Research Department of Immuno-Oncology

Head of the Department — Elza Lomaia, MD, PhD.

Major tasks

To study the biology of leukemic cells in hematological malignancies.
To identify factors predicting the effectiveness of targeted therapy.
To study the effect of immunological and genetic markers on drug resistance and progression of the disease.
To develop algorithms for leukemia diagnosis and treatment in order to improve the overall survival of patients and their quality of life.
To edit T cells and NK cells for cancer treatment.
To improve the outcomes of treatment of embryonal CNS tumors in high-risk children through personalized therapy based on the study of the molecular and genetic profile using next-generation sequencing.
To create a personalized model of the immune microenvironment in myeloproliferative diseases.
To identify immunological prognostic markers that contribute to early treatment intensification.
To determine immunotherapy targets.
To create new approaches aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of existing immunotherapy drugs and establish more precise criteria for their rational use.

Focus areas

Determining molecular and genetic characteristics of embryonal CNS tumors.
Identifying prognostically unfavorable alterations in embryonal CNS tumors.
Determining the possibilities of targeted therapy based on the molecular and genetic profiling in children with embryonal CNS tumors.
Evaluating the effectiveness of metronomic chemotherapy combined with mTOR inhibitors in patients with relapsed and refractory embryonal CNS tumors.
Studying the biology of leukemic cells in hematological malignancies, identifying factors predicting the effectiveness of targeted therapy.
Studying the effect of immunological and genetic markers on drug resistance and progression of the disease.
Developing algorithms for leukemia diagnosis and treatment in order to improve the overall survival of patients and their quality of life.

Project description

The study of immunological, molecular and genetic biomarkers of myeloid neoplasms in order to personalize therapy based on the identified determinants.

Structure

Specialists

Elza Lomaia, MD, PhD, Head of the Department
Konstantin Bogdanov, PhD in Biology, Leading Researcher
Larisa Girshova, MD, PhD, Senior Researcher
Yulia Mirolyubova, Researcher
Yulia Rogovaya, Junior Researcher
Tamara Chitanava, Junior Researcher
Ekaterina Klimenko, Research Assistant
Anastasia Reshetova, Research Assistant
Aleksina Shatilova, Research Assistant
Yulia Yakovleva, Research Assistant

Projects

The Research Department of Immuno-Oncology implements seven projects aimed at solving the following tasks:

1) Study of immunological markers as predictors of response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and therapeutic targets in myeloproliferative diseases.

2) Study of the immune landscape of acute leukemia to create an individual immunological profile of the patient for profile-based personalized therapy.

3) Development of methods for improved effectiveness and safety of haploidentical bone marrow transplantation based on the study of the characteristics of immune recovery and adaptive cellular immune technologies.

4) Creation of a platform for the expansion of the most effective subpopulations of CAR NK cells through rational stimulation of surface receptors.

5) Solving the challenges of CAR T/NK cell therapy, increasing the resistance of CAR T cells to the tumor microenvironment and correcting chemotaxis.

6) Creation of dual CAR-CAR-T combination recognizing two antigens.

Improvement of the outcomes of treatment of embryonal CNS tumors in high-risk children through personalized therapy based on the study of the molecular and genetic profile using next-generation sequencing.

Major publications

Shuvalov O., Kizenko A., Petukhov A., Aksenov N., Fedorova O., Vorobev M., Daks A., Barlev N. Cancer-testis antigens, semenogelins 1 and 2, exhibit different anti-proliferative effects on human lungadenocarcinoma cells. Cell Death Discov. 2020;6:108. doi: 10.1038/s41420-020-00336-5. eCollection 2020. PubMed PMID: 33101710; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7581521.
Fedorova O., Daks A., Shuvalov O., Kizenko A., Petukhov A., Gnennaya Y., Barlev N. Attenuation of p53 mutant as an approach for treatment Her2-positive cancer. Cell Death Discov. 2020;6:100. doi: 10.1038/s41420-020-00337-4. eCollection 2020. Review. PubMed PMID: 33083021; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7548004.
Vasileva E., Shuvalov O., Petukhov A., Fedorova O., Daks A., Nader R., Barlev N. KMT Set7/9 is a new regulator of Sam68 STAR-protein. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2020 May 14;525(4):1018-1024. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.03.017. Epub 2020 Mar 13. PubMed PMID: 32178870.
Titov A., Valiullina A., Zmievskaya E., Zaikova E., Petukhov A., Miftakhova R., Bulatov E., Rizvanov A. Advancing CAR T-Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors: Lessons Learned from Lymphoma Treatment. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Jan 3;12(1). doi: 10.3390/cancers12010125. Review. PubMed PMID: 31947775; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7016531.
Efimova O. A., Koltsova A. S., Krapivin M. I., Tikhonov A. V., Pendina A. A. Environmental Epigenetics and Genome Flexibility: Focus on 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020;21(9):3223.
Sharma N., Fonin A. V., Shpironok O. G., Silonov S. A., Turoverov K. K., Uversky V. N. Folding perspectives of an intrinsically disordered transactivation domain and its single mutation breaking the folding propensity. Int. J. Biomacromol, 2019.
Zaytsev D., Girshova L., Ivanov V., Budaeva I., Motorin D., Badaev R., Mirolubova J., Grobovenko E., Chitanava T., Zaykova E., Alexeeva J., Zaritskey A. Rapid Efficacy of Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin in Refractory AML Patients with Pulmonary and Kidney Failure. Biology (Basel). 2020 Feb 10;9(2):28. doi: 10.3390/biology9020028.
Lauseker M., Bachl K., Turkina A., Faber E., Prejzner W., Olsson-Strömberg U., Baccarani M., Lomaia E., Zackova D., Ossenkoppele G., Griskevicius L., Schubert-Fritschle G., Sacha T., Heibl S., Koskenvesa P., Bogdanovic A., Clark R. E., Guilhot J., Hoffmann V. S., Hasford J., Hochhaus A., Pfirrmann M. Prognosis of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia presenting in advanced phase is defined mainly by blast count, but also by age, chromosomal aberrations and hemoglobin. //Am J Hematol. 2019 Nov;94(11):1236-1243. Doi: 10.1002/ajh.25628.
Melikyan A. …& Lomaia E.G. et al. PB2217 Epidemiological, clinical, molecular and genetic characteristics of primary myelofibrosis in the russian federation //Hemasphere. 2019;3(S): 994-995.
Titov A., Petukhov A., Motorin D., Zaritskey A., Shuvalov O., Soond S. M., Piacentini M., Melino G., Barlev N. A., Bulatov E., Staliarova A. The biological basis and clinical symptoms of CAR-T therapy-associated toxicities. Cell Death and Disease. 2018. Vol. 9. No 9. P. 897.
Goldberg S. L., Cortes J. E., Gambacorti-Passerini C., Hehlmann R., Khoury H. J., Michallet M., Paquette R. L., Simonsson B., Zyczynski T., Foreman A., Abruzzese E., Andorsky D., Beeker A., Cony-Makhoul P., Hansen R., Lomaia E., Olavarria E., Mauro M. J. First-line treatment selection and early monitoring patterns in chronic phase-chronic myeloid leukemia in routine clinical practice: SIMPLICITY.// Am J Hematol. 2017 Nov;92(11):1214-1223. Doi: 10.1002/ajh.24887.

Patents and inventions

Contacts

Elza Lomaia, Head of the Department
tel.: +7 (921) 385-06-50
e-mail: lomelza@gmail.com