Transmission of Anaplasmosis by Horseflies (Tabanidae)

The Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Weaning of immunosuppression in liver transplant recipients

Immunosuppression has been sporadically discontinued by noncompliant liver allograft recipients for whom an additional 4 1/2 years of follow-up is provided. These anecdotal observations prompted a previously reported prospective drug withdrawal program in 59 liver recipients. This prospective series has been increased to 95 patients whose weaning was begun between June 1992 and March 1996, 8.4±4.4 (SD) years after liver replacement. A further 4 1/2 years follow-up was obtained of the 5 self-weaned patients. The prospectively weaned recipients (93 livers; 2 liver/kidney) had undergone transplantation under immunosuppression based on azathioprine (AZA, through 1979), cyclosporine (CsA, 1980-1989), or tacrolimus (TAC, 1989-1994). In patients on CsA or TAC based cocktails, the adjunct drugs were weaned first in the early part of the trial. Since 1994, the T cell-directed drugs were weaned first. Three of the 5 original self-weaned recipients remain well after drug-free intervals of 14 to 17 years. A fourth patient died in a vehicular accident after 11 years off immunosuppression, and the fifth patient underwent retransplantation because of hepatitis C infection after 9 drug-free years; their allografts had no histopathologic evidence of rejection. Eighteen (19%) of the 95 patients in the prospective series have been drug free for from 10 months to 4.8 years. In the total group, 18 (19%) have had biopsy proved acute rejection; 7 (7%) had a presumed acute rejection without biopsy; 37 (39%) are still weaning; and 12 (13%, all well) were withdrawn from the protocol at reduced immunosuppression because of noncompliance (n=8), recurrent PBC (n=2), pregnancy (n=1), and renal failure necessitating kidney transplantation (n=1). No patients were formally diagnosed with chronic rejection, but 3 (3%) were placed back on preexisting immunosuppression or switched from cyclosporine (CsA) to tacrolimus (TAC) because of histopathologic evidence of duct injury. Two patients with normal liver function died during the trial, both from complications of prior chronic immunosuppression. No grafts suffered permanent functional impairment and only one patient developed temporary jaundice. Long surviving liver transplant recipients are systematically overimmunosuppressed. Consequently, drug weaning, whether incomplete or complete, is an important management strategy providing it is done slowly under careful physician surveillance. Complete weaning from CsA-based regimens has been difficult. Disease recurrence during drug withdrawal was documented in 2 of 13 patients with PBC and could be a risk with other autoimmune disorders

Skeletal Light-Scattering Accelerates Bleaching Response in Reef-Building Corals

Background At the forefront of ecosystems adversely affected by climate change, coral reefs are sensitive to anomalously high temperatures which disassociate (bleaching) photosynthetic symbionts (Symbiodinium) from coral hosts and cause increasingly frequent and severe mass mortality events. Susceptibility to bleaching and mortality is variable among corals, and is determined by unknown proportions of environmental history and the synergy of Symbiodinium- and coral-specific properties. Symbiodinium live within host tissues overlaying the coral skeleton, which increases light availability through multiple light-scattering, forming one of the most efficient biological collectors of solar radiation. Light-transport in the upper ~200 μm layer of corals skeletons (measured as ‘microscopic’ reduced-scattering coefficient, μ′S,m), has been identified as a determinant of excess light increase during bleaching and is therefore a potential determinant of the differential rate and severity of bleaching response among coral species. Results Here we experimentally demonstrate (in ten coral species) that, under thermal stress alone or combined thermal and light stress, low-μ′S,m corals bleach at higher rate and severity than high-μ′S,m corals and the Symbiodinium associated with low-μ′S,m corals experience twice the decrease in photochemical efficiency. We further modelled the light absorbed by Symbiodinium due to skeletal-scattering and show that the estimated skeleton-dependent light absorbed by Symbiodinium (per unit of photosynthetic pigment) and the temporal rate of increase in absorbed light during bleaching are several fold higher in low-μ′S,m corals. Conclusions While symbionts associated with low-μ′S,m corals receive less total light from the skeleton, they experience a higher rate of light increase once bleaching is initiated and absorbing bodies are lost; further precipitating the bleaching response. Because microscopic skeletal light-scattering is a robust predictor of light-dependent bleaching among the corals assessed here, this work establishes μ′S,m as one of the key determinants of differential bleaching response

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Non-Invasive Tests of Carotid Dysfunction

Non-Invasive Tests of Carotid Dysfunction Introduction, Rationale, Types of Non-Invasive test

Digital Subtraction Angiography

1939 - Arterial imaging with intravenous injection of contrast media first used. Replaced by arterial injection because of better resolution. 1980 - Electronic x-ray imaging devices became commercially available for intravenous arterial graphy

Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin no. 204, May 1932: Preliminary experiments in the transmission of anaplasmosis by horseflies

The Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Interim results of viagenpumatucel-L (HS-110) plus nivolumab in previously treated patients (pts) with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in two treatment settings.

Research Funding: HEAT Biologics Background:Viagenpumatucel-L (HS-110) is an allogeneic cell therapy derived from a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line incorporating multiple cancer testis antigens and transfected with a gp96-Ig fusion protein.Methods:We report interim results of cohort A (previously treated pts who had not received a checkpoint inhibitor [CPI]) and cohort B (pts who progressed after CPI treatment) in an ongoing phase 2 trial evaluating HS-110 plus nivolumab (NIVO) in advanced NSCLC pts (NCT02439450). Pts received HS-110 (1×107 cells) intradermally QW for 18 wk and NIVO Q2W until tumor progression. Stratified analyses were performed by injection site reaction (ISR), yes (+) or no (–); baseline blood tumor mutational burden (bTMB), bTMB-L (\u3c10 mutations/ megabase [mut/Mb]) or bTMB-H (≥10 mut/Mb) by FoundationACT test; and baseline PD-L1 expression, – (\u3c1%) or + (≥1%).Results:As shown in the Table, median progression-free survival (PFS) in cohort A (n=47) was 1.8 mo (95% CI 1.8-7.8) and median overall survival (OS) was 24.6 mo (95% CI 11.7-36.0) after a median follow-up (MFU) of 19.5 mo. We observed significantly longer PFS and OS in ISR+ pts (hazard ratio [HR] 0.43, p=0.01; HR 0.23, p\u3c0.001) and longer OS in PD-L1+ pts (HR 0.25, p=0.02). In cohort B (n=68), median PFS was 2.8 mo (1.8-3.9) and median OS was 11.9 mo (9.7-16.3) after a MFU of 11.9 mo. We observed significantly longer OS in ISR+ pts (HR 0.48, p=0.03) and a trend toward extended OS in bTMB-L pts (HR 0.58, p=0.20). HS-110 TEAEs were reported in 21 (44.7%) pts in cohort A and 18 (26.5%) pts in cohort B. TEAEs in \u3e5% of pts included fatigue, maculopapular rash, nausea, diarrhea, and pruritus. Few HS-110–related TEAEs led to discontinuation of treatment [cohort A, 5 (10.6%); cohort B, 3 (4.4%)], and no serious AEs were considered related to HS-110.Conclusions:HS-110 was well tolerated when administered in combination with NIVO. In previously treated pts with advanced NSCLC, we observed (1) significantly longer PFS and OS in ISR+ pts in both CPI naïve and CPI progressor cohorts; (2) significantly longer OS in PD-L1+ patients in the CPI naïve cohort; and (3) a trend of improved OS in bTMB-L pts in the CPI progressor cohort. Further clinical evaluation of HS-110 is warranted in both CPI naïve and CPI progressor NSCLC patients. Clinical trial information: NCT0243945