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Bibliography on: Publications by FHCRC Researchers

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ESP: PubMed Auto Bibliography 10 Mar 2025 at 01:47 Created: 

Publications by FHCRC Researchers

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center began in 1975, with critical help from Washington State's U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson. Fred Hutch quickly became the permanent home to Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who had spent decades developing an innovative treatment for leukemia and other blood cancers. Thomas and his colleagues were working to cure cancer by transplanting human bone marrow after otherwise lethal doses of chemotherapy and radiation. At the Hutch, Thomas improved this treatment and readied it for widespread use. Since then, the pioneering procedure has saved hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. While improving bone marrow transplantation remains central to Fred Hutch's research, it is now only part of its efforts. The Hutch is home to five scientific divisions, three Nobel laureates and more than 2,700 faculty, who collectively have published more than 10,000 scientific papers, presented here as a full bibliography.

NOTE: From 1995 to 2009 I served as the Hutch's vice president for information technology — hence my interest in the organization. Although my role was in the admin division, if you dig through this bibliography, you will find a couple of papers with me as an author.

Created with PubMed® Query: ( fhcrc[Affiliation] OR "fred hutchinson"[Affiliation] OR "Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research"[Affiliation] OR "Fred Hutch"[affiliation] ) NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

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RevDate: 2025-03-05

Yuan JM, Kensler TW, Dacic S, et al (2025)

Randomized phase II clinical trial of sulforaphane in former smokers at high risk for lung cancer.

Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) pii:752771 [Epub ahead of print].

Experimental studies have shown dietary isothiocyanates reduced cellular proliferative marker Ki-67 and increased apoptotic markers Caspase-3 and TUNEL in animals, but human data are lacking. The present study was to assess whether sulforaphane would stop/reverse the progression of bronchial histopathology, reduce Ki-67 index and/or increase Caspase-3 and TUNEL indices in humans. A randomized clinical trial (NCT03232138) was conducted in former smokers. Forty-three subjects were randomly assigned to the placebo or the treatment with a potential daily dose of 95 µmol sulforaphane for 12 months. The endpoints were the changes of histopathology scores, and Ki-67, Caspase-3 and TUNEL indices in post- vs. pre-treatment bronchial biopsies. Thirty-seven participants (17 in the sulforaphane and 20 in the placebo group) completed the study. Supplementation of sulforaphane did not show significant impact on bronchial histopathology, but significantly reduced Ki-67 index with a 20% decrease in the sulforaphane group and a 65% increase in the placebo (p = 0.014). The difference was even greater in high-density (3+) positive Ki-67, with a 44% decrease in the sulforaphane group compared with a 71% increase in the placebo (p = 0.004). Higher bioavailability of sulforaphane was correlated with greater reduction of Ki-67 index (P for trend = 0.019). Sulforaphane treatment had no impact on Caspase-3 or TUNEL index in bronchial biopsies. No severe adverse event was observed in the study participants. The findings of oral sulforaphane that significantly reduced Ki-67 index in bronchial tissue support further development as a potential chemopreventive agent against lung cancer development.

RevDate: 2025-03-05

Owens L, Fung A, Shuhendler J, et al (2025)

Trends in Young-Onset Cancer Incidence: A Modeling Perspective.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute pii:8052210 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Recent increases in the diagnosis of certain cancers among younger individuals are generating intense concern. Many studies attribute the increase in so-called "young-onset" cancer to an etiologic cause but questions have also arisen about the role of earlier diagnosis.

METHODS: We simulate incidence trends from a natural history model that includes healthy, preclinical, and clinical disease states, where transitions from a healthy to a preclinical state represent disease onset and transitions from the preclinical to the clinical state represent diagnosis. We superimpose birth cohort effects on the rate of disease onset and period effects on the rate of disease diagnosis to identify those that match patterns of relative incidence by age group and five-year calendar interval from 2000-2019 for six "young-onset" cancers (colon, rectum, female breast, gastric, pancreas, kidney).

RESULTS: Two types of effects are broadly consistent with the observed increasing incidence trends in younger individuals: (1) A birth-cohort effect on disease onset that begins around 1970 and becomes more pronounced in later birth years, or (2) A period effect consistent with progressive reduction over time in the duration of preclinical disease. An earlier, protective birth cohort effect is consistent with recent declining trends in incidence in older individuals for colon, rectal, and gastric cancers.

DISCUSSION: A disease model provides clues about the possible drivers of cancer incidence trends, suggests constraints on the patterns of exposures that might be implicated etiologically, and indicates that the role of diagnostic changes warrants consideration alongside potential etiologic explanations.

RevDate: 2025-03-07

Yousefiasl M, Soltanattar A, Ezzatollahi Tanha A, et al (2025)

Association of triglyceride-glucose index with bone mineral density and fracture: a systematic review.

Diabetology & metabolic syndrome, 17(1):77.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Studies have found inconsistent results regarding triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and bone health. This systematic review aims to synthesize the existing evidence on the association between the (TyG) index, bone mineral density (BMD), and bone fractures.

METHOD: A comprehensive search of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases was performed for studies published up to December 26, 2024. Inclusion criteria encompassed human studies examining the TyG index in relation to BMD or fractures. The risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Data synthesis included both qualitative and descriptive statistical analyses.

RESULTS: From 201 studies identified, 12 met the inclusion criteria comprising 817,242 participants. Most studies reported a significant association between TyG index and bone fractures. The studies reported inconsistent findings regarding the association between the TyG index and BMD. While some studies found no correlation between the TyG index and BMD in individuals aged ≥ 50 years, studies on the general population aged ≥ 18 years demonstrated a significant correlation between the TyG index and BMD. Variations in the age of study populations, the presence of diabetes, BMI, and adjustment factors likely contributed to these discrepancies. Further research is needed to clarify the role of the TyG index in bone health and its potential utility as a surrogate marker.

CONCLUSION: The TyG index is associated with bone fractures and can serve as a surrogate marker for osteoporosis in the general populations rather than exclusively for the elderly.

RevDate: 2025-03-04
CmpDate: 2025-03-04

Javid SH, Kilgore MR, Austin EJ, et al (2025)

The development and comparative effectiveness of a patient-centered pathology report for breast cancer care: a randomized clinical trial.

Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 33(3):248.

PURPOSE: Pathology reports contain complex medical terminology that may be confusing or overwhelming for patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer. We evaluated the effectiveness of patient-centered pathology reports (PCPRs), which translate pathology results into patient-friendly language.

METHODS: Sixty-six participants newly diagnosed with breast cancer were randomized to receive either a PCPR and standard pathology report (intervention arm) or a standard pathology report alone (control arm). Patients were surveyed at initial pathology disclosure and 1 month later to assess breast cancer knowledge and ratings of decisional confidence, conflict, and self-efficacy for treatment decision-making. Knowledge was assessed for four pathology domains independently.

RESULTS: Accuracy of breast cancer knowledge across all domains trended higher for the intervention group compared with the control group (66% vs. 50%, p = 0.11); cancer type and surgical margin status knowledge domains exceeded 75% accuracy for the intervention group. No significant differences between groups were observed for patient-reported ratings of communication, decisional conflict, and decision self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS: PCPRs in lay language appeared to improve patients' knowledge of their breast cancer diagnosis, were acceptable to patients and providers, and have the potential to be broadly applied in an effort to improve patient knowledge and improve the patient experience surrounding a breast cancer diagnosis.

RevDate: 2025-03-07
CmpDate: 2025-03-04

Wang MF, Li MY, Yang YC, et al (2025)

Mug20-Rec25-Rec27 binds DNA and enhances meiotic DNA break formation via phase-separated condensates.

Nucleic acids research, 53(5):.

During meiosis, programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are formed at hotspots to initiate homologous recombination, which is vital for reassorting genetic material. In fission yeast, the linear element (LinE) proteins Mug20, Rec25, and Rec27 interdependently bind chromosomal hotspots with high specificity and are necessary for high-level DSB formation. However, their mechanistic role in regulating the meiotic DSB machinery remains unknown. Here, using purified Mug20-Rec25-Rec27 (MRR) complex and functional intracellular analyses, we reveal that the MRR-DNA nucleoprotein complex assembles phase-separated condensates that compact the DNA. Notably, MRR complex formation is a prerequisite for DNA binding and condensate assembly, with Rec27 playing a pivotal role in directly binding DNA. Consistent with this finding, failure to form MRR-DNA condensates results in defective intracellular meiotic DSB formation and recombination. Our results provide mechanistic insights into how LinEs enhance meiotic DSB formation and provide a paradigm for studies in other species.

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Coronado G, C Rutter (2025)

Response to McElroy and Everett.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute pii:8046495 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Alagoz O, Caswell-Jin JL, de Koning HJ, et al (2025)

Mathematical Modeling to Address Questions in Breast Cancer Screening: An Overview of the Breast Cancer Models of the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network.

Journal of breast imaging pii:8043169 [Epub ahead of print].

The National Cancer Institute-funded Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) breast cancer mathematical models have been increasingly utilized by policymakers to address breast cancer screening policy decisions and influence clinical practice. These well-established and validated models have a successful track record of use in collaborations spanning over 2 decades. While mathematical modeling is a valuable approach to translate short-term screening performance data into long-term breast cancer outcomes, it is inherently complex and requires numerous inputs to approximate the impacts of breast cancer screening. This review article describes the 6 independently developed CISNET breast cancer models, with a particular focus on how they represent breast cancer screening and estimate the contribution of screening to breast cancer mortality reduction and improvements in life expectancy. We also describe differences in structures and assumptions across the models and how variation in model results can highlight areas of uncertainty. Finally, we offer insight into how the results generated by the models can be used to aid decision-making regarding breast cancer screening policy.

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Zhao LP, Papadopoulos GK, Skyler JS, et al (2025)

Two DRB3 residues predictively associate with the progression to type 1 diabetes among DR3 carriers.

JCI insight pii:184348 [Epub ahead of print].

HLA-DR genes are associated with the progression from stage 1 and stage 2 to onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes (T1D), after accounting HLA-DQ genes with which they are in high linkage-disequilibrium. Based on an integrated cohort of participants from two completed clinical trials, this investigation finds that sharing a haplotype with the DRB1*03:01 (DR3) allele, DRB3*01:01:02 and *02:02:01 have respectively negative and positive associations with the progression. Further, we uncovered two residues (β11, β26, participating in pockets 6 and 4, respectively) on the DRB3 molecule responsible for the progression among DR3 carriers, i.e. motif RY and LF respectively delay and promote the progression (Hazard Ratio = 0.73 and 2.38, p-value = 0.039 and 0.017, respectively). Two anchoring pockets 6 and 4 probably bind differential autoantigenic epitopes. We further investigated the progression association with the motifs RY and LF among carriers of DR3 and found that carriers of the motif LF have significantly faster progression than carriers of RY (HR = 1.48 and p = 0.019 in unadjusted analysis; HR = 1.39, p = 0.047 in adjusted analysis). New insights provide an impetus to examine the possible role of specific DRB3-binding peptides in the progression to T1D.

RevDate: 2025-03-04
CmpDate: 2025-03-04

Haberman M, Kamyshinsky R, Reznik N, et al (2025)

MUC5AC filaments illuminate the structural diversification of respiratory and intestinal mucins.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(10):e2419717122.

Secreted mucins are multimegadalton glycoprotein polymers that share the function of protecting mucosal tissues but diversified for activities in different organs of the body. Structural studies of secreted mucins are complicated by the enormous sizes, flexibility, and complex supramolecular assembly modes of these glycoproteins. The two major respiratory mucins are MUC5AC and MUC5B. Here, we present structures of a large amino-terminal segment of MUC5AC in the form of helical filaments. These filaments differ from filamentous and tubular structures observed previously for the intestinal mucin MUC2 and the partial mucin homolog VWF. Nevertheless, the MUC5AC helical filaments support the proposed mechanism, based on MUC2 and VWF, for how noncovalent interactions between mucin monomers guide disulfide crosslinking to form polymers. The high-resolution MUC5AC structures show how local and limited changes in amino acid sequence can profoundly affect higher-order assembly while preserving the overall folds and polymerization activity of mucin glycoproteins. Differences in supramolecular assembly are likely to be functionally significant considering the divergence of mechanical properties and physiological requirements between respiratory and intestinal mucins. Determining the high-resolution structures of respiratory mucins provides a foundation for understanding the mechanisms by which they clean and protect the lungs. Moreover, the MUC5AC structure enables visualization of the sites of human amino acid sequence variation and disease-associated mutations.

RevDate: 2025-03-07

Hart ML, Davidsen K, Danquah S, et al (2025)

Succinate Dehydrogenase loss causes cascading metabolic effects that impair pyrimidine biosynthesis.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Impaired availability of the amino acid aspartate can be a metabolic constraint of cell proliferation in diverse biological contexts. However, the kinetics of aspartate depletion, and its ramifications on downstream metabolism and cell proliferation, remain poorly understood. Here, we deploy the aspartate biosensor jAspSnFR3 with live cell imaging to resolve temporal relationships between aspartate and cell proliferation from genetic, pharmacological, and nutritional manipulations. In cells with impaired aspartate acquisition from mitochondrial complex I inhibition or constrained uptake in aspartate auxotrophs, we find that the proliferation defects lag changes in aspartate levels and only manifest once aspartate levels fall below a critical threshold, supporting the functional link between aspartate levels and cell proliferation in these contexts. In another context of aspartate synthesis inhibition, impairing succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), we find a more complex metabolic interaction, with initial aspartate depletion followed by a rebound of aspartate levels over time. We find that this aspartate rebound effect results from SDH inhibition disproportionately impairing pyrimidine synthesis by inhibiting aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) through the dual effect of diminishing aspartate substrate availability while accumulating succinate, which functions as a competitive inhibitor of aspartate utilization. Finally, we uncover that the nucleotide imbalance from SDH inhibition causes replication stress and introduces a vulnerability to ATR kinase inhibition. Altogether, these findings identify a mechanistic role for succinate in modulating nucleotide synthesis and demonstrate how cascading metabolic interactions can unfold to impact cell function.

RevDate: 2025-03-07

Nicholas JC, Katz DH, Tahir UA, et al (2025)

Cross-Ancestry Comparison of Aptamer and Antibody Proteomics Measures.

Research square.

Measures from affinity-proteomics platforms often correlate poorly, challenging interpretation of protein associations with genetic variants (pQTL) and phenotypes. Here, we examined 2,157 proteins measured on both SomaScan 7k and Olink Explore 3072 across 1,930 participants with genetic similarity to European, African, East Asian, and Admixed American ancestry references. Inter-platform correlation coefficients for these 2,157 proteins followed a bimodal distribution (median r=0.30). Protein measures from each platform were associated with genetic variants (pQTLs), and one-third of the pQTL signals were driven by protein-altering variants (PAVs). We highlight 80 proteins that correlate differently across ancestry groups likely due to differing PAV frequencies by ancestry. Furthermore, adjustment for PAVs with opposite directions of effect by platform improved inter-platform protein measure correlation and resulted in more concordant genetic and phenotypic associations. Hence, PAVs need to be accounted for across ancestries to facilitate platform-concordant and accurate protein measurement.

RevDate: 2025-03-07

von Delft F, Ni X, Richardson R, et al (2025)

Crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning of Zika virus NS2B-NS3 protease enable development of resistance-resilient inhibitors.

Research square.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is essential for the cleavage of viral polyprotein precursor into individual structural and non-structural (NS) proteins and is therefore an attractive drug target. Generation of a robust crystal system of co-expressed NS2B-NS3 protease has enabled us to perform a crystallographic fragment screening campaign with 1076 fragments. 47 fragments with diverse scaffolds were identified to bind in the active site of the protease, with another 6 fragments observed in a potential allosteric site. To identify binding sites that are intolerant to mutation and thus suppress the outgrowth of viruses resistant to inhibitors developed from bound fragments, we performed deep mutational scanning of NS2B-NS3 protease. Merging fragment hits yields an extensive set of 'mergers', defined as synthetically accessible compounds that recapitulate constellations of observed fragment-protein interactions. In addition, the highly sociable fragment hits enable rapid exploration of chemical space via algorithmic calculation and thus yield diverse possible starting points that maximally explore the binding opportunities to NS2B-NS3 protease, facilitating its resistance-resilient antiviral development.

RevDate: 2025-03-05

Apolo A, Baumann BC, Al-Ahmadie H, et al (2025)

Summary from the NCI clinical trials planning meeting on next generation of clinical trials in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 11(1):23523735251319185.

The National Cancer Institute organized a virtual Clinical Trials Planning Meeting (CTPM) on 'Defining the next generation of clinical trials with combination therapies in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC)' led by the Bladder Cancer Task Force of the NCI Genitourinary Cancers Steering Committee. The purpose of this meeting was to accelerate advances in clinical trials for patients with high-risk NMIBC. The meeting delivered a multidisciplinary expert consensus on optimal strategies for next-generation clinical trial designs in NMIBC with prioritization of combination therapies. Two clinical trial concepts were developed for potential implementation within the National Clinical Trials Network.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Kinoshita H, Walti CS, Webber K, et al (2025)

T cell immune response to influenza vaccination when administered prior to and following autologous CAR-T cell therapy.

Transplantation and cellular therapy pii:S2666-6367(25)01053-X [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T (CAR-T) cell therapies are gaining wider use in relapsed and refractory malignancies. However, data on vaccination in this population is lacking. We evaluated T cell responses in an established cohort of CAR-T recipients and healthy controls before and after 2019-2020 influenza vaccination.

METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from healthy controls and patients who received the 2019-2020 influenza vaccine pre- or post-CD19, CD20 or B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) CAR-T. T cells were expanded in vitro for 10 days with peptide libraries for hemagglutinin (HA) and nucleoprotein (NP) from the 2019-2020 vaccine influenza A strains and analyzed by flow cytometry following IFNγ/TNFα intracellular staining. Antibody response was evaluated by a hemagglutination-inhibition (HAI) assay.

