Impact of TRPV6 ligation on colonic epithelial cell-dendritic cell crosstalk during induction of an innate immune response

Recent findings have established the importance of communication between the epithelial cells that line the gutand dendritic cells, which are a type of white blood cell, for initiating and regulating host immune responses.One of the molecules that might be involved in these important interactions is a calcium channel, termedTRPV6, that has signaling properties and is expressed by epithelial cells in the colon. Soricimed BiopharmaIncorporated (SBI) has developed a family of small proteins that bind to and alter the activity of TRPV6, and isinterested to determine whether binding of these proteins to colonic epithelial cells affects the ability of nearbydendritic cells to response to a bacterial "danger signal". In this collaborative research project, we willdetermine the effect of TRPV6-selective peptide interactions on the ability of dendritic cells to produce variouschemical messengers response to CpG oligodeoxynucleotide present in the DNA of bacteria. This collaborationrepresents a unique opportunity to explore the response of dendritic cells to "danger signals" in the context ofaltered TRPV6 calcium channel function of gut epithelial cells.