The role of synergy and antagonisation between chemokine variants in immunity and cancer

During the last decade, cancer immunotherapy has complemented the traditional trio of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Concurrently, the tumor-host ecosystem or the complex interplays between cancer and immune cells have been dissected in molecular detail, often with difficulties to translate basic knowledge towards therapy. We investigate the molecular biology of chemokines as critical factors in the interplay between cancer cells and the immune system to understand the biology, to define new cancer markers for better diagnosis and, hopefully, to apply our findings in the clinic. Chemokines, a group of chemotactic cytokines that mediate directed cell migration, play dual roles in tumor biology because some increase, whereas others decrease, the blood supply to the tumor via stimulation or inhibition of angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. Some chemokines attract pro-tumoral leukocytes, whereas others recruit anti-tumoral leukocytes. Finally, some chemokines induce tumor cell proliferation, migration and homing to metastatic sites. This project aims at the detection of new chemokine variants and the study of how these molecules regulate inflammation and cancer, as chronic inflammation is one of the hallmarks of cancer. We wish to evaluate whether chemokines can be used as biomarkers, to detect very early stages of cancer. In addition, synergism and antagonization between chemokines will be studied in the context of these pathologies, both in vitro and in vivo.