RESULTS: Twenty-nine participants, including eight immunocompetent adults, seven pre-CAR-T and 14 post-CAR-T patients, were evaluated. IFNγ[+]/TNFα[+] T cell responses after influenza vaccination in healthy controls varied with an increased response to HA-Kansas after vaccination in 7/8 individuals. In the pre-CAR-T cohort, there was a rise in CD4+ T cell response to HA-Brisbane in 6/7 patients after vaccination that remained detectable in 3/4 evaluable patients 90 days post-CAR-T. Five of six patients who lacked an antibody response nonetheless demonstrated a T cell response to HA-Brisbane. There was no association between time since CAR-T administration, baseline IgG or absolute lymphocyte count and change in CD4+ T cell IFNγ[+]/TNFα[+] response pre- to post-vaccine for the post-CART cohort.

CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that cell-mediated immunity to the influenza vaccine can be elicited in patients vaccinated pre-CAR-T and sustained post-CAR-T, filling an important gap from lack of humoral responses.

RevDate: 2025-03-03
CmpDate: 2025-03-03

Torgbor C, Sohn H, Dizon BLP, et al (2025)

In the activation of HPV-specific human B cells HPV-VLP vaccines mimic membrane-associated antigens.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(10):e2414514122.

B cell responses to membrane-presented antigens appear to be strongly favored over soluble antigens in vivo suggesting that vaccines that mimic membrane-presented antigens may be highly efficacious. We recently demonstrated that human B cell responses to membrane-associated but not to soluble antigens in vitro depended on the expression and activity of the plasma membrane mechanosensitive ion channel, Piezo1. Here, we provide evidence that the efficacy of the current human papillomavirus virus-like particle (HPV VLP) vaccines may be due in part to their inherent ability to mimic Piezo1-dependent membrane presentation of antigens to B cells. We compared HPV-specific human B cell responses to HPV VLPs versus soluble HPV pentameric capsomeres and showed that although both induced calcium responses, only HPV VLP-induced responses were blocked by Piezo1 inhibitors. The kinetics of internalization of HPV-VLP and capsomeres into HPV-specific B cells were similar and neither required Piezo1 function as shown by small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of Piezo. However, trafficking of HPV-VLPs into intracellular major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II, lysosomal associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1)[+] antigen-processing compartments was Piezo1-dependent, whereas trafficking of capsomeres was not. In addition, a time course of intracellular trafficking suggested that colocalization of HPV-VLP with MHC classII was more stable over time as compared to capsomeres. Taken together these findings suggest that the ability of HPV-VLP vaccines to mimic Piezo1-dependent membrane antigen presentation may be exploited in the design of highly effective human vaccines.

RevDate: 2025-03-03
CmpDate: 2025-03-03

Sommers J, Dizon DS, Lewis MA, et al (2025)

Assessing Health Information Seeking Behaviors Among Targeted Social Media Users Using an Infotainment Video About a Cancer Clinical Trial: Population-Based Descriptive Study.

JMIR cancer, 11:e56098 pii:v11i1e56098.

BACKGROUND: The lack of information and awareness about clinical trials, as well as misconceptions about them, are major barriers to cancer clinical trial participation. Digital and social media are dominant sources of health information and offer optimal opportunities to improve public medical awareness and education by providing accurate and trustworthy health information from reliable sources. Infotainment, material intended to both entertain and inform, is an effective strategy for engaging and educating audiences that can be easily disseminated using social media and may be a novel way to improve awareness of and recruitment in clinical trials.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an infotainment video promoting a clinical trial, disseminated using social media, could drive health information seeking behaviors.

METHODS: As part of a video series, we created an infotainment video focused on the promotion of a specific cancer clinical trial. We instituted a dissemination and marketing process on Facebook to measure video engagement and health information seeking behaviors among targeted audiences who expressed interest in breast cancer research and organizations. To evaluate video engagement, we measured reach, retention, outbound clicks, and outbound click-through rate. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were used to summarize each measure.

RESULTS: The video substantially increased health information seeking behavior by increasing viewership from 1 visitor one month prior to launch to 414 outbound clicks from the video to the clinical trial web page during the 21-day social media campaign period.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that digital and social media tools can be tailored for specific target audiences, are scalable, and can be disseminated at low cost, making it an accessible educational, recruitment, and retention strategy focused on improving the awareness of clinical trials.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Johnson ACM, RA Zager (2025)

Veverimer, a Non-Absorbed Gastrointestinal Tract HCl Binder, Decreases Renal Ammoniagenesis and Mitigates Nephrotoxic Serum Nephritis.

Kidney360 pii:02200512-990000000-00602 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Increased tubular ammoniagenesis is an adaptive response to progressive kidney disease, facilitating net acid excretion. However, excess ammonia production can also exacerbate kidney disease progression, in part, by activating the alternative complement cascade. Oral Na bicarbonate therapy can decrease the systemic H+ burden, limiting ammonia production. However, poor compliance limits bicarbonate's efficacy. Veverimer is an oral, Na+ free, non-absorbed polymer that binds H+ within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This stimulates GI carbonic anhydrase-mediated bicarbonate production and systemic bicarbonate uptake. Hence, the goals of this study were to: test whether GI HCl binding decreases renal tubular ammoniagenesis; assess whether decreased complement activation results; and determine whether these changes can mitigate nephrotoxic serum (NTS) nephritis in which complement activation may play a role.

METHODS: A normal diet ± veverimer (4.5% w/w) was fed to normal mice for ∼1 week. Veverimer's impact on plasma bicarbonate, blood/urinary pH, urinary ammonia excretion, and tubular H+ transporter, NHE3, density were assessed. Additional mice were fed the normal or veverimer diet following NTS injection. Urine protein, albumin, ammonia, C5b-9 excretion, and plasma C3a levels were measured at 1 and/or 2 weeks post NTS injection. Renal histologic changes (H/E stain; C5b-9, CD45 immunohistochemistry), and selected injury mediators/biomarkers (NGAL, IL-6, MCP-1, TGF beta 1, endothelin-1 mRNAs) were also assessed.

RESULTS: Veverimer increased plasma bicarbonate/urinary pH, reduced urinary ammonia, and decreased NHE3 in normal mice. Veverimer also reduced NTS-induced proteinuria/albuminura, urinary ammonia, and C5b-9 excretion (by ∼60%, ∼75%, ∼50%, respectively). Significant reductions in NTS-induced glomerular/ tubulointerstitial injury, inflammatory/profibrotic gene expression, renal C5b-9 deposition, and suppressed plasma C3a levels were observed. Oral bicarbonate also conferred protection, implicating bicarbonate in veverimer's beneficial effect.

CONCLUSIONS: Veverimer-mediated bicarbonate generation can suppress renal ammoniagenesis and complement activation. These findings suggest a potential benefit of veverimer/ bicarbonate therapy in selected complement-mediated renal diseases.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Lee CI, JG Elmore (2025)

FDA Breast Density Reporting Requirements and Evidence-Based Medical Practice.

JAMA pii:2831025 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-03-06
CmpDate: 2025-03-03

Henikoff S, DL Levens (2025)

The plusses and minuses of DNA torsion.

eLife, 14:.

A new method for mapping torsion provides insights into the ways that the genome responds to the torsion generated by RNA polymerase II.

RevDate: 2025-03-06

Prodanov T, Plender EG, Seebohm G, et al (2025)

Locityper: targeted genotyping of complex polymorphic genes.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

The human genome contains numerous structurally-variable polymorphic loci, including several hundred disease-associated genes, almost inaccessible for accurate variant calling. Here we present Locityper, a tool capable of genotyping such challenging genes using short and long-read whole genome sequencing. For each target, Locityper recruits and aligns reads to locus haplotypes, for instance extracted from a pangenome, and finds the likeliest haplotype pair by optimizing read alignment, insert size and read depth profiles. Locityper accurately genotypes up to 194 of 256 challenging medically relevant loci (95% haplotypes at QV33), an 8.8-fold gain compared to 22 genes achieved with standard variant calling pipelines. Furthermore, Locityper provides access to hyperpolymorphic HLA genes and other gene families, including KIR, MUC and FCGR. With its low running time of 1h10m per sample at 8 threads, Locityper is scalable to biobank-sized cohorts, enabling association studies for previously intractable disease-relevant genes.

RevDate: 2025-03-05

Weinfurtner K, Tischfield D, McClung G, et al (2025)

Human GM-CSF/IL-3 enhance tumor immune infiltration in humanized HCC patient-derived xenografts.

JHEP reports : innovation in hepatology, 7(3):101264.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Response to immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is suboptimal with no biomarkers to guide patient selection. "Humanized" mice represent promising models to address this deficiency but are limited by variable chimerism and underdeveloped myeloid compartments. We hypothesized that expression of human GM-CSF and IL-3 increases tumor immune cell infiltration, especially myeloid-derived cells, in humanized HCC patient-derived xenografts.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: NOG (NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγ[null]) and NOG-EXL (huGM-CSF/huIL-3 NOG) mice conditioned with busulfan underwent i.v. injection of human CD34+ cells. HCC patient-derived xenograft tumors were then implanted subcutaneously or orthotopically. Following serial blood sampling, mice were euthanized at defined tumor sizes. Tumor, blood, liver, and spleen were analyzed by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS: Humanized NOG-EXL mice demonstrated earlier and higher levels of human chimerism compared to humanized NOG mice (82.1% vs. 43.8%, p <0.0001) with a greater proportion of human monocytes (3.2% vs. 1.1%, p = 0.001) and neutrophils (0.8% vs. 0.3%, p = 0.02) in circulation. HCC tumors in humanized NOG-EXL mice exhibited greater human immune cell infiltration (57.6% vs. 30.2%, p = 0.04) with higher proportions of regulatory T cells (14.6% vs. 6.8%, p = 0.04), CD4+ PD-1 expression (84.7% vs. 32.0%, p <0.01), macrophages (1.2% vs. 0.6%, p = 0.02), and neutrophils (0.5% vs. 0.1%, p <0.0001). No differences were observed in tumor engraftment or growth latency in subcutaneous tumors, but orthotopic tumors required implantation at 2 rather than 4 weeks post-humanization for successful engraftment. Finally, utilizing adult bone marrow instead of fetal livers enabled partial HLA-matching to HCC tumors but required more CD34+ cells.

CONCLUSIONS: Human GM-CSF and IL-3 expression in humanized mice resulted in features more closely approximating the immune microenvironment of human disease, providing a promising model for investigating critical questions in immunotherapy for HCC.

IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS: This study introduces a unique mouse model at a critical point in the evolution of treatment paradigms for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Immunotherapies have become the first-line treatment for advanced HCC; however, response rates remain low with no clear predictors of response to guide patient selection. In this context, animal models that recapitulate human disease are greatly needed. Leveraging xenograft tumors derived from patients with unresectable HCCs and a commercially available immunodeficient mouse strain that expresses human GM-CSF and IL-3, we demonstrate a novel but accessible approach for modeling the HCC tumor microenvironment.

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Le C, Tatunay K, Liu W, et al (2025)

Lessons learned in migrating from one commercial genetics clinical decision-making tool to another: Assessment of data integrity and utilization.

Genetics in medicine open, 3:101913.

PURPOSE: Rapid advancements in information technology have greatly influenced clinicians' engagement with patient data for health maintenance. The electronic health record often contains multiple ways to record risk factors and to identify patients at an elevated genetic risk for cancer. However, these variables exist in multiple forms and disparate locations in each commercial electronic health record solution resulting in significant variations in how family history or genetic data is codified. Furthermore, there is pressure to migrate from one commercial solution to another at times, prompting the need for a process ensuring data integrity during such a transition.

METHODS: Between July and December 2023, the genetics team migrated a family history database from one commercial software solution to another. After the data migration of 13,000 patient records, we reviewed 500 randomly selected charts in both support tools to measure the rate of concordance of information transferred.

RESULTS: A total of 461 patient charts were reviewed. Of these, 425 (92.2%) were noted to be concordant. Of the 36 charts that were discordant, 9 had incorrect genetic testing results entered, 19 had missing information, 5 charts contained data recorded on paper before 2017 (legacy data), and 3 had additional information transferred.

CONCLUSION: There was high data integrity after migration from one commercial software solution to another. Although these results can ease clinicians' concerns after such support tool transitions, our effort also highlights areas for improvement in how family and patient genetic data are recorded and utilized for clinical care and research within an institution.

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Hartlage W, Castillo AY, Kassamali Escobar Z, et al (2025)

Stewarding the inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infection: leveraging the urinalysis to understand true antibiotic overuse.

Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE, 5(1):e49.

We evaluated 249 asymptomatic patients receiving antibiotics for urinary infection: 222 had asymptomatic pyuria and/or nitrituria (ASPN) and 133 had asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB, growth ≥10[5] colony forming units/ml). ASPN identified 40% more cases of unnecessary antibiotics compared to ASB and may be a more comprehensive measure of unnecessary antibiotic use.

RevDate: 2025-03-05
CmpDate: 2025-03-03

Fang H, Tronco AR, Bonora G, et al (2025)

CTCF-mediated insulation and chromatin environment modulate Car5b escape from X inactivation.

BMC biology, 23(1):68.

BACKGROUND: Genes that escape X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in female somatic cells vary in number and levels of escape among mammalian species and tissues, potentially contributing to species- and tissue-specific sex differences. CTCF, a master chromatin conformation regulator, is enriched at escape regions and may play an important role in regulating escape, but the molecular mechanisms remain elusive.

RESULTS: CTCF binding profiles and epigenetic features were systematically examined at escape genes (escapees) using mouse allelic systems with skewed XCI to distinguish the inactive X (Xi) and active X (Xa) chromosomes. We found that six constitutive and two facultative escapees are located inside 30-800 kb domains marked by convergent arrays of CTCF binding sites, consistent with the formation of chromatin loops. Facultative escapees show clear differences in CTCF binding depending on their XCI status in specific cell types/tissues. In addition, sets of strong and in some cases divergent CTCF binding sites located at the boundary between an escapee and its adjacent neighbors subject to XCI would also help insulate domains. Indeed, deletion but not inversion of a CTCF binding site at the boundary between the facultative escapee Car5b and its silent neighbor Siah1b results in a dramatic reduction of Car5b escape. This is associated with reduced CTCF and cohesin binding, which indicates loss of looping and insulation and is supported by 3C combined with Hi-C analysis. In addition, enrichment in the repressive mark H3K27me3 invades the Car5b domain in deleted cells, consistent with loss of expression from the Xi. In contrast, cells with an inversion of the CTCF binding site retain CTCF and cohesin binding, as well as looping, in line with persistence of escape. Interestingly, the levels of escape increase in cells with deletion of either Dxz4, which disrupts the Xi-specific compact 3D structure, or Firre, which results in lower H3K27me3 enrichment on the Xi, indicating that the structural and epigenetic features of the Xi constrain escape from XCI in wild type conditions.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings support the idea that escape from XCI in female somatic cells is modulated by both the topological insulation of domains via CTCF binding and the surrounding heterochromatin environment.

RevDate: 2025-03-05

Chen KY, Toro-Moreno M, AR Subramaniam (2025)

GitHub is an effective platform for collaborative and reproducible laboratory research.

ArXiv.

Laboratory research is a complex, collaborative process that involves several stages, including hypothesis formulation, experimental design, data generation and analysis, and manuscript writing. Although reproducibility and data sharing are increasingly prioritized at the publication stage, integrating these principles at earlier stages of laboratory research has been hampered by the lack of broadly applicable solutions. Here, we propose that the workflow used in modern software development offers a robust framework for enhancing reproducibility and collaboration in laboratory research. In particular, we show that GitHub, a platform widely used for collaborative software projects, can be effectively adapted to organize and document all aspects of a research project's lifecycle in a molecular biology laboratory. We outline a three-step approach for incorporating the GitHub ecosystem into laboratory research workflows: 1. designing and organizing experiments using issues and project boards, 2. documenting experiments and data analyses with a version control system, and 3. ensuring reproducible software environments for data analyses and writing tasks with containerized packages. The versatility, scalability, and affordability of this approach make it suitable for various scenarios, ranging from small research groups to large, cross-institutional collaborations. Adopting this framework from a project's outset can increase the efficiency and fidelity of knowledge transfer within and across research laboratories. An example GitHub repository based on this approach is available at https://github.com/rasilab/github_demo and a template repository that can be copied is available at https://github.com/rasilab/github_template.

RevDate: 2025-03-02

Javid SH, Kazerouni AS, Hippe DS, et al (2025)

Correction: Preoperative MRI to Predict Upstaging of DCIS to Invasive Cancer at Surgery.

RevDate: 2025-03-01

Sullivan KM, JE Sanders (2025)

The Cure of Thalassemia and the Angst of a Junior Attending.

Transplantation and cellular therapy, 31(3):113-117.

RevDate: 2025-03-01

Zhou P, Yeshoua BJ, Konuthula N, et al (2025)

Association of Oral Health Determinants With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Never-Smoking Adults.

Head & neck [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: The incidence of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) is increasing among non-smokers. This study investigates the association between local and systemic oral health determinants and OCSCC in never-smoking adults.

METHODS: A case-control study using the National Institutes of Health All of Us database was conducted. Lifetime exposures to periodontal disease, acquired absence of teeth, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, HIV, oral-related autoimmune diseases, depression, and eating disorders were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals to identify independent OCSCC risk factors.

RESULTS: Several risk factors were independently associated with OCSCC: periodontal disease (OR 4.99), hyperlipidemia (OR 1.53), HIV infection (OR 2.96), oral-related autoimmune diseases (OR 2.40), depression (OR 1.51), and eating disorders (OR 8.46). Acquired absence of teeth and hyperglycemia did not show statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complex pathophysiology of OCSCC in never-smoking adults and underscores the need for comprehensive risk assessment and prevention strategies.

RevDate: 2025-03-04

Jennings-Shaffer C, Rich DH, Macaulay M, et al (2025)

Finding high posterior density phylogenies by systematically extending a directed acyclic graph.

Algorithms for molecular biology : AMB, 20(1):2.

