Impact of chronic graft-versus-host disease on non-relapse mortality and survival.

Chronic graft-versus-host-disease (cGVHD) is one of the primary causes of morbidity and mortality for patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT). In recent years, advancements in allo-HCT have allowed a broader range of patients to receive transplant, particularly older patients. We sought to assess the impact of cGVHD on outcomes in patients undergoing allo-HCT, for older patients as compared to their counterparts. We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent allo-HCT 1999-2018. Our results showed that those patients who developed cGVHD by D + 180 had an increased risk and incidence of NRM as compared to those patients without cGVHD. There was no significant difference in outcomes for those patients with cGVHD by age (≥60 years old [yo] and <60 yo). These findings suggest the significant morbidity of cGVHD, regardless of age.

Longitudinal Survival Outcomes in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation: An Institutional Experience.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is a potentially curative treatment for many hematological disorders, but is often complicated by relapse of the underlying disease, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and infectious complications. We conducted a retrospective analysis on patients undergoing allo-SCT from 1984 to 2018 to better understand how survival has changed longitudinally with therapeutic advancements made to mitigate these complications. Method: We analyzed data from 1943 consecutive patients who received allo-SCT. Patients were divided into groups (gps) based on the year (yr) of transplant. Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), and GVHD-free relapse-free survival (GRFS). Secondary endpoints were the cumulative incidences of grade II−IV and grade III−IV acute GVHD (aGVHD), chronic GVHD (cGVHD), and non-relapse mortality (NRM). Results: Our study found statistically significant improvements in OS, PFS, and GRFS. Five-year PFS among the groups increased from 24% to 48% over the years. Five-year OS increased from 25% to 53%. Five-year GRFS significantly increased from 6% to 14%, but remained relatively unchanged from 2004 to 2018. Cumulative incidences of grade II−IV aGVHD increased since 2009 (p < 0.001). However, cumulative incidence of NRM decreased since 2004 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data show improved OS, PFS, and GRFS post allo-SCT over decades. This may be attributed to advances in supportive care and treatments focused on mitigation of GVHD and relapse.

Impact of Race and Geographic Area of Residence on Outcomes After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant.

Background: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) is a potential curative therapy for a variety of hematologic disorders. However, it requires highly specialized care that is only available at select centers across the country. Thus, minority populations are at risk for healthcare disparities in access to and outcomes of allo-HCT. Our study aimed to assess the impact of race and location of residence on outcomes of allo-HCT. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent allo-HCT at the Ohio State University from 1984 to 2018. Patients were divided by race (Caucasian, African American, and other) and grouped by zip code into rural, suburban, and urban groups. Primary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Of the 1,943 patients included in the study, 94.3% self-identified as Caucasian, 4.6% African American, and 1.1% other. In total, 63.4% lived in rural areas, 22.9% suburban, and 13.8% urban. There was no significant difference in OS or PFS by race (p = 0.15, 0.21) or place of residence (p = 0.39, 0.17). In addition, no difference in nonrelapse mortality, acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and GVHD-free relapse-free survival (GRFS) was seen among the race or place of residence. Conclusion: Our study suggests that when appropriate access to HCT is given, there is no difference in outcomes based on race, ethnicity or place of primary residence. Further research is needed to further evaluate barriers for these patients to undergo transplant and help mitigate these barriers.

Outcomes of Bone Marrow Compared to Peripheral Blood for Haploidentical Transplantation.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) from a haploidentical (haplo) donor has emerged as a suitable alternative in the absence of a matched donor. However, haplo-HCT patients have a higher risk of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Hence, bone marrow (BM) stem cell source and post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) have been routinely used to help mitigate this. Due to ease of collection, peripheral blood (PB) stem cells are increasingly being considered for haplo-HCT. We retrospectively analyzed 74 patients (42 BM and 32 PB) who underwent haplo-HCT at Ohio State University from 2009 to 2018. Median age at transplant was 60 years (yrs) for BM and 54 yrs for PB, (p = 0.45). There was no difference in OS (p = 0.13) and NRM (p = 0.75) as well as PFS (p = 0.10) or GRFS (p = 0.90) between the groups. The BM cohort showed a 3-year OS rate of 63% (95% confidence interval (CI): 46-76), and 3-year PFS of 49% (95% CI: 33-63). For the PB group, 3-year OS and PFS were 78% (95% CI: 59-89) and 68% (95% CI: 49-82), respectively. There were no differences in the incidence of acute GVHD (grade II-IV) (p = 0.31) and chronic GVHD (p = 0.18). Patients receiving BM had a significantly higher risk for relapse with relapse rates by 2 years at 36% (95% CI: 22-50) vs. 16% (95% CI: 6-31) for PB (p = 0.03). The findings from this study suggest that PB is an excellent alternative to BM for haplo-HCT.

