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Lymphodepletion (LD) or conditioning is an essential step in the application of currently used autologous and allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies as it maximizes engraftment, efficacy and long-term survival of CAR-T. Its main modes of action are the depletion and modulation of endogenous lymphocytes, conditioning of the microenvironment for improved CAR-T expansion and persistence, and reduction of tumor load. However, most LD regimens provide a broad and fairly unspecific suppression of T-cells as well as other hematopoietic cells, which can also lead to severe side effects, particularly infections. We reviewed 1271 published studies (2011-2023) with regard to current LD strategies for approved anti-CD19 CAR-T products for large B cell lymphoma (LBCL). Fludarabine (Flu) and cyclophosphamide (Cy) (alone or in combination) were the most commonly used agents. A large number of different schemes and combinations have been reported. In the respective schemes, doses of Flu and Cy (range 75-120mg/m2 and 750-1.500mg/m2) and wash out times (range 2-5 days) differed substantially. Furthermore, combinations with other agents such as bendamustine (benda), busulfan or alemtuzumab (for allogeneic CAR-T) were described. This diversity creates a challenge but also an opportunity to investigate the impact of LD on cellular kinetics and clinical outcomes of CAR-T. Only 21 studies explicitly investigated in more detail the influence of LD on safety and efficacy. As Flu and Cy can potentially impact both the in vivo activity and toxicity of CAR-T, a more detailed analysis of LD outcomes will be needed before we are able to fully assess its impact on different T-cell subsets within the CAR-T product. The T2EVOLVE consortium propagates a strategic investigation of LD protocols for the development of optimized conditioning regimens.

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CART) cell therapy targeting the B cell specific differentiation antigen CD19 has shown clinical efficacy in a subset of relapsed/refractory (r/r) diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Despite this heterogeneous response, blood pre-infusion biomarkers predicting responsiveness to CART cell therapy are currently understudied. Blood cell and serum markers, along with clinical data of DLBCL patients who were scheduled for CART cell therapy were evaluated to search for biomarkers predicting CART cell responsiveness. Compared to healthy controls (n=24), DLBCL patients (n=33) showed significant lymphopenia, due to low CD3 CD4 T helper and CD3 CD56 NK cell counts, while cytotoxic CD3 CD8 T cell counts were similar. Although lymphopenic, DLBCL patients had significantly more activated HLA-DR (P=0.005) blood T cells and a higher frequency of differentiated CD3 CD27 CD28 (28.7 ± 19.0% versus 6.6 ± 5.8%; P<0.001) T cells. Twenty-six patients were infused with CART cells (median 81 days after leukapheresis) and were analyzed for the overall response (OR) 3 months later. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses showed that low levels of differentiated CD3 CD27 CD28 T cells (23.3 ± 19.3% versus 35.1 ± 18.0%) were independently associated with OR. This association was even more pronounced when patients were stratified for complete remission (CR versus non-CR: 13.7 ± 11.7% versus 37.7 ± 17.4%, P=0.001). A cut-off value of ≤ 18% of CD3 CD27 CD28 T cells predicted CR at 12 months with high accuracy (P<0.001). , CD3 CD8 CD27 CD28 compared to CD3 CD8 CD27 CD28 CART cells displayed similar CD19 target cell-specific cytotoxicity, but were hypoproliferative and produced less cytotoxic cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α). CD3 CD8 T cells outperformed CD3 CD4 T cells 3- to 6-fold in terms of their ability to kill CD19 target cells. Low frequency of differentiated CD3 CD27 CD28 T cells at leukapheresis represents a novel pre-infusion blood biomarker predicting a favorable response to CART cell treatment in r/r DLBCL patients.

Adoptive immunotherapy based on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells has exhibited impressive clinical efficacy in treating B-cell malignancies. However, the potency of CAR-T cells carriethe potential for significant on-target/off-tumor toxicities when target antigens are shared with healthy cells, necessitating the development of complementary safety measures. In this context, there is a need to selectively eliminate therapeutically administered CAR-T cells, especially to revert long-term CAR-T cell-related side effects. To address this, we have developed an effective cellular-based safety mechanism to specifically target and eliminate the transferred CAR-T cells. As proof-of-principle, we have designed a secondary CAR ( anti -CAR CAR) capable of recognizing a short peptide sequence (Strep-tag II) incorporated into the hinge domain of an anti -CD19 CAR. In in vitro experiments, these anti -CAR CAR-T cells have demonstrated antigen-specific cytokine release and cytotoxicity when co-cultured with anti -CD19 CAR-T cells. Moreover, in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent mice, we observed the successful depletion of anti -CD19 CAR-T cells when administered concurrently with anti -CAR CAR-T cells. We have also demonstrated the efficacy of this safeguard mechanism in a clinically relevant animal model of B-cell aplasia induced by CD19 CAR treatment, where this side effect was reversed upon anti -CAR CAR-T cells infusion. Notably, efficient B-cell recovery occurred even in the absence of any pre-conditioning regimens prior anti -CAR CAR-T cells transfer, thus enhancing its practical applicability. In summary, we developed a robust cellular safeguard system for selective in vivo elimination of engineered T cells, offering a promising solution to address CAR-T cell-related on-target/off-tumor toxicities.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is rare in Japan. We conducted the nationwide, prospective observational study CLLRSG-01 to clarify the current state of CLL in Japan and to make accurate international comparisons by preparing naturally air-dried smears like those used in other countries. Of the 201 untreated patients enrolled and evaluated, 119 were diagnosed with CLL and 82 with non-CLL mature B-cell neoplasms, based on the WHO classification. Of the 119 CLL patients, 90 were classified as typical and 29 as atypical according to FAB classification morphology, with the proportion of atypical CLL consistent with reports from other countries. Immunophenotypic analyses by flow cytometry showed that 55% of Japanese CLL patients had a Matutes score of 4 or higher, which is lower than the rate of about 90% in Europeans. Mutated IGHV was identified in 80% of Japanese CLL patients, which is a higher rate than in Western patients. The most frequent IGHV gene was VH3-30 (15%), followed by VH3-23 (12%) and VH4-34 (10%). VH1-69 , the most common gene in Western countries, was identified in only one patient. These results indicate that the pattern of immunophenotypes and IGHV gene usage in Japanese CLL patients differs from that in Western patients.

Background Innovative trial designs are sought to streamline drug development in rare diseases. Basket- and integrated protocol designs are two of these new strategies and have been applied in a handful oncologic trials. We have taken the concept outside the realm of oncology and report about a first-in-human integrated protocol design that facilitates the transition from phase Ia in healthy volunteers to phase Ib in patients with rare complement-mediated disorders driven by the classical pathway. Results We have been conducting a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled first-in-human study with TNT009, which is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against the C1s subunit of human complement component C1. The trial consisted of three subparts, including normal healthy volunteers (part one and two) and a single cohort of patients in part three. Patients suffered from various complement-mediated diseases sharing the same pathophysiological mechanism, i.e. bullous pemphigoid, antibody-mediated rejection of organ transplants, cold agglutinin disease and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Primary objective of the trial has been to evaluate the safety and tolerability of TNT009 in humans. Conclusions This trial provides probably the first example that basket trials may not be limited to single genetic aberrations, which is overly restrictive, but our trial design demonstrates that pathway specificity is a viable paradigm for defining baskets. This will hopefully serve as a role model that could benefit other innovative drug development programs targeting rare diseases.

The cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2 (CNR1&2) are overexpressed in a variety of malignant diseases and cannabinoids can have noteworthy impact on tumor cell viability and tumor growth. Patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) present with very heterogeneous disease characteristics translating into highly differential risk properties. To meet the urgent need for refinement in risk stratification at diagnosis and the search for novel therapies we studied CNR expression and response to cannabinoid treatment in CLL. Expression levels of CNR1&2 were determined in 107 CLL patients by real-time PCR and analyzed with regard to prognostic markers and survival. Cell viability of primary CLL cells was determined in suspension and co-culture after incubation in increasing cannabinoid concentrations under normal and reduced serum conditions and in combination with fludarabine. Impact of cannabinoids on migration of CLL cells towards CXCL12 was determined in transwell plates. We found CNR1&2 to be overexpressed in CLL compared to healthy B-cells. Discriminating between high and low expressing subgroups, only high CNR1 expression was associated with two established high risk markers and conferred significantly shorter overall and treatment free survival. Viability of CLL primary cells was reduced in a dose dependent fashion upon incubation with cannabinoids, however, healthy cells were similarly affected. Under serum reduced conditions, no significant differences were observed within suspension and co-culture, respectively, however, the feeder layer contributed significantly to the survival of CLL cells compared to suspension culture conditions. No significant differences were observed when treating CLL cells with cannabinoids in combination with fludarabine. Interestingly, biologic activity of cannabinoids was independent of both CNR1&2 expression. Finally, we did not observe an inhibition of CXCL12-induced migration by cannabinoids. In contrast to other tumor entities, our data suggest a limited usability of cannabinoids for CLL therapy. Nonetheless, we could define CNR1 mRNA expression as novel prognostic marker.

Although rituximab is approved for several autoimmune diseases, no formal dose finding studies have been conducted. The amount of CD20+ cells differs significantly between autoimmune diseases and B-cell malignancies. Hence, dose requirements of anti-CD20 therapies may differ accordingly. We conducted a phase II pilot trial investigating the effects and safety of very low doses of rituximab, i.e., 5 mg/m every 3 weeks, 20 mg every 4 weeks, 50 mg every 3 months ( = 3 each) and 100 mg every 3 months ( = 1) in patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) to effectively suppress CD20 cell counts. Doses were increased if circulating CD20 cell depletion was insufficient (i.e., <95% reduction from baseline) in a dose group. Plasma rituximab concentrations were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, CD20 cell counts were determined by flow cytometry. Ten patients were included in the final analysis (7 with cold agglutinin disease, 2 with warm AIHA, 1 with mixed-type AIHA). The first infusion depleted ≥95% of CD20 cells in all but one of the included patients. However, the dosing regimens were found ineffective, because a sustained CD20 cell depletion was not achieved, and CD20 cells recovered with a high interindividual variability. CD20 lymphocytes were below the detection limit if rituximab plasma concentrations exceeded 0.4 μg/mL. One endokarditis occured. Rituximab doses as low as 5 mg/m transiently depleted CD20 cells in almost all patients, but the tested low-dose regimens failed to permanently suppress CD20 cells. The empirically identified EC95% of 0.4 μg/mL rituximab may guide future studies using low-doses of rituximab. https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier [EudraCT 2016-002478-11].

Objective We aimed to investigate whether (1) psychological and social indicators influence survival in patients diagnosed with cancer or haematologic malignancies when important biological aspects are controlled for, (2) psychological, social and biological indicators can be utilised to design one collated index for survival, usable in clinical practice to identify patients at risk of shorter survival and to improve personalised healthcare provision. Methods In this cross‐sectional study, 2263 patients with cancer or haematologic malignancies participated. We analysed 15 biological, psychological and social indicators as risk factors for survival with a Cox proportional hazards model. Indicators significantly associated with survival were combined to compute models for the identification of patient groups with different risks of death. The training sample contained 1122 patients. Validation samples included the remaining 1141 patients, the total sample, as well as groups with different cancer entities. Results Five indicators were found to significantly impact survival: Cancer site (HR: 3.56), metastatic disease (HR: 1.88), symptoms of depression (HR: 1.34), female sex (HR: 0.73) and anaemia (HR: 0.48). Combining these indicators to a model, we developed the Cancer Survival Index, identifying three distinct groups of patients with estimated survival times of 47.2 months, 141 months and 198.2 months (p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis of the influence of depression on survival showed a mediating effect of the following four factors, related to both depression and survival: previous psychiatric conditions, employment status, metastatic disease and haemoglobin levels. Conclusions Psychosocial and biological factors impact survival in various malignancies and can be utilised jointly to compute an index for estimating the survival of each patient individually—the Cancer Survival Index. We analysed 15 biological, psychological and social indicators as risk factors for survival in 2263 cancer patients with a Cox proportional hazards model. Five indicators, that is cancer site, metastatic disease, depression, female sex and anaemia, were significantly associated with survival and combined to compute the Cancer Survival Index.