Bayesian phylogenetics typically estimates a posterior distribution, or aspects thereof, using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. These methods integrate over tree space by applying local rearrangements to move a tree through its space as a random walk. Previous work explored the possibility of replacing this random walk with a systematic search, but was quickly overwhelmed by the large number of probable trees in the posterior distribution. In this paper we develop methods to sidestep this problem using a recently introduced structure called the subsplit directed acyclic graph (sDAG). This structure can represent many trees at once, and local rearrangements of trees translate to methods of enlarging the sDAG. Here we propose two methods of introducing, ranking, and selecting local rearrangements on sDAGs to produce a collection of trees with high posterior density. One of these methods successfully recovers the set of high posterior density trees across a range of data sets. However, we find that a simpler strategy of aggregating trees into an sDAG in fact is computationally faster and returns a higher fraction of probable trees.

RevDate: 2025-03-02
CmpDate: 2025-02-28

Kronenberger DW, Zimmers TA, Ralston RK, et al (2025)

Circulating Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) in Paediatric Disease: A Systematic Review.

Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, 16(2):e13712.

BACKGROUND: Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15), a nonspecific inflammatory marker and member of the TGF-β superfamily, has a well-established role in both inflammation and metabolic modulation, but lacks a comprehensive paediatric literature review. In several adult disease states, including cancer cachexia and pregnancy, circulation and expression of GDF15 has been of clinical and scientific interest, but little published paediatric data exists. As such, we aim to summarize existing paediatric studies.

METHODS: This review follows the PRISMA-ScR guidelines for reporting and aims to summarize existing paediatric studies including GDF15, describe disease entities in which GDF15 has been investigated including existing reference ranges, and identify literature gaps to present future clinical and research direction. Our search strategy queried Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases to find original scientific articles measuring GDF15 from birth through children up to age 18. Data relating to study participant demographic and disease pathology, GDF15 measurement methods and clinical outcomes of interest were extracted.

RESULTS: Sixty-two studies were included, classified as cardiac, endocrine, mitochondrial, hematologic, neonatal, oncologic, infectious, rheumatologic, renal, neurologic or healthy. While several entities demonstrated elevated GDF15, the highest median GDF15 levels were observed in cardiac arrest 7089 pg/mL (interquartile range 3805-13 306) and mitochondrial diseases 4640 pg/mL (1896-14 064). In certain conditions, including cardiac stress, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), Kawasaki Disease (KD) and certain mitochondrial myopathies GDF15 can normalize with disease treatment or resolution. Of healthy children studied, GDF15 levels were highest in healthy neonates and followed a predictable pattern, decreasing over time. Mean and standard deviation values of GDF15 in healthy children were 343.8 ± 221.0 pg/mL, with a range of 90-1134 pg/mL for study averages.

CONCLUSIONS: Circulating GDF15 has been studied in a variety of paediatric diseases. However, variable evaluated outcome measures and GDF15 measurement methodologies prevent generalizability and direct comparison of these published studies. Validating normal GDF15 levels in children with standardized and reproducible methodology will help clarify GDF15's utility as a diagnostic marker of disease, a necessary step to elucidate clinical implications of GDF15 over expression and its potential as a therapeutic target.

RevDate: 2025-02-28

Fasching PA, Slamon D, Nowecki Z, et al (2025)

Health-related quality of life in patients with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer treated with ribociclib plus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor: results from the NATALEE trial.

Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research pii:752146 [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: The phase 3 NATALEE trial reported a statistically significant invasive disease-free survival benefit with ribociclib plus nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (NSAI) versus an NSAI alone in stage II/III hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) early breast cancer (EBC). Here we report health-related quality of life (HRQOL) data from NATALEE.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were randomized to receive ribociclib plus NSAI or NSAI alone. Patient-reported outcome scores (EORTC QLQ-C30 global health status and physical, social, and emotional functioning domains; EORTC QLQ-BR23 breast-symptoms scale; health on a visual analog scale of EQ-5D-5L; and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were assessed. The prespecified primary HRQOL endpoint was physical functioning. Mean scores and time-categorical and prespecified linear-time repeated-measure models were used to evaluate HRQOL changes during treatment.

RESULTS: HRQOL was evaluated in all patients in the ribociclib plus NSAI (n = 2549) and NSAI alone (n = 2552) arms. Compliance was high in both arms (≈93%-97%). Mean scores did not differ meaningfully from baseline for any analyzed domain. Likewise, neither a meaningful change from baseline (in either treatment arm) nor a difference between arms was observed during treatment in the time-categorical, model-adjusted mean scores for any HRQOL domains-using published thresholds for interpreting longitudinal and between-group differences, with all values being within 0.5 SD of their baseline values. Linear-time regression analysis confirmed these findings.

CONCLUSIONS: These analyses of NATALEE show that adding adjuvant ribociclib to an NSAI does not negatively impact HRQOL in patients with HR+/HER2- EBC.

RevDate: 2025-02-28

Di M, Maurer MJ, CR Flowers (2025)

End points and Outcomes in Follicular Lymphoma: What should we measure, how, and why?.

Blood pii:535795 [Epub ahead of print].

Overall survival (OS) and quality of life (QoL) are clinically relevant outcomes/endpoints during examination of therapies. However, with median OS approaching 20 years for patients with follicular lymphoma (FL), it is often not feasible to use OS as a primary endpoint in clinical studies. While validated tools for assessing QoL in patient with lymphoma exist, QoL data are rarely the sole basis for drug approvals in FL. Therefore, other survival endpoints, surrogates, and intermediate clinical endpoints have all been used to measure outcomes in FL trials. In this review, we discuss the strengths and limitations of these commonly used traditional endpoints in FL trials and examine the current gaps, including delayed availability of results and suboptimal sensitivity in distinguishing difference in therapeutic effects. To help address the gaps identified, well-validated surrogates, such as complete remission 30 months after starting frontline immunochemotherapy (CR30), may be used as the primary or co-primary endpoint in confirmatory randomized trials. Emerging intermediate endpoints like minimal residual disease, may be useful in early phase trials and in guiding accelerated approvals after appropriate validation. As patient preference plays a crucial role in treatment decisions in FL, it is critical to include QoL as an important secondary trial endpoint and to measure non-medical burdens, including time and financial toxicities. Endpoints that are clinically relevant, timely, and patient-centered may identify new drugs that help patients with FL live longer and better lives.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Indorf A, Kwok M, Jao M, et al (2025)

Enhancing Multiple Myeloma Care: Implementation of Pharmacist-Led Prescribing of Immunomodulatory Drugs in an Academic Medical Setting.

Clinical lymphoma, myeloma & leukemia pii:S2152-2650(25)00025-4 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: The oncology healthcare landscape has transformed and has demonstrated the need for efficient care delivery models due to improved survival resulting in larger patient panels. Pharmacists can prescribe oral anticancer agents (OAA), laboratory orders, and supportive care treatments as licensed independent practitioners (LIP) under their pharmacist license. Using immunomodulators (IMiDs) for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) has complexities with regulatory requirements for prescribing. At our institution, the care team was spending about 240 hours per month satisfying regulatory activities. We aim to characterize the effectiveness of pharmacist LIPs for patients with MM receiving IMiD treatment.

METHODS: A multidisciplinary quality improvement team implemented a model for OAA management with pharmacist LIPs. Patients were evaluated for IMiD adherence. Medication possession ratios (MPR) were collected using fill history for patients with 6 months of fill history pre and postpharmacist LIPs involvement, and paired McNemar's Test assessed differences in adherence. A care team survey gauged satisfaction.

RESULTS: The pharmacist patient panel comprised 246 patients. There were similar adherence rates, with an MPR of 96% preintervention and 96.55% postintervention. All survey participants recommended the pharmacist prescriber for IMiDs and reported positive reviews of pharmacist involvement.

CONCLUSION: Management of OAAs by pharmacist LIPs is viable clinical model. The care team reduced their administrative burden while empowering pharmacists to practice at the top of their license. This framework serves as a guide for institutions to adapt and optimize OAA management in an increasingly complex therapeutic landscape.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Haidar G, Thomas S, Loubet P, et al (2025)

Efficacy and safety of sipavibart for prevention of COVID-19 in individuals who are immunocompromised (SUPERNOVA): a randomised, controlled, double-blind, phase 3 trial.

The Lancet. Infectious diseases pii:S1473-3099(24)00804-1 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Sipavibart is an anti-spike monoclonal antibody that neutralises SARS-CoV-2 with exceptions, including Phe456Leu-containing variants (eg, KP.2* and KP.3*). This trial assessed sipavibart efficacy and safety for prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 in participants who are immunocompromised.

METHODS: In this ongoing, double-blind, international, phase 3 trial, we enrolled participants who were immunocompromised and aged 12 years or older at 197 hospitals, university health centres, and clinical trial units in 18 countries. Participants were randomly allocated 1:1 to a sipavibart group (intramuscular sipavibart 300 mg on days 1 and 181) or a comparator group (tixagevimab 300 mg-cilgavimab 300 mg on day 1 and placebo on day 181 or placebo on days 1 and 181), stratified by previous COVID-19 vaccination and infection status and use of tixagevimab-cilgavimab. The primary efficacy outcomes were symptomatic COVID-19 caused by any variant or symptomatic COVID-19 caused by non-Phe456Leu-containing variants within 181 days of dosing, assessed in the SARS-CoV-2-negative set, comprising all participants without a positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 at baseline and who received at least one trial intervention dose. Safety outcomes for adverse events were assessed 90 days following the first dose and for serious adverse events throughout the study in the safety analysis set (ie, all participants who received at least one injection of sipavibart or comparator). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05648110.

FINDINGS: Participants were screened from March 31 to Oct 27, 2023; 3349 participants (56·8% female) were randomly assigned: 1674 to the sipavibart group (five no first dose; 1669 sipavibart) and 1675 to the comparator group (nine no first dose; 1105 tixagevimab-cilgavimab and 561 placebo). Within 181 days of dosing, 122 (7·4%) of 1649 participants in the sipavibart group and 178 (10·9%) of 1631 participants in the comparator group had symptomatic COVID-19 due to any variant (relative risk reduction [RRR] 34·9% [97·5% CI 15·0 to 50·1]; p=0·0006), 54 (3·3%) participants in the sipavibart group and 90 (5·5%) participants in the comparator group had symptomatic COVID-19 due to non-Phe456Leu-containing variants (RRR 42·9% [95% CI 19·9 to 59·3]; p=0·0012), and 47 (2·9%) participants in the sipavibart group and 64 (3·9%) participants in the comparator group had symptomatic COVID-19 due to Phe456Leu-containing variants (30·4% [-1·8 to 52·5]). Adverse events occurred in 833 (49·9%) of 1671 participants in the sipavibart group and 857 (51·5%) of 1663 participants in the comparator group within 3 months of the first dose. One COVID-19-related death occurred in the comparator group. Serious adverse events considered related to trial intervention occurred in two (0·1%) of 1671 participants in the sipavibart group and seven (0·4%) of 1663 participants in the comparator group (none fatal). No serious cardiovascular or thrombotic events were considered to be related to sipavibart.

INTERPRETATION: The primary analysis showed efficacy and safety of sipavibart in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in participants who are immunocompromised when susceptible (ie, non-Phe456Leu-containing) variants dominated, although no efficacy was shown against resistant (ie, Phe456Leu-containing) variants that dominate as of November, 2024.

FUNDING: AstraZeneca.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Nudy M, Aragaki AK, Jiang X, et al (2025)

Long-Term Changes to Cardiovascular Biomarkers After Hormone Therapy in the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Therapy Clinical Trials.

Obstetrics and gynecology [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the long-term changes in cardiovascular biomarkers during the WHI (Women's Health Initiative) hormone therapy (HT) clinical trials of conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) alone and CEE plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA).

METHODS: HT trial participants from the CEE alone (n=1,188, 0.625 mg/d CEE or placebo) and the CEE+MPA (n=1,508, 0.625 mg/d CEE plus continuous 2.5 mg/d MPA or placebo) trials provided blood samples at baseline and after 1, 3, and 6 years. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; primary endpoint), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides, total cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), glucose, insulin, and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance were measured. Repeated-measures regression models estimated the geometric means of each log-transformed biomarker by restricted maximum likelihood. A constant treatment effect across visits was used to estimate the overall effect, expressed as a ratio of geometric means, and was complemented with geometric means (95% CIs) by randomization group and corresponding ratios of geometric means (95% CI; HT vs placebo) at each visit.

RESULTS: During the intervention phase of the CEE-alone trial, randomization to CEE reduced LDL-C by 11% over 6 years (ratio of geometric means 0.89, 95% CI, 0.88-0.91, P<.001). The overall reduction in LDL-C was similar for CEE+MPA relative to placebo (ratio of geometric means 0.88, 95% CI, 0.86-0.89, P<.001). Relative to placebo, HDL-C and triglycerides were 13.0% and 7.0% higher with CEE and CEE+MPA, respectively. The homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance decreased by 14.0% and 8.0% for CEE-alone and CEE+MPA trial participants, respectively. Relative to placebo, lipoprotein(a) decreased by 15.0% and 20.0% for participants randomized to CEE alone and CEE+MPA, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Lipoprotein(a), LDL-C, and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance were lower and HDL-C levels were higher for HT compared with placebo. Triglycerides increased in both the CEE and CEE+MPA trials, however. Future research should assess whether other progestogens attenuate the effect of estrogen on HDL-C. These results may be used to counsel younger menopausal women with bothersome symptoms who are deciding whether to initiate oral HT within the context of published effects of oral HT on rates of cardiovascular events.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00000611.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Hirayama AV, M Bleakley (2025)

Competition for CD19 binding may accelerate CAR efficacy.

Blood, 145(9):902-903.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Childers CP, Petty AM, Selzer DJ, et al (2025)

Obesity and Work in Abdominal Surgery.

Journal of the American College of Surgeons pii:00019464-990000000-01207 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Recent analyses have shown that Modifier 22 does not reimburse surgeons for the increased work required to care for the most complex patients. New strategies are needed to identify patients that require additional work to create a financial system that ensures equitable access. Obesity has been identified as a growing and potentially reliable patient risk factor that could be used to identify cases that require additional work.

STUDY DESIGN: Using 2022 ACS NSQIP data, this study evaluated 10 common general surgery operations (appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colon/rectal operations, hernia repairs). The primary predictor was BMI category (Normal: 18.5-25, overweight: 25-29.9, class I obesity: 30-34.9, class II obesity: 35-39.9, class III obesity 40-49.9, extreme obesity >=50). Primary outcomes were operative time and composite measures of complications.

RESULTS: The final sample included 158,692 operations. Across the entire cohort, 22.2% were normal weight and 76.3% were overweight or obese. Overall, operative time was increased by 5.6% (95% CI 4.8-6.3%) for overweight, by 10.6% (CI 9.8-11.5%) for class I obesity, by 14.7% (CI 13.6-15.8%) for class II obesity, by 18.9% (CI 17.6-20.2%) for class III obesity, and by 26.8% (CI 14.1-29.6%) for extreme obesity compared to those with normal BMI. Obesity was associated with higher odds of any complication or serious complication, driven by wound complications, pulmonary emboli, and renal insufficiency.

CONCLUSION: Obesity is a growing challenge in abdominal surgery and is associated with increase operative time and risk of complications. The consistency of the magnitude of effect makes it an ideal target for a modifier or add-on code that could identify cases requiring additional work.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Haney M, Ashraf A, Lake KE, et al (2025)

Community respiratory viruses are generally well-tolerated in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: a brief report from the TRANSPIRE study.

Haematologica [Epub ahead of print].

Not available.

RevDate: 2025-02-26

Collin LJ, Cushing-Haugen KL, Terry KL, et al (2025)

Patterns of associations with epidemiologic factors by high grade serous ovarian cancer gene expression subtypes.

Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology pii:752129 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) comprise four distinct molecular subtypes based on mRNA expression patterns, with differential survival. Understanding risk factor associations is important to elucidate the etiology of HGSC. We investigated associations between different epidemiologic risk factors and HGSC molecular subtypes.

METHODS: We pooled data from 11 case-control studies with epidemiologic and tumor gene expression data from custom NanoString CodeSets developed through a collaboration within the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium. The PrOTYPE validated NanoString-based 55 gene classifier was used to assign HGSC gene expression subtypes. We examined associations between epidemiologic factors and HGSC subtypes in 2,070 cases and 16,633 controls using multivariable-adjusted polytomous regression models.

RESULTS: Among the 2,070 HGSC cases, 556 (27%) were classified as C1.MES, 340 (16%) as C5.PRO, 538 (26%) as C2.IMM, and 636 (31%) as C4.DIF. Key factors, including oral contraceptive use, parity, breastfeeding, and family history of ovarian cancer, were similarly associated with all subtypes. Heterogeneity was observed for several factors. Former smoking (OR=1.25, 95%CI: 1.03, 1.51) and genital powder use (OR=1.42, 95%CI: 1.08, 1.86) were uniquely associated with C2.IMM. History of endometriosis was associated with C5.PRO (OR=1.46, 95%CI: 0.98, 2.16) and C4.DIF (OR=1.27, 95%CI: 0.94, 1.71) only. Family history of breast cancer (OR=1.44, 95%CI: 1.16, 1.78) and current smoking (OR=1.40, 95%CI: 1.11, 1.76) were associated with C4.DIF only.

CONCLUSIONS: This study observed heterogeneous associations of epidemiologic and modifiable factors with HGSC molecular subtypes.

IMPACT: The different patterns of associations may provide key information about the etiology of the four subtypes.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Crotty EE, Sato AA, MS Abdelbaki (2025)

Integrating MAPK pathway inhibition into standard-of-care therapy for pediatric low-grade glioma.

Frontiers in oncology, 15:1520316.

