Aoshuang Chen, PhD
Associate Professor (RT)
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Contact
Building & Room:
UIC Health Sciences Campus-Rockford
Address:
1601 Parkview Avenue, Rockford, IL 61107
Email:
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About
Modifying T-cell Responses to Ameliorate Immune Diseases
Immunization against autoimmune diseases
To induce tolerance to antigens via immunization, we previously developed the “suppressed immunization” (“SI”) method. In this method, the glucocorticoid immunosuppressant dexamethasone is used as a “tolerogenic adjuvant” during antigen immunization. We showed that SI can preferentially expand antigen-specific CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) and IL-10+ B-1 B cells concomitantly, while blocking the recall responses of effector T (Teff) and B-2 B cells. In Balb/c mice with pre-established delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) to hen ovalbumin (OVA), we showed that SI with an OVA-derived peptide causes long-term desensitization to OVA rechallenge. In the NOD mouse model of type 1 diabetes, we showed that SI with an insulin-derived peptide blocks the progression of spontaneous diabetes. Our current research goals are:
To determine the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the tolerogenic efficacy of SI.
To explore the protective efficacy of SI in other autoimmune and inflammatory disease models, including the ApoE-/- mouse model of atherosclerosis and diet-induced obesity (DIO) mouse model of type 2 diabetes.
To identify new auto-antigens contributing to the inflammatory process of these diseases and explore them as targets in SI.
Selected Publications
Chen, A., Liu, S., Park, D., Kang, Y., & Zheng, G. (2007). Depleting intratumoral CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells via FasL protein transfer enhances the therapeutic efficacy of adoptive T cell transfer. Cancer Research, 67(3), 1291-1298. doi:67/3/1291 [pii]
Liu, S., Foster, B. A., Chen, T., Zheng, G., & Chen, A. (2007). Modifying dendritic cells via protein transfer for antitumor therapeutics. Clinical Cancer Research : An Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 13(1), 283-291. doi:13/1/283 [pii]
Zheng, G., Liu, S., Wang, P., Xu, Y., & Chen, A. (2006). Arming tumor-reactive T cells with costimulator B7-1 enhances therapeutic efficacy of the T cells. Cancer Research, 66(13), 6793-6799. doi:66/13/6793 [pii]
Chen, A., Xu, H., Choi, Y., Wang, B., & Zheng, G. (2004). TRANCE counteracts FasL-mediated apoptosis of murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells. Cellular Immunology, 231(1-2), 40-48. doi:S0008-8749(04)00183-2 [pii]
Zheng, G., Wang, B., & Chen, A. (2004). The 4-1BB costimulation augments the proliferation of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md.: 1950), 173(4), 2428-2434. doi:173/4/2428 [pii]