The Therapeutic Innovation pillar is issued from neuroimmune research developed by Prof. M. Salzet since 2002 on neuroendocrine factors expression in macrophages and their role in the immune response. Such results have led us to reconsider the term neuroendocrine, not only as cells that secrete their products in a regulated manner, in response to a specific stimulus but to also include the notion that activation of specific genetic switches can lead to the expression of a partial or full neuroendocrine phenotype in a variety of cell types, including immune cells or neuroendocrine cancer cells. Thus, besides functional similarities, there is potentially a particular developmental link that bridges the neuroendocrine and immune system.
The Therapeutic Innovation axis is also organized in two work packages so-called Early diagnosis (WP&) and Therapy (WP2). WP1 use tools developed by the technological innovation pillar to investigate both cellular communications and mechanisms in context of neuroendocrine cancers and neuroimmune response. WP2 is devoted to immune cells reprogramming especially in context of tumors or brain inflammation. WP2 will be mainly focused on immune factors linked to tumor immunotolerance issued from alternative ORF. Such investigations will lead developments of specific therapies including CAR-Macrophages developments and new vaccine using ghost immunopeptides. Astrocyte reprogramming in glioblastoma is also investigated through the study of neural Ig inhibition and antigen recognition. While WP1 is devoted to basic sciences, WP2 is a translational theme to clinical settings based on the study in breast cancer and glioblastoma.
