Halin showed me the two topics, which she and Neri would cover
Tolerance, AB in cancer therapy
Halin: Tell me about what tolerance is.
I began to talk about the ability to distinguish between self and non-self and went on to talk about AID and how in the thymus tolerance is built with positive and negative selection, induction of Tregs and the AIRE transcription factor.
She then said yes that one aspect of tolerance.
I knew she actually just wanted the list of what contributes to tolerance in general so I said Peripheral energy, Antigen segregation, Tregs.
Because I said AID at the beginning she wanted me to describe another situation where the tolerance is impaired: Hypersensitivity reactions
We went on to talk about what an allergen is and its features (low MW, soluble etc). I just kept talking about mostly Type I IgE mediated and its allergens and that there are molecules that can act as haptens.
Neri: Tell me How Ab can be used in cancer therapy and always ups and downs
Its rather a big topic so I just started talking: ADC and what they are, talked about the importance of the linker the features of the AB itself. Then he stopped me and said and now the pros and cons. I said ofc high affinity, that the small molecule can penetrate the cancer better. The cons would be a false linker (too early release of the drug and side effects)
Then I mentioned the AB and NK Fusion, that NK cells have the FcR and can bind AB and one does not need additional drug because NK are naturally abundant. He interrupted me and asked how do NK cells kill ( Perforin and granzymes). He just nodded and said continue. I went on with cons. Mentionend the heterogeneity of tumors and that they lose the expression of the target. He then looked down on the clock and asked Can you tell me in 30 seconds What a PD-1 blocker does. I said they block a receptor that can decrease the activation of effector cells.
As last question he said and what are possible side effects. Autoimmune symptoms
Then he said that the time is up... thank you... good luck with the other exams and so on :)