Pediatric low-grade gliomas (pLGG) are a group of tumors largely driven by alterations in a single genetic pathway, known as the RAS-RAF-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Recent biologic insights and therapeutic targeting of MAPK-alterations have dramatically shifted the treatment approach in pLGG. While chemotherapy remains front-line therapy for unresectable pLGG in most scenarios (with the notable exception of BRAF [V600E]-altered tumors), many patients recur following cytotoxic agents and require further treatment. Inhibitors of the MAPK pathway, primarily MEK and RAF kinase inhibitors, have emerged as effective and tolerable second-line or later therapy for pLGG. As familiarity with these targeted agents increases, their indications for use continue to expand and Phase 3 clinical trials investigating their utility in the front-line setting are ongoing. We have adopted mitigation strategies for their associated toxicities; skin toxicity, in particular, is now managed by prevention strategies and early dermatologic intervention. This review highlights current approaches for the clinical implementation of MEK and RAF kinase inhibitors for pLGG, focusing on the practical aspects of drug administration, toxicity management, response monitoring, and distribution to patients experiencing geographic or financial barriers to care. Additionally, we review important considerations for the off-label use of these agents while contemporaneous clinical trials assessing front-line efficacy are ongoing. We discuss the potential for more expansive or histology-agnostic tumor targeting using MEK inhibitors, harnessing their biologic relevance for other RAS-altered conditions.

RevDate: 2025-02-28

Shen X, Korber B, Spreng RL, et al (2025)

A Pentavalent HIV-1 Subtype C Vaccine Containing Computationally Selected gp120 Strains Improves the Breadth of V1V2 Region Responses.

Vaccines, 13(2):.

BACKGROUND: HIV-1 envelope (Env) variable loops 1 and 2 (V1V2) directed non-neutralizing antibodies were a correlate of decreased transmission risk in the RV144 vaccine trial. Thus, the elicitation and breadth of antibody responses against the V1V2 of HIV-1 Env are important considerations for HIV-1 vaccine candidates. The V1V2 region's highly variable nature and the extensive diversity of subtype C HIV-1 Envelopes (Envs) make the V1V2 response breadth a high priority for HIV-1 vaccine regimens aiming for V1V2-mediated protection in Southern Africa. Here, we determined whether the breadth of the anti-V1V2 vaccine response can be broadened by including HIV-1 Env strains computationally designed to enhance the coverage of subtype C V1V2 sequence diversity.

METHODS: Three subtype C Env strains were selected to maximize antibody binding coverage while complementing subtype C vaccine gp120s that were given in human clinical trials in South Africa, as well as to improve epitope accessibility. Humoral immunogenicity of a novel trivalent gp120 vaccine immunogen, a bivalent gp120 boost already in clinical trials (1086C and TV1), and a pentavalent (all five gp120s combined) were evaluated in a preclinical immunization study in guinea pigs. The pentavalent combination was further evaluated with alum versus glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvants formulated in squalene-in-water emulsion (GLA-SE) adjuvants in non-human primates. The breadth of the anti-V1V2 response was assessed using an array of cross-subtype variable loops 1&2 (V1V2) scaffold proteins and linear V2 peptides.

RESULTS: The breadth of the IgG response against V1V2 antigens of the trivalent and pentavalent groups was comparable, and both were greater than the breadth of the bivalent group. Linear epitope mapping showed that two linear epitopes in V2 were targeted by the vaccinated animals: the V2 hotspot focused at [169]K that potentially correlated with decreased HIV-1 risk in RV144 and the V2.2 site ([179]LDV/I[181]) that is part of the integrin α4β7 binding site. The bivalent vaccine elicited a significantly higher magnitude of binding to the V2 hotspot compared to the trivalent vaccine whereas the trivalent vaccine elicited significantly higher binding to the V2.2 epitope compared to the bivalent vaccine, while the pentavalent recognized both regions.

CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the three new computationally selected subtype C Envs successfully complemented 1086C and TV1 for broader V1V2 antibody responses, and, in concert with adjuvants that stimulate V1V2 responses, can be considered as part of a rationale immunogen design to improve V1V2 IgG coverage in future vaccine trials in South Africa.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Wang Y, Gornalusse GG, Siegel DA, et al (2025)

NF-κB dependent gene expression and plasma IL-1β, TNFα and GCSF drive transcriptomic diversity and CD4:CD8 ratio in people with HIV on ART.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Despite antiretroviral therapy (ART), people with HIV (PWH) on ART experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality vs. age-matched HIV negative controls, which may be driven by chronic inflammation due to persistent virus. We performed bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) on peripheral CD4+ T cells, as well as quantified plasma immune marker levels from 154 PWH on ART to identify host immune signatures associated with immune recovery (CD4:CD8) and HIV persistence (cell-associated HIV DNA and RNA). Using a novel dimension reduction tool - Pairwise Controlled Manifold Approximation (PaCMAP), we defined three distinct participant transcriptomic clusters. We found that these three clusters were largely defined by differential expression of genes regulated by the transcription factor NF-κB. While clustering was not associated with HIV reservoir size, we observed an association with CD4:CD8 ratio, a marker of immune recovery and prognostic factor for mortality in PWH on ART. Furthermore, distinct patterns of plasma IL-1β, TNF-α and GCSF were also strongly associated with the clusters, suggesting that these immune markers play a key role in CD4+ T cell transcriptomic diversity and immune recovery in PWH on ART. These findings reveal novel subgroups of PWH on ART with distinct immunological characteristics, and define a transcriptional signature associated with clinically significant immune parameters for PWH. A deeper understanding of these subgroups could advance clinical strategies to treat HIV-associated immune dysfunction.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Xie T, Richman H, Gao J, et al (2025)

PhyloVAE: Unsupervised Learning of Phylogenetic Trees via Variational Autoencoders.

ArXiv.

Learning informative representations of phylogenetic tree structures is essential for analyzing evolutionary relationships. Classical distance-based methods have been widely used to project phylogenetic trees into Euclidean space, but they are often sensitive to the choice of distance metric and may lack sufficient resolution. In this paper, we introduce phylogenetic variational autoencoders (PhyloVAEs), an unsupervissed learning framework designed for representation learning and generative modeling of tree topologies. Leveraging an efficient encoding mechanism inspired by autoregressive tree topology generation, we develop a deep latent-variable generative model that facilitates fast, parallelized topology generation. PhyloVAE combines this generative model with a collaborative inference model based on learnable topological features, allowing for high-resolution representations of phylogenetic tree samples. Extensive experiments demonstrate PhyloVAE's robust representation learning capabilities and fast generation of phylogenetic tree topologies.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Shi Z, Tsuge M, Collier N, et al (2025)

Modeling of hepatitis B virus infection spread in primary human hepatocytes.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection poses a significant global health threat, causing severe liver diseases including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. We characterized HBV DNA kinetics in primary human hepatocytes (PHH) over 32 days post-inoculation (pi) and used agent-based modeling (ABM) to gain insights into HBV lifecycle and spread. Parallel PHH cultures were mock-treated or HBV entry inhibitor Myr-preS1 (6.25 μg/mL) was initiated 24h pi. In untreated PHH, 3 viral DNA kinetic patterns were identified: (1) an initial decline, followed by (2) rapid amplification, and (3) slower amplification/accumulation. In the presence of Myr-preS1, viral DNA and infected cell numbers in phase 3 were effectively blocked, with minimal to no increase. This suggests that phase 2 represents viral amplification in initially infected cells, while phase 3 corresponds to viral spread to naïve cells. The ABM reproduced well the HBV kinetic patterns observed and predicted that the viral eclipse phase lasts between 18 and 38 hours. After the eclipse phase, the viral production rate increases over time, starting with a slow production cycle of 1 virion per day, which gradually accelerates to 1 virion per hour after 3 days. Approximately 4 days later, virion production reaches a steady state production rate of 4 virions/hour. The estimated median efficacy of Myr-preS1 in blocking HBV spread was 91% (range: 90-92%). The HBV kinetics and the predicted estimates of the HBV eclipse phase duration and HBV production cycles in PHH are similar of those predicted in uPA/SCID mice with human livers.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Barrero DJ, Hedouin S, Mao Y, et al (2025)

Centromeres in the thermotolerant yeast K. marxianus mediate attachment to a single microtubule.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Eukaryotic chromosome segregation requires spindle microtubules to attach to chromosomes through kinetochores. The chromosomal locus that mediates kinetochore assembly is the centromere and is epigenetically specified in most organisms by a centromeric histone H3 variant called CENP-A. An exception to this is budding yeast which have short, sequenced-defined point centromeres. In S. cerevisiae, a single CENP-A nucleosome is formed at the centromere and is sufficient for kinetochore assembly. The thermophilic budding yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus also has a point centromere but its length is nearly double the S. cerevisiae centromere and the number of centromeric nucleosomes and kinetochore attachment sites is unknown. Purification of native kinetochores from K. marxianus yielded a mixed population, with one subpopulation that appeared to consist of doublets, making it unclear whether K. marxianus shares the same attachment architecture as S. cerevisiae. Here, we demonstrate that though the doublet kinetochores have a functional impact on kinetochore strength, kinetochore localization throughout the cell cycle appears conserved between these two yeasts. In addition, whole spindle electron tomography demonstrates that a single microtubule binds to each chromosome. Single-molecule nucleosome mapping analysis suggests the presence of a single centromeric nucleosome. Taken together, we propose that the K. marxianus point centromere assembles a single centromeric nucleosome that mediates attachment to one microtubule.

RevDate: 2025-03-03

Gustav M, van Treeck M, Reitsam NG, et al (2025)

Assessing Genotype-Phenotype Correlations with Deep Learning in Colorectal Cancer: A Multi-Centric Study.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences.

BACKGROUND: Deep Learning (DL) has emerged as a powerful tool to predict genetic biomarkers directly from digitized Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) slides in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, few studies have systematically investigated the predictability of biomarkers beyond routinely available alterations such as microsatellite instability (MSI), and BRAF and KRAS mutations.

METHODS: Our primary dataset comprised H&E slides of CRC tumors across five cohorts totaling 1,376 patients who underwent comprehensive panel sequencing, with an additional 536 patients from two public datasets for validation. We developed a DL model using a single transformer model to predict multiple genetic alterations directly from the slides. The model's performance was compared against conventional single-target models, and potential confounders were analyzed.

FINDINGS: The multi-target model was able to predict numerous biomarkers from pathology slides, matching and partly exceeding single-target transformers. The Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUROC, mean ± std) on the primary external validation cohorts was: BRAF (0·78 ± 0·01), hypermutation (0·88 ± 0·01), MSI (0·93 ± 0·01), RNF43 (0·86 ± 0·01); this biomarker predictability was mirrored across metrics and co-occurrence analyses. However, biomarkers with high AUROCs largely correlated with MSI, with model predictions depending considerably on MSI-associated morphology upon pathological examination.

INTERPRETATION: Our study demonstrates that multi-target transformers can predict the biomarker status for numerous genetic alterations in CRC directly from H&E slides. However, their predictability is mainly associated with MSI phenotype, despite indications of slight biomarker-inherent contributions to a phenotype. Our findings underscore the need to analyze confounders in AI-based oncology biomarkers. To enable this, we developed a validated model applicable to other cancers and larger, diverse datasets.

FUNDING: The German Federal Ministry of Health, the Max-Eder-Programme of German Cancer Aid, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the EU.

RevDate: 2025-03-03
CmpDate: 2025-03-03

Lee SM, Hamid O, Jotte R, et al (2025)

Phase II Open-Label Trial of Brentuximab Vedotin with Pembrolizumab in PD-1-Pretreated Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma.

Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 31(5):848-859.

PURPOSE: Brentuximab vedotin (BV) is hypothesized to selectively deplete T regulatory cells that express CD30 and resensitize tumors to anti-PD-1 therapy. This study evaluated responses to BV + pembrolizumab after PD-1 therapy and explored corresponding biomarkers.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 55 patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and 58 patients with metastatic cutaneous melanoma received ≥1 dose of BV + pembrolizumab. Patients had received a median of 2.0 prior lines of systemic therapies (range, 1-7). The primary endpoint was confirmed objective response rate (ORR). Exploratory endpoints included overall survival (OS) and biomarker analysis in blood and tumor.

RESULTS: For the secondary refractory metastatic non-small cell lung cancer cohort (RECIST v1.1), the ORR was 14%, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.85 months, and median OS was 14.4 months. For the secondary refractory metastatic cutaneous melanoma cohort (immune RECIST), the ORR was 24%, median PFS was 4.44 months, and median OS was 21.9 months. Overall, the median duration of OS follow-up was 17.2 months (95% confidence interval, 14.62-22.87). No new safety signals were identified. No treatment-related grade 5 toxicity was seen. Longitudinal immune phenotyping in peripheral blood demonstrated a transient decrease in T regulatory cells. Paired tumor biopsies from baseline and cycle 3 day 1 showed a trend of increased CD8 T-cell infiltration, especially in responding patients.

CONCLUSIONS: BV + pembrolizumab in solid tumor malignancies resulted in clinically meaningful, durable responses with encouraging OS and PFS rates supportive of the immunomodulatory activity of this combination. Stronger antitumor activity was observed in secondary refractory cohorts. The safety profile of this combination was consistent with the individual drug risk profiles.

RevDate: 2025-02-28

Gwin WR, Salazar LG, Dai JY, et al (2025)

A Phase II Study of Denileukin Diftitox in Patients with Advanced Treatment Refractory Breast Cancer.

Vaccines, 13(2):.

Background/Objectives: Regulatory T cells (Treg) suppress immunity in the tumor microenvironment, are linked to poor prognosis across breast cancer subtypes, and suppress the cytolytic function of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Denileukin diftitox, a diphtheria toxin (DT)/IL-2 fusion protein, targets and depletes Tregs. This Phase II study aimed to assess the safety of denileukin diftitox and its effect on Tregs and tumor growth in patients with advanced breast cancer. Methods: This single-arm Phase II study of denileukin diftitox enrolled patients with refractory stage IV breast cancer. Patients received denileukin diftitox 18 mcg/kg/day IV for Days 1-5 every 21 days for up to six cycles. Toxicity was assessed using CTCAE v3.0 and tumor response was evaluated per RECIST criteria. Blood samples were collected to analyze Tregs by flow cytometry and anti-DT antibodies by ELISA. Results: Fifteen patients with stage IV breast cancer were enrolled. Four patients completed all planned denileukin diftitox infusions and achieved stable disease (27%, 95% CI [0.08, 0.55]). Two patients (13%) discontinued due to toxicity, and nine patients (60%) discontinued due to progressive disease. Eleven patients experienced at least one grade 3 or 4 adverse event. Although there was a general reduction in peripheral blood Tregs, the difference in CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Tregs levels post-treatment was not statistically significant (p = 0.10). Six patients (40%) achieved ≥25% reductions in Tregs. A significant increase in anti-DT IgG antibodies was observed post-treatment (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Denileukin diftitox demonstrated moderate toxicity in this advanced breast cancer cohort. Denileukin diftitox modulated regulatory T cells. However, the majority of patients experienced disease progression in the study.

RevDate: 2025-02-28

Costa BA, Dima D, Mark T, et al (2025)

Impact of Prior Selinexor Exposure on Outcomes of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma: An Exploratory Analysis.

Journal of clinical medicine, 14(4):.

Background/Objectives: Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) has become a key treatment option for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM), but factors impairing T-cell fitness may diminish efficacy. Our exploratory analysis aimed to evaluate the impact of prior treatment with a selinexor-containing regimen on CAR-T outcomes for RRMM patients. Methods: Data for this retrospective cohort study were sourced from electronic medical records at two US academic centers. Kaplan-Meier estimates assessed duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS), reported as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs). Cox proportional hazards regression analyzed factors potentially associated with PFS and OS, reported as hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Among 45 patients exposed to selinexor before undergoing BCMA-directed CAR-T, median therapy line numbers for selinexor use and CAR-T were 7 and 9, respectively, with 24.4% receiving selinexor as part of bridging. At median follow-up of 68 months, median PFS and OS post CAR-T were 8.0 (IQR 3.1-39.5) and 35.9 (IQR 14.2-NR) months, respectively. Overall response rate to CAR-T was 89%, with a median DOR of 8.1 months (IQR 2.9-39.0). In our multivariable model, patients who received a selinexor-based regimen in the line of therapy preceding CAR-T showed a trend toward reduced risk of death (HR = 0.08; 95% CI 0.02-0.46) and/or disease progression (HR = 0.40; 95% CI 0.14-1.09). Conclusions: Prior selinexor exposure does not appear to compromise CAR-T outcomes in heavily pretreated RRMM, suggesting potential T-cell sparing. Our findings warrant larger, prospective studies to determine whether preemptive selinexor treatment can optimize CAR-T efficacy.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Itkin T, Houghton S, Schreiner R, et al (2025)

Transcriptional activation of regenerative hematopoiesis via microenvironmental sensing.

Nature immunology [Epub ahead of print].

Transition between activation and quiescence states in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) is tightly governed by cell-intrinsic means and microenvironmental co-adaptation. Although this balance is fundamental for lifelong hematopoiesis and immunity, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly defined. Multimodal analysis divulging differential transcriptional activity between distinct HSPC states indicates the presence of Fli-1 transcription factor binding motif in activated hematopoietic stem cells. We reveal that Fli-1 activity is essential during regenerative hematopoiesis in mice. Fli-1 directs activation programs while priming cellular sensory and output machineries, enabling HSPCs co-adoptability with a stimulated vascular niche through propagation of niche-derived angiocrine Notch1 signaling. Constitutively induced Notch1 signaling is sufficient to recuperate functional hematopoietic stem cells impairments in the absence of Fli-1, without leukemic transformation. Applying FLI-1 transient modified-mRNA transduction into latent adult human mobilized HSPCs, enables their niche-mediated expansion and superior engraftment capacities. Thus, decryption of stem cell activation programs offers valuable insights for immunological regenerative medicine.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Ugalde-Morales E, Wilf R, Pluta J, et al (2025)

Identification of genes associated with testicular germ cell tumor susceptibility through a transcriptome-wide association study.

American journal of human genetics pii:S0002-9297(25)00022-9 [Epub ahead of print].

Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) have the potential to identify susceptibility genes associated with testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs). We conducted a comprehensive TGCT TWAS by integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data with predicted expression models from normal testis, TGCT tissues, and a cross-tissue panel that encompasses shared regulatory features across 22 normal tissues, including the testis. Gene associations were evaluated while accounting for variant-level effects from GWASs, followed by fine-mapping analyses in regions exhibiting multiple TWAS signals, and finally supplemented by colocalization analysis. Expression and protein patterns of identified TWAS genes were further examined in relevant tissues. Our analysis tested 19,805 gene-disease links, revealing 165 TGCT-associated genes with a false discovery rate of less than 0.01. We prioritized 46 candidate genes by considering GWAS-inflated signals, correlations between neighboring genes, and evidence of colocalization. Among these, 23 genes overlap with 22 GWAS loci, with 7 being associations not previously implicated in TGCT risk. Additionally, 23 genes located within 21 loci are at least 1 Mb away from published GWAS index variants. The 46 prioritized genes display expression levels consistent with expected expression levels in human gonadal cell types and precursor tumor cells and significant enrichment in TGCTs. Additionally, immunohistochemistry revealed protein-level accumulation of two candidate genes, ARID3B and GINM1, in both precursor and tumor cells. These findings enhance our understanding of the genetic predisposition to TGCTs and underscore the importance of further functional investigations into these candidate genes.

RevDate: 2025-02-27
CmpDate: 2025-02-25

Gang M, Othus M, RB Walter (2025)

Significance of Measurable Residual Disease in Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Cells, 14(4):.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) remains an important curative-intent treatment for many patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but AML recurrence after allografting is common. Many factors associated with relapse after allogeneic HCT have been identified over the years. Central among these is measurable ("minimal") residual disease (MRD) as detected by multiparameter flow cytometry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and/or next-generation sequencing. Demonstration of a strong, independent prognostic role of pre- and early post-HCT MRD has raised hopes MRD could also serve as a predictive biomarker to inform treatment decision-making, with emerging data indicating the potential value to guide candidacy assessment for allografting as a post-remission treatment strategy, the selection of conditioning intensity, use of small molecule inhibitors as post-HCT maintenance therapy, and preemptive infusion of donor lymphocytes. Monitoring for leukemia recurrence after HCT and surrogacy for treatment response are other considerations for the clinical use of MRD data. In this review, we will outline the current landscape of MRD as a biomarker for patients with AML undergoing HCT and discuss areas of uncertainty and ongoing research.

RevDate: 2025-02-27
CmpDate: 2025-02-25

Morishita T, Martin PJ, Y Inamoto (2025)

Treatment Response in Individual Organs Affected by Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease.

Cells, 14(4):.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurs in 30-70% of patients after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and increases the risks of morbidity and mortality. Systemic corticosteroids are the standard initial treatment, but one-third of patients require subsequent treatment with other systemic agents. Treatment decisions are often based on physicians' experience. The expected treatment response rates in specific organs affected by chronic GVHD may inform such decisions. In this review, we identify 20 studies reporting treatment response rates in individual organs according to objective criteria, summarize the results, discuss the caveats in data interpretation, identify the unmet needs, and suggest future directions in the field. For cutaneous sclerosis, we observed large discrepancies in organ response rates according to the current NIH criteria and patient-reported improvement, highlighting the need for better measurement tools. High response rates for lung involvement with certain novel drugs deserve further investigation.

RevDate: 2025-02-24

Banerjee R, Fritz AR, Akhtar OS, et al (2025)

Urine-free response criteria predict progression-free survival in multiple myeloma: a post hoc analysis of BMT CTN 0702.

Leukemia [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-02-26
CmpDate: 2025-02-24

Krishnamoorthy GP, Glover AR, Untch BR, et al (2025)

RBM10 loss promotes metastases by aberrant splicing of cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix mRNAs.

The Journal of experimental medicine, 222(5):.

RBM10 modulates transcriptome-wide cassette exon splicing. Loss-of-function RBM10 mutations are enriched in thyroid cancers with distant metastases. Analysis of transcriptomes and genes mis-spliced by RBM10 loss showed pro-migratory and RHO/RAC signaling signatures. RBM10 loss increases cell velocity. Cytoskeletal and ECM transcripts subject to exon inclusion events included vinculin (VCL), tenascin C (TNC), and CD44. Knockdown of the VCL exon inclusion transcript in RBM10-null cells reduced cell velocity, whereas knockdown of TNC and CD44 exon inclusion isoforms reduced invasiveness. RAC1-GTP levels were increased in RBM10-null cells. Mouse HrasG12V/Rbm1OKO thyrocytes develop metastases that are reversed by RBM10 expression or by combined knockdown of VCL, CD44, and TNC inclusion isoforms. Thus, RBM10 loss generates exon inclusion in transcripts regulating ECM-cytoskeletal interactions, leading to RAC1 activation and metastatic competency. Moreover, a CRISPR-Cas9 screen for synthetic lethality with RBM10 loss identified NFκB effectors as central to viability, providing a therapeutic target for these lethal thyroid cancers.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Jefferson JA, Chen K, Hingorani S, et al (2025)

Genetic and Iatrogenic Defects in Peripheral Tolerance Associated with Anti-Nephrin Antibody-Associated Minimal Change Disease.

Glomerular diseases, 5(1):74-83.

INTRODUCTION: Minimal change disease (MCD) is a common cause of nephrotic syndrome in children and adults. Immune dysregulation is a contributor, but the relative roles of individual components of the immune system in MCD pathogenesis remain unclear.

CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present 2 patients with defects in immune tolerance mechanisms that developed MCD associated with anti-nephrin antibodies. The first patient had a pathogenic deletion in FOXP3, leading to reduced regulatory T cells. Serum could not be obtained from this patient during the active phase of MCD to directly establish the presence of anti-nephrin antibodies. However, this patient demonstrated IgG dusting over podocyte cell bodies by immunofluorescence microscopy, as well as colocalization of IgG with nephrin in confocal microscopy. The second patient developed MCD in the context of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment for metastatic carcinoma. Anti-nephrin antibodies were detected in this patient during active disease. The patient's kidney biopsy also showed evidence of binding of anti-nephrin antibodies within the glomeruli.

CONCLUSION: These cases demonstrate that genetic and iatrogenic mechanisms of breakdown in peripheral tolerance can lead to MCD.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Goel U, Zanwar S, Cowan AJ, et al (2025)

Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel for the Treatment of Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma: Efficacy, Safety, and Place in Therapy.

Cancer management and research, 17:357-372.

Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel) and ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) are two chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapies approved for use in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM). Initially approved for late line MM (>4 prior lines), these were recently approved for use in MM with 1-2 prior lines of therapy in April 2024. As their use outside of the pivotal clinical trials continues to expand, it is important to critically evaluate the safety and efficacy of these therapies. Further, it is important to identify patients that would be most likely to benefit from the use of CAR T in earlier lines of therapy. Cilta-cel was initially studied in the phase-I LEGEND-2 study, followed by CARTITUDE-1 and CARTITUDE-4 trials, demonstrating remarkable efficacy. A recent large real-world study also demonstrated similar efficacy, in a mostly pivotal trial ineligible patient population. Based on these impressive results, cilta-cel is currently being studied in trials for newly diagnosed as well as smoldering multiple myeloma. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector cell associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) are known toxicities of cilta-cel (and other CAR Ts), however movement and cognitive disorders (delayed neurotoxicity) and second primary malignancies are an evolving concern. In this article we discuss safety and efficacy data from existing cilta-cel studies. We propose that all patients with MM who have received ≥4 prior lines of therapy should be considered for CAR T. Earlier line use of CAR T should be restricted to patients with a high-risk disease phenotype (eg, functional high-risk disease). This disease phenotype has historically shown poor outcomes with standard triplet regimens and would be most likely to benefit from earlier use of CAR T: considering the availability of other safe and highly effective therapies, and potential high-risk toxicities of CAR T.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Radford CE, JD Bloom (2025)

Comprehensive maps of escape mutations from antibodies 10-1074 and 3BNC117 for Envs from two divergent HIV strains.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Antibodies capable of neutralizing many strains of HIV are being explored as prophylactic and therapeutic agents, but viral escape mutations pose a major challenge. Efforts have been made to experimentally define the escape mutations from specific antibodies in specific viral strains, but it remains unclear how much the effects of mutations on neutralization differ among HIV strains. Here, we use pseudovirus deep mutational scanning to comprehensively map escape mutations from the V3 loop targeting antibody 10-1074 and the CD4-binding site targeting antibody 3BNC117 for both a clade A (BF520) and a clade B (TRO.11) HIV Envelope (Env). Mutations that escape neutralization by antibody 10-1074 are largely similar for the two Envs, but mutations that escape 3BNC117 differ greatly between Envs. Some differences in the effects of mutations on escape between Envs can be explained by strain-to-strain variation in mutational tolerance or glycosylation patterns, but other mutations have different effects on escape for unclear reasons. Overall, the extent that measurements of mutational effects on antibody neutralization can be generalized across HIV strains differs among antibodies.

RevDate: 2025-02-27

Park MS, Kumar RD, Ovadiuc C, et al (2025)

Insights on improving accessibility and usability of functional data to unlock its potential for variant interpretation.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences.

INTRODUCTION: Variant-level functional data is a core component of clinical variant classification and can aid in reinterpreting variants of uncertain significance (VUS). However, the usage of functional data by genetics professionals is currently unknown.

METHODS: An online survey was developed and distributed in spring of 2024 to individuals actively engaged in variant interpretation. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess responses.

RESULTS: 190 eligible individuals responded, with 93% reporting interpreting 26 or more variants per year. The median respondent reported 11-20 years of experience. The most common professional roles were laboratory medical geneticists (23%) and variant review scientists (23%). 77% reported using functional data for variant interpretation in a clinical setting and overall respondents felt confident in assessing functional data. However, 67% indicated that functional data for variants of interest was rarely or never available, and 91% considered insufficient quality metrics or confidence in the accuracy of data as barriers to its use. 94% of respondents noted that better access to primary functional data and standardized interpretation of functional data would improve usage. Respondents also indicated that handling conflicting functional data is a common challenge in variant interpretation that is not performed in a systematic manner across institutions.

DISCUSSION: The results from this survey showed a demand for a comprehensive database with reliable quality metrics to support use of functional evidence in clinical variant interpretation. The results also highlight a need for guidelines regarding how putatively conflicting functional data should be used for variant classification.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Meehan KA, Waters AR, Wangen M, et al (2025)

Not just about pills: Findings from a national survey of pharmacists to understand their views on addressing social determinants of health.

Preventive medicine reports, 51:102991.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated community pharmacists' perspectives on addressing social determinants of health for their patients in the United States.

METHODS: From 9/2022-1/2023, we conducted a national, online survey of 578 pharmacists to evaluate their perspectives on social barriers affecting their patients, their pharmacy staff's ability to address these social barriers, and resources available or needed to address barriers.

RESULTS: Healthcare access and quality was perceived as the most addressable social barrier (59 %), while education (24 %) and neighborhood/built environment were perceived as the least addressable (14 %). Staff capacity to address social needs was significantly associated with increases in the pharmacy's ability to address social determinants of health across all five domains. Pharmacists were more likely to report adequate staff capacity if they practiced in independent community pharmacies.

CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists commonly address social determinants of health of their patients, but most lack adequate staff capacity to address patient social barriers. Pharmacies with capacity can only address a portion of the social needs of their patient population. Greater access to resources and staffing support are needed to improve pharmacy's role in addressing patient unmet social needs.

RevDate: 2025-02-26
CmpDate: 2025-02-24

Unger JM, Mazza GL, Elsaid MI, et al (2025)

When to adjust for multiplicity in cancer clinical trials.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2025(68):3-9.

Interpreting cancer clinical trial results often depends on addressing issues of multiplicity. When testing multiple hypotheses, unreliable findings can occur by chance due to the inflation of the type I error rate, the probability of mistakenly rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true. In this setting, researchers may often set the type I error rate (or the alpha level) low to limit false positive findings and the interpretation of a causal relationship where none exists. Conversely, overly conservative type I error control may result in declaring findings, that do not meet multiplicity-adjusted alpha levels, as false when they are actually true, reducing opportunities for new discovery. This presentation focuses on multiplicity adjustment in the context of clinical trials conducted within the NCI's Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). Because federally sponsored trials often require long-term participation from patients and represent a substantial investment by taxpayers, striking the right balance between optimizing what is learned from these trials, while avoiding false positive results, should be a priority.

RevDate: 2025-02-26
CmpDate: 2025-02-24

Mazza GL, Culakova E, Enserro DM, et al (2025)

Design and analysis considerations for investigating patient subgroups of interest within cancer clinical trials.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2025(68):22-29.

Examining treatment effects in subgroups of patients defined by demographic, genetic, or clinical characteristics is increasingly of interest given the pursuit of personalized medicine and the importance of representation and equity in treatment decisions. The magnitude or even the direction of the treatment effect may vary across subgroups, and these differential treatment effects could have clinical implications. Subgroup analyses require caution in their interpretation, however, because of the high probability of a false-positive or false-negative conclusion. We outline study design and analysis considerations for responsibly investigating and reporting differential treatment effects across subgroups in oncology trials, with examples from the National Cancer Institute's National Clinical Trials Network and Community Oncology Research Program. Recommendations include ensuring appropriate representation of patients from subgroups of interest, recognizing power and multiplicity limitations, and treating exploratory subgroup analyses as hypothesis generating rather than practice changing.

RevDate: 2025-02-26
CmpDate: 2025-02-24

Bandos H, Torres-Saavedra PA, Culakova E, et al (2025)

Best practices and pragmatic approaches for patient-reported outcomes and quality of life measures in cancer clinical trials.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2025(68):14-21.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are often collected in cancer clinical trials. Data obtained from trials with PROs are essential in evaluating participant experiences relating to symptoms, financial toxicity, or health-related quality of life. Although most features of clinical trial design, implementation, and analyses apply to trials with PROs, several considerations are unique. In this paper, we focus on specific issues such as selection of the tool, timing and frequency of assessments, and data collection methods. We discuss how the estimand framework can be used in connection with PROs, properties of common estimation methods, and handling of missing outcomes. With a plethora of literature available, we aim to summarize best practices and pragmatic approaches to the design and analysis of the studies incorporating PROs.

RevDate: 2025-02-26
CmpDate: 2025-02-24

Dressler EV, Pugh SL, Gunn HJ, et al (2025)

Practical design considerations for cluster randomized controlled trials: lessons learned in community oncology research.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2025(68):56-64.

Cancer care delivery research trials conducted within the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) routinely implement interventions at the practice or provider level, necessitating the use of cluster randomized controlled trials (cRCTs). The intervention delivery requires cluster-level randomization instead of participant-level, affecting sample size calculation and statistical analyses to incorporate correlation between participants within a practice. Practical challenges exist in the conduct of these cRCTs due to unique trial network infrastructures, including the possibility of unequal participant accrual totals and rates and staggered study initiation by clusters, potentially with differences between randomized arms. Execution of cRCT designs can be complex, ie, if some clusters do not accrue participants, unintended cluster-level crossover occurs, how best to identify appropriate cluster-level stratification, timing of randomization, and multilevel eligibility criteria considerations. This article shares lessons learned with potential mitigation strategies from 3 NCORP cRCTs.

RevDate: 2025-02-24

Stamatatos L (2025)

The Germline Targeting Vaccine Concept: Overview and Updates from HIV Pre-Clinical and Clinical Trials.

Current HIV research pii:CHR-EPUB-146808 [Epub ahead of print].

An effective HIV-1 vaccine should elicit diverse immune responses, including broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Such antibodies recognize regions of the viral envelope glyco-protein (Env) that are conserved among the diverse HIV-1 clades and strains. They are isolated from people living with HIV-1 to protect animals from experimental viral exposure and reduce HIV-1 acquisition in clinical settings. However, despite efforts spanning several decades, bNAbs have not been elicited through immunization. The HIV Env efficiently binds bNAbs, but not their unmutated (germline, gl) precursors. In contrast, Env readily engages the germline precursors of antibodies with no, or very narrow, cross-neutralizing activities (non-neutralizing antibodies, nnAbs). That, in part, explains why Env-based immunogens consistently elicit nnAbs, but not bNAbs. In the past decade, Env-derived proteins have been specifically designed to engage the germline precursors of diverse bNAbs. These 'germline-targeting' Env immunogens activate the corresponding naive B cells in vivo, but are unable to guide their proper maturation towards their broadly neutralizing forms. For this, immunizations with currently not well-defined heterologous Envs are required. Here, we discuss the development of germline-targeting Env immunogens, their in vivo evaluation, and the strategies currently under evaluation that aim to rapidly guide the mat-uration of germline-precursor BCRs into their broadly neutralizing forms.

RevDate: 2025-02-25

Jochim BE, Topalidou I, NJ Lehrbach (2025)

Protein sequence editing defines distinct and overlapping functions of SKN-1A/Nrf1 and SKN-1C/Nrf2.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

The Nrf/NFE2L family of transcription factors regulates redox balance, xenobiotic detoxification, metabolism, proteostasis, and aging. Nrf1/NFE2L1 is primarily responsible for stress-responsive upregulation of proteasome subunit genes and is essential for adaptation to proteotoxic stress. Nrf2/NFE2L2 is mainly involved in activating oxidative stress responses and promoting xenobiotic detoxification. Nrf1 and Nrf2 contain very similar DNA binding domains and can drive similar transcriptional responses. In C. elegans, a single gene, skn-1, encodes distinct protein isoforms, SKN-1A and SKN-1C, that function analogously to mammalian Nrf1 and Nrf2, respectively, and share an identical DNA binding domain. Thus, the extent to which SKN-1A/Nrf1 and SKN-1C/Nrf2 functions are distinct or overlapping has been unclear. Regulation of the proteasome by SKN-1A/Nrf1 requires post-translational conversion of N-glycosylated asparagine residues to aspartate by the PNG-1/NGLY1 peptide:N-glycanase, a process we term 'sequence editing'. Here, we reveal the consequences of sequence editing for the transcriptomic output of activated SKN-1A. We confirm that activation of proteasome subunit genes is strictly dependent on sequence editing. In addition, we find that sequence edited SKN-1A can also activate genes linked to redox homeostasis and xenobiotic detoxification that are also regulated by SKN-1C, but the extent of these genes' activation is antagonized by sequence editing. Using mutant alleles that selectively inactivate either SKN-1A or SKN-1C, we show that both isoforms promote optimal oxidative stress resistance, acting as effectors for distinct signaling pathways. These findings suggest that sequence editing governs SKN-1/Nrf functions by tuning the SKN-1A/Nrf1 regulated transcriptome.

