Sharon Hutchison

• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of the Highlands and Islands

The B‐cell system plays an important role in the melanoma immune response; however, consensus has yet to be reached in many facets. Here we comprehensively review human studies only, due to fundamental differences in the humoral response with animal models. Tumour infiltrating B‐cells are associated with contradictory prognostic values, reflecting...

This review focuses on the types of cancer antigens that can be recognised by the immune system and form due to alterations in the cancer genome, including cancer testis, overexpressed and neoantigens. Specifically, neoantigens can form when cancer cell-specific mutations occur that result in alterations of the protein from 'self'. This type of ant...

The incidence of malignant melanoma is rising faster than that of any other cancer in the United States. An [ 131 I]-labeled benzamide-[ 131 I]MIP-1145-selectively targets melanin, reduces melanoma tumor burden and increases survival in preclinical models. Our purpose was to determine the potential of radiosensitizers to enhance the anti-tumor effi...

Alum adjuvants have been in continuous clinical use for more than 80 yr. While the prevailing theory has been that depot formation and the associated slow release of antigen and/or inflammation are responsible for alum enhancement of antigen presentation and subsequent T- and B-cell responses, this has never been formally proven. To examine antigen...

Despite the recent advances in our understanding of the dynamics of the cellular interactions associated with the induction of immune responses, comparatively little is known about the in vivo behaviour of antigen-experienced T cells upon secondary antigen exposure in either priming or tolerance. Such information would provide an insight into the f...

The relative roles of innate immunity and antigen-specific T cells in rheumatoid arthritis remain controversial. Previous studies demonstrated that T-helper type 1 cells of irrelevant antigen specificity (ovalbumin) induced a transient arthritis in BALB/c mice, which recapitulates many of the pre-articular and articular features of human disease an...

T-cells are known to play a role in the pathology associated with experimental cerebral malaria, although it has not previously been possible to examine their behaviour in brain. Using multiphoton laser scanning microscopy, we have examined the migration and movement of these cells in brain tissue. We believe that this approach will help define hos...

It is widely accepted that allergic asthma is orchestrated by T helper type 2 lymphocytes specific for inhaled allergen. However, it remains unclear where and when T cell activation and division occurs after allergen challenge, and whether these factors have a significant impact on airways inflammation. We therefore employed a CD4-T cell receptor t...

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease that has been increasing in incidence throughout western societies and cytokines, including proinflammatory tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), have been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma. Anti-TNF-α therapies have been established successfully in the clinic for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Cr...

Sequencing studies showed that the gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-GCS) heavy chain genes from sodium stibogluconate (SSG)-resistant (SSG-R) and SSG-susceptible (SSG-S) Leishmania donovani strains were identical, indicating that SSG resistance was related to quantitative differences in gamma-GCS expression rather than gene interstrain poly...

Co-treatment of mice infected with different strains of Leishmania donovani with a non-ionic surfactant vesicle formulation of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO-NIV), and sodium stibogluconate (SSG), did not alter indicators of Th1 or Th2 responses but did result in a significant strain-independent up-regulation of IL6 and nitrite levels by stimulated sp...

Despite expanding use of drugs blocking tumour necrosis factor (TNF), their precise mechanisms of action remain unclear. Early assumptions that they act by direct neutralization of the toxic inflammatory effects of TNF might be too simplistic because they explain neither the range of effects observed nor the varying properties of different TNF-bloc...