The design of a broad application tumor vaccine requires the identification of tumor antigens expressed in a majority of tumors of various origins. We questioned whether the major stress‐inducible heat shock protein Hsp70 (also known as Hsp72), a protein frequently overexpressed in human tumors of various histological origins, but not in most physiological normal tissues, constitutes a tumor antigen. We selected the p391 and p393 peptides from the sequence of the human inducible Hsp70 that had a high affinity for HLA‐A*0201. These peptides were able to trigger a CTL response in vivo in HLA‐A*0201‐transgenic HHD mice and in vitro in HLA‐A*0201+ healthy donors. p391‐ and p393‐specific human and murine CTL recognized human tumor cells overexpressing Hsp70 in a HLA‐A*0201‐restricted manner. Tetramer analysis of TILs showed that these Hsp70 epitopes are targets of an immune response in many HLA‐A*0201+ breast cancer patients. Hsp70 is a tumor antigen and the Hsp70‐derived peptides p391 and p393 could be used to raise a cytotoxic response against tumors of various origins. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Parkinson disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons. Mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress or protein misfolding and aggregation may underlie this process. Autophagy is an intracellular catabolic mechanism responsible for protein degradation and recycling of damaged proteins and cytoplasmic organelles. Autophagic dysfunction may hasten the progression of neuronal degeneration. In this study, resveratrol promoted autophagic flux and protected dopaminergic neurons against rotenone-induced apoptosis. In an in vivo PD model, rotenone induced loss of dopaminergic neurons, increased oxidation of mitochondrial proteins and promoted autophagic vesicle development in brain tissue. The natural phytoalexin resveratrol prevented rotenone-induced neuronal apoptosis in vitro, and this pro-survival effect was abolished by an autophagic inhibitor. Although both rotenone and resveratrol promoted LC3-II accumulation, autophagic flux was inhibited by rotenone and augmented by resveratrol. Further, rotenone reduced heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression, whereas resveratrol increased HO-1 expression. Pharmacological inhibition of HO-1 abolished resveratrol-mediated autophagy and neuroprotection. Notably, the effects of a pharmacological inducer of HO-1 were similar to those of resveratrol, and protected against rotenone-induced cell death in an autophagy-dependent manner, validating the hypothesis of HO-1 dependent autophagy in preventing neuronal death in the in vitro PD model. Collectively, our findings suggest that resveratrol induces HO-1 expression and prevents dopaminergic cell death by regulating autophagic flux; thus protecting against rotenone-induced neuronal apoptosis.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the proteases responsible for tissue remodeling during liver fibrosis caused by various disorders including biliary atresia. However, information regarding the relative contribution of these proteases to liver fibrosis is still limited. We studied matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), -7, -9 and -13 mRNA expressions in the liver tissue of early-stage biliary atresia at the time of Kasai's procedure, late-stage biliary atresia at the time of liver transplantation with advanced fibrosis and nondiseased control without liver fibrosis. The results of real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis revealed that only MMP-2 and -7 expressions were significantly different between groups. MMP-2 was significantly higher in Liver Transplantation group than both in Control (P ¼ 0.010) and in Kasai's Procedure (P ¼ 0.001) groups, whereas the difference of MMP-2 expression between Control and Kasai's Procedure was not significant. However, the relative expression level of MMP-7 was sequentially elevated when comparing Control, Kasai's Procedure and Liver Transplantation groups, and there was significant (P ¼ 0.019) difference when comparing Control and Liver Transplantation groups. Moreover, the fold difference in MMP-7 mRNA was much higher than that in MMP-2 mRNA between groups. The expressions of MMP-7 were further confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis and Western blotting. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed a significant positive correlation of the scores of MMP-7 immunostaining with the stages of liver fibrosis. In situ hybridization demonstrated that the bile ductular epithelial cells, Kupffer cells and hepatocytes were the major producers of matrix metalloproteinase-7 in the liver. Our results imply that MMP-7 is a major MMP associated with the tissue remodeling during the progression of liver fibrosis in biliary atresia. Modern Pathology (2005) 18, 941-950.