Characteristics and Outcomes of 241 Births to Women With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection at Five New York City Medical Centers.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics and birth outcomes of women with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection as community spread in New York City was detected in March 2020. METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study of pregnant women with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who gave birth from March 13 to April 12, 2020, identified at five New York City medical centers. Demographic and clinical data from delivery hospitalization records were collected, and follow-up was completed on April 20, 2020. RESULTS: Among this cohort (241 women), using evolving criteria for testing, 61.4% of women were asymptomatic for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the time of admission. Throughout the delivery hospitalization, 26.5% of women met World Health Organization criteria for mild COVID-19, 26.1% for severe, and 5% for critical. Cesarean birth was the mode of delivery for 52.4% of women with severe and 91.7% with critical COVID-19. The singleton preterm birth rate was 14.6%. Admission to the intensive care unit was reported for 17 women (7.1%), and nine (3.7%) were intubated during their delivery hospitalization. There were no maternal deaths. Body mass index (BMI) 30 or higher was associated with COVID-19 severity (P=.001). Nearly all newborns tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection immediately after birth (97.5%). CONCLUSION: During the first month of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in New York City and with evolving testing criteria, most women with laboratory-confirmed infection admitted for delivery did not have symptoms of COVID-19. Almost one third of women who were asymptomatic on admission became symptomatic during their delivery hospitalization. Obesity was associated with COVID-19 severity. Disease severity was associated with higher rates of cesarean and preterm birth.

Risk factors associated with delayed discharge following robotic assisted surgery for gynecologic malignancy.

BACKGROUND: The risk factors for extended length of stay (LOS) have not been examined in a cohort of patients with complex social and medical barriers who undergo robotic assisted (RA) surgery for gynecologic malignancies. We sought to identify those patients with a LOS > 24 h after robotic surgery and the risk factors associated with delayed discharge. Then we aimed to develop a predictive model for clinical care and identify modifiable pre-operative risk factors. METHODS: After IRB approval, data was abstracted from medical records of all patients with a gynecologic malignancy who underwent a RA laparoscopic surgery from 2010 to 2015. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors associated with delayed discharge defined as LOS > 24 h. A multi-variable logistic regression model was performed using a stepwise backward selection for the final prediction model. All testing was two-sided and a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the 406 eligible and evaluable patients, 194 (48%) had a LOS > 24 h. Age ≥ 60 years, a higher usage of narcotic medication, a longer surgical time, and a larger estimated blood loss were all associated with LOS > 24 h (p < 0.05). Many of these women had a social work consultation and went home with home care services despite no surgical or post-operative complications. Our prediction model has the potential to correctly classified 75% of the patients discharged within 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a pre-hospitalization risk stratification and anticipating the possible need for home care services pre-operatively shows promise as a strategy to decrease LOS in patients classified as high-risk. These findings warrant prospective validation through the use of this prediction model in our institution.

Racial Differences in Survival From Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Are Associated With Stage at Diagnosis and Use of Neoadjuvant Therapy: A 10-Year Single-Institution Experience With a Racially Diverse Urban Population.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the racial/ethnic disparities in ovarian cancer survival in a diverse population. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study evaluating all patients with epithelial ovarian cancer who received primary treatment at Montefiore Medical Center from 2005 to 2015. Clinicopathologic and survival data were abstracted from medical records. Two-sided statistical analyses were performed using SAS 9.3. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-four evaluable patients were identified: 85 (25%) black, 107 (31%) white, 74 (21%) Hispanic, and 78 (23%) other. Black patients were more likely to present with stage IV disease (P = 0.01) and receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P < 0.01). By Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, black race was associated with worse recurrence-free survival (P = 0.01) when compared with white race. In multivariate Cox regression model including treatment and stage, race was no longer associated with survival. In a separate multivariate analysis, utilization of neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with black race (odds ratio 4.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.56-10.38; P < 0.01) and stage IV disease (odds ratio 3.44; 95% confidence interval, 1.66-7.12; P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In a racially/ethnically diverse population with ovarian cancer, black women had poorer disease-free survival than whites, although this was statistically accounted for by stage at diagnosis and use of neoadjuvant therapy. Research is needed to determine how differences in access/utilization of care and genetic differences in tumor biology may impact late stage diagnosis and use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy among black ovarian cancer patients.

Development of an optimized conditionally replicative adenoviral agent for ovarian cancer.

Human ovarian cancer is a highly lethal malignant neoplasm in woman with no effective treatment if conventional chemotherapy fails. In this regard, conditionally replicative adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for the treatment of cancer. A key contribution to the development of CRAds was the introduction of tumor-selective viral replication to restrict amplification to the neoplastic cell population. Under ideal conditions following cellular infection, the viruses replicate selectively in the infected tumor cells, killing the cells by cytolysis, leaving normal cells unaffected. However, to date, there have been limitations to the clinical application of these CRAd agents i.e. poor viral infectivity, poor tumor specificity and high toxicity. Here, we report the in vitro and in vivo comparison of four CRAd agents developed for ovarian cancer application, specifically, Ad-Delta24.F5/3, CRAd-C.F5/3, CRAd-M.F5/3 and CRAd-S.F5/3. All CRAd agents contained fiber knob chimeras of adenovirus serotype 3, which enhanced the viral infectivity at the transductional level via a non-Coxsackie-Adenovirus Receptor alternative pathway. In addition, these CRAds embodied distinct mechanisms for the achievement of replication specificity. Tumor cell killing was assessed by using an oncolytic assay and a cell viability assay (MTS) in vitro, while tumor growth was examined in a xenograft model in vivo by using a bioluminescent imaging assay. In addition, the replication rates of the CRAd agents were determined in human liver slices. Both the Ad-Delta24.F5/3 and CRAd-S.F5/3 were demonstrated to have higher tumor killing effects in tumor cells and a lower viral replication rate in human liver. These agents are thus excellent candidates for clinical trials of CRAd agents against human ovarian cancer.

Targeting of a conditionally replicative adenovirus agent to human squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck.

Conventional cancer treatments are not adequate for the majority of most patients stricken with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN). Conditionally replicating adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for treating of neoplastic diseases, including SCCHN. Specifically, CRAd agents infect tumor cells and selectively replicate within them, thus causing their death while sparing surrounding normal cells in the host. Oncolysis results from the replicative life cycle of the virus, which lyses infected tumor cells and releases viral progeny for propagation of infection and resultant lysis of neighboring cancer cells, sparing normal host cells. However, to date there have been two main limitations to successful clinical application of these CRAd agents: poor infectivity and poor tumor specificity. Here we report the construction of a CRAd agent, CRAd-CXCR4.F5/3, in which the adenovirus E1 gene is driven by a tumor-specific CXCR4 promoter, and the viral infectivity is enhanced by a fiber modification, F5/3, containing an Ad3 knob chimeric fiber protein. As expected, this agent improved both of the viral infectivity and tumor specificity as evaluated in established SCCHN tumor cell lines and in primary tumor tissues from multiple patients. As an added benefit, the activity of the CXCR4 promoter was low in human liver as described previously. Based on these data, the CRAd-CXCR4.F5/3 is a promising novel CRAd agent for SCCHN targeting with low host toxicity.

Treatment of ovarian cancer with a novel dual targeted conditionally replicative adenovirus (CRAd).

OBJECTIVES: Current virