IMMUNOTHERAPY IN THE NINETIES:
The impact of molecular immunology in the treatment
of cancer and autoimmune diseases
International Workshop
Center of Molecular Immunology
Havana City, Cuba
May 16-20, 1994
SPONSORED BY:
PAN-AMERICAN
HEALTH ORGANIZATION
T H I R D A N N O U N C E M E N T
I.- MEETING COMPOSITION
In the previous 2nd Announcement, the organizing committe advanced some ideas
about the reasons for this meeting, the topics to be discussed and the
fundamental questions to be addressed. These ideas were well received by the
scientific community active in the field.
Up to now, the following scientists have expressed intention to participate:
List of Invited Speakers
NAME COUNTRY POSITION
1. Prof. Peter Biberfeld Sweden Head, Lab of Immunopathology,
Karolinska Institute.
2. Prof. G. Dighiero France Chief, Service of Immunohematology and
Immunopathology.
Pasteur Institute.
3. Dr. James Larrick USA Scientific Director, Palo Alto Institute
for Molecular Medicine.
4. Prof. Jesper Zeuthen Denmark Head, Department of Tumor Cell
Biology, The Fibiger Institute, Danish Cancer Center.
5. Prof. Philip USA Head, Clinical Livingston Immunology Service,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
6. Prof. Willian J. Harris UK President and Chief
Harris Scientific Officer, Scotgen Biopharmaceuticals.
7. Prof. Sherie L. USA Chairman and Profesor,
Morrison Dept. of Microbiology and Genetics
UCLA, University of California.
8. Dr. Dan Holmberg Sweden Chief, Dept. for Cell and Molecular Biology. University of Umea.
9. Dr. Tadashi Tai Japan Chief of Dept. of Tumor Immunology.
Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science.
10. Prof. Donald Marcus USA Chief, Section on Rheumatic Diseases.
Baylor College of Medicine.
11. Dr. Jacques France Director of Research
Portoukalian Inserm. Institut National de nti et de la Recherche
Modicale
12. Prof. Carlos Spain Director, Centro de Biologia Molecular
Martinez Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
13. Dr. Andrew UK Senior Scientist
Griffiths Medical Research Council (MRC), Cambridge Centre
for Protein Engineering.
14. Dr. Heinz Kohler USA Medical Doctor, Ph.D. University of Kentuchy.
15. Dr. Jacques Aubry France Senior Scientist. University of Nantes.
Institut National de la Santi et de la
Recherche Midicale.
16. Dra. Cecilia Chile Head of the Immunology
Sepulveda Unit. University of Chile.
17. Dra. Christiane Argentina Head, Dpt. Medicine
Dosne National Academy of Medicine.
Buenos Aires.
18. Dr. Agustin Lage Cuba Director. Center of Molecular Immunology
19. Dr. Rolando Perez Cuba Research Director Center of Molecular
Immunology.
20. Dr. Luis Fernandez Cuba Head of Immunochemistry
Lab. Center of Molecular Immunology.
21. Dr. Jorge Gavilondo Cuba Head of the Diagnostic Division. Center of
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
22. Dr. Carlos Garcia Cuba Head of the Clinical Immunology Lab.
National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology.
23. Dr. Gustavo Sierra Cuba Vice-President. Finlay Institute.
Representations of scientific journals are also being invited.
The meeting will gather around 50 people, in a context adequate for intensive
discussion.
II.- MEETING ORGANIZATION
In the previous 2nd announcement, the organizers advanced several questions
around which discussions could be focussed.
These were:
Is it practically possible to re-program the adult immune system for
recognizing tumors as "nonself"?
Which molecules could be the best targets for an autoimmune rejection of
tumors? Can growth factors and growth factor receptors be presented as
autoantigens?
Which ways are available today to modify presentation of tumor-associated
antigens?
Is it possible to induce a mature response (high affinity antibodies produced
by conventional B cells in germinal centers) to T-independent self-antigens?
