Immunotherapy of chronic hepatitis C virus infection
Chronic infection caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) is characterized by the lack of antiviral T cell responses, whereas viral clearance is associated to strong and multiepitopic responses. This suggests that induction of T cell-mediated immune responses might be an efficient immunotherapeutic strategy in chronic HCV infection. Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen presenting cells responsible for the activation of T cells, whose functional ability has been suggested to be impaired in chronic hepatitis C. Thus, our group is focussed on the development of vaccination strategies based on DC administration or on administration of immunogens containing viral antigens and DC activating molecules. Our research is interested in different vaccination protocols against HCV using DC in mouse models. At the same time, we are characterizing functional ability of DC from patients with chronic HCV infection who might be potentially included in clinical trials based on the above mentioned protocols.

Development of peptide inhibitors of immunosuppressive molecules
An important feature of chronic infections and cancer is the expression immunosuppressive molecules able to inhibit immune responses which should lead to pathogen clearance or tumor eradication. Thus, our group is interested in the development and application of peptide inhibitors of these immunosuppressive molecules which could be used in the restoration and enhancement of immune responses.

Initial works with peptide inhibitors of TGF-beta have shown the utility of this strategy, suggesting that these peptides can be used in vaccination and in the therapy of malignant and infectious diseases. Peptide inhibitors of TGF-beta are efficient in blocking the activity of regulatory T cells, and their use in different in vivo models of immunotherapy is currently being studied.

Similarly, we are developing peptide inhibitors of interleukin 10, cytokine whose immunosuppressive role has been described in several models and pathological situations. The in vivo activity of several peptides able to block in vitro the activity of IL-10, is now being tested in different models.