Dance your PhD 2016 : Involvement of myeloid heme oxygenase-1 in tumor immune escape mechanisms

I am a MD PhD student from ULB University of Brussels and I am working in the Institute for Medical Immunology (IMI) laboratory in Gosselies. I work with my promotor and his team on tumor immune escape mechanisms involving heme oxygenase-1 enzyme (HO-1) and Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSC). MDSC have shown a major role in the suppression of antitumor immune response. Several mechanisms by which MDSCs promote immune escape have been described (among which Arginase-1 and iNOS). We have recently observed a key role of HO-1 in MDSCs suppressive activity in an allogeneic context. HO-1 is a stress-induced cytoprotective enzyme which catabolizes heme in degradation products (CO, iron, biliverdine and ferritin) with antiapoptotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive properties. Our preliminary results have shown that tumoral growth of cell lineages (ie: EG7 OVA) injected in mice that are specifically deficient for HO-1 in myeloid cells (HO-1 m KO) is clearly reduced compared to cont