Citrullinated histone H3 as a novel prognostic blood marker in patients with advanced cancer

Citrullinated histone H3 (H3Cit) is a central player in the neutrophil release of nuclear chromatin, known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs have been shown to elicit harmful effects on the host, and were recently proposed to promote tumor progression and spread. Here we report significant elevations of plasma H3Cit in patients with advanced cancer compared with age-matched healthy individuals. These elevations were specific to cancer patients as no increase was observed in severely ill and hospitalized patients with a higher non-malignant comorbidity. The analysis of neutrophils from cancer patients showed a higher proportion of neutrophils positive for intracellular H3Cit compared to severely ill patients. Moreover, the presence of plasma H3Cit in cancer patients strongly correlated with neutrophil activation markers neutrophil elastase (NE) and myeloperoxidase (MPO), and the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and -8, known to induce NETosis. In addition, we show that high levels of circulating H3Cit strongly predicted poor clinical outcome in our cohort of cancer patients with a 2-fold increased risk for short-term mortality. Our results also corroborate the association of NE, interleukin-6 and -8 with poor clinical outcome. Taken together, our results are the first to unveil H3Cit as a potential diagnostic and prognostic blood marker associated with an exacerbated inflammatory response in patients with advanced cancer

Revisiting the role of interleukin-8 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Abstract The proliferation and survival of malignant B cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) depend on signals from the microenvironment in lymphoid tissues. Among a plethora of soluble factors, IL-8 has been considered one of the most relevant to support CLL B cell progression in an autocrine fashion, even though the expression of IL-8 receptors, CXCR1 and CXCR2, on leukemic B cells has not been reported. Here we show that circulating CLL B cells neither express CXCR1 or CXCR2 nor they respond to exogenous IL-8 when cultured in vitro alone or in the presence of monocytes/nurse-like cells. By intracellular staining and ELISA we show that highly purified CLL B cells do not produce IL-8 spontaneously or upon activation through the B cell receptor. By contrast, we found that a minor proportion (<0.5%) of contaminating monocytes in enriched suspensions of leukemic cells might be the actual source of IL-8 due to their strong capacity to release this cytokine. Altogether our results indicate that CLL B cells are not able to secrete or respond to IL-8 and highlight the importance of methodological details in in vitro experiments

Effect of the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib on macrophage- and γδ T cell-mediated response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

.The Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for its use as first-line treatment in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Despite its efficacy, patients treated with ibrutinib rarely achieve complete responses and usually remain under treatment until progression.Fil: Colado, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Genoula, Melanie. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. International Associated Laboratory; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Cougoule, Céline. Université Paul Sabatier; Francia. International Associated Laboratory; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Marin Franco, Jose Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. International Associated Laboratory; FranciaFil: Almejún, María Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Risnik, Denise Mariel. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Kviatcovsky, Denise. International Associated Laboratory; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Podaza, Enrique Arturo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Elías, Esteban Enrique. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Fuentes, Federico. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Maridonneau Parini, Isabelle. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. International Associated Laboratory; Francia. Université Paul Sabatier; FranciaFil: Bezares, Fernando R.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Agudos "Dr. Teodoro Álvarez"; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Grecco, Horacio. Sanatorio Julio Méndez. Departamento de Hematología; ArgentinaFil: Cabrejo, María del Rosario. Sanatorio Julio Méndez. Departamento de Hematología; ArgentinaFil: Jancic, Carolina Cristina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Sasiain, María del Carmen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. International Associated Laboratory; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Giordano, Mirta Nilda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Gamberale, Romina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Balboa, Luciana. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Borge, Mercedes. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentin