin protein scaffold, in which new specific binding sites could be introduced was discovered. To date, many different alternative scaffolds have been described, but only a few of them are being further developed for diagnostics, therapeutics or tools in basic research. Since these structures are overcoming the drawbacks of immunoglobulin structure, which are big size, expensive production and difficult rational design, they have potential to replace and exceed them. In this bachelor's thesis all the alternative scaffolds in development are summarized. Moreover, their advancements in clinical trials are described and compared with approved therapeutics based on immunoglobulin structure.
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Vliv chemoterapie a genotoxického stresu na imunologické vlastnosti nádorových buněk.
Horňáková, Michaela ; Reiniš, Milan (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
Cancer treatment includes the use of chemotherapeutic agents, which have various effects on tumour cells, such as direct toxicity to cancer cells, immunogenic cell death induction and changes in cancer cells phenotype. Throughout the last decade many researchers have been focusing on the induction of genotoxic stress and cellular senescence, which chemotherapy can trigger. Even though induction of senescence in cancer cells represents an important mechanism for tumour suppression, there has been increasing evidence that shifting cancer cells into a senescent state by chemotherapy is not always beneficial. Senescent cells are associated with a specific secretory phenotype, which allows such cells to alter their microenvironment, modulate anti-tumour immunity, induce tumour suppression and even promote cancer development. Therefore, senescent cells elimination by innate or specific immunity, which can be boosted by immunotherapy, can be an important barrier preventing tumour growth. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Studies on interactions between natural killer cell lectin receptors and their protein ligands.
Hernychová, Lucie ; Novák, Petr (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
NK cells are innate lymphocytes which constitute the first line of organism's defence against infections through their receptor system. These cells represent an important part of antiviral and antitumor immunity, they also play a role in transplant immunity, autoimmunity and reproduction. This diploma thesis inquires into the structure of the transmembrane receptor NKR-P1B of mouse NK cells and the interaction with its ligand Clr-b. The aim was to prepare the expression vector coding the ligand-binding and whole extracellular region of the receptor NKR-P1B and to optimize its production and refolding in vitro. Purified protein samples were analyzed by size-exclusion chromatography, electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Interaction between NKR-P1B and Clr-b proteins was tested using biophysical (size-exclusion chromatography and surface plasmon resonance) and biological methods (labelling of cellular sample with NKR-P1B proteins marked with fluorescent dye). In vitro binding experiments have not confirmed mutual interaction between NKR-P1B and Clr-b despite the prepared proteins binding to the bone marrow cells.
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Role of prion proteins at differentiating cells
Kučerová, Johanka ; Holada, Karel (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
Cellular prion protein (PrPC) is well known for its pathological isoform PrPSc, widely believed to be the infectious agent of the prion diseases, which include Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The physiological role of PrPC is poorly understood, but its involvement in the regulation of apoptosis, adhesion molecules, antioxidant, or signal molecules, has been described. Despite of these findings, it hasn't been proven, that the protein is necessary for normal development of mice. However, the protein was shown to be essential for regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells after exposure to lethal stress conditions. Expression of PrPC may have an effect on the proliferation and differentiation of cells by helping them keep the proliferative activity, or slow spontaneous differentiation. The quantity of the protein correlates positively or negatively with expression of transcription factors such as Oct4/Nestin, which are essential for development in embryogenesis. Its expression also regulates transition of cells from G1 phase to S phase of the cell cycle. This bachelor thesis is focused on published results describing the influence of PrPC on cellular proliferation and differentiation.
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Molecular mechanisms and components controlling the Wnt signaling pathway output
Krausová, Michaela ; Kořínek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee) ; Bryja, Vítězslav (referee)
Beyond its essential roles in embryonic development, the Wnt-mediated signal transduction cascade is critically implicated in homeostasis of adult tissues. In the gastrointestinal epithelium, the threshold of active Wnt signaling is kept in a physiological range by a spectrum of regulatory networks and loops, thereby balancing the opposing processes of cell fate determination, proliferation and stem cell self-renewal. Furthermore, compelling evidence undoubtedly link an aberrant Wnt activity to the onset of bowel cancer. Understanding the principle causes and effects secondary to excessive Wnt signaling can provide valuable insights into the pathology of the malignant transformation of the colorectum. The proposed thesis attempts to focus on novel modes of the Wnt pathway modulation; both general and context-specific nuances of the Wnt level adjustment are thereby delineated. The results are presented in three distinct research publications and one review article. The first study examines the contribution of the distinct post-translational modifications, which the Wnt proteins undergo, to their proper processing, secretion and signaling activity. First, we investigated the sequential order and mutual interdependence of cysteine and serine-linked fatty acylation and N-linked glycosylation of murine...