eMPRess: a systematic cophylogeny reconciliation tool.

SUMMARY: We describe eMPRess, a software program for phylogenetic tree reconciliation under the duplication-transfer-loss model that systematically addresses the problems of choosing event costs and selecting representative solutions, enabling users to make more robust inferences. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: eMPRess is freely available at http://www.cs.hmc.edu/empress. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Functionalized lipid-like nanoparticles for in vivo mRNA delivery and base editing.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics have been explored to treat various genetic disorders. Lipid-derived nanomaterials are currently one of the most promising biomaterials that mediate effective mRNA delivery. However, efficiency and safety of this nanomaterial-based mRNA delivery remains a challenge for clinical applications. Here, we constructed a series of lipid-like nanomaterials (LLNs), named functionalized TT derivatives (FTT), for mRNA-based therapeutic applications in vivo. After screenings on the materials, we identified FTT5 as a lead material for efficient delivery of long mRNAs, such as human factor VIII (hFVIII) mRNA (~4.5 kb) for expression of hFVIII protein in hemophilia A mice. Moreover, FTT5 LLNs demonstrated high percentage of base editing on PCSK9 in vivo at a low dose of base editor mRNA (~5.5 kb) and single guide RNA. Consequently, FTT nanomaterials merit further development for mRNA-based therapy.

Chemotherapy drugs derived nanoparticles encapsulating mRNA encoding tumor suppressor proteins to treat triple-negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one type of the most aggressive breast cancers with poor prognosis. It is of great urgency to develop new therapeutics for treating TNBC. Based on current treatment guideline and genetic information of TNBC, a combinational therapy platform integrating chemotherapy drugs and mRNA encoding tumor suppressor proteins may become an efficacious strategy. In this study, we developed paclitaxel amino lipid (PAL) derived nanoparticles (NPs) to incorporate both chemotherapy drugs and P53 mRNA. The PAL P53 mRNA NPs showed superior properties compared to Abraxane® and Lipusu® used in the clinic including high paclitaxel loading capacity (24 wt.%, calculated by paclitaxel in PAL), PAL encapsulation efficiency (94.7% ± 6.8%) and mRNA encapsulation efficiency (88.7% ± 0.7%). Meanwhile, these NPs displayed synergetic cytotoxicity of paclitaxel and P53 mRNA in cultured TNBC cells. More importantly, we demonstrated in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of PAL P53 mRNA NPs in an orthotopic TNBC mouse model. Overall, these chemotherapy drugs derived mRNA NPs provide a new platform to integrate chemotherapy and personalized medicine using tumor genetic information, and therefore represent a promising approach for TNBC treatment.

A hybrid de novo assembly of the sea pansy (Renilla muelleri) genome.