Can the conventional B cell repertoire be induced to react to the antigens of
the B-CD5+ repertoire?
What experimental strategies can be designed in order to identify meaningful
cross-reactive idiotopes on human V-regions and to evaluate the clinical
significance of their measurement?
Can idiotypic connectivity be artificially manipulated (increased or
decreased) in the adults central immune system? Which would be the predicted
outcomes of such an intervention? Is it possible to design a laboratory test
for the measurement of idiotypic connectivity in adult humans?
Is it possible to design a laboratory test for measuring the reduction of
diversity that take place in the B-CD5+ repertoire during aging? Can this
reduction of diversity be related to the increase in the incidence of tumors
and autoimmune disease with aging?
What is the predictable impact of antibody engineering technology on the
therapeutic efficacy of monoclonal antibodies?
What is the role of B-1a (CD5+), B-1b (sister) and B-conventional lymphocyte
subpopulations in the immune response to tumor antigens?
Which procedures can be designed today in order to induce (or suppress)
specifically selected idiotypes in the adults repertoire?
These questions are still non-operational. It is, they can not be directly
translated into experiments to answer them.
This is surely a very difficult task. In fact, the formulation of the critical
questions which are both meaningful and experimentally accesible is the core
of scientific creativity.
Immunology is full of non-operational concepts. For items such as network
antigen, self-related antigen, regulatory idiotope, suppresor clone, idiotypic
conectivity, and many others there is not a clear-cut experiment to define it.
The therapeutic manipulation of the repertoire of immune receptors in order to
reprogram the system to reject new antigens (cancer) or to accept other ones
(autoimmune diseases, organ transplantation), is a very appealing idea.
If the meeting is able:
to define each concept in operational (experimentally accessible) terms,
to decompose each question into questions susceptible to be addressed through
an experiment,
then meeting would have contributed to the advancement of "Immunotherapy in
the Nineties".
The organization of the meeting has been conceived to create possibilities for
this intellectual enterprise.
The following is a preliminary Program. Any suggestion of participants about
this preliminary Program will be highly appreciated and taken into account.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
MONDAY 16
Morning
9:00 . Wellcome speech
Dr. Miguel Marquez
Head of WHO/PAHO
Office in Havana.
. Acreditation of
participants.
. Overview of facilities
of the Center of
Molecular Immunology.
10:30 . Coffee Break
11:00 . Opening Conference.
Fundamental obstacles
for a rational thera-
peutic manipulation of the
repertoire of immune
receptors.
Dr. Agustmn Lage
(Cuba)
12:00 . Discussion
1:00 . Lunch
identification of
human diseases
MONDAY 16
Afternoon
Chairman: Dr. Cristina Mateo
2:00 . Enhancement of Antibody
Function.
Dr. Sherie L. Morrison
(USA)
2:30 . Discussion
3:00 . Production of Humanised
Monoclonal Antibodies
for in vivo imaging and
therapy.
Dr. W.J. Harris (UK)
3:30 . General Discussion
4:00 . Coffee Break
4:30 . Monoclonal Antibodies from
combinatorial immunoglobulin
libraries. Prospects and
current limitations.
Dr. Donald Marcus (USA)
5:00 . Discussion
5:30 . Antibody engineering. New
perspectives.
Dr. Andrew Griffiths (UK)
6:00 . Discussion
TUESDAY 17
Morning
Chairman: Dr. Amparo Macmas
9:00 . Natural Antibodies.
Dr. G. Dighiero
(France) ven clone selection, affinity
9:30 . Discussion
10:00 . Coffee Break
10:30 . Natural Antibodies,
effective B-Cell
repertoire develop-
ment and autoimmune
pathogenesis.
Dr. Dan Holmberg
(Sweden)
11:00 . Discussion
11:30 . Current status of
idiotypic vaccines
for cancer therapy.
