Tumour immunology studies the complex interactions between cancer cells and the immune system.
Research in this field aims to uncover the mechanisms by which the immune system inhibits cancer growth via anti-tumour responses and promotes tumour progression through immunosuppression.
Research in tumour immunology also aims to identify new ways of harnessing the power of the immune system to tackle cancer, including developing new immunotherapy treatments, such as immune checkpoint and adoptive T cell transfer therapies.
CancerTools.org has established the first-of-its-kind non-profit antibody collection where 2000+ antibodies developed by scientists globally have been curated in a single online collection for easy access. The antibodies below are a selection of the antibodies available in key research areas in tumour immunology including:
Analysing immune cells has become a key part of any research in tumour immunology. The CancerTools.org collection includes:
Image: Fluorescent staining of dendritic cells
Harnessing immune checkpoint inhibitors as immunotherapeutic agents represented a breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy. Immune checkpoints are regulators of immune activation that maintain self-tolerance by controlling the duration and extent of the immune response.
Cancer cells exploit these regulators by upregulating immune checkpoint proteins like PD-L1 and CTLA4 which negatively regulate the immune response, thus allowing tumour cells to evade the immune system.
The immunology collection features:
Image: Immune checkpoint interactions between a T cell and
a cancer cell. Created with BioRender.com
The tumour microenvironment is comprised of blood vessels, immune cells, stromal cells, signalling molecules and extracellular matrix surrounding the tumour. Its composition varies between tumour types, and it plays an active role in cancer progression. Better understanding of the tumour microenvironment regulation by the immune
system is key to harness anti-tumour immune responses.
The CancerTools.org antibodies can be used to study key processes occurring in the tumour microenvironment, such as: vascularisation, hypoxia, extracellular matrix remodelling, and inflammation. Targets included in the collection are:
Image: Tumour microenvironment, including cancer cells, immune cells, fibroblasts, inflammatory mediators, and vascular components. Created with BioRender.com
Inflammation is the biological response to stimuli by invading pathogens or endogenous signals, e.g., damaged cells, that results in tissue repair or pathology. It is considered the driving factor in many diseases, including atherosclerosis, autoimmunity, infections, and cancer.
The collection offers antibodies:
Image: Inflammatory cells in histopathological sample.
Tumour-intrinsic signalling pathways are considered oncogenic and play a key role in regulating the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and tumour immune escape.
These signalling pathways include STAT3, β-Catenin, PI3K/PTEN/AKT/mTOR, p53, NF-κB, RAS/RAF/MAPK, and KRAS/MYC. They can drive effective immunocyte exclusion and disfunction, as well as recruitment and differentiation of immunosuppressive cells in various tumour types.
The antibody collection targets a wide range of molecules involved in these signalling pathways, including AKT1, RAF, MYC and p53.
Image: Fluorescent staining of mammary tumour in MDA-MB-231-cell line derived orthotopic model. Green staining is for Omomyc, red for Ki67, and blue for DAPI. Photo credit: Laura Soucek.
Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications, and chromatin structure regulation, are often used by tumours to escape immune restriction.
Epigenetic targets of the antibody collection include:
Image: Histone post-translational modifications. Created with BioRender.com
CancerTools.org is the research tools arm of Cancer Research UK, a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SCO41666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247).