DETECTION OF CELLULAR/IMMUNE RESPONSES TO MITF IN NORMAL SUBJECTS AND

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 黑素细胞主要调控基因MITF(微型眼球相关转录因子)在进行性黑色素瘤中被发现扩增。MITF扩增在转移性疾病中更为常见，并与患者总体生存期的降低相关。由于MITF扩增的黑色素瘤细胞对化疗具有高度抵抗力，因此将采用一种不同的方法来利用免疫治疗的力量来评估替代策略是否可能被证明在治疗中有用或作为进行性黑色素瘤的标志。志愿者和患者的角色将是献血，将使用来自MITF基因的多肽进行调查，这些多肽已经通过生物信息学方法确定。这些多肽将用于流式细胞仪研究，以确定该基因产物是否存在免疫识别，以及这种识别是否存在于健康志愿者和疾病不同阶段的黑色素瘤患者中。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. A melanocyte master regulatory gene called MITF (Micro-phthalmia-associated transcription factor) was found to be amplified in progressive melanomas. MITF amplification was more prevalent in metastatic disease and correlated with decreased overall patient survival. Since the melanoma cells with amplified MITF are highly resistant to chemotherapy, a different approach utilizing the power of immunotherapy will be enlisted to evaluate whether an alternative strategy may prove useful in therapy or as a marker for progressive melanoma. The role of the volunteers and patients will be to donate blood, which will be surveyed using peptides derived from the MITF gene that have been determined using bioinformatics approaches. These peptides will be used in flow cytometry studies to determine whether there is immune recognition of this gene product and whether the recognition is present in both healthy volunteers and melanoma patients with different stages of the disease.