Synergistic Cytotoxic Effect of Busulfan and the PARP Inhibitor Veliparib in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

ABSTRACT Patients with high-risk myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), and in particular myelofibrosis (MF), can be cured only with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Because MPNs and JAK2V617F-mutated cells show genomic instability, stalled replication forks, and baseline DNA double-strand breaks, DNA repair inhibition with poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) inhibitors represents a potential novel therapy. Because the alkylating agent busulfan is integral in conditioning regimens for HSCT and leads to stalled replication forks through DNA strand cross-linking, we hypothesized that PARP inhibition with veliparib in combination with busulfan may lead to synergistic cytotoxicity in MPN cells. We first treated 2 MPN cell lines harboring the JAK2V617F mutation (SET2 and HEL) with veliparib at increasing concentrations and measured cell proliferation. SET2 and HEL cells were relatively sensitive to veliparib (IC50 of 11.3 μM and 74.2 μM, respectively). We next treated cells with increasing doses of busulfan in combination with 4 μM veliparib and found that the busulfan IC50 decreased from 27 μM to 4 μM in SET2 cells and from 45.1 μM to 28.1 μM in HEL cells. The mean combination index was .55 for SET2 cells and .40 for HEL cells. Combination treatment of SET2 cells caused G2M arrest in 53% of cells, compared with 30% with veliparib alone and 35% with busulfan alone. G2M arrest was associated with activation of the ATR-Chk1 pathway, as shown by an immunofluorescence assay for phosphorylated Chk1 (p-Chk1). We then tested in vivo the effect of combined low doses of busulfan and veliparib in a JAK2V617F MPN-AML xenotransplant model. Vehicle- and veliparib-treated mice had similar median survival of 39 and 40 days, respectively. Combination treatment increased median survival from 47 days (busulfan alone) to 50 days (P = .02). Finally, we tested the combined effect of busulfan and veliparib on CD34+ cells obtained from the bone marrow or peripheral blood of 5 patients with JAK2V617F-mutated and 2 patients with CALR-mutated MF. MF cells treated with the combination of veliparib and busulfan showed reduced colony formation compared with busulfan alone (87% versus 68%; P = .001). In contrast, treatment of normal CD34+ cells with veliparib did not affect colony growth. Here we show that in vivo confirmation that treatment with the PARP-1 inhibitor veliparib and busulfan results in synergistic cytotoxicity in MPN cells. Our data provide the rationale for testing novel pretransplantation conditioning regimens with combinations of PARP-1 inhibition and reduced doses of alkylators, such as busulfan and melphalan, for high-risk MPNs or MPN-derived acute myelogenous leukemia

Management Zones Delineation through Clustering Techniques Based on Soils Traits, NDVI Data, and Multiple Year Crop Yields

Availability of georeferenced yield data involving different crops over years, and their use in future crop management, are a subject of growing debate. In a 9 hectare field in Northern Italy, seven years of yield data, including wheat (3 years), maize for biomass (2 years), sunflower, and sorghum, and comprising remote (Landsat) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data during central crop stages, and soil analysis (grid sampling), were subjected to geostatistical analysis (semi-variogram fitting), spatial mapping (simple kriging), and Pearson’s correlation of interpolated data at the same resolution (30 m) as actual NDVI values. Management Zone Analyst software indicated two management zones as the optimum zone number in multiple (7 year) standardized yield data. Three soil traits (clay content, total limestone, total nitrogen) and five dates within the NDVI dataset (acquired in different years) were shown to be best correlated with multiple-and single-year yield data, respectively. These eight parameters were normalized and combined into a two-zone multiple soil and NDVI map to be compared with the two-zone multiple yield map. This resulted in 83% pixel agreement in the high and low zone (89 and 10 respective pixels in the soil and NDVI map; 73 and 26 respective pixels in the yield map) between the two maps. The good agreement, which is due to data buffering across different years and crop types, is a good premise for differential management of the soil-and NDVI-based two zones in future cropping seasons

Enteral nutrition protects children undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from blood stream infections

Enteral Nutrition (EN) is recommended as first line nutritional support for patients undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (allo-HSCT), but only few studies exist in the literature which compare EN to Parenteral Nutrition (PN) in the paediatric population. Forty-two consecutive paediatric patients undergoing allo-HSCT at our referral centre between January 2016 and July 2019 were evaluated. Post-transplant and nutritional outcomes of patients receiving EN for more than 7 days (EN group, n = 14) were compared with those of patients receiving EN for fewer than 7 days or receiving only PN (PN group, n = 28). In the EN group, a reduced incidence of Blood Stream Infections (BSI) was observed (p = 0.02) (n = 2 vs. n = 15; 14.3% vs. 53.6%). The type of nutritional support was also the only variable independently associated with BSI in the multivariate analysis (p = 0.03). Platelet engraftment was shorter in the PN group than in the EN group for a threshold of > 20*109/L (p = 0.04) (23.1 vs 35.7 days), but this correlation was not confirmed with a threshold of > 50*109/L. The Body Mass Index (BMI) and the BMI Z-score were no different in the two groups from admission to discharge. Our results highlight that EN is a feasible and nutritionally adequate method of nutritional support for children undergoing allo-HSCT in line with the present literature. Future functional studies are needed to better address the hypothesis that greater intestinal eubyosis maintained with EN may explain the observed reduction in BSI

Male breast cancer, clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment: Twenty years of experience in our Breast Unit

