The role of hCG in the development of the immune response.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The biological effects of synthetic bio-molecules that may either mimic or antagonise the function of hCG in the development of cancer and autoimmune disease.
IRAS ID
281123
Contact name
Susan Outram
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Middlesex University
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The aim of this study is to generate peptide aptamers that act as either agonists/stimulators or antagonists/blockers of the hCG signalling pathway. Peptide aptamers are small combinatorial proteins that are selected to bind to specific sites on their target molecules (Reverdatto et al, 2016). They have the advantage of being quick, relatively inexpensive and easy to make. It is proposed that a monovalent aptamer would act as an antagonist by binding to hCG directly and thus blocking the hCG signalling pathway. As hCG is known to have the capacity to induce immune regulation, many tumours have ‘hijacked’ this function and have themselves managed to escape the host anti-tumour immune response by secreting hCG. This reagent could therefore potentially act as an immunotherapeutic for the treatment of hCG secreting tumours by blocking the ability of hCG to switch off the anti-tumour response. Conversely, a stimulatory agonist aptamer could be used to stimulate the hCG signalling pathway which should induce the presence of immune regulatory cells such as Tregs, Bregs and M2 macrophages which potentially could all play a role in reversing the immunopathology caused in autoimmune disease. Once generated, these reagents would then be tested in vitro for their ability to induce or block the differentiation of immunoregulatory T, B and macrophage cells in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and also, ultimately, they could be introduced in vivo in a mouse hCG secreting tumour model.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SW/0136
Date of REC Opinion
13 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion