Results of the Dutch scalp cooling registry in 7424 patients: analysis of determinants for scalp cooling efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is a common consequence of cancer treatment with a high psychological impact on patients and can be prevented by scalp cooling (SC). With this multi-center patient series, we examined the results for multiple currently used chemotherapy regimens to offer an audit into the real-world determinants of SC efficacy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Dutch Scalp Cooling Registry collected data on 7424 scalp-cooled patients in 68 Dutch hospitals. Nurses and patients completed questionnaires on patient characteristics, chemotherapy, and SC protocol. Patient-reported primary outcomes at the start of the final SC session included head cover (HC) (eg, wig/scarf) use (yes/no) as a surrogate for patient satisfaction with SC and WHO score for alopecia (0 = no hair loss up to 3 = total alopecia) as a measure of scalp cooling success. Exhaustive logistic regression analysis stratified by chemotherapy regimen was implemented to examine characteristics and interactions associated with the SC result. RESULTS: Overall, over half of patients (n = 4191, 56%) did not wear a HC and 53% (n = 3784/7183) reported minimal hair loss (WHO score 0/1) at the start of their final treatment. Outcomes were drug and dose dependent. Besides the chemotherapy regimen, this study did not identify any patient characteristic or lifestyle factor as a generic determinant influencing SC success. For non-gender specific cancers, gender played no statistically significant role in HC use nor WHO score. CONCLUSIONS: Scalp cooling is effective for the majority of patients. The robust model for evaluating the drug and dose-specific determinants of SC efficacy revealed no indications for changes in daily practice, suggesting factors currently being overlooked. As no correlation was identified between the determinants explaining HC use and WHO score outcomes, new methods for evaluation are warranted.

A Clinical and Biological Guide for Understanding Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia and Its Prevention.

Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) is the most visibly distressing side effect of commonly administered chemotherapeutic agents. Because psychological health has huge relevance to lifestyle, diet, and self-esteem, it is important for clinicians to fully appreciate the psychological burden that CIA can place on patients. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we provide a comprehensive review encompassing the molecular characteristics of the human hair follicle (HF), how different anticancer agents damage the HF to cause CIA, and subsequent HF pathophysiology, and we assess known and emerging prevention modalities that have aimed to reduce or prevent CIA. We argue that, at present, scalp cooling is the only safe and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared modality available, and we highlight the extensive available clinical and experimental (biological) evidence for its efficacy. The likelihood of a patient that uses scalp cooling during chemotherapy maintaining enough hair to not require a wig is approximately 50%. This is despite different types of chemotherapy regimens, patient-specific differences, and possible lack of staff experience in effectively delivering scalp cooling. The increased use of scalp cooling and an understanding of how to deliver it most effectively to patients has enormous potential to ease the psychological burden of CIA, until other, more efficacious, equally safe treatments become available. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) represents perhaps the most distressing side effect of chemotherapeutic agents and is of huge concern to the majority of patients. Scalp cooling is currently the only safe option to combat CIA. Clinical and biological evidence suggests improvements can be made, including efficacy in delivering adequately low temperature to the scalp and patient-specific cap design. The increased use of scalp cooling, an understanding of how to deliver it most effectively, and biological evidence-based approaches to improve its efficacy have enormous potential to ease the psychological burden of CIA, as this could lead to improvements in treatment and patient quality-of-life.

Commensal-derived OMVs elicit a mild proinflammatory response in intestinal epithelial cells.

Under normal physiological conditions, the intestinal immunity remains largely hyporesponsive to the commensal microbiota, yet also retains the inherent ability to rapidly respond to pathogenic antigens. However, immunomodulatory activities of extracellular products from commensal bacteria have been little studied, with previous investigations generally utilizing the live bacterium to study microbiota-epithelial interactions. In this study, we demonstrate that extracellular products of a commensal bacterium, Escherichia coli C25, elicit a moderate release of proinflammatory IL-8 and stimulate transcriptional up-regulation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in intestinal epithelial cell lines HT29-19A and Caco-2. Additionally, we show that removal of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) reduces the proinflammatory effect of secreted products from E. coli C25. Furthermore, we show that isolated OMVs have a dose-dependent proinflammatory effect on intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Interestingly, a relatively high concentration (40 µg ml-1 protein) of OMVs had no significant regulatory effects on TLR mRNA expression in both cell lines. Finally, we also demonstrate that pre-incubation with E. coli C25-derived OMVs subsequently inhibited the internalization of the bacterium itself in both cell lines. Taken together, our results suggest that commensal-derived extracellular products, in particular OMVs, could significantly contribute to intestinal homeostasis. We also demonstrate a unique interaction between commensal-derived OMVs and host cells.

