UPO book

Brief Research Description

ICOS is a costimulatory receptor expressed on activated T cells and binds to ICOSL, a receptor expressed in many cell types. We recently found that ICOSL binds also osteopontin (OPN) without interfering with the binding site used by ICOS. OPN is both an extracellular matrix protein and a soluble cytokine involved in inflammation, angiogenesis, cell migration and tumor development, and it binds also several integrins and CD44 using distinct binding sites. ICOSL triggering by ICOS or OPN induces different effects on tumor development, inflammation, immune response, and repair of injured tissues. The ongoing research investigates the functional interplay between ICOS, ICOSL, and OPN, with a particular focus on the cancer microenvironment and the ambition to exploit these interactions to design novel cancer immunotherapy approaches.

Keywords

Cancer, angiogenesis, tissue repair, immune response, inflammation

PubMed