Keio University

Pharma Foods International Co., Ltd.

Chie Kudo

Yutaka Kawakami

Masayoshi Toyoura

Yuji Shoya

Chihiro Yamazaki

Akiko Ishida

The present invention provides an anti-FSTL1 antibody or a fragment or functional equivalent thereof, wherein the antibody recognizes an epitope in a region selected from the group consisting of amino acid positions 48 to 100, 148 to 162, 193 to 216, 205 to 228, and 272 to 289 of SEQ ID NO: 1 (amino acid sequence of human FSTL1). The present invention also provides a combination product of a FSTL1 suppressor and additional cancer treatment. It is understood that immune defect such as immunosuppression or immunodeficiency is effectively mitigated by the present invention.

Anticancer agents or antimetastatic agents using FSTL1 and combination drug thereof

The invention features methods for inhibiting enhancement of expression of a FoxP3 gene in a cell, methods for inhibiting induction of differentiation of a cell into a regulatory T cell, methods for reducing immunosuppression, methods for stimulating tumor immunity, and methods for treating a patient with a tumor. The methods of the invention involve suppressing function of an FSTL1 protein in the cell. In the methods of the invention, function of an FSTL1 protein in the cell may be suppressed using an anti-FSTL1 antibody.

Reducer of immunosuppression by tumor cell and antitumor agent using the same

An object of the present invention is to provide methods for diagnosing and/or treating tumors using HERV-H env gene or HERV-H env Env protein. Specifically, tumors are diagnosed by detecting expression of HERV-H env gene; and agents for detecting the expression are used as diagnosing agents. Further, tumors are treated by inhibiting function of HERV-H env gene; and agents for inhibiting the function are used as antitumor agents. Furthermore, tumors are treated by administering a peptide having a certain sequence of HERV-H Env protein and the like; and the peptide is used as a cancer vaccine.

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Tokyo, Japan

Chie Kudo