Exploring the immunomodulatory potential of microbial-associated molecular patterns derived from the enteric bacterial microbiota.

The human intestinal lumen represents one of the most densely populated microbial niches in the biological world and, as a result, the intestinal innate immune system exists in a constant state of stimulation. A key component in the innate defence system is the intestinal epithelial layer, which acts not only as a physical barrier, but also as an immune sensor. The expression of pattern recognition receptors, such as Toll-like receptors, in epithelial cells allows innate recognition of a wide range of highly conserved bacterial moieties, termed microbial-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), from both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. To date, studies of epithelial immunity have largely concentrated on inflammatory pathogenic antigens; however, this review discusses the major types of MAMPs likely to be produced by the enteric bacterial microbiota and, using data from in vitro studies, animal model systems and clinical observations, speculates on their immunomodulatory potential.

Potentiation of flagellin responses in gut epithelial cells by interferon-gamma is associated with STAT-independent regulation of MyD88 expression.

Flagellin acting via TLR5 (Toll-like receptor 5) is a key regulator of the host response to the gut microbial flora in both health and disease. The present study has investigated regulation of flagellin-TLR5 signalling in human colonocytes (HT29-19A) by IFNgamma (interferon-gamma), a cytokine released early in the inflammatory process which has multiple effects on gut epithelial function that may facilitate abnormal responses to enteric bacteria. Flagellin induced a dose-dependent secretion of chemokines CXCL8 and CCL2 in the human colonocyte line, HT29-19A. Exposure to IFNgamma did not induce chemokine secretion, but markedly potentiated responses to flagellin, increasing CXL8 gene expression and protein secretion by approx. 4-fold. Potentiation by IFNgamma was independent of changes in TLR5 and was associated with a rapid, sustained increase in expression of the downstream adaptor molecule MyD88 (myeloid differentiation factor 88). Knockdown of MyD88 expression using siRNA (small interfering RNA) abolished flagellin-dependent CXCL8 secretion and the potentiating effect of IFNgamma. Exposure of non-transformed mouse and human colonocytes to IFNgamma also increased MyD88 expression. STAT (signal transducer and activator of transcription) 1 knockdown and use of the broad-spectrum JAK (Janus kinase)-STAT inhibitor AG490 had no effect on IFNgamma-mediated up-regulation of MyD88. The findings of the present study suggest that IFNgamma sensitizes colonic epithelial cells to bacterial flagellin via a largely STAT-independent up-regulation of MyD88 expression leading to increased secretion of immunomodulatory factors. These results indicate that epithelial responses to flagellin are potentiated by IFNgamma, most likely mediated by increased MyD88 expression. The present study adds to our understanding of the spectrum of effects of this cytokine on gut epithelium that may contribute to bacterial-driven inflammation in the gut.

Cooling-mediated protection from chemotherapy drug-induced cytotoxicity in human keratinocytes by inhibition of cellular drug uptake.

Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) represents the most distressing side-effect for cancer patients. Scalp cooling is currently the only treatment to combat CIA, yet little is known about its cytoprotective effects in human hair follicles (HF). We have previously established in vitro human keratinocyte models to study the effects of taxanes and anthracyclines routinely-used clinically and reported that cooling markedly-reduced or even completely-prevented cytotoxicity in a temperature dependent manner. Using these models (including HF-derived primary keratinocytes), we now demonstrate that cooling markedly attenuates cellular uptake of the anthracyclines doxorubicin and epirubicin to reduce or prevent drug-mediated human keratinocyte cytotoxicity. We show marked reduction in drug uptake and nuclear localization qualitatively by fluorescence microscopy. We have also devised a flow cytometry-based methodology that permitted semi-quantitative analysis of differences in drug uptake, which demonstrated that cooling can reduce drug uptake by up to ~8-fold in comparison to normal/physiological temperature, an effect that was temperature-dependent. Our results provide evidence that attenuation of cellular drug uptake represents at least one of the mechanisms underpinning the ability of cooling to rescue human keratinocytes from chemotherapy drug-cytotoxicity, thus supporting the clinical efficacy of scalp cooling.