BACKGROUND: More than 3,000 species of octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) inhabit an expansive range of environments, from shallow tropical seas to the deep-ocean floor. They are important foundation species that create coral "forests," which provide unique niches and 3-dimensional living space for other organisms. The octocoral genus Renilla inhabits sandy, continental shelves in the subtropical and tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Renilla is especially interesting because it produces secondary metabolites for defense, exhibits bioluminescence, and produces a luciferase that is widely used in dual-reporter assays in molecular biology. Although several anthozoan genomes are currently available, the majority of these are hexacorals. Here, we present a de novo assembly of an azooxanthellate shallow-water octocoral, Renilla muelleri. FINDINGS: We generated a hybrid de novo assembly using MaSuRCA v.3.2.6. The final assembly included 4,825 scaffolds and a haploid genome size of 172 megabases (Mb). A BUSCO assessment found 88% of metazoan orthologs present in the genome. An Augustus ab initio gene prediction found 23,660 genes, of which 66% (15,635) had detectable similarity to annotated genes from the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, or to the Uniprot database. Although the R. muelleri genome may be smaller (172 Mb minimum size) than other publicly available coral genomes (256-448 Mb), the R. muelleri genome is similar to other coral genomes in terms of the number of complete metazoan BUSCOs and predicted gene models. CONCLUSIONS: The R. muelleri hybrid genome provides a novel resource for researchers to investigate the evolution of genes and gene families within Octocorallia and more widely across Anthozoa. It will be a key resource for future comparative genomics with other corals and for understanding the genomic basis of coral diversity.

Ratiometric fluorescent probes for capturing endogenous hypochlorous acid in the lungs of mice.

Hypochlorous acid (HClO) is a promising diagnostic marker for inflammation and relevant diseases. Although many probes were previously developed for HClO imaging, the development of organ targeting probes is still lacking. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of cyanine derivatives as ratiometric fluorescent probes to detect endogenous HClO in the lungs with inflammation. By installing diverse lipid chains and amino groups on cyanine, we identified that ClO1, with one n-octadecane chain and two 2-[[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]methylamino]-ethyl groups, is a superior probe to target the lungs over other major organs in mice. ClO1 was able to sense both exogenous and endogenous HClO in A549 (human lung epithelial) cells through fluorescence ratiometric imaging. In a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung inflammation mouse model, ClO1 effectively captured endogenous HClO in the lungs after intravenous administration. Overall, these cyanine-derived probes merit further development as organ targeting HClO sensors.

GlcNAc Conjugated Atorvastatin with Enhanced Water Solubility and Cellular Internalization.

Targeting ligands facilitate cell specific drug delivery and improve pharmaceutical properties. Herein, we designed two ligand drug conjugates by conjugating GlcNAc (N-acetylglucosamine) with atorvastatin. These two conjugates, termed G-AT and G-K-AT, exhibited enhanced water solubility and cellular uptake. Moreover, both G-AT and G-K-AT were able to release atorvastatin and consequently achieve significant inhibition against 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase.

Biodegradable Amino-Ester Nanomaterials for Cas9 mRNA Delivery in Vitro and in Vivo.

Efficient and safe delivery of the CRISPR/Cas system is one of the key challenges for genome-editing applications in humans. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of biodegradable lipidlike compounds containing ester groups for the delivery of mRNA-encoding Cas9. Two lead materials, termed N-methyl-1,3-propanediamine (MPA)-A and MPA-Ab, showed a tunable rate of biodegradation. MPA-A with linear ester chains was degraded dramatically faster than MPA-Ab with branched ester chains in the presence of esterase or in wild-type mice. Most importantly, MPA-A and MPA-Ab demonstrated efficient delivery of Cas9 mRNA both in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, these biodegradable lipidlike nanomaterials merit further development as genome-editing delivery tools for biological and therapeutic applications.

[Research on Rapid and Non-Destructive Identification of Aging Wheat Based on ATR-Terahertz Spectroscopy Combined with PLS-DA].

In this research, the terahertz spectra data of the aging wheat processed under manual control environment by ATR accessory were collected. After the data diversity based on the composite score by PCA, the non-destructive identification models of aging wheat were developed by PLS-DA algorithm. The results showed that for the absorption coefficient spectrum, the accuracy of the experimental group, control group of the calibration set and cross validation set were 84.2%, 94.7%, 84.2% and 81.6% respectively, while the accuracy of the experimental group and control group of the external validation set were 73.7% and 100.0% respectively; for the refractive index spectrum, the accuracy of the experimental group, control group of the calibration set and cross validation set were 84.2%, 92.0%, 76.3% and 76.3% respectively, while the accuracy of the experimental group and control group of the external validation set were 84.2% and 89.5% respectively. The research indicates that ATR-THz technology should be of great potentials in the application in the non-destructive identification of aging wheat.