Oct 2nd, 2021 - Heat shock protein 105 (HSP105) is overexpressed in various cancers, but not in normal tissues. We investigated the expression levels of HSP105 in cervical cancer and the efficacy of immunotherapy targeting HSP105. Previously, we established human leukocyte antigen-A*02:01 (HLA-A2) restricted HSP105 peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones from a colorectal cancer patient vaccinated...

Sep 21st, 2021 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Transplant recipients have a shortened lifespan after developing cancer, especially those who develop lung cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to a new analysis. Organ-transplant recipients face an elevated risk of developing cancer, relative to the general population, due to immunosuppressive medications they must take to prevent organ rejection, as wel...

Sep 13th, 2021 - An expert panel of 48 dermatologists from 13 countries has developed recommendations to guide efforts aimed at preventing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) in solid organ transplant recipients. The recommendations were published online on Sept. 1 in JAMA Dermatology. Because of lifelong immunosuppression, solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) have a risk of CSCC that is 20-200 times ...

Aug 4th, 2021 - Donor-derived anti-CD7 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy led to complete responses in 18 of 20 patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a first-in-human clinical trial showed. After a median follow-up of 6.3 months, 15 of the 18 responding patients remained in remission, and seven patients had undergone stem-cell transplantation (SCT). A...

Jul 30th, 2021 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Candidates for liver transplant (LT) who have symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection are at high risk of premature death – particularly those with decompensated cirrhosis and a Laboratory Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (Lab-MELD) score of 15 or higher. However, once patients recover from COVID-19, LT is a safe option with no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 recurrence. These are ...

Jul 23rd, 2021 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organs from deceased donors who had received AstraZeneca's ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 may possibly prompt vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT) in recipients, according to a new study. As a result, the U.K. study team suggests that "liver, lung, pancreas and small bowel transplants from donors with VITT should only proceed in urgent s...

Jul 15th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Though the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines has allowed many Americans to find some pre-pandemic normalcy, little has changed for Victoria Graham of Washington, DC, who is still exercising the same heightened caution she did in early 2020 because she is immunocompromised from a complicated medic...

Jul 8th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. People whose immune systems are compromised by therapy or disease may benefit from additional doses of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, researchers say. In a study involving 101 people with solid-organ transplants, there was a significant boost in antibodies after the patients received third doses o...

Jul 3rd, 2021 - Malignant glioma is the most common and lethal primary brain tumour, with dismal survival rates and no effective treatment. We examined the safety and activity of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7, an engineered oncolytic adenovirus delivered by neural stem cells (NSCs), in patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma. This was a first-in-human, open-label, phase 1, dose-escalation trial done to determine the ...

Jun 25th, 2021 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Using monoclonal-antibody therapies for COVID-19 appears safe and effective at preventing severe disease in recipients of solid-organ transplants, according to a new retrospective study. "Monoclonal antibody treatment has favorable outcomes with minimal adverse effects in solid organ transplant recipients with mild to moderate COVID-19, researchers write in the journ...

Jun 21st, 2021 - Among older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), survival is significantly better when they undergo reduced-intensity condition (RIC) before receiving an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) at first remission. This improvement in survival is seen regardless of key factors such as genotype and the status of minimal residual disease (MRD) after initial chemotherapy, results from...

Jun 20th, 2021 - Abnormalities in GABAergic inhibitory circuits have been implicated in the aetiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is caused by genetic and environmental factors. Several genes have been associated with syndromic forms of ASD, including FOXG1. However, when and how dysregulation of FOXG1 can result in defects in inhibitory circuit development and ASD-like social impairments is unclear....

Jun 19th, 2021 - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has grown into a global pandemic, and only a few antiviral treatments have been approved to date. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays a fundamental role in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis because it allows viral entry into host cells. Here we show that ACE2 nanodecoys derived from human...

Jun 11th, 2021 - Extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from cardiosphere-derived cells (CDC-EVs) are coming to light as a unique cell-free therapeutic. Because of their novelty, however, there still exist prominent gaps in knowledge regarding their therapeutic potential. Herein the therapeutic potential of CDC-EVs in a rat model of acute traumatic coagulopathy induced by multiple injuries and hemorrhagic shock ...

Jun 10th, 2021 - Vγ9Vδ2 T cells are attractive effector cells for immunotherapy with potent cytotoxic activity against a variety of malignant cells. However, the effect of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells on chemotherapy-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts, especially highly refractory leukemia stem cells (LSCs) is still unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of cytotoxicity of allogeneic Vγ9Vδ2 T cells on ...

Jun 9th, 2021 - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients have a 5-year survival rate of only 8% largely due to late diagnosis and insufficient therapeutic options. Neutrophils are among the most abundant immune cell type within the PDAC tumor microenvironment (TME), and are associated with a poor clinical prognosis. However, despite recent advances in understanding neutrophil biology in cancer, therapi...

May 26th, 2021 - Performing 1-stage urethroplasty in patients with urethral strictures caused by lichen sclerosus (LS) is hotly debated among reconstructive urologists due to conflicting reports of success. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the pooled incidence of stricture recurrence following 1-stage buccal mucosal graft (BMG) urethroplasty in patients with LS, to determine the impact of...

May 25th, 2021 - (Reuters Health) - Solid organ transplant patients may not mount an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines, a new study in France suggests. Data from 367 solid organ patients who received two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines revealed that the vaccine was well-tolerated but in two out of three patients followed for four weeks, vaccination did not lead to production of a...

May 13th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Dr Brian Boyarsky Solid organ transplant recipients who receive two doses of the mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine show detectable antibody responses that are higher than the levels observed after 1 dose, but the levels are still notably lower than those seen in people who are not immunocompromised, new r...

May 13th, 2021 - Immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) have failed in all phase III glioblastoma (GBM) trials. Here, we show that regulatory T (Treg) cells play a key role in GBM resistance to ICBs in experimental gliomas. Targeting glucocorticoid-induced TNFR-related receptor (GITR) in Treg cells using an agonistic antibody (αGITR) promotes CD4 Treg cell differentiation into CD4 effector T cells, alleviates Treg c...