Bio: I studied immunology and gerontology at the Graduate School of Kyoto University and obtained my doctorate, during which I learned a wide range of knowledge and skills. And then I encountered experimental study in the fild of occupational health, especially about toxicological effects of asbestos at Hyogo Medical University. After that I moved to Kawasaki Medical School, and started studying about immunological effects of asbestos in earnest, when was the timing of the "Kubota Shock (asbestos disaster in Amagasaki)" in 2005. Since then, I have been actively engaged in the related research, consistently working for research and education in occupational and environmental health and preventive medicine. In addition, I could also accumulate my carrier as a visiting fellow at Oxford University. To date, I have received numerous awards, including the 7th JCIA LRI Award (2021) from the Japanese Society of Toxicology.

Abstract: It is obvious that asbestos exposure causes mesothelioma, but its unique aspects of low dose exposure and long latency suggest unknown machinery of asbestos toxicity. Therefore, we have focused on the immunotoxicity of asbestos and conducted various in vitro cell culture experiments and functional analyses using human T cells and NK cells to figure the asbestos-induced impairment of antitumor immunity. Particularly, among our findings, the downregulation of CXCR3 and IFN-γ in CD4+ T cells, as well as the reduction of NKp46 in NK cells, were observed as immunological characteristics of peripheral blood lymphocytes in pleural mesothelioma patients. Then we recently explored the association between mesothelioma treatment efficacy and immune dynamics and found that the mRNA level of NKp46 in NK cells was markedly restored in a representative nivolumab responder, accompanied by the decrease in PD-1 mRNA expression level. These gene expression changes were confirmed to fluctuate in a dose-dependent manner in culture media supplemented with IL-2 and IL-15. Recently, it has been discovered that CSV and ecto-CRT, which appear upon oncogenic transformation, are recognized by NKp46. Our findings suggest that gene expression changes in NK cells might serve as biomarkers for monitoring the efficacy of immunotherapy in mesothelioma patients.