Heinz Kohler
(USA)
12:00 . Discussion
1:00 . Lunch internal world seems to
TUESDAY 17
Afternoon
Chairman: Dr. Amparo Macias
2:00 . MRL/lpr A5 a model for
developing and testing
models in immunotherapy.
Dr. Carlos Martinez
(Spain)
2:30 . Discussion
3:00 . The EGF-system as a
target of cancer
immunotherapy.
Dr. Agustin Lage (Cuba)
3:30 . Discussion
4:00 . Coffee Break
4:30 . Recurrent Idiotypes and
idiotype-induced T Cell
suppresion concepts:
their impact in cancer
vaccine design.
Dr. Rolando Pirez (Cuba)
5:00 . General Discussion
WEDNESDAY 18
Morning
Chairman: Dr. Oscar Valiente
9:00 . Immunotherapy of human
tumor-associated
gangliosides: a pilot
study of the EORTC
melanoma group.
Dr. Jacques Portoukalian
(France)
9:30 . Discussion carrier sequences
10:00 . Coffee Break
10:30 . Towards v-gene repertoire
of antiganglioside anti
bodies.
Dr. Jacques Aubry (France)
11:00 . Discussion
11:30 . Ganglioside-KLH conjugate
vaccines plus a potent
immunological adyuvant,
results in prolonged IgM
and IgG antibody responses
in patients with melanoma.
Dr. Philip Livingston (USA)
12:00 . Discussion session about vaccine design will
1:00 . Lunch
WEDNESDAY 18
Afternoon
Chairman: Dr. Oscar Valiente
2:00 . Characterization of
ganglioside expression
in human melanoma cells:
Immunological and
biochemical analysis.
Dr. Tadashi Tai (Japan)
2:30 . Discussion
3:00 . Monosialoganglioside,
GM3 and derivatives as
targets for cancer
immunotherapy.
Dr. Luis E. Fernandez (Cuba)
3:30 . Discussion
4:00 . Coffee Break
4:30 . Computer-assisted modeling
of ganglioside antigens:
energetic mapping of self
epitopes.
Dr. Juan D. Garrido (Cuba)
5:00 . Discussion
5:30 . Selection of carriers,
adjuvants and potentiators
for new vaccines.
Dr. Gustavo Sierra (Cuba)
6:00 . General Discussion
THURSDAY 19
Morning
Chairman: Dr. Ana M. Vazquez (Cuba)
9:00 . T-Cell receptor variable
gene usage in tumor infil-
trating lymphocytes in
malignant melanoma.
Dr. Jesper Zeuthen
(Denmark)
9:30 . Discussion
10:00 . Coffee Break
10:30 . Anti B-7 therapeutics.
The therapeutic use of
recent knowledge about
the CD28-B7 pathway.
Dr. James W. Larrick (USA)
11:00 . Discussion
11:30 . The dual role of the
immune system in tumor
development.
Dr. Christiane D.
Pasqualini (Argentina)
12:00 . Discussion
1:00 . Lunch
THURSDAY 19
Afternoon
Chairman: Dr. Ana M. Vazquez
2:00 . New anti IL-6 and
immunoprotocol for
treatment of AIDS
lymphoma. A model for
anti-growth factor
immunotherapy.
Dr. Peter Biberfeld (Sweden)
2:30 . Discussion
3:00 . The treatment of lymphoma
with anti-CD6 monoclonal
antibodies.
Dr. Carlos Garcma (Cuba)
3:30 . Discussion
4:00 . Coffee Break
4:30 . Expression of Antibody
Fragments in E. Coli.
Dr. Jorge Gavilondo (Cuba)
5:00 . General Discussion
FRIDAY 20
Morning
""Buffer" Session: topics to be The morning session is
announced.
FRIDAY 20
Afternoon
2:00 . Visit to biotechnology
facilities in the west
zone of Havana.
4:00 . Concluding session.