Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0024312 (lymphopenia)
 4,859 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Most cytotoxic drugs have gross effects on the immune system, such as neutropenia and lymphopenia. However, their effects on tumor-specific immune responses are unknown. Gemcitabine is a nucleoside analogue that is frequently used to treat non-small cell lung cancer. It is also active in other malignancies, either alone or in combination with cisplatin. Here, we investigate its effects on antigen-specific antitumor immunity using a murine tumor cell line transfected to express influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA). CD4(+), CD8(+), and B220(+) lymphocyte numbers all decreased during chemotherapy (120 microg/g, i.p., every third day for five doses), but B cells were selectively depleted. Gemcitabine induced a profound suppression of the IgG antibody response to HA, and this was unrelated to tumor size. In contrast, in vitro T-lymphocyte recall responses to the class I- and class II-restricted dominant peptide epitopes of HA were enhanced in tumor-bearing, gemcitabine-treated mice. We found that gemcitabine was >2-fold more potent in its ability to inhibit B-lymphocyte proliferation compared with T-lymphocyte proliferation. Thus, gemcitabine does not appear to be detrimental to specific antitumor cellular immunity and may be useful in combination chemo-immunotherapy protocols. In contrast, vaccination protocols requiring a humoral immune response for maximal efficacy may be compromised in patients treated with gemcitabine.
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PMID:Gemcitabine exerts a selective effect on the humoral immune response: implications for combination chemo-immunotherapy. 1195 96