RevDate: 2025-02-23

Ross WL, Santiago-Rivera Y, Tan MT, et al (2025)

Design and methods of a multi-level intervention to improve adherence to childhood cancer survivorship care by partnering with primary care providers: The BRIDGES randomized controlled trial.

Contemporary clinical trials pii:S1551-7144(25)00053-9 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Despite heightened risk of chronic health conditions, <20 % of childhood cancer survivors (CCS) receive guideline-recommended surveillance for late effects. Barriers include avoidance of reminders, lack of knowledge, and costs. The goal of the BRIDGES Study is to evaluate the effects of a multi-level, remote intervention on adherence to guideline-recommended surveillance among CCS by partnering with primary care providers (PCPs).

METHODS: This ongoing study is a multi-site, two-arm, prospective, parallel design, 1:1 randomized controlled non-inferiority trial (N = 240; n = 120/group). Eligibility criteria are: cancer diagnosis at age < 21 years, 2.0-4.0 years post-cancer therapy, and no previous specialty survivorship clinic care. The intervention includes: 1) patient survivorship education via telehealth with a cancer center nurse, including discussion of patient's individualized survivorship care plan (SCP), 2) ongoing patient-tailored health education within the electronic health record's patient portal, 3) a structured interactive phone call between the cancer center nurse and PCP, including discussion of patient's SCP, and 4) an in-person PCP visit for survivorship care. Patients randomized to the comparison group are contacted to schedule an in-person visit at their cancer center-based survivorship clinic. Adherence to guideline-recommended surveillance tests (primary outcome) is assessed at 1-year post-randomization (primary follow-up time point) and 2-years post-randomization (for durability). Patient knowledge, self-efficacy, and activation; PCP knowledge and self-efficacy; and process outcomes are also assessed.

CONCLUSION: Models of survivorship care that overcome existing barriers are needed. If efficacious, this scalable, remote intervention would be a valuable strategy to address barriers and bridge gaps in care to reach more CCS.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05448560.

RevDate: 2025-02-22

Lange PH, PF Schellhammer (2025)

Tribute to Michael Droller MD.

Urologic oncology, 43(2):94.

RevDate: 2025-02-22

Viskochil RH, Lin T, Gigic B, et al (2025)

Sedentary behavior and physical activity one year after colorectal cancer diagnosis: results from the ColoCare Study.

Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: Physical activity plays key roles in colorectal cancer survivorship; however, the impact of different clinicodemographic outcomes on cross-sectional and longitudinal objectively measured physical activity 12 and 24 months post-diagnosis are unclear.

METHODS: ColoCare study participants (n = 165) wore an Actigraph GT3x accelerometer for 4-10 consecutive days to objectively assess activity levels 12 and 24 months after colorectal cancer diagnosis and resection. Associations between these clinical/demographic exposures and physical activity outcomes and longitudinal changes were determined using t-test, ANOVA F-test, and linear regression modeling, adjusting for common confounders (e.g., sex, age, stage).

RESULTS: Key physical activity and sedentary behavior variables significantly differed by demographic status, including minutes of weekly exercise by sex and age (age < 50: 364 min ± 303 min; age 50-70: 232 min ± 263 min; age > 70: 93 min ± 135 min, p < 0.001) and (%) daily sedentary time by age (age < 50: 64 ± 10%; age 50-70: 67 ± 7%; age > 70: 71 ± 7%, p = 0.003). Within the multivariate model, age was the primary measure consistently associated with activity differences. Participants who wore accelerometers 12- and 24-month post-resection (n = 52) significantly increased weekly exercise minutes (214 min ± 208 min vs. 288 min ± 316 min, p = 0.04).

CONCLUSION: Age is the primary clinicodemographic determinant separating physical activity levels in colorectal cancer survivors, and increases in exercise from 12 to 24 months are likely due to consolidation of sporadic daily physical activity into bouts of exercise.

Colorectal cancer survivors experience different volumes and changes in accelerometer-derived physical activity based on some (e.g., age) but not all (e.g., stage) clinicodemographic variables.

RevDate: 2025-02-24
CmpDate: 2025-02-21

Ahmed SR, Befano B, Egemen D, et al (2025)

Generalizable deep neural networks for image quality classification of cervical images.

Scientific reports, 15(1):6312.

Successful translation of artificial intelligence (AI) models into clinical practice, across clinical domains, is frequently hindered by the lack of image quality control. Diagnostic models are often trained on images with no denotation of image quality in the training data; this, in turn, can lead to misclassifications by these models when implemented in the clinical setting. In the case of cervical images, quality classification is a crucial task to ensure accurate detection of precancerous lesions or cancer; this is true for both gynecologic-oncologists' (manual) and diagnostic AI models' (automated) predictions. Factors that impact the quality of a cervical image include but are not limited to blur, poor focus, poor light, noise, obscured view of the cervix due to mucus and/or blood, improper position, and over- and/or under-exposure. Utilizing a multi-level image quality ground truth denoted by providers, we generated an image quality classifier following a multi-stage model selection process that investigated several key design choices on a multi-heterogenous "SEED" dataset of 40,534 images. We subsequently validated the best model on an external dataset ("EXT"), comprising 1,340 images captured using a different device and acquired in different geographies from "SEED". We assessed the relative impact of various axes of data heterogeneity, including device, geography, and ground-truth rater on model performance. Our best performing model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) of 0.92 (low quality, LQ vs. rest) and 0.93 (high quality, HQ vs. rest), and a minimal total %extreme misclassification (%EM) of 2.8% on the internal validation set. Our model also generalized well externally, achieving corresponding AUROCs of 0.83 and 0.82, and %EM of 3.9% when tested out-of-the-box on the external validation ("EXT") set. Additionally, our model was geography agnostic with no meaningful difference in performance across geographies, did not exhibit catastrophic forgetting upon retraining with new data, and mimicked the overall/average ground truth rater behavior well. Our work represents one of the first efforts at generating and externally validating an image quality classifier across multiple axes of data heterogeneity to aid in visual diagnosis of cervical precancer and cancer. We hope that this will motivate the accompaniment of adequate guardrails for AI-based pipelines to account for image quality and generalizability concerns.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Ficarra S, Kang DW, Wilson RL, et al (2025)

Exercise medicine for individuals diagnosed with Lung Cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of health outcomes.

Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 201:108413 pii:S0169-5002(25)00034-0 [Epub ahead of print].

Consensus exists regarding the need to provide exercise interventions to individuals diagnosed with lung cancer (LC). Exercise interventions for this populations usually include multidisciplinary approaches, making the attempt to understand the effects of exercise a real challenge. Therefore, we designed a systematic review to identify the effects of exercise interventions among individuals with a LC diagnosis. Following the PRISMA guidelines, studies across 5 different databases were systematically screened. Eligible studies were randomised and non-randomised trials, including individuals with a LC diagnosis, administering exercise-only interventions. Three-level meta-analyses were performed for cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, physical function, anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life. Differences between exercise types were also explored. The Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) II tool for randomised controlled trials and the RoB in non-randomised studies - of interventions were used to assess study quality. A total of 36,304 records were screened and 13 studies, including 547 LC survivors, were considered eligible. Randomised and non-randomised trials were mainly judged as "some concern" and at "serious" RoB, respectively. Meta-analyses reported significant improvements on physical function among exercise groups compared to control (ES = 0.62; 95 % CI: 0.10 to 1.15; p = 0.03), and no significant changes for all other variables. There is moderate evidence that exercise interventions appear to be an effective tool to improve physical function among individuals diagnosed with LC. Further studies are still needed to determine exercise prescription effectiveness on health outcomes, differences across exercise types and enhance individualized interventions.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Alduhayh S, Laskar RS, Jiang X, et al (2025)

Association of genetic liability to allergic diseases with overall and early-onset colorectal cancer risk: a Mendelian randomization study.

Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology pii:752040 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Tumor immunosurveillance theory supports that allergic conditions could decrease cancer risk. However, observational evidence yielded inconsistent results for the association between allergic diseases and colorectal cancer risk. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to examine potential causal associations of allergies with risk of overall and early-onset colorectal cancer.

METHODS: Genome-wide association study summary statistic data were used to identify genetic variants associated with allergic diseases (Nvariants=65) and individual allergic conditions (asthma, hay fever/allergic rhinitis, eczema). Using two-sample MR, we examined these variants in relation to incident overall (Ncases=52,775 cases) and early-onset colorectal cancer (Ncases=6,176). The mediating role of white blood cells was examined using multivariable MR.

RESULTS: In inverse-variance weighted models, genetic liability to allergic diseases was inversely associated with overall (ORper log(odds)= 0.90 [95% CI= 0.85-0.96]; P< 0.01) and early-onset colorectal cancer (OR= 0.83 [95% CI= 0.73-0.95]; P= 0.01). Similar inverse associations were found for hay fever/allergic rhinitis or eczema, while no evidence of association was found between liability to asthma-related phenotypes and colorectal cancer risk. Multivariable MR adjustment for eosinophils weakened the inverse associations for liability to allergic diseases for overall (OR= 0.96 [95% CI= 0.89-1.03]; P= 0.26) and early-onset colorectal cancer (OR= 0.86 [95% CI= 0.73-1.01]; P= 0.06).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports a potential causal association between liability to allergic diseases, specifically hay fever/allergic rhinitis or eczema, and colorectal cancer, possibly at least in part mediated via eosinophil counts.

IMPACT: Our results provide evidence that allergic responses may also have a role in immunosurveillance against colorectal cancer.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Burfeind KG, Funahashi Y, Su XT, et al (2025)

Kidney cell response to acute cardiorenal and isolated kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Physiological genomics [Epub ahead of print].

Acute cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) represents a critical intersection of cardiac and renal dysfunction with profound clinical implications. Despite its significance, the molecular underpinnings that mediate cellular responses within the kidney during CRS remain inadequately understood. We employed single nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) to dissect the cellular transcriptomic landscape of the kidney following in a translational model of CRS, cardiac arrest/cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/PCR) in comparison to ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). In each dataset, we found that proximal tubule (PT) cells of the kidney undergo significant gene expression changes, with decreased expression of genes critically important for cell identity and function, indicative of dedifferentiation. Based on this, we created a novel score to capture the dedifferentiation state of each kidney cell population and found that certain epithelial cell populations, such as the PT S1 and S2 segments, as well as the distal convoluted tubule, exhibited significant dedifferentiation response. Interestingly, the dedifferentiation response in the distal nephron differed in magnitude between IRI and CA/CPR. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of PT response to IRI and CA/CPR revealed similarities between the two models and key differences, including enrichment of immune system process genes. Transcriptional changes in both mouse models of AKI highly correlated with a dataset of human biopsies from patients diagnosed with acute kidney injury (AKI). This comprehensive single nucleus transcriptomic profiling provides valuable insights into the cellular mechanisms driving CRS.

RevDate: 2025-02-23
CmpDate: 2025-02-21

Taylor MR, Bradford MC, Zhou C, et al (2025)

Heart Rate Variability as a Digital Biomarker in Adolescents and Young Adults Receiving Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Cancer medicine, 14(4):e70609.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) receiving hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) are at high risk for poor psychosocial outcomes. Heart rate variability (HRV), a surrogate for autonomic nervous system activity, is a promising digital biomarker that has been linked to important outcomes. The objectives of this study were to prospectively describe the trajectory of HRV among AYAs receiving HCT and explore the association between HRV and patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

METHODS: This was a multi-site study embedded in a randomized trial among AYAs receiving HCT (NCT03640325). We collected sequential 24-h HRV metrics, including the standard deviation of normal-to-normal beats (SDNN), root-mean-square of successive differences (RMSSD), as well as frequency domain measures. PRO surveys queried anxiety, depression, quality of life, hope, and resilience at baseline and 3 months. We summarized outcomes using descriptive statistics, and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship between HRV and PROs.

RESULTS: Thirty-nine HRV recordings were collected from n = 16 participants aged 12-21 years. There was a moderately strong correlation between inferior baseline HRV and higher anxiety and depression (anxiety: r = -0.35 (p = 0.18) for SDNN, r = -0.47 (p = 0.07) for RMSSD; depression: r = -0.26 (p = 0.34) for SDNN, r = -0.39 (p = 0.14) for RMSSD). Among participants with elevated baseline anxiety, higher HRV suggested greater improvement in anxiety over time (r = -0.66 (p = 0.08) for SDNN, r = -0.31 (p = 0.45) for RMSSD).

CONCLUSIONS: There was a correlation between HRV and PROs in this study, and among those with elevated anxiety, HRV predicted improvement over time. Digital biomarkers may augment behavioral intervention design and implementation.

RevDate: 2025-02-23
CmpDate: 2025-02-21

Nikolaienko O, Anderson GL, Chlebowski RT, et al (2025)

MGMT epimutations and risk of incident cancer of the colon, glioblastoma multiforme, and diffuse large B cell lymphomas.

Clinical epigenetics, 17(1):28.

BACKGROUND: Constitutional BRCA1 epimutations (promoter hypermethylation) are associated with an elevated risk of triple-negative breast cancer and high-grade serous ovarian cancer. While MGMT epimutations are frequent in colon cancer, glioblastoma, and B-cell lymphoma, it remains unknown whether constitutional MGMT epimutations are associated with risk of any of these malignancies.

METHODS: We designed a nested case-control study, assessing potential associations between MGMT epimutations in blood from healthy individuals and subsequent risk of incident cancer. The study cohort was drawn from postmenopausal women, participating in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, who had not been diagnosed with either colon cancer, glioblastoma, or B-cell lymphoma prior to study entry. The protocol included n = 400 women developing incident left-sided and n = 400 women developing right-sided colon cancer, n = 400 women developing diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, all matched on a 1:2 basis with cancer-free controls, and n = 195 women developing incident glioblastoma multiforme, matched on a 1:4 basis. All cancers were confirmed in centralized medical record review. Blood samples, collected at entry, were analyzed for MGMT epimutations by massive parallel sequencing. Associations between MGMT methylation and incident cancers were analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression.

RESULTS: Analyzing epimutations affecting the key regulatory area of the MGMT promoter, the hazard ratio (HR) was 1.07 (95% CI 0.79-1.45) and 0.80 (0.59-1.08) for right- and left-sided colon cancer, respectively, 1.13 (0.78-1.64) for glioblastoma, and 1.11 (0.83-1.48) for diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Sensitivity analyses limited to subregions of the MGMT promoter and to individuals with different genotypes of a functional SNP in the MGMT promoter (rs16906252), revealed no significant effect on HR for any of the cancer forms. Neither did we observe any effect of rs16906252 status on HR for any of the cancer forms among individuals methylated or non-methylated at the MGMT promoter.

CONCLUSIONS: Constitutional MGMT promoter methylation in normal tissue is not associated with an increased risk of developing colon cancer, glioblastoma, or B-cell lymphoma.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Toghani D, Gupte S, Zeng S, et al (2025)

Author Correction: Niche-derived Semaphorin 4A safeguards functional identity of myeloid-biased hematopoietic stem cells.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

Briney CA, Henriksen JC, Lin C, et al (2025)

Muskelin is a substrate adaptor of the highly regulated Drosophila embryonic CTLH E3 ligase.

EMBO reports [Epub ahead of print].

The maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) is a conserved developmental process where the maternally-derived protein and mRNA cache is replaced with newly made zygotic gene products. We have previously shown that in Drosophila the deposited RNA-binding proteins ME31B, Cup, and Trailer Hitch are ubiquitylated by the CTLH E3 ligase and cleared. However, the organization and regulation of the CTLH complex remain poorly understood in flies because Drosophila lacks an identifiable substrate adaptor, and the mechanisms restricting the degradation of ME31B and its cofactors to the MZT are unknown. Here, we show that the developmental regulation of the CTLH complex is multi-pronged, including transcriptional control by OVO and autoinhibition of the E3 ligase. One major regulatory target is the subunit Muskelin, which we demonstrate is a substrate adaptor for the Drosophila CTLH complex. Finally, we find that Muskelin has few targets beyond the three known RNA-binding proteins, showing exquisite target specificity. Thus, multiple levels of integrated regulation restrict the activity of the embryonic CTLH complex to early embryogenesis, during which time it regulates three important RNA-binding proteins.

RevDate: 2025-02-24

Ni X, Richardson RB, Godoy AS, et al (2025)

Crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning of Zika virus NS2B-NS3 protease enable development of resistance-resilient inhibitors.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is essential for the cleavage of viral polyprotein precursor into individual structural and non-structural (NS) proteins and is therefore an attractive drug target. Generation of a robust crystal system of co-expressed NS2B-NS3 protease has enabled us to perform a crystallographic fragment screening campaign with 1076 fragments. 47 fragments with diverse scaffolds were identified to bind in the active site of the protease, with another 6 fragments observed in a potential allosteric site. To identify binding sites that are intolerant to mutation and thus suppress the outgrowth of viruses resistant to inhibitors developed from bound fragments, we performed deep mutational scanning of NS2B-NS3 protease. Merging fragment hits yields an extensive set of 'mergers', defined as synthetically accessible compounds that recapitulate constellations of observed fragment-protein interactions. In addition, the highly sociable fragment hits enable rapid exploration of chemical space via algorithmic calculation and thus yield diverse possible starting points that maximally explore the binding opportunities to NS2B-NS3 protease, facilitating its resistance-resilient antiviral development.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

Boiko JR, Ensbey KS, Waltner OG, et al (2025)

Defining pathogenic IL-17 and CSF-1 gene expression signatures in chronic graft-versus-host disease.

