PROPHYLACTIC IMMUNIZATION WITH PARASITE-DERIVED ANTIGENS DECREASES THE GROWTH OF A MAMMARY TUMOR IN MICE

CAMILA BULFONI; CECILIA FARRÉ; FLORENCIA PACINI; FLORENCIA GONZÁLEZ; SILVINA VILLAR; GUSTAVO CHAPO; IVÁN MARCIPAR; MAURICIO MENACHO MÁRQUEZ; ANA ROSA PÉREZ; ANDRÉS ALLOATTI

Tucumán

Congreso; SAI 2019 Meeting; 2019

In recent years, immunotherapy has emerged as a promising line of research in thedevelopment of antitumor treatments, whose purpose is to restore and/or enhance the abilityof the immune system to effectively combat neoplastic cells. It has long been known thatparasitic infections may affect tumor growth. In particular, Trypanosoma cruzi (causative agentof Chagas disease) presents a series of antigens with antiangiogenic and antitumor properties.Among the possible reasons why parasitic antigens derived from T. cruzi could interfere withtumor growth, both innate and adaptive immunity might participate. However, cellular andmolecular bases of this process are still unknown. Our preliminary results suggest that BALB/cmice infected with T. cruzi show delayed growth of 4T1 tumor, associated with an increase incellular immunity.To elucidate the mechanisms involved, we immunized BALB/c mice with antigen formulations(protein concentration: 1mg/ml) derived from: T. cruzi epimastigotes; T. cruzi tripomastigotes;4T1 tumor cells or PBS as control. Additionally, we planned two different experimentalschemes, immunizing mice before (prophylactic approach) and after (therapeutic) tumorinoculation (n=7 for each group). Whereas the therapeutic approach did not show significantdifferences with the control group, the prophylactic scheme (in particular antigen formulations of parasite origin) significantly delayed tumor growth and increased survival.