NOTCH signaling represents a promising therapeutic target in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We compared the anti-neoplastic effects of the nuclear NOTCH2 inhibitor gliotoxin and the pan-NOTCH γ-secretase inhibitor RO4929097 in primary CLL cells with special emphasis on the individual roles of the different NOTCH receptors. Gliotoxin rapidly induced apoptosis in all CLL cases tested, whereas RO4929097 exerted a variable and delayed effect on CLL cell viability. Gliotoxin-induced apoptosis was associated with inhibition of the NOTCH2/FCER2 (CD23) axis together with concomitant upregulation of the NOTCH3/NR4A1 axis. In contrast, RO4929097 downregulated the NOTCH3/NR4A1 axis and counteracted the spontaneous and gliotoxin-induced apoptosis. On the cell surface, NOTCH3 and CD23 expression were mutually exclusive, suggesting that downregulation of NOTCH2 signaling is a prerequisite for NOTCH3 expression in CLL cells. ATAC-seq confirmed that gliotoxin targeted the canonical NOTCH signaling, as indicated by the loss of chromatin accessibility at the potential NOTCH/CSL site containing the gene regulatory elements. This was accompanied by a gain in accessibility at the NR4A1, NFκB, and ATF3 motifs close to the genes involved in B-cell activation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In summary, these data show that gliotoxin recovers a non-canonical tumor-suppressing NOTCH3 activity, indicating that nuclear NOTCH2 inhibitors might be beneficial compared to pan-NOTCH inhibitors in the treatment of CLL.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by progressive hypogammaglobulinemia predisposing affected patients to a variety of infectious diseases but paradoxically not to cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. Moreover, we found reactivity of a panel of CLL recombinant antibodies (CLL-rAbs) encoded by a germ-line allele with a single CMV protein, pUL32, despite differing antibody binding motifs. To put these findings into perspective, we studied prospectively relative frequency of viremia, kinetics of total and virus-specific IgG over time, and UL32 genetic variation in a cohort of therapy-naive patients (n=200). CMV-DNA was detected in 3% (6/200) of patients. The decay of total IgG was uniform (mean, 0.03; SD, 0.03) and correlated with that of IgG subclasses 1-4 in the paired samples available (n=64; p<0.001). Total CMV-specific IgG kinetics were more variable (mean, 0,02; SD, 0,06) and mean decay values differed significantly from those of total IgG (p=0.034). Boosts of CMV-specific antibody levels were observed in 49% (22/45) of CMV-seropositive patients. In contrast, VZV- and EBV-specific IgG levels decayed in parallel with total IgG levels (p=0.003 and p=0.001, respectively). VZV-specific IgG even became undetectable in 18% (9/50) of patients whereas CMV-specific ones remained detectable in all seropositive patients. The observed CMV-specific IgG kinetics were predicated upon the highly divergent kinetics of IgG specific for individual antigens - glycoprotein B-specific IgG were boosted in 51% and pUL32-specific IgG in 32% of patients. In conclusion, CLL patients have a preserved CMV-specific antibody response despite progressive decay of total IgG and IgG subclasses. CMV-specific IgG levels are frequently boosted in contrast to that of other herpesviruses indicative of a higher rate of CMV reactivation and antigen-presentation. In contrast to the reactivity of multiple different CLL-rAbs with pUL32, boosts of humoral immunity are triggered apparently by other CMV antigens than pUL32, like glycoprotein B.