Blood pii:535653 [Epub ahead of print].

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) remains the leading cause of non-relapse morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Effective therapeutics agents targeting dysregulated cytokines including IL-17 and CSF-1 have been defined in preclinical models of cGVHD, and efficacy in subsequent clinical trials has led to their recent FDA approval. Despite this, these agents are effective in only a subset of patients, expensive, difficult to access outside the US, and used in a trial-and-error fashion. The ability to readily discern druggable, dysregulated immunity in these patients is desperately needed to facilitate the selection of appropriate treatment and to potentially identify high-risk individuals for preemptive therapy. We used single cell sequencing-based approaches in our informative preclinical cGVHD models to "reverse engineer" temporal IL-17 and CSF-1 signatures in mouse blood that could be used to interrogate patients. We defined distinct, non-intuitive IL-17 and CSF-1 signatures in mouse blood monocytes that could be identified in relevant monocytes within 70% of patients at diagnosis of cGVHD and in half of patients at day +100 post-HCT who subsequently developed cGVHD. These signatures can now be evaluated prospectively in clinical studies to help delineate potential responder and non-responders to relevant therapeutics targeting these pathways.

RevDate: 2025-02-22
CmpDate: 2025-02-20

Umoren RA, Ezeaka C, Berkelhamer SK, et al (2025)

Essential Newborn Care Virtual Simulations for Skills Retention in Newborn Care.

JAMA network open, 8(2):e2460565.

IMPORTANCE: Newborn mortality accounts for approximately 47% of all mortality of children under the age of 5 years. Virtual simulation may be a viable approach to support retention of essential newborn care knowledge and skills among health care professionals in low- and middle-income countries.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between mobile virtual simulation using Virtual Essential Newborn Care (vENC) and knowledge and skills retention in early newborn care in low-resource settings and to propose a frequency of virtual simulation use for among health care professionals who care for newborns in low-resource settings.

This cohort study was conducted at 23 primary, secondary, and tertiary health care facilities in Lagos, Nigeria, for 6 months between December 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. Participants included nurses and midwives who participated in deliveries and provided newborn care. Potential participants who attended a Helping Babies Breathe or Essential Newborn Care (ENC) course within the past 1 year were excluded.

EXPOSURES: All participants received in-person training using the World Health Organization ENC 1 and ENC 2 curricula along with virtual simulation practice at variable recommended frequencies for 6 months after course completion.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes included assessments of bag-valve-mask (BVM) ventilation skills, and performance on ENC 1 and ENC 2 case A and B scenarios conducted by trained research assistants before, immediately after, and 6 months after the in-person course. All scores ranged from 0% to 100%, with higher scores indicating better performance.

RESULTS: Of 70 enrolled participants (67 of 69 [97%] female), 62 (89%) completed the 6-month follow-up. Immediate posttraining performance (median [IQR] scores: BVM ventilation skills, 93% [86%-100%]; ENC 1 case scenario A, 72% [61%-78%]; ENC 1 case scenario B, 76% [68%-88%]; ENC 2 case scenario A, 80% [73%-87%]; and ENC 2 case scenario B, 88% [70%-95%]) improved compared with pretraining performance for all skill assessments (median [IQR] scores: BVM ventilation skills, 57% [29%-64%]; ENC 1 case scenario A, 39% [28%-50%]); ENC 2 case scenario A, 33% [20%-45%]) (all P < .001). There were further gains in performance at the 6-month follow-up assessment for BVM ventilation (median [IQR], 100% [86%-100%]; P = .04) and the ENC1 and ENC2 assessments by case scenario (case scenario A: ENC 1 median [IQR] score, 78% [72%-83%]; P = .001 and ENC 2 median [IQR] score, 87% [80%-93%]; P = .008; and case scenario B: ENC 1 median [IQR] score, 88% [76%-92%]; P = .009 and ENC 2 median [IQR] score, 93% [80%-100%]; P = .004) relative to the immediate postcourse assessment scores.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Findings of this cohort study suggest that the app-based simulations may be effective in supporting the retention of knowledge and skills following ENC training and may contribute to further performance gains for health care professionals in low- and middle-income countries. More clinical and implementation research is needed to explore the impact of virtual simulations on health professionals' clinical practices and neonatal outcomes.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

DeVine A, Landier W, Hudson MM, et al (2025)

The Children's Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancers: A Review.

JAMA oncology pii:2830545 [Epub ahead of print].

IMPORTANCE: Since 2003, the Children's Oncology Group (COG) has developed and disseminated the Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancers. These guidelines have benchmarked the standard of care for long-term survivors of childhood cancer in North America and beyond. Since their inception, they have evolved in depth, scope, and contributors to maintain fidelity toward continually emerging evidence related to cancer survivorship. They are intended to inform care for individuals who survived 2 or more years from completion of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer-directed therapy and receiving care in either specialty or primary care environments. The guidelines are updated on a 5-year cycle, during which comprehensive literature searches pertaining to guideline-specific questions are performed, evidence abstracted from pertinent publications, and recommendations determined and scored following expert deliberation.

OBSERVATIONS: Version 6.0 of the guidelines, released in October 2023, comprised 165 sections and 45 health links and represents the cooperative efforts of 220 individuals. Major changes include the addition of recommendations regarding surveillance for genetic cancer predisposition, surveillance following the use of novel cancer treatment modalities, and routine vaccination practices during long-term follow-up. In addition, surveillance echocardiograms were omitted for those at low risk of cardiomyopathy.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This narrative review outlines the historical evolution of the COG Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancers, current methods guiding their development, and key recommendations from version 6.0. The guidelines are publicly available in their entirety online. The COG guidelines continue to set the standard for surveillance practices for long-term survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer. The growing body of evidence supporting these recommendations will continue to guide their evolution to inform optimal survivorship care practices.

RevDate: 2025-02-20
CmpDate: 2025-02-20

Dumm W, Ralph D, DeWitt W, et al (2025)

Leveraging DAGs to improve context-sensitive and abundance-aware tree estimation.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 380(1919):20230315.

The phylogenetic inference package GCtree uses abundance of sampled sequences to improve the performance of parsimony-based inference, using a branching process model. Our previous work showed that GCtree performs competitively on B-cell receptor data, compared with other similar tools. In this article, we describe recent enhancements to GCtree, including an efficient tree storage data structure that discovers additional diversity of parsimonious trees with negligible additional computational cost. We also describe a suite of new objective functions that can be used to rank these trees, including a Poisson context likelihood function that models sequence evolution in a context-sensitive way. We validate these additions to GCtree with simulated B-cell receptor data, and benchmark performance against other phylogenetic inference tools.This article is part of the theme issue '"A mathematical theory of evolution": phylogenetic models dating back 100 years'.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

Bhardwaj S, Galanter N, Berenbrok LA, et al (2025)

Pediatric vaccination in pharmacies is not associated with delayed well-child visits among commercially insured children.

Health affairs scholar, 3(2):qxaf028.

Pediatric vaccination rates in the United States lag national goals. Policies that expand pharmacy-based vaccinations among children could help improve vaccination rates. Opponents argue, however, that such policies will result in delayed or missed well-child visits as most children receive routine vaccinations in primary care settings. We evaluated the likelihood of having a timely well-child visit following a routine vaccination in pharmacies and primary care settings among children aged 4-17 years. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis with commercial claims data from 2016-2019, using conditional logistic regression models. A timely well-child visit was defined as one within 12 months after a preceding well-child visit for primary analysis and 15 months for secondary analysis. Approximately 95% of the sample consisted of children with influenza among their index vaccine(s). The odds of having a timely well-child visit were similar between children who received vaccines in pharmacies and those who received them in primary care settings. Findings suggest that guardians or parents who choose pharmacy-based pediatric vaccinations for their commercially insured children do not forgo well-child visits and may actually be more likely to obtain a timely well-child visit. Extending pharmacy-based vaccinations to patients of all ages can help improve pediatric vaccination rates.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

Landi D, Navai SA, Brock RM, et al (2025)

A checkpoint reversal receptor mediates bipartite activation and enhances CAR T-cell function.

Cancer research communications pii:751987 [Epub ahead of print].

The efficacy of CAR T-cells (CART) in solid tumors is limited by immune inhibition. In our study, we observed that effector cytokines mediated the upregulation of the PD-L1 immune-checkpoint in primary glioblastoma (GBM). To offset the PD-L1 inhibitory signal, we engineered PD-1 checkpoint reversal receptors (CPR) with a CD28 or 41BB co-stimulatory endodomain and co-expressed them with a first-generation or a CD28-containing second-generation HER2-specific CAR (CPR/CART) using bicistronic vectors. We found that bipartite T-cell activation, by CAR-generated signal 1 and CPR co-stimulation (signal 2), fine-tuned pro-inflammatory cytokine release and sustained antitumor activity. While both CPR28 and CPR41BB effectively counteracted the PD-1 signal in vitro, CPR41BB, when co-expressed with a first-generation CAR (CARζ/CPR41BB), promoted central memory differentiation following repeat antigenic stimulation. CARζ/CPR41BB T-cells formed a robust immune synapse with tumor targets, similar to a 4-1BB-containing second-generation CART, maintained the favorable metabolic parameters associated with 4-1BB co-stimulation, and demonstrated superior antitumor function after adoptive transfer in xenograft models of GBM and metastatic osteosarcoma. Thus, a CPR molecule with 4-1BB co-stimulation that curtails PD-1 inhibition and complements CAR signaling to optimize T-cell activation could enhance CART efficacy against solid tumors.

RevDate: 2025-02-20

Meanley S, Rodriguez Garcia L, Lisha NE, et al (2025)

Exploring Stigma and Self-Image: Mixed-Methods Insights from HIV Cure-Related Research Participants Undergoing Analytical Treatment Interruptions.

AIDS patient care and STDs [Epub ahead of print].

This mixed-methods study explored self-image among people with HIV participating in an HIV cure-related study involving analytical treatment interruptions (ATIs). Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we described how self-image emerged across study participation, focusing on internalized stigma, emotional strengths, and the psychosocial dimensions of study participation. Data come from the SCOPE-ATI substudy (NCT00187512) of the University of California San Francisco SCOPE cohort (NCT04359186). Quantitative data were collected at three timepoints: pre-ATI (n = 15), post-ATI (n = 12), and end of the study (n = 14). We observed a general decline in self-image scores over time. However, participants maintained a moderately high agreement with statements about contributing to reducing HIV stigma through their involvement in the study. Qualitative interviews were collected pre-ATI (n = 11), during ATI (n = 8), and post-ATI (n = 6). Qualitative findings revealed two major themes shaping self-image: (1) experiencing and reconciling internalized HIV stigma and (2) self-evaluations in relation to life purpose. Many participants expressed disappointment at having to resume antiretroviral therapy, viewing it as a reminder of their HIV status and its associated stigma. Nevertheless, some found purpose and pride in their participation, motivated by altruistic contributions to improving future HIV control options. The findings highlight the emotional complexities of participating in HIV cure research and underscore the need for psychosocial support throughout ATI studies. While most participants experienced a decline in self-image, some derived meaning and empowerment from their involvement. This study suggests that addressing emotional well-being and reinforcing participants' contributions to science can enhance their experience in future research.

RevDate: 2025-02-19
CmpDate: 2025-02-19

Theodore DA, Neradilek M, Gillespie K, et al (2025)

Brief Report: Associations Between Gender and Solicited Adverse Events After Passive Infusion of VRC01 or Placebo in HVTN 704/HPTN 085.

Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 98(4):340-345.

BACKGROUND: Realizing the potential of HIV prevention options requires understanding product tolerability across diverse groups vulnerable to HIV acquisition. Gender minority (GM) individuals are understudied in clinical trials.

SETTING: HVTN 704/HIV Prevention Trials Network 085, a phase 2b randomized HIV prevention trial, enrolled MSM and transgender participants from Brazil, Peru, Switzerland, and the United States to receive an infusion every 8 weeks (10 total) of VRC01 30 mg/kg, VRC01 10 mg/kg, or placebo. Solicited adverse events (AEs) were recorded for 3 days after each infusion.

METHODS: Gender was defined by self-report and sex assigned-at-birth. Multivariate mixed logistic models were used to estimate the association between gender (cisgender men [CM] vs. GM participants [transgender women, transgender men, or another gender]) and solicited AE frequency and severity.

RESULTS: GM participants reported more solicited AEs than CM among all participants (adjusted OR 1.59, 95% CI: 1.20 to 2.10, P = 0.001) and among placebo recipients (1.72, 1.05 to 2.81, P = 0.031). The severity of solicited AEs (occurrence of grade 2 and higher event) did not significantly differ overall (1.83, 0.79 to 4.20, P = 0.174) or among placebo recipients (3.05, 0.76 to 12.32, P = 0.112). Grade 2 events were reported after 1% and 2% of total infusions among CM and GM participants, respectively. Grade 3-4 events were rare overall (<0.1%). Completion of 10 infusions was high (78.6%) and slightly higher in CM (79.2%) than GM participants (73%).

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of associations between gender and solicited AEs after monoclonal antibody infusion. GM participants reported more events; severity was low. HIV prevention trials must engage and support GM individuals to best evaluate tolerability of novel agents.

RevDate: 2025-02-19

Sommers J, Dizon DS, Lewis MA, et al (2025)

Assessing health information seeking behaviors among targeted social media users using an infotainment video about a cancer clinical trial: a Population-based Descriptive Study.

JMIR cancer [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Lack of information, awareness, and misconceptions about clinical trials are major barriers to cancer clinical trial participation. Digital and social media are dominant sources of health information and offer optimal opportunities to improve public medical awareness and education by providing accurate and trust-worthy sources of health information from reliable sources. Infotainment, material intended to both entertain and inform, is an effective strategy for engaging and educating audiences that can be easily disseminated using social media and may be a novel way to improve awareness of and recruitment in clinical trials.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an infotainment video promoting a clinical trial, disseminated using social media, could drive health information seeking behaviors.

METHODS: As part of a video series, we created an infotainment video focused on promotion of a specific cancer clinical trial. We instituted a dissemination and marketing process on Facebook to measure video engagement and health information seeking behaviors among targeted audiences who expressed interest in breast cancer research and organizations. To evaluate video engagement, we measured reach, retention, outbound clicks, and outbound click-through rate. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were used to summarize each measure.

RESULTS: The video substantially increased health information seeking behavior by increasing viewership from 1 visitor one month prior to launch to 414 outbound clicks from the video to the clinical trial webpage during the 21-day social media campaign period.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that digital and social media tools can be tailored for specific target audiences, are scalable, and can be disseminated at low cost, making it an accessible educational, recruitment, and retention strategy focused on improving awareness of clinical trials.

CLINICALTRIAL: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03418961.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Dadonaite B, Burrell AR, Logue J, et al (2025)

SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody specificities differ dramatically between recently infected infants and immune-imprinted individuals.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

The immune response to viral infection is shaped by past exposures to related virus strains, a phenomenon known as imprinting. For SARS-CoV-2, much of the population has been imprinted by a viral spike from an early strain, either through vaccination or infection during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence of this imprinting, infection with more recent SARS-CoV-2 strains primarily boosts cross-reactive antibodies elicited by the imprinting strain. Here we compare the neutralizing antibody specificities of imprinted individuals versus infants infected with a recent strain. Specifically, we use pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning to measure how spike mutations affect neutralization by the serum antibodies of adults and children imprinted by the original vaccine versus infants with a primary infection by a XBB* variant. While the serum neutralizing activity of the imprinted individuals primarily targets the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD), serum neutralizing activity of infants only infected with XBB* mostly targets the spike N-terminal domain (NTD). In these infants, secondary exposure to the XBB* spike via vaccination shifts more of the neutralizing activity towards the RBD, although the specific RBD sites targeted are different than for imprinted adults. The dramatic differences in neutralization specificities among individuals with different exposure histories likely impact SARS-CoV-2 evolution.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Verwimp S, Wagoner J, Arenas EG, et al (2025)

Combinations of approved oral nucleoside analogues confer potent suppression of alphaviruses in vitro and in vivo.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Alphaviruses such as chikungunya virus (CHIKV) pose a significant threat to global health, yet specific antiviral therapies remain unavailable. In this study, we evaluated combinations of three approved oral directly acting antiviral (DAA) drugs (sofosbuvir (SOF), molnupiravir (MPV) and favipiravir (FAV)) against CHIKV, Semliki Forest virus (SFV), Sindbis virus (SINV), and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis virus (VEEV) in vitro and in vivo. In human skin fibroblasts, synergistic antiviral effects were observed for the drug combinations MPV + SOF and FAV + SOF against CHIKV, and for FAV + SOF against SFV. In human liver Huh7 cells, the combinations of FAV + MPV conferred additive to synergistic activity against VEEV and SINV strains, while SOF synergized with FAV against SINV strains. In a mouse model of CHIKV arthritis, MPV improved CHIKV-induced foot swelling and reduced systemic infectious virus titers. Combination treatment with suboptimal doses of MPV and SOF significantly reduced foot swelling and decreased infectious virus titers in serum as compared to single doses of each drug. Sequencing of CHIKV RNA from mouse joint tissue revealed that MPV caused dose-dependent increases in mutations in the CHIKV genome. Upon combination therapy of MPV with SOF, the number of mutations was significantly lower compared to single treatment with several higher doses of MPV. In summary, combining approved oral nucleoside analogs confers potent suppression of multiple alphaviruses in vitro and in vivo with enhanced control of viral genetic evolution in the face of antiviral drug pressure. These drug combinations may ultimately lead to the development of potent combinations of pan-family alphavirus inhibitors.