Structural characterisation of two medium molecular mass exopolysaccharides produced by the bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum Lf2.

Under optimized conditions, the lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum Lf2 secretes up to 2 gL-1 of a mixture of polysaccharides into the fermentation medium when grown on sucrose. Earlier studies had shown that the mixture is biologically active and work was undertaken to characterise the polysaccharides. Preparative size exclusion chromatography was used to separate a high molecular mass ß-glucan (weight average mass of 1.23 × 106 gmol-1) from two medium molecular mass polysaccharides (weight average mass of 8.8 × 104 gmol-1). Under optimized growth conditions, the medium molecular mass polysaccharides accounted for more than 75% of the mixture by weight. Monomer, linkage analysis and NMR spectroscopy of the medium molecular mass polysaccharides, and material isolated after their Smith degradation, was used to identify the structure of the component polysaccharides. The mixture contains two novel polysaccharides. The first has a main chain of ß-1,6-linked galactofuranoses which is non-stoichiometrically 2-O-glucosylated. The degree of substitution at the 2-position, with α-D-Glcp, depends on the fermentation conditions; under optimized conditions greater than 80% 2-O-α-D-glucosylation was observed. The second polysaccharide is a heteroglycan with four monosaccharides in the repeat unit: residual signals in the NMR suggest that the sample also contains trace amounts (<3%) of cell wall polysaccharides.

Isolation and characterization of a high molecular mass ß-glucan from Lactobacillus fermentum Lf2 and evaluation of its immunomodulatory activity.

When grown in a semi-defined medium, L. fermentum Lf2 synthesizes significant quantities (∼2 g/L) of two exopolysaccharides (EPS). The two EPS were separated by preparative size exclusion chromatography to give a high molecular mass ß-glucan (1.23 × 106 Da) and a medium molecular mass heteroglycan (8.8 × 104 Da). The structure of the high molecular mass ß-glucan was determined using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, monomer and linkage analysis. The EPS has the following structure: The immunomodulatory activity of the high molecular mass EPS was studied in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Exposure of PBMC to an aqueous solution of the EPS for 24 h led to increased cell proliferation, changes in expression of the cytokines CD14 and TLR2, and to an increase in production of TNF-α compared to controls. In contrast, when cells that had been treated with EPS for 24 h and from which the EPS had been removed, were subsequently exposed to the bacterial antigen LPS very low levels of TNF-α production were observed. This result indicates that the EPS imparts immunotolerance in PBMC. An ability to modulate the release of the proinflammatory mediators, such as TNF-α, is an important goal in the development of therapies for the treatment of diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, associated with excessive release of inflammatory mediators.

Early molecular and functional changes in colonic epithelium that precede increased gut permeability during colitis development in mdr1a(-/-) mice.

BACKGROUND: The early molecular changes preceding the onset of mucosal inflammation in colitis and their temporal relationship with gut permeability remain poorly defined. This study investigated functional and transcriptomic changes in mdr1a(-/-) mice lacking the intestinal transporter P-glycoprotein, which develop colitis spontaneously when exposed to normal enteric flora. METHODS: Mdr1a(-/-) mice were housed in specific pathogen-free conditions to slow colitis development and compared to congenic controls. Mucosal permeability and cytokine secretion were analyzed in ex vivo colon. Gene expression in colonic mucosal and epithelial preparations was analyzed by microarray and qPCR. Colonocyte responsiveness to bacterial antigens was measured in short-term culture. RESULTS: Colon from 4-5-week-old, disease-free mdr1a(-/-) mice was histologically normal with no evidence of increased permeability compared to controls. However, these tissues display a distinctive pattern of gene expression involving significant changes in a small number of genes. The majority of upregulated genes were associated with bacterial recognition and the ubiquitin-proteasome system and were gamma-interferon (IFN-gamma) responsive. Expression of the antiinflammatory factor pancreatitis-associated protein (PAP) and the related gene RegIIIgamma were markedly reduced. Colonocytes from 4-5-week mdr1a(-/-) exhibit similar transcriptomic changes, accompanied by higher basal chemokine secretion and increased responsiveness to LPS. Significant increases in colonic permeability were associated with older (12-16-week) mdr1a(-/-) mice displaying molecular and functional evidence of active inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: These studies show that early epithelial changes associated with altered responsiveness to bacteria precede increased permeability and mucosal inflammation in this model of colitis, highlighting the importance of P-glycoprotein in regulating interactions with the commensal microflora.

Comparison of P-glycoprotein-mediated drug-digoxin interactions in Caco-2 with human and rodent intestine: relevance to in vivo prediction.

Inhibition of P-glycoprotein (PGP) resulting from the co-administration of substrate drugs represents a potential source of drug-drug interactions. Although in vitro screens can readily identify such interactions, the accuracy with which they mimic interactions in tissues or their value in predicting interactions in vivo is unresolved. This was addressed for the model PGP substrate digoxin by comparing the modulation of its permeability across Caco-2 cells and ex vivo human and rodent intestine by drugs for which pharmacokinetic data on interactions with digoxin in man is available. All five compounds (talinolol, omeprazole, verapamil, quinidine, cyclosporin) dose-dependently increased absorptive (A-B) digoxin permeability with maximal increases of 2.2-4.5-fold across Caco-2. Quantitatively similar increases were observed in ex vivo human and mouse intestine and studies in mdr1a(-/-) intestine confirmed that these interactions are mediated solely by PGP. In vitro changes in digoxin permeability were qualitative indicators of the increase in digoxin C(max) for these compounds in man, although accounting for the luminal drug concentrations expected for a given oral dose was a critical consideration. Based on a limited dataset these data suggest that Caco-2 accurately mimics intestinal digoxin interactions and may be useful in predicting the threshold dose at which interactions become clinically significant. Further studies across a wider range of drugs are needed to determine the broader applicability of in vitro data for quantitative prediction of clinical drug interactions.

Rapid induction of P-glycoprotein expression by high permeability compounds in colonic cells in vitro: a possible source of transporter mediated drug interactions?

P-glycoprotein (PGP) substrates with high membrane permeability, such as propranolol and verapamil, are considered to be essentially "transparent" to PGP since the transporter does not significantly limit their absorption or elimination. However, the question of whether such compounds can modulate PGP expression in epithelial cells following short-term exposure, with potential consequences for drug interactions, has not been addressed. LS180 colonic epithelial cells were exposed to propranolol or verapamil at concentrations (50-300 microM) consistent with those likely to be present in the gut lumen during oral dosing. Both compounds stimulated four to six-fold increases in MDR1 mRNA and PGP protein expression measured by quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting, respectively. These changes were accompanied by an induction in transporter activity measured by rhodamine 123 efflux. In contrast, metoprolol, a compound with similar permeability but no affinity for PGP had no effect on PGP expression. The induction of PGP by propranolol and verapamil was rapid with significant increases occurring within 3h with maximal stimulation after 6h exposure. Rifampicin, shown to cause clinical drug interactions via a PXR-mediated increase in PGP expression, exhibited a very similar time-course and extent of induction. In conclusion, verapamil and propranolol, whose trans-epithelial permeability are unaffected by PGP, appear to be effective inducers of PGP expression in gut epithelial cells in vitro. While the in vivo significance of these observations is unknown, this questions whether high permeability, "PGP-transparent" compounds, currently favoured in drug selection strategies, should be evaluated in terms of their potential for transporter-mediated drug interactions.

Use of in vitro human keratinocyte models to study the effect of cooling on chemotherapy drug-induced cytotoxicity.

