Laboratory for Vaccine Design

In modern society, the number of patients suffering from allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, food allergy and pollinosis are increasing. However, there is still no effective drug or treatment for causal therapy. We are challenging to create drugs for the reduction of IgE antibody formation in patients, which is the common issue among all allergic diseases. Now, research and development of the liposome vaccine using new low molecular compounds "RCAI-X" that can remarkably enhance the immunoregulatory functions of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells more than alpha-GalCer have been started.

Research Fields

Chemistry / Biology & Biochemistry / Molecular Biology & Genetics / Immunology / Pharmacology & Toxicology / Clinical Medicine / Microbiology

Research Subjects

• Research for IgE suppression mechanism by liposomal vaccine containing iNKT cell ligand
• Research for immune tolerance mechanism by liposomal vaccine containing iNKT cell ligand
• Research for novel mechanisms of IgE suppression

Publications

1. Shimizu K, Mizuno T, Shinga J, Asakura M, Kakimi K, Ishii Y, Masuda K, Maeda T, Sugahara H, Sato Y, Matsushita H, Nishida K, Hanada KI, Dörrie J, Schaft N, Bickham K, Koike H, Ando T, Nagai R and Fujii SI.:
   "Vaccination with antigen-transfected, NKT cell ligand-loaded, human cells elicits robust in situ immune responses by dendritic cells."
   Cancer Res 73(1):62-73 (2012).
2. Duramad O, Laysang A, Li J, and Ishii Y.:
   "Pharmacologic Expansion of Donor-Derived, Naturally Occurring CD4(+)Foxp3(+) Regulatory T Cells Reduces Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease Lethality Without Abrogating the Graft-versus-Leukemia Effect in Murine Models."
   Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 17(8):1154-1168 (2011).
3. Okayama T, Matsuno Y, Yasuda N, Tsukui T, Suzuta Y, Koyanagi M, Sakaguchi M, Ishii Y, Olivry T, Masuda K.:
   "Establishment of a quantitative ELISA for the measurement of allergen-specific IgE in dogs using anti-IgE antibody cross-reactive to mouse and dog IgE."
   Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 139(2-4):99-106 (2011).
4. Ishii Y, Motohashi S, Shimizu K, Nakayama T, Taniguchi M, and Fujii S.:
   "Application of NKT cells in immunotherapy"
   Curr Immunology Rev, 6, 109-115 (2010).
5. Yasuda N, Masuda K, Tsukui T, Teng A, and Ishii Y.:
   "Identification of canine natural CD3-positive T cells expressing an invariant T-cell receptor alpha chain."
   Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 132(2-4):224-231(2009).
6. Fujita H, Teng A, Nozawa R, Takamoto-Matsui Y, Katagiri-Matsumura H, Ikezawa Z, Ishii Y.:
   "Production of both IL-27 and IFN-{gamma} after the treatment with a ligand for invariant NK T cells is responsible for the suppression of Th2 response and allergic inflammation in a mouse experimental asthma model."
   J Immunol. 183(1):254-260 (2009).
7. Ito T, Hasegawa A, Hosokawa H, Yamashita M, Motohashi S, Naka T, Okamoto Y, Fujita Y, Ishii Y, Taniguchi M, Yano I, Nakayama T.:
   "Human Th1 differentiation induced by lipoarabinomannan/lipomannan from Mycobacterium bovis BCG Tokyo-172."
   Int Immunol. 20(7):849-60 (2008).
8. Ishii Y, Nozawa R, Takamoto-Matsui Y, Teng A, Katagiri-Matsumura H, Nishikawa H, Fujita H, Tamura Y, Taniguchi M.:
   "Alpha-galactosylceramide-driven immunotherapy for allergy"
   Front Biosci. 13:6214-28 (2008).
9. Tamura Y, Teng A, Nozawa R, Takamoto-Matsui Y, Ishii Y.:
   "Characterization of the immature dendritic cells and cytotoxic cells both expanded after activation of invariant NKT cells with alpha-galactosylceramide in vivo."
   Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 369(2):485-92 (2008).
10. Harada M, Magara-Koyanagi K, Watarai H, Nagata Y, Ishii Y, Kojo S, Horiguchi S, Okamoto Y, Nakayama T, Suzuki N, Yeh W-C, Akira S, Kitamura H, Ohara O, Seino K-I, and Taniguchi M.:
    "IL-21–induced Bε cell apoptosis mediated by natural killer T cells suppresses IgE responses."
    J. Exp. Med. 203: 2929-2937 (2006).