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Possibilities of using stem cells for treatment of ocular surface injuries
Kössl, Jan ; Holáň, Vladimír (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
Ocular surface defects are one of the most common causes of impaired vision or even blindness. Corneal transplantation is the first choice of the treatment of these defects. If the damage is extensive and includes the limbus, niche of limbal stem cells (LSCs), LSC deficiency (LSCD) occurs and reparation with regeneration of cornea is impaired. The only way to treat LSCD is limbal transplantation or transplantation of autologous LSCs from the healthy eye. In cases of bilateral LSCD there are no autologous LSCs available. The use of allogeneic LSCs is associated with the requirement of systemic or local administration of immunosuppressive drugs which have often negative side-effects and outcomes remain uncertain. The alternative for treatment of ocular surface defects and LSCD is finding a new source of an appropriate autologous stem cell substitute which are e.g. mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These cells can be obtained from bone marrow or adipose tissue of the particular patient. MSCs can be easily cultivated ex vivo and can be transferred onto the damaged ocular surface using appropriate scaffold. Here they can differentiate to corneal epithelial cells, have immunomodulatory properties and produce numerous trophic and growth factors. The experiments with MSCs on animal models of mechanically or...
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Studies on structure and biological functions of NKR-P1 receptors
Rozbeský, Daniel ; Novák, Petr (advisor) ; Konvalinka, Jan (referee) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
Natural killer (NK) cells play a significant role in the detection and destruction of virally infected and tumor cells. The NKR-P1 receptors regulate NK cell function by an alternative missing-self recognition system. Although the NKR-P1 receptors were among the first surface NK receptors identified on rodent NK cells more than 20 years ago, there is still very little known about their biological function and their physiological ligands. Furthermore, no three-dimensional structure of any of the NKR-P1 family receptors has been published so far. To understand the functional architecture of mouse NKR-P1 receptors, we developed a simple and efficient protocol providing large amounts of pure soluble NKR-P1 proteins. The crystal structure of mouse NKR-P1A, determined at 1.7 A resolution, is the first structure of a representative of the NKR-P1 family. Crystal structure is formed by a compact C-type lectin-like domain and an extended loop that participates in domain swapping. A potential role of the swapped loop has been suggested in natural ligand binding by in silico studies. However, chemical cross-linking and H/D exchange in combination with high resolution mass spectrometry revealed this loop in close proximity to the compact core in solution. The discrepancy between the crystal and solution structure...
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The use of RNA affinity tags in RNA biology
Vaškovičová, Michaela ; Svoboda, Petr (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
RNA molecules play essential role in many important processes in living organisms. Messenger RNAs transmit genetic information from the DNA to the cellular sites of protein synthesis. RNAs, which do not encode for proteins, have numerous specialized functions in regulation of gene expression, splicing, transport, localization, translation, and stability of RNAs. For example, ribosomal and transfer RNAs are required for the translation of proteins; small nuclear RNAs are involved in splicing, and small nucleolar RNAs modify other RNAs. MicroRNAs and small interfering RNAs are essential regulators of gene expression. Other non-coding RNAs regulate chromatin and transcription. RNAs are typically present in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes containing various proteins, which are essential for functions of the complexes. Understanding RNA-protein interactions and composition of RNP complexes is critical for delineating their functions. The common strategy in the study of RNP complexes is tagging the RNA component, in order to isolate, purify and analyze the tagged RNAs with their binding partners. Tagged RNP complexes can be subsequently subjected to further studies. In the first part of my work, I describe four basic strategies of tagging the RNA, which can be used for study of RNAs and RNP complexes....
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Localisation of CD4 coreceptor and its variants in human T cells
Glatzová, Daniela ; Cebecauer, Marek (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee)
CD4 co-receptor of main T cell receptor (TCR) is essential for proper development of T lymphocytes and their function in adaptive immune responses. It is believed that CD4 stabilizes the interaction of TCR with antigenic ligand, peptide-MHC, and thereby improves T cell-dependent responses during immune reaction. CD4 is transmembrane glycoprotein with a number of structural motifs in its intracellular domain which do not dramatically affect its sorting to the plasma membrane but can influence its local organization at nanoscale. CD4 was shown to transiently accumulate in the immunological synapse formed between T cell and antigen-presenting cell. Such accumulation is rapidly followed by its internalization and/or delocalization outside the synapse. This is in contrast with TCR which accumulates strongly in the immunological synapse and is later found enriched in the central area of this structure. It is therefore unclear how TCR and its CD4 co-receptor function together when binding to their common ligand during the initiation of signaling in T cells. We aim to study localization of CD4 at nanoscale using advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques achieving significant improvements in resolution. In this work, CD4 and its mutant variants, potentially causing its different localization at the...
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