RevDate: 2025-02-21

Gen R, Addetia A, Asarnow D, et al (2025)

SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 mediates broad inhibition of translation in mammals.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1) promotes innate immune evasion by inhibiting host translation in human cells. However, the role of nsp1 in other host species remains elusive, especially in bats which are natural reservoirs of sarbecoviruses and possess a markedly different innate immune system than humans. Here, we reveal that SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 potently inhibits translation in bat cells from Rhinolophus lepidus, belonging to the same genus as known sarbecovirus reservoirs hosts. We determined a cryo-electron microscopy structure of SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 bound to the Rhinolophus lepidus 40S ribosome and show that it blocks the mRNA entry channel via targeting a highly conserved site among mammals. Accordingly, we found that nsp1 blocked protein translation in mammalian cell lines from several species, underscoring its broadly inhibitory activity and conserved role in numerous SARS-CoV-2 hosts. Our findings illuminate the arms race between coronaviruses and mammalian host immunity (including bats), providing a foundation for understanding the determinants of viral maintenance in bat hosts and spillovers.

RevDate: 2025-02-19

Chen J, Raymundo C, Martinez A, et al (2025)

Histopathologic Grading of Acute Cutaneous Graft-vs-Host Disease and Nonrelapse Mortality.

JAMA dermatology [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-02-19
CmpDate: 2025-02-19

Levy C, Naik H, Overbey J, et al (2025)

Liver involvement in a large cohort of patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria or X-linked protoporphyria.

Hepatology communications, 9(3):.

BACKGROUND: Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and X-linked protoporphyria (XLP) are characterized by the accumulation of protoporphyrin in the marrow, erythrocytes, plasma, skin, and liver, and present clinically with painful cutaneous phototoxicity. Liver abnormalities have been reported in over 25% of patients with EPP. Further characterization of liver involvement in protoporphyria is needed.

METHODS: Patients with EPP or XLP enrolled in the longitudinal studies of the NIH-supported Porphyrias Consortium were included. Medical history, laboratory, and liver histology data were abstracted and described.

RESULTS: A total of 322 patients were enrolled; 28 (8.7%) had XLP, 52% were female, and the median age at enrollment was 33.3 years. Liver chemistries were available for 235 patients, and 132 (56.2%) had abnormalities, mostly mild. Abnormal liver enzymes were associated with higher erythrocyte protoporphyrin levels. Eleven patients had advanced protoporphyric hepatopathy. In total, 54 (16.8%) underwent cholecystectomy, 8 (2.5%) had a liver transplant, 4 (1.2%) had a bone marrow transplant, and 8 (2.5%) died. At least 4 deaths were caused by liver failure due to protoporphyric hepatopathy, 2 were complications of bone marrow transplant, and 1 from HCC, which developed in a patient with EPP without cirrhosis. Patients with XLP were more likely to develop liver-related complications compared to EPP.

CONCLUSIONS: Liver abnormalities are common in patients with EPP and XLP. In this national registry, only 3.4% had protoporphyric hepatopathy, with most requiring a transplant. Of the deaths, 62.5% were attributable to liver disease. Further observations are needed for guiding hepatic evaluation and management of patients with protoporphyria with or without initial hepatic abnormalities.

RevDate: 2025-02-19

Mehta RS, Lee SJ, Gooley TA, et al (2025)

Long-Term Outcomes and Quality of Life with Treosulfan-Based Conditioning in Hematological Malignancies.

Blood advances pii:535645 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-02-20
CmpDate: 2025-02-19

Chawana TD, Walsh SR, Stranix-Chibanda L, et al (2025)

Pharmacokinetic interaction assessment of an HIV broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody VRC07-523LS: a cross-protocol analysis of three phase 1 trials in people without HIV.

BMC immunology, 26(1):8.

VRC07-523LS is a safe and well-tolerated monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting the CD4 binding site on the HIV envelope (Env) trimer. Efficacy of VRC07-523LS, in combination with mAbs targeting other HIV epitopes, will be evaluated in upcoming trials to prevent HIV acquisition in adults. However, differences in the pharmacokinetics (PK) of VRC07-523LS when administered alone vs. in combination with other mAbs have not been formally assessed. We performed a cross-protocol analysis of three clinical trials and included data from a total of 146 adults without HIV who received intravenous (n = 95) or subcutaneous (n = 51) VRC07-523LS, either alone ('single'; n = 100) or in combination with 1 or 2 other mAbs ('combined'; n = 46). We used an open, two-compartment population PK model to describe serum concentrations of VRC07-523LS over time, accounting for inter-individual variabilities. We compared individual-level PK parameters between the combined vs. single groups using the targeted maximum likelihood estimation method to adjust for participant characteristics. No significant differences were observed in clearance rate, inter-compartmental clearance, distribution half-life, or total VRC07-523LS exposure over time. However, for the combined group, mean central volume of distribution, peripheral volume of distribution, and elimination half-life were slightly greater, corresponding to slightly lower predicted concentrations early post-administration with high levels being maintained in both groups. These results suggest potential PK interactions between VRC07-523LS and other mAbs, but with small clinical impact in the context of HIV prevention. Our findings support coadministration of VRC07-523LS with other mAbs, and the use of the developed PK models to design future trials for HIV prevention.

RevDate: 2025-02-18

Bock TJ, Colonne CK, Fiorenza S, et al (2025)

Outcome correlates of approved CD19-targeted CAR T cells for large B cell lymphoma.

Nature reviews. Clinical oncology [Epub ahead of print].

CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have provided a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with relapsed and/or refractory large B cell lymphoma (LBCL). Currently, three CD19-targeted CAR T cell products are approved by the FDA and various other regulators for the treatment of patients with LBCL: axicabtagene ciloleucel, tisagenlecleucel and lisocabtagene maraleucel. Response rates following infusion of these CD19-targeted CAR T cells have been promising; however, approximately half of treated patients show relapse within 2 years. Furthermore, receiving these agents can be associated with serious toxicities, including cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome. In this Review, we summarize the factors associated with the efficacy, including response and survival outcomes, and toxicity of CD19-targeted CAR T cells in pivotal clinical trials and large real-world datasets describing the outcomes of patients with LBCL who received treatment with these products.

RevDate: 2025-02-18

Attygalle AD, Karube K, Jeon YK, et al (2025)

The fifth edition of the WHO classification of mature T cell, NK cell and stroma-derived neoplasms.

Journal of clinical pathology pii:jcp-2025-210074 [Epub ahead of print].

The fifth edition of the WHO Classification of Haematolymphoid Tumors (WHO-HAEM5) introduces significant advancements in the understanding and diagnosis of mature T cell and NK cell, and stroma-derived neoplasms, and incorporates molecular and genetic data/findings accrued over the past years. The classification has been reorganised using a hierarchical system, employed across the fifth edition of the WHO classification of tumours of all organ systems. This review highlights recent developments, evolving concepts, and key updates since the revised fourth edition (WHO-HAEM4R). It enumerates the minimal/essential criteria necessary for diagnosis and classification, constituting not only the importance of clonality analysis in the workup of certain T cell neoplasms and the detection of infectious agents and specific genetic alterations in a subset of entities but also the applicability of these criteria in resource-constrained settings. 'Stroma-derived neoplasms of lymphoid tissues discussed in this review is a new category introduced in HAEM5 that encompasses mesenchymal tumours occurring exclusively in lymph nodes and spleen and mesenchymal dendritic cell neoplasms previously classified as 'histiocytic/dendritic cell neoplasms'.

RevDate: 2025-02-18

Hansen DK, Peres LC, Dima D, et al (2025)

Comparison of Standard-of-Care Idecabtagene Vicleucel and Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma.

Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel) and ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel), two B-cell maturation antigen-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). We compare safety, efficacy, and survival among patients with RRMM treated with standard-of-care (SOC) ide-cel or cilta-cel.

METHODS: Data were from a retrospective chart review of patients with RRMM leukapheresed by December 31, 2022, with the intent to receive SOC ide-cel or cilta-cel at 19 institutions. An inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) approach was used to compare outcomes by therapy type.

RESULTS: A total of 641 patients were leukapheresed by December 31, 2022, with ide-cel (n = 386) and cilta-cel (n = 255). Five hundred eighty-six patients were infused (n = 350 for ide-cel; n = 236 for cilta-cel) with a median follow-up of 12.6 and 13.0 months for ide-cel and cilta-cel, respectively. After IPTW, patient characteristics were well balanced. Cilta-cel was associated with higher likelihood of grade ≥3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS; odds ratio [OR], 6.80 [95% CI, 2.28 to 20.33]), infections (OR, 2.03 [95% CI, 1.41 to 2.92]), second primary malignancies (OR, 1.77 [95% CI, 0.89 to 3.56]), and delayed neurotoxicity (OR, 20.07 [95% CI, 4.46 to 90.20]). Cilta-cel was also associated with better treatment responses (≥complete response: OR, 2.42 [95% CI, 1.63 to 3.60]), longer progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 0.48 [95% CI, 0.36 to 0.63]), and longer overall survival (HR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.46 to 0.97]). No associations were observed between therapy type and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, any CRS, severe cytopenia at days 30 and 90, or nonrelapse mortality. We observed consistent findings when repeating the analyses restricting the ide-cel cohort to patients infused during the same time period as Food and Drug Administration approval for cilta-cel (≥March 2022).

CONCLUSION: Cilta-cel demonstrated superior efficacy and survival, with higher incidence of certain toxicities, compared with ide-cel.

RevDate: 2025-02-18
CmpDate: 2025-02-18

Lawson MB, Zhu W, Miglioretti DL, et al (2025)

Disparities in Standard-of-Care, Advanced, and Same-Day Diagnostic Services among Patients with Abnormal Screening Mammography.

Radiology, 314(2):e241673.

Background Diagnostic imaging and biopsy are used to evaluate abnormal screening mammography. Differences in on-site availability and receipt of these diagnostic services may contribute to disparities in breast cancer outcomes across sociodemographic groups. Purpose To identify multilevel factors associated with on-site availability and receipt of diagnostic imaging and biopsy after screening mammography. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included female patients (age range, 40-89 years) who underwent screening mammography at 136 facilities in the United States from January 2010 to December 2020. The primary exposure variables were race and ethnicity and neighborhood-level educational attainment, household income, and rurality. The adjustment variables were age, breast density, breast biopsy history, personal and family history of breast cancer, time from prior mammographic examination to screening mammography, screening modality, facility academic affiliation, and screening examination year. The relative risk (RR) of factors for on-site availability at screening facilities and undergoing standard-of-care imaging (ie, mammography and/or US) and advanced diagnostic imaging (ie, digital breast tomosynthesis, MRI) and biopsy, and undergoing any same-day diagnostic service and biopsy were estimated using modified Poisson regression. Results In total, 1 123 177 female patients (median age, 59 years; IQR, 51-67 years) underwent 3 519 502 screening mammographic examinations: 10.3% Asian patients (362 440 of 3 519 502), 12.7% Black patients (447 777 of 3 519 502), 6.5% Hispanic patients (227 177 of 3 519 502), 68.3% White patients (2 403 159 of 3 519 502), and 2.2% all other races and ethnicities (78 949 of 3 519 502). In most fully adjusted models, race or ethnicity and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status were not associated with on-site diagnostic service availability. However, compared with White patients, patients belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups were less likely to undergo same-day diagnostic services after abnormal screening mammography (Asian patients: RR, 0.74 [95% CI: 0.64, 0.85]; Black patients: RR, 0.56 [95% CI: 0.49, 0.63]; Hispanic patients: RR, 0.61 [95% CI: 0.52, 0.71]). Black patients were less likely to undergo same-day biopsies after an abnormal diagnostic workup (RR, 0.46; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.65). Conclusion Although no evidence existed that on-site diagnostic service availability varied by race and ethnicity in most models, patients in racial and ethnic minority groups were less likely to be provided same-day diagnostic services and Black patients were less likely to undergo same-day biopsy. © RSNA, 2025 Supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Mullen in this issue.

RevDate: 2025-02-19

Wadden E, Lai C, Grivas P, et al (2025)

Successful treatment of immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated fulminant myocarditis with abatacept and ruxolitinib: a case report.

European heart journal. Case reports, 9(2):ytaf019.

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a class of cancer immunotherapy with growing indications for treatment of various malignancies. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are monoclonal antibodies that block inhibitory pathways in immune cells, including cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA4), programmed death 1 receptor (PD1), and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PDL1), to activate the immune system. However, these agents can disrupt self-tolerance and lead to immune-related adverse events. Fulminant myocarditis, a feared complication of ICIs, can be highly fatal, and there is a need for effective treatment options.

CASE SUMMARY: A 70-year-old patient with recurrent metastatic disease of urothelial carcinoma subsequently developed fulminant myocarditis after receiving eight cycles of pembrolizumab. He developed cardiogenic shock and required inotropes and a percutaneous microaxial flow pump placement for temporary mechanical circulatory support. He received methylprednisolone initially and then was started on second-line immunosuppression agents, ruxolitinib and abatacept, for steroid-refractory myocarditis. Abatacept is thought to inhibit activation of T-cell CTLA4 and PD1/PDL1 pathways and reverse ICI-activated pathways. Ruxolitinib is a Janus kinase inhibitor that impairs immune activation through suppressing cytokine sensing and production and T-cell activation. After these treatments, the patient subsequently clinically improved and his myocarditis resolved.

DISCUSSION: This case highlights ICI myocarditis refractory to corticosteroids leading to treatment with second-line immunosuppression. As immunotherapies are increasingly applied to a broader range of cancers, further research is needed to evaluate the optimal treatment strategy for ICI-related myocarditis and other immune-related adverse events.

RevDate: 2025-02-19
CmpDate: 2025-02-18

Hunter NB, Peterson LM, Specht JM, et al (2025)

Fluoroestradiol (FES) and Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET imaging in patients with ER+, HER2-positive or HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

Breast cancer research : BCR, 27(1):23.

BACKGROUND: [18]F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and [18]F-Fluorestradiol (FES) have been FDA approved for measuring tumor glycolytic activity and estrogen receptor (ER) uptake, respectively, in clinical positron emission tomography (PET) imaging for patients with hormone-receptor (HR) positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC), but little is known about its utility in patients with breast tumors that overexpress human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). We hypothesize that comparing patterns of FDG and FES uptake in patients with HER2-positive versus HER2-negative MBC can guide further biologic and clinical studies into the HR/HER2-positive phenotype.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study examining uptake in matched lesions for FES and FDG-PET scans, assessing these parameters in 213 patients with ER-positive/HER2-positive (n = 33) versus ER-positive/HER2-negative MBC (n = 180). We employed log-rank and t-tests to assess the association of HER2 status with outcome variables and the hypotheses that patients expressing HER2-positive disease lived longer than patient with HER2-negative disease.

RESULTS: No difference in FES or FDG avidity was observed between patients with HER2-negative or HER2-positive tumor status. Limited data also suggests that patients with HER2-positive disease had better overall survival (p = 0.024), than those with HER2-negative disease, but not time-to-progression between the same patient cohorts.

CONCLUSION: This retrospective analysis suggests that there is a possible role for future trials using FES-PET in helping to select patients with ER+/HER2-positive primary tumors who retain ER expression at all sites of disease and may benefit from endocrine therapy.

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ESP Quick Facts

ESP Origins

In the early 1990's, Robert Robbins was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins, where he directed the informatics core of GDB — the human gene-mapping database of the international human genome project. To share papers with colleagues around the world, he set up a small paper-sharing section on his personal web page. This small project evolved into The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Support

In 1995, Robbins became the VP/IT of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Soon after arriving in Seattle, Robbins secured funding, through the ELSI component of the US Human Genome Project, to create the original ESP.ORG web site, with the formal goal of providing free, world-wide access to the literature of classical genetics.

ESP Rationale

Although the methods of molecular biology can seem almost magical to the uninitiated, the original techniques of classical genetics are readily appreciated by one and all: cross individuals that differ in some inherited trait, collect all of the progeny, score their attributes, and propose mechanisms to explain the patterns of inheritance observed.

ESP Goal

In reading the early works of classical genetics, one is drawn, almost inexorably, into ever more complex models, until molecular explanations begin to seem both necessary and natural. At that point, the tools for understanding genome research are at hand. Assisting readers reach this point was the original goal of The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Usage

Usage of the site grew rapidly and has remained high. Faculty began to use the site for their assigned readings. Other on-line publishers, ranging from The New York Times to Nature referenced ESP materials in their own publications. Nobel laureates (e.g., Joshua Lederberg) regularly used the site and even wrote to suggest changes and improvements.

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When the site began, no journals were making their early content available in digital format. As a result, ESP was obliged to digitize classic literature before it could be made available. For many important papers — such as Mendel's original paper or the first genetic map — ESP had to produce entirely new typeset versions of the works, if they were to be available in a high-quality format.

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Early support from the DOE component of the Human Genome Project was critically important for getting the ESP project on a firm foundation. Since that funding ended (nearly 20 years ago), the project has been operated as a purely volunteer effort. Anyone wishing to assist in these efforts should send an email to Robbins.

ESP Plans

With the development of methods for adding typeset side notes to PDF files, the ESP project now plans to add annotated versions of some classical papers to its holdings. We also plan to add new reference and pedagogical material. We have already started providing regularly updated, comprehensive bibliographies to the ESP.ORG site.

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Cancer is the generic name for more than 100 diseases in which cells begin to grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner. Usually, when cells get too old or damaged, they die and new cells take their place. Cancer begins when genetic changes impair this orderly process so that some cells start to grow uncontrollably. The Emperor of All Maladies is a "biography" of cancer — from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. This is a must read book for anyone with an interest in cancer. R. Robbins

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Papers in Classical Genetics

The ESP began as an effort to share a handful of key papers from the early days of classical genetics. Now the collection has grown to include hundreds of papers, in full-text format.

Digital Books

Along with papers on classical genetics, ESP offers a collection of full-text digital books, including many works by Darwin and even a collection of poetry — Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg.

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ESP now offers a large collection of user-selected side-by-side timelines (e.g., all science vs. all other categories, or arts and culture vs. world history), designed to provide a comparative context for appreciating world events.

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Biographical information about many key scientists (e.g., Walter Sutton).

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Bibliographies on several topics of potential interest to the ESP community are automatically maintained and generated on the ESP site.

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