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Biomarkers find a wide variety of applications in oncology from risk assessment to diagnosis and predicting and monitoring recurrence and response to therapy. Developing clinically useful biomarkers for cancer is faced with several challenges, including cancer heterogeneity and factors related to assay development and biomarker performance. Circulating biomarkers offer a

Biomarkers find a wide variety of applications in oncology from risk assessment to diagnosis and predicting and monitoring recurrence and response to therapy. Developing clinically useful biomarkers for cancer is faced with several challenges, including cancer heterogeneity and factors related to assay development and biomarker performance. Circulating biomarkers offer a rapid, cost-effective, and minimally-invasive window to disease and are ideal for population-based screening. Circulating immune biomarkers are stable, measurable, and can betray the underlying antigen when present below detection levels or even no longer present. This dissertation aims to investigate potential circulating immune biomarkers with applications in cancer detection and novel therapies. Over 600,000 cancers each year are attributed to the human papillomavirus (HPV), including cervical, anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers. A key challenge in understanding HPV immunobiology and developing immune biomarkers is the diversity of HPV types and the need for multiplexed display of HPV antigens. In Project 1, nucleic acid programmable protein arrays displaying the proteomes of 12 HPV types were developed and used for serum immunoprofiling of women with cervical lesions or invasive cervical cancer. These arrays provide a valuable high-throughput tool for measuring the breadth, specificity, heterogeneity, and cross-reactivity of the serologic response to HPV. Project 2 investigates potential biomarkers of immunity to the bacterial CRISPR/Cas9 system that is currently in clinical trials for cancer. Pre-existing B cell and T cell immune responses to Cas9 were detected in humans and Cas9 was modified to eliminate immunodominant epitopes while preserving its function and specificity. This dissertation broadens our understanding of the immunobiology of cervical cancer and provides insights into the immune profiles that could serve as biomarkers of various applications in cancer.
ContributorsEwaisha, Radwa Mohamed Emadeldin Mahmoud (Author) / Anderson, Karen S (Thesis advisor) / LaBaer, Joshua (Committee member) / Lake, Douglas F (Committee member) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Disturbances in the protein interactome often play a large role in cancer progression. Investigation of protein-protein interactions (PPI) can increase our understanding of cancer pathways and will disclose unknown targets involved in cancer disease biology. Although numerous methods are available to study protein interactions, most platforms suffer from drawbacks including

Disturbances in the protein interactome often play a large role in cancer progression. Investigation of protein-protein interactions (PPI) can increase our understanding of cancer pathways and will disclose unknown targets involved in cancer disease biology. Although numerous methods are available to study protein interactions, most platforms suffer from drawbacks including high false positive rates, low throughput, and lack of quantification. Moreover, most methods are not compatible for use in a clinical setting. To address these limitations, we have developed a multiplexed, in-solution protein microarray (MISPA) platform with broad applications in proteomics. MISPA can be used to quantitatively profile PPIs and as a robust technology for early detection of cancers. This method utilizes unique DNA barcoding of individual proteins coupled with next generation sequencing to quantitatively assess interactions via barcode enrichment. We have tested the feasibility of this technology in the detection of patient immune responses to oropharyngeal carcinomas and in the discovery of novel PPIs in the B-cell receptor (BCR) pathway. To achieve this goal, 96 human papillomavirus (HPV) antigen genes were cloned into pJFT7-cHalo (99% success) and pJFT7-n3xFlag-Halo (100% success) expression vectors. These libraries were expressed via a cell-free in vitro transcription-translation system with 93% and 96% success, respectively. A small-scale study of patient serum interactions with barcoded HPV16 antigens was performed and a HPV proteome-wide study will follow using additional patient samples. In addition, 15 query proteins were cloned into pJFT7_nGST expression vectors, expressed, and purified with 93% success to probe a library of 100 BCR pathway proteins and detect novel PPIs.
ContributorsRinaldi, Capria Lakshmi (Author) / LaBaer, Joshua (Thesis director) / Mangone, Marco (Committee member) / Borges, Chad (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
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The pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is still not fully understood in the scientific community. Evidence has shown that viral infections are one of the important environmental factors associated with the disease development. Seven of the top T1D related viruses were selected to study the prevalence of viral humoral

The pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is still not fully understood in the scientific community. Evidence has shown that viral infections are one of the important environmental factors associated with the disease development. Seven of the top T1D related viruses were selected to study the prevalence of viral humoral response in T1D patients using our innovative protein array platform called Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Array (NAPPA). In this study, each viral gene was individually captured using various PCR based techniques, cloned into a protein expression vector, and assembled as the first version of T1D viral protein array. Humoral responses of IgG, IgA, and IgM were examined. Although each class of immunoglobulin generated a wide-range of reactivity, responses to various viral proteins from different proteins were observed. In summary, we captured most of the T1D related viral genes, established viral protein expression on the protein array, and displayed the serum response on the viral protein array. The successful progress will help to fulfill the long term goal of testing the viral infection hypothesis in T1D development.
ContributorsDavis, Amy Darlene (Author) / LaBaer, Joshua (Thesis director) / Qiu, Ji (Committee member) / Desi, Paul (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2013-05