title: Mechanisms of immune evasion of human neuroblastoma.
abstract: Neuroblastoma (NB) is a common neuroectodermal tumor of childhood with low response to conventional therapy in patients with advanced stage disease. Among novel strategies, immumotherapy has attracted much interest. However, scanty information is available about the immunogenicity of human NB. Here, we review our data showing that human NB may evade the control mediated by T cytotoxic lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells through multiple mechanisms: (i) downregulation of HLA class I molecules and antigen processing machinery components (ii) downregulation of activating ligands for the activating immunoreceptor NKG2D expressed by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cells. Additional mechanisms of immune evasion used by human NB cells are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Oncology, G. Gaslini Institute, Genova, Italy. lizziaraffaghello@ospedale-gaslini.ge.it
authors.forename: Lizzia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Raffaghello
authors.forename: Ignazia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prigione
authors.forename: Irma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Airoldi
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Camoriano
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morandi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bocca
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gambini
authors.forename: Soldano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferrone
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pistoia
mesh_terms: D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I