BACKGROUND: The male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare and represents less than 1% of all malignancies in men and only 1% of all breast cancers incident. We illustrate the experience of our team about the clinico-pathological characteristics, treatment and prognostic factors of patients treated over a period of twenty years . RESULTS: Forty-seven patients were collected 1995-2014 at the Breast Unit of the Hospital of Terni, Italy. The average age was 67 years and the median time to diagnosis from the onset of symptoms was 16 months. The main clinical complaint was sub areolar swelling in 36, 76% of cases. Most patients have come to our attention with advanced disease. The histology of about ninety percent of the tumors were invasive ductal carcinoma. Management consisted mainly of radical mastectomy; followed by adjuvant radiotherapy and hormonal therapy with or without chemotherapy. The median follow-up was 38 months. The evolution has been characterized by local recurrences; in eight cases (17% of all patients). Metastasis occurred in 15 cases (32% of all patients). The site of bone metastases was in eight cases; lung in four cases; liver in three cases; liver and skin in one case and pleura and skin in one case. CONCLUSION: The male breast cancer has many similarities to breast cancer in women, but there are distinct functions that need to be appreciated. Future research for a better understanding of the disease should provide a better account of genetic and epigenetic characteristics of these forms; but, above all, epidemiological and biological cohorts numerically more consistent

Segnalazione di un nuovo ittiosauro dal Cretaceo dell’Appennino modenese (Pavullo nel Frignano)

Alcuni frammenti vertebrali di ittiosauro sono stati recentemente rinvenuti in un calanco presso Pa- vullo nel Frignano (MO). I fossili sono stati trovati entro la Formazione delle Argille Varicolori di Cassio, datate al Cenomaniano superiore-Campaniano (Cretaceo). Tra i reperti rinvenuti è impor- tante segnalare un tratto di colonna vertebrale ancora parzialmente articolata. Si tratta del primo ritrovamento di questo tipo in Italia per quanto riguarda gli ittiosauri del Cretaceo. Alcuni dei corpi vertebrali in oggetto sono di dimensioni relativamente grandi, paragonabili a quelle già note per alcune specie di Platypterygiinae quali Platypterygius australis e P. americanus.Some vertebral fragments of ichthyosaur have recently been found in a clay badland near Pavullo nel Frignano (Modena Province). The finds were discovered in the “Argille Varicolori di Cassio” Formation, which dates from the upper Cenomanian-Campanian (Cretaceous). Among the fossils recovered, a portion of vertebral column, still partially articulated, is of outstanding importance. This is the first discovery of an articulated portion of a skeleton of a Cretaceous ichthyosaur in Italy. Some of the centra are relatively large, comparable to those already known for some species of Platypterygiinae such as Platypterygius australis and P. americanus

t cell mediated rejection of human cd34 cells is prevented by costimulatory blockade in a xenograft model

Abstract A xenograft model of stem cell rejection was developed by co-transplantating human CD34 + and allogeneic CD3 + T cells into NOD-scid ɣ-chain null mice. T cells caused graft failure when transplanted at any CD34/CD3 ratio between 1:50 and 1:.1. Kinetics experiments showed that 2 weeks after transplantation CD34 + cells engrafted the marrow and T cells expanded in the spleen. Then, at 4 weeks only memory T cells populated both sites and rejected CD34 + cells. Blockade of T cell costimulation was tested by injecting the mice with abatacept (CTLA4-IgG1) from day –1 to +27 (group A), from day –1 to +13 (group B), or from day +14 to +28 (group C). On day +56 groups B and C had rejected the graft, whereas in group A graft failure was completely prevented, although with lower stem cell engraftment than in controls ( P  = .03). Retransplantation of group A mice with same CD34 + cells obtained a complete reconstitution of human myeloid and B cell lineages and excluded latent alloreactivity. In this first xenograft model of stem cell rejection we showed that transplantation of HLA mismatched CD34 + cells may be facilitated by treatment with abatacept and late stem cell boost

Renal cell carcinoma in children: A clinicopathologic study

Purpose: To identify the prognostic factors, treatment, and outcome of children affected by renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Patients and Methods: The series included 41 patients (18 males and 23 females) with a median age of 124 months observed at the 11 Italian Association for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology centers from January 1973 to January 2001. Clinical data, surgical notes, pathologic findings, and summaries of therapy were taken from the charts. Results: Seven (17%) of the 41 patients had a papillary histology, and 34 (82.4%) had nonpapillary histology. Eighteen patients (43.9%) had stage I, one patient (2.4%) had stage II, two patients (4.8%) had stage IIIA, 10 patients (24.3%) had stage IIIB, and nine patients (21.9%) had stage IV disease. One patient had a bilateral involvement at diagnosis. Seven patients experienced disease recurrence. Lung and liver were the most common distant lesions and usually were fatal. In this study, the major factor influencing the prognosis was the stage. Event-free survival at 20 years was 53.5% for all patients. Overall survival at 20 years was 54.9% for all patients. Conclusion: RCC is a rare disease in children and adolescents. This neoplasm has a different clinical presentation in children compared with adults but the same outcome. In our experience, patients with localized disease could be cured by nephrectomy alone. Prospective studies in a larger number of patients are needed to confirm radiation therapy and biologic response modifiers as effective adjunct therapy in RCC stage III. The alternative therapy seems warranted in patients with advanced disease. © 2003 by American Society of Clinical Oncology