Carolina Adriane Bento

Bachelor in Biological Sciences from the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo (IB-USP) and Master in Biological Sciences (Biochemistry) from the Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo (IQ-USP).I am currently a doctoral student at the Postgraduate Program in Biological Sciences (Biochemistry) at the Institute of Chemistry at the University of São Paulo (IQ-USP).The objective of the ongoing project is to evaluate macrophage's polarization in tumor context. Macrophages can switch between pro-inflammatory (M1) and anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotypes. In tumor microenvironment, studies indicate an correlation between the M1 phenotype and antitumor activity, while correlating M2 and pro-tumor activity. The challenge in tumor immunotherapy is to promote an antitumor polarization of macrophages, thus increasing the immune response against the tumor. The Bj-PRO-10c peptide, isolated from the Bothrops jararaca venom, is capable of increasing both, activity and expression, of the enzyme responsible for generating nitric oxide, the argininosuccinate synthase (ASS1). This contributes to the inflammatory functions of macrophages. The P2X7 receptor is part of the purinergic receptor family and is activated in high concentrations of ATP. One of the roles of this receptor is to control the natural properties of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1#946; and TNF-#945;. Such cytokines are correlated with M1 polarization. Therefore, our hypotheses are that the treatment of macrophages with Bj-PRO-10c and the activation of P2X7 is capable of inducing an inflammatory polarization in macrophages, and/or be capable of re-educating anti-inflammatory macrophages. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)