Abstract 785: The progesterone induced blocking factor, an immunomodulatory protein that may suppress natural killer cell activity in the tumor microenvironment, found to be a soluble protein possibly allowing the development of an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay

Abstract

Abstract A unique 34 kDa protein expressed by gamma delta thymic (T) cells during pregnancy suppresses natural killer (NK) cell activity and helps to shift the balance of thymic helper (TH) 1 to TH2 cytokine dominance. The mechanism involved in making this immunomodulaotry protein involves de novo induction of progesterone (P) receptors on gamma delta T cells by the allogeneic stimulus of the fetal semi-allograft and the interaction of the P receptors with a high concentration of P generated at the maternal fetal interface. There is evidence that certain cancer cells may use a similar mechanism to escape NK cell surveillance as evidenced by all 27 different human leukemia cells tested showing a very high level of messenger RNA for this immunomodulatory protein known as the progesterone induced blocking factor (PIBF). Furthermore adding the P receptor antagonist mifepristone down-regulated PIBF expression. PIBF may be synthesized by gamma delta T cells in the tumor microenvironment of solid tumors thus inhibiting NK cell immunosurveillance. Previous studies were performed using an immunocytochemistry technique using a polyclonal antibody because the PIBF protein was not purified. Recombinant DNA technology has allowed the production of a pure protein and thus the development of a monoclonal antibody. The present study was aimed at determining if PIBF is a soluble protein, which if it is could lead to the development of a much more practical and sensitive enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA). Serum samples were blindly assessed for the presence of PIBF using a novel sandwich ELISA we developed with full length (amino acid 1 to 757) recombinant human PIBF, rabbit polyclonal antibody to amino acid 1-300, and affinity purified goat polyclonal antibody to the internal region of PIBF conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. Color was developed using tetramethylbenzidine substrate stopped by 2N H2SO4 and read at 450 lambda. Bovine serum albumin served as negative control. Soluble PIBF was detected in several samples, with highest levels in pregnant patients at over 10 microgram/ml concentration. There were significant inter-individual differences. PIBF, does indeed also exist in a soluble form and can be detected in serum. With further refinement of our ELISA we aim to improve sensitivity and specificity, allowing for the simple measurement of PIBF on a rapid, high throughput basis, making it a more practical test to predict cancers that would benefit from progesterone receptor antagonist therapy. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 785. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-785