Our laboratory is primarily interested in the immunobiology of bone marrow transplantation and graft-vs-host disease. We have recently shown that the administration of certain immunosuppressive drugs after marrow transplantation can disrupt the education of the immune system resulting in a systemic autoaggression syndrome. The highly restricted autoreactive T cells have a unique specificity for MHC class II determinants and a peptide from the invariant chain. We are currently exploring the molecular interactions between the autoreactive T cell receptor and the MHC class II-invariant chain peptide complex. Certainly, the induction of this autoaggression syndrome is an untoward effect of immunosuppressive therapy. Nevertheless, we have successfully utilized this syndrome as antitumor immune therapy after bone marrow transplantation for tumors that express MHC class II antigens.

Y. Miura, C.J. Thoburn, E. C. Bright, W. Chen, S. Nakao and A. D. Hess. (2002) Cytokine and chemokine profiles in autologous graft-versus-host disease (GVHD): interleukin 10 and interferon-gamma may be critical mediators for the development of autologous GVHD. Blood 6:1097-1098 [PubMed]

Y. Miura, C. J. Thoburn, E. C. Bright, M. Sommer, S. Lefell, M. Ueda, S. Nakao, and A.D. Hess. (2001) Characterization of the T-Cell repertoire in autologous graft-versus-host disease (GVHD): evidence for the involvement of antigen-driven T-cell response in the development of autologous GVHD. Blood 98:12624-9 [PubMed]

A.D. Hess, C.J. Thoburn, W. Chen, Y. Miura and E. van der Wall. (2001) The N-terminal flanking region of the invariant chain peptide augments the immunogenicity of a cryptic "self" epitope from a tumor-associated antigen. Clinical Immunol. 3:911-917 [PubMed]

W.Chen, C. J. Thoburn, Y. Miura, M. Sommer, R. Hruban, Z. Qian, W. Baldwin, and A.D. Hess. (2001) Autoimmune-Mediated Vasculopathy. Clinical Immunol. 15:295-300 [PubMed]

A. D. Hess, C. J. Thoburn, W. Chen, and L. R. Horwitz. (2000) Complexity of Effector Mechanisms in Cyclosporine-Induced syngeneic Graft-Versus-Host Disease. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation In Press [PubMed]

A.D. Hess, C.J. Thoburn, and L. R. Horwitz. (1998) Promiscuous recognition of major histocompatibility class II determinants in cyclosporine-induced syngeneic graft-versus-host disease. Transplantation 277, 18069-18076 [PubMed]

W. Chen, C.J. Thoburn, and A.D. Hess. (1998) Characterization of the pathogenic autoreactive T cells in cyclsoporine-induced syngeneic graft-versus-host disease. J. Immunol. 412:86 [PubMed]

A.D. Hess, E.C. Bright, C.J. Thoburn, G.B. Vogelsang, R.J. Jones, and M.J. Kennedey. (1997) Specificity of effector T lymphocytes in autologous graft-versus -host disease: role of the major histocompatibility complex class II invariant chain peptide. Blood 20:500 [PubMed]