Office of Postdoctoral Affairs
UF is a large and complex institution that provides diverse resources for professional and personal growth. The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs serves the postdoctoral community by orienting and connecting postdocs to resources to support their professional development and wellbeing, while working to enhance the visibility of postdoctoral contributions to UF’s research mission.
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Presentation By:
Kacoli Sen, PhD
College of Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering
Breast cancer cells under mild hyperthermic stress release exosomes with immunogenic potential stimulating pro-inflammatory phenotype in vitro in macrophages. (~30 min.)
Macrophages are an integral component of the innate immune system, playing a dual role in tumor promotion and tumor suppression; hence, it is important to understand their dynamics during therapeutic interventions. Mild hyperthermia treatment regimens against cancer have gained clinical importance due to their potential to improve therapeutic outcome of classical therapeutics, yet the response of macrophages to molecular signals from hyperthermic cancer cells is not clearly understood. In-depth understanding of alternative therapeutic approaches such as hyperthermia is relevant because this could lead to treatments that overcome drug resistance, a limiting factor of classical therapeutics in breast cancer treatment. In the present study, thermal dose response was determined by evaluating cytotoxicity in a range of hyperthermic temperatures and treatment durations in breast cancer cells. Under mild hyperthermic stress there was an increased heterogeneity and efflux of exosomes secreted by breast cancer cells which was evaluated by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis. When murine macrophages were exposed to exosomes secreted by heat treated cancer cells the former became polarized to an inflammatory M1 phenotype, which could trigger an immune response against cancer. Activation of macrophages was analyzed using ELISA while increased migratory potential accompanied by morphology change was evaluated using electron microscopy and transwell assays. The increased immunogenic potential of exosomes from heat-treated cancer cells could be attributed to changes in exosomal content of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70). The macrophage-based immunogenic response against breast tumor cells elicited by hyperthermia suggests that it can be a viable strategy to combat breast cancer.
This lunch-time seminar series will take place the 2nd Wednesday of each month from noon – 1:15pm (Except for April & May, where it was necessary to change the dateJ). The seminar will feature presentations from UF Postdocs, time to network with peers, and updates on campus resources from the Office of Postdoc Affairs. Note that the location will change each month based on the preference of the presenting postdoc.
Do you have an important presentation coming up? Sign up to give a practice presentation at the UF Postdoc Seminar Series.
Questions? Contact LilyRLewis@ufl.edu
