Novel therapeutic approach for cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma

• Main Author: Low, Jian Hui
• Other Authors: Navin Kumar Verma
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68186
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a skin-localizing, non-Hodgkin lymphoma arising from the malignant transformation of skin-homing CD4+ T-cells. The primary drivers of CTCL pathogenesis is aberrant signalling of the JAK/STAT3 pathway, resulting in defective apoptosis and increased cellular proliferation. In this study, we employed antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology to specifically target STAT3 in various CTCL cell lines, which have been reported to be notoriously difficult to transfect without the use of transfection agents. We demonstrated successful gene silencing of STAT3 in vitro with the use of chemically modified ASO, and specific knockdown of STAT3 induced various morphological markers indicating apoptotic cell death. These results indicate that self-delivering STAT3-targeting ASO could serve as an alternative approach for CTCL treatment.