A highly distressing side-effect of cancer chemotherapy is chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA). Scalp cooling remains the only treatment for CIA, yet there is no experimental evidence to support the cytoprotective capacity of cooling. We have established a series of in vitro models for the culture of human keratinocytes under conditions where they adopt a basal, highly-proliferative phenotype thus resembling the rapidly-dividing sub-population of native hair-matrix keratinocytes. Using a panel of chemotherapy drugs routinely used clinically (docetaxel, doxorubicin and the active metabolite of cyclophosphamide 4-OH-CP), we demonstrate that although these drugs are highly-cytotoxic, cooling can markedly reduce or completely inhibit drug cytotoxicity, in agreement with clinical observations. By contrast, we show that cytotoxicity caused by specific combinatorial drug treatments cannot be adequately attenuated by cooling, supporting data showing that such treatments do not always respond well to cooling clinically. Importantly, we provide evidence that the choice of temperature may be critical in determining the efficacy of cooling in rescuing cells from drug-mediated toxicity. Therefore, despite their reductive nature, these in vitro models have provided experimental evidence for the clinically-reported cytoprotective role of cooling and represent useful tools for future studies on the molecular mechanisms of cooling-mediated cytoprotection.

The structure and immunomodulatory activity on intestinal epithelial cells of the EPSs isolated from Lactobacillus helveticus sp. Rosyjski and Lactobacillus acidophilus sp. 5e2.

The Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) Lactobacillus acidophilus sp. 5e2 and Lactobacillus helveticus sp. Rosyjski both secrete exopolysaccharides (EPSs) into their surrounding environments during growth. A number of EPSs have previously been shown to exhibit immunomodulatory activity with professional immune cells, such as macrophages, but only limited studies have been reported of their interaction with intestinal epithelial cells. An investigation of the immunomodulatory potential of pure EPSs, isolated from cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus sp. 5e2 and Lactobacillus helveticus sp. Rosyjski, with the HT29-19A intestinal epithelial cell line are reported here. For the first time the structure of the EPS from Lactobacillus helveticus sp. Rosyjski which is a hetropolysaccharide with a branched pentasaccharide repeat unit containing d-glucose, d-galactose and N-acetyl-d-mannosamine is described. In response to exposure to lactobacilli EPSs HT29-19A cells produce significantly increased levels of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-8. Additionally, the EPSs differentially modulate the mRNA expression of Toll-like receptors. Finally, the pre-treatment of HT29-19A cells with the EPSs sensitises the cells to subsequent challenge with bacterial antigens. The results reported here suggest that EPSs could potentially play a role in intestinal homeostasis via a specific interaction with intestinal epithelial cells.

Predicting P-glycoprotein effects on oral absorption: correlation of transport in Caco-2 with drug pharmacokinetics in wild-type and mdr1a(-/-) mice in vivo.

PURPOSE: Cell-based permeability screens are widely used to identify drug-P-glycoprotein (PGP) interaction in vitro. However, their reliability in predicting the impact of PGP on human drug pharmacokinetics is poorly defined. The aim was to determine whether a quantitative relationship exists between PGP-mediated alterations in Caco-2 permeability and oral pharmacokinetics in mice. METHODS: Two indicators of drug efflux were measured in Caco-2 for a group of 10 compounds, the ratio of A-B and B-A transport (R9B-A/A-B)) and the ratio of A-B transport in the presence and absence of a PGP inhibitor, GF120918 (R(GF)). These data were correlated with ratios of oral plasma levels in either mdr1a(-/-) or mdr1a/1b(-/-) and wild-type mice (R(KO/WT in vivo)) calculated from literature data on these compounds. RESULTS: A significant, positive correlation (r2 = 0.8, p < 0.01) was observed between RGF and R(KO/WT in vivo). In contrast, R(B-A/A-B), a more commonly used in vitro measure, showed a much weaker correlation with in vivo data (r2 = 0.33, p = 0.11). A strong correlation with R(GF) was also observed after correction of in vivo data for PGP effects on IV clearance. CONCLUSION: The increase in A-B drug permeability following inhibition of PGP in Caco-2 allows a reasonable prediction of the likely in vivo impact that PGP will have on plasma drug levels after oral administration.