A prophylactic vaccine for breast cancer?

Cancer vaccines are the Holy Grail for patients and clinicians alike. The possibility that we can be vaccinated against common cancers is very appealing and the socioeconomic consequences are significant. A recent paper from Vincent Tuohy's group, published in the journal Nature Medicine, suggests a new approach for the development of a prophylactic vaccine for breast cancer. Their strategy was to induce mammary gland failure in mice by immunisation with an antibody specific to a milk protein that resulted in autoimmunity during lactation. This also showed some efficacy as a therapeutic vaccine. Can we look forward to the elimination of breast cancer

Putative contribution of CD56 positive cells in cetuximab treatment efficacy in first-line metastatic colorectal cancer patients

Activity of cetuximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor, is largely attributed to its direct antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects. Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) could be another possible mechanism of cetuximab antitumor effects and its specific contribution on the clinical activity of cetuximab is unknown.Journal ArticleSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Immune cell contexture in the bone marrow tumor microenvironment impacts therapy response in CML

Increasing evidence suggests that the immune system affects prognosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but the detailed immunological composition of the leukemia bone marrow (BM) microenvironment is unknown. We aimed to characterize the immune landscape of the CML BM and predict the current treatment goal of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy, molecular remission 4.0 (MR4.0). Using multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC) and automated image analysis, we studied BM tissues of CML patients (n = 56) and controls (n = 14) with a total of 30 immunophenotype markers essential in cancer immunology. CML patients' CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells expressed higher levels of putative exhaustion markers PD1, TIM3, and CTLA4 when compared to control. PD1 expression was higher in BM compared to paired peripheral blood (PB) samples, and decreased during TKI therapy. By combining clinical parameters and immune profiles, low CD4+ T-cell proportion, high proportion of PD1+ TIM3-CD8+ T cells, and high PB neutrophil count were most predictive of lower MR4.0 likelihood. Low CD4+ T-cell proportion and high PB neutrophil counts predicted MR4.0 also in a validation cohort (n = 52) analyzed with flow cytometry. In summary, the CML BM is characterized by immune suppression and immune biomarkers predicted MR4.0, thus warranting further testing of immunomodulatory drugs in CML treatment.Peer reviewe

The CERN/ISOLDE Laser Ion Source

Laser resonance photo-ionization an essential aspect of radioactive ion beam production for fundamental and applied physics research. The laser ion source of the ISOLDE facility, described here, is the most versatile of its type worldwide

Enhancing the extraction of laser-ionized beams from an arc discharge ion source volume

The Versatile Arc Discharge and Laser Ion Source (VADLIS) is a recently established ion source for the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility. It offers either electron-impact ionization (VADIS-mode) or resonance laser ionization (RILIS-mode). The choice of operating mode depends on the element of interest or the required beam purity. Particle-in-cell simulations using the VSim software show that the ion extraction efficiency of the VADLIS in RILIS-mode can be improved if it is equipped with an insulated extractor plate, to which an optimal voltage can be applied. This enables optimization of the RILIS-mode ion extraction independently of the electron density. Experiments have been performed using a prototype VADLIS with an adjustable extractor plate voltage for the generation of gallium ion beams at the off-line separator as well as magnesium, molybdenum and mercury ion beams at ISOLDE. A factor >2 increase of the VADLIS efficiency in RILIS-mode has been achieved

De nouvelles mutations dans ANXA11 identifiées par analyse d'exomes chez des patients atteints de SLA

International audienc