Tailoring CD19xCD3-DART exposure enhances T-cells to eradication of B-cell neoplasms.

Many patients with B-cell malignancies can be successfully treated, although tumor eradication is rarely achieved. T-cell-directed killing of tumor cells using engineered T-cells or bispecific antibodies is a promising approach for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. We investigated the efficacy of CD19xCD3 DART bispecific antibody in a broad panel of human primary B-cell malignancies. The CD19xCD3 DART identified 2 distinct subsets of patients, in which the neoplastic lymphocytes were eliminated with rapid or slow kinetics. Delayed responses were always overcome by a prolonged or repeated DART exposure. Both CD4 and CD8 effector cytotoxic cells were generated, and DART-mediated killing of CD4+ cells into cytotoxic effectors required the presence of CD8+ cells. Serial exposures to DART led to the exponential expansion of CD4 + and CD8 + cells and to the sequential ablation of neoplastic cells in absence of a PD-L1-mediated exhaustion. Lastly, patient-derived neoplastic B-cells (B-Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia and Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma) could be proficiently eradicated in a xenograft mouse model by DART-armed cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells. Collectively, patient tailored DART exposures can result in the effective elimination of CD19 positive leukemia and B-cell lymphoma and the association of bispecific antibodies with unmatched CIK cells represents an effective modality for the treatment of CD19 positive leukemia/lymphoma

NLL soft and Coulomb resummation for squark and gluino production at the LHC

We present predictions of the total cross sections for pair production of squarks and gluinos at the LHC, including the stop-antistop production process. Our calculation supplements full fixed-order NLO predictions with resummation of threshold logarithms and Coulomb singularities at next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy, including bound-state effects. The numerical effect of higher-order Coulomb terms can be as big or larger than that of soft-gluon corrections. For a selection of benchmark points accessible with data from the 2010-2012 LHC runs, resummation leads to an enhancement of the total inclusive squark and gluino production cross section in the 15-30 % range. For individual production processes of gluinos, the corrections can be much larger. The theoretical uncertainty in the prediction of the hard-scattering cross sections is typically reduced to the 10 % level.Comment: 45 pages, 16 Figures, LaTex. v2: published version. Grids with numerical results for the NLL cross sections for squark and gluino production at the 7/8 TeV LHC are included in the submission and are also available at http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~cs1010/susy.htm

Pseudo-scalar Higgs boson production at N3LO_A+N3LL′

We consider the production of a pseudo-scalar particle A at the LHC, and present accurate theoretical predictions for its inclusive cross section in gluon fusion. The prediction is based on combining fixed-order perturbation theory and all-order threshold resummation. At fixed order we include the exact next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) plus an approximate next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LOA) which is based on the recent computation at this order for the scalar case. We then add threshold resummation at next-to-next-to-next-to leading logarithmic accuracy (N3LL′). Various forms of threshold resummation are considered, differing by the treatment of subleading terms, allowing a robust estimate of the theoretical uncertainties due to missing higher orders. With particular attention to pseudo-scalar masses of 200 and 750 GeV, we also observe that perturbative convergence is much improved when resummation is included. Additionally, results obtained with threshold resummation in direct QCD are compared with analogous results as computed in soft-collinear effective theory, which turn out to be in good agreement. We provide precise predictions for pseudo-scalar inclusive cross section at 13 TeV LHC for a wide range of masses. The results are available through updated versions of the public codes ggHiggs and TROLL

Resummation prescriptions and ambiguities in SCET vs. direct QCD: Higgs production as a case study

We perform a comparison of soft-gluon resummation in SCET vs. direct QCD (dQCD), using Higgs boson production in gluon fusion as a case study, with the goal of tracing the quantitative impact of each source of difference between the two approaches. We show that saddle-point methods enable a direct quantitative comparison despite the fact that the scale which is resummed in the two approaches is not the same. As a byproduct, we put in one-to-one analytic correspondence various features of either approach: specifically, we show how the SCET method for treating the Landau pole can be implemented in dQCD, and how the resummation of the optimal partonic scale of dQCD can be implemented in SCET. We conclude that the main quantitative difference comes from power-suppressed subleading contributions, which could in fact be freely tuned in either approach, and not really characteristic of either. This conclusion holds for Higgs production in gluon fusion, but it is in fact generic for processes with similar kinematics. For Higgs production, everything else being equal, SCET resummation at NNLL in the Becher-Neubert implementation leads to essentially no enhancement of the NNLO cross-section, unlike dQCD in the standard implementation of Catani et al

Measurement of the Higgs boson coupling properties in the H → ZZ* → 4 decay channel at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The coupling properties of the Higgs boson are studied in the four-lepton (e, μ) decay channel using 36.1 fb−1 of pp collision data from the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are measured for the main production modes in several exclusive regions of the Higgs boson production phase space and are interpreted in terms of coupling modifiers. The inclusive cross section times branching ratio for H → ZZ∗ decay and for a Higgs boson absolute rapidity below 2.5 is measured to be 1. 73 − 0.23 + 0.24 (stat.) − 0.08 + 0.10 (exp.) ± 0.04(th.) pb compared to the Standard Model prediction of 1.34±0.09 pb. In addition, the tensor structure of the Higgs boson couplings is studied using an effective Lagrangian approach for the description of interactions beyond the Standard Model. Constraints are placed on the non-Standard-Model CP-even and CP-odd couplings to Z bosons and on the CP-odd coupling to gluons

Research highlights from the 2018 European Respiratory Society International Congress: airway disease.

The annual European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress (held in Paris in 2018) was once again a platform for discussion of the highest-quality scientific research, cutting-edge techniques and innovative new therapies within the respiratory field. This article discusses only some of the high-quality research studies presented at this year's Congress, with a particular focus on airway diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis and cough, as presented through Assembly 5 of the ERS (Airway Diseases: Asthma and COPD). The authors establish the key take-home messages of these studies, compare their findings and place them in the context of current understanding