Doctor Małgorzata Lisowska from the International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science received funding in the competition MINIATURA 5 for the project, which aims at better understanding of CD20 receptor signalling in B-cell lymphoma. The funded scientific activity is the development of a tool for further analysis of the various effects of anti-CD20 antibody therapy. 

The CD20 B-cell antigen is an activated-glycosylated phosphoprotein that is expressed on the surface of B lymphocytes. Early experiments suggested that CD20 receptor was involved in the regulation of transport Ca2 + ion and plays a critical role in the proliferation and activation of human B lymphocytes. Nevertheless, the exact biological role of CD20 and its physiological ligand are not fully defined. For instance the CD20 deficient mice appeared to be not affected. Regardless of the uncertainty in the biological function of CD20, the antiCD20 cancer immunotherapy is included in the routine CHOP therapy for B cell lymphoma. At the same time, spontaneous B cell lymphoma in dogs is a model for human disease. Thus patient dogs diagnosed with B cell lymphoma could be targeted to better understand why some patients do not respond to anti CD20 therapy.

The founder of ICCVS, Professor Ted Hupp together with his collaborators created a canine phage display scFv library, of high variety and specificity, which has already allowed the isolation of canine antibodies against other antigens. We will perform silencing of the gene encoding the CD20 receptor in canine neoplastic B cells which will further be used for the isolation of canine CD20 specific scFv antibodies from the library.

MINIATURA is a competition organized by the National Science Center (NCN) addressed to people with a doctoral degree who plan to apply for further research funding from the National Science Center.

More information: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/konkursy/wyniki/miniatura5