Combination of Interleukin-11Rα chimeric antigen receptor T-cells and programmed death-1 blockade as an approach to targeting osteosarcoma cells In vitro

Aim: To test whether combining interleukin (IL)-11Rα chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells with an anti-programmed death (PD-1) antibody (an immune checkpoint inhibitor) is an effective therapeutic approach in osteosarcoma (OS), allowing improved tumor eradication. Methods: IL-11Rα-CAR T-cells were cocultured in vitro with human LM7 OS tumor cells (with and without anti-PD-1 antibody). Coculture of LM7 cells with purified T-cells served as the control. Cytotoxicity and surface PD-1 expression were analyzed in all groups. Results: PD-1 expression increased during expansion of CAR T-cells. Exposure of immune cells to tumor cells in vitro subsequently decreased surface PD-1 expression on the CAR T-cells. Addition of an anti-PD-1 antibody (Clone J110) to further decrease surface PD-1 expression on CAR T-cells before coculture did not enhance cytotoxic effects of the CAR T-cells against LM7 cells. Conclusion: This combination of IL-11Rα-CAR T-cells and an anti-PD-1 antibody did not provide any additional cytotoxic benefit over IL-11Rα-CAR T-cell therapy alone in this setting. Further studies are needed as simple interference with surface PD-1 expression alone may not be sufficient to inhibit this immune checkpoint pathway to then enhance IL-11Rα-CAR T-cell therapeutic effects

Flexibly Extensible Planar Self-Isolated Wideband MIMO Antenna for 5G Communications

A planar flexibly extensible multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array with a self-isolation property is proposed. The main characteristics of the proposed array are: (i) no extra isolation structure is required to improve isolation between elements; (ii) elements are arranged with each other with a spacing of 0 mm, (iii) the configuration can be flexibly extended to a large antenna array according to actual requirements. For a test example, the practical processing and testing of an eight-element array is conducted. The tested results demonstrate that the proposed design possesses wide impedance bandwidth (IBW) of 65% and very good isolation (>18 dB) across the operating bandwidth, which match well with the simulated ones. Moreover, envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is calculated to valuate MIMO performance; an acceptable ECC (lower than 0.05) suggests that the proposed configuration has good diversity performance and can be a potential candidate for MIMO communications

B7-H3 specific T cells with chimeric antigen receptor and decoy PD-1 receptors eradicate established solid human tumors in mouse models

The application of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy in patients with advanced solid tumors remains a significant challenge. Simultaneously targeting antigen and the solid tumor microenvironment are two major factors that greatly impact CAR-T cell therapy outcomes. In this study, we engineered CAR-T cells to specifically target B7-H3, a protein commonly found in solid human tumors, using a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) derived from an anti-B7-H3 monoclonal antibody. We tested the antitumor activity of B7-H3 CAR-T cells in mouse models with solid human tumors and determined that B7-H3 CAR-T cells exhibited potent antitumor activity against B7-H3+ tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, PD-1 decoy receptors were engineered to include extracellular PD-1 fused to the intracellular stimulatory domain of either CD28 or IL-7 receptor, respectively, which were then introduced into B7-H3 CAR-T cells. As a result, these newly modified, superior CAR-T cells exhibited more persistent antitumor activity in B7-H3+/B7-H1+ tumors in vivo. Our findings indicate that B7-H3 specific CAR-T cells have the potential to treat multiple types of advanced solid tumors

Mutual Coupling Reduction between Patch Antennas Using Meander Line

Meander lines (MLs) in two configurations are presented to reduce the mutual coupling (MC) between two microstrip patch antenna elements. Inserting a slot in the ground plane between the antenna elements is a simple method to reduce the MC, while adding the MLs in the slot of the ground can further reduce the MC. In the first configuration, one ML is inserted in the slot of the ground and a maximum MC reduction of 39 dB throughout the −10 dB bandwidth is achieved. What’s more, the radiation patterns are not changed compared with the dual-element microstrip antenna array with a slotted ground. For the second configuration, two MLs are added in the slot of the ground. It is found that a maximum isolation of 53 dB can be obtained. However, the radiation patterns are slightly changed compared with the dual-element microstrip antenna array with a slot in the ground. Meanwhile, the measured peak gain and efficiency of the dual-element microstrip antenna array in the two configurations are given. Along with this paper, several prototypes have been fabricated and measured. The simulated results are in good accordance with the measurements, which are presented to verify that MC reduction can be achieved between microstrip antenna elements by adding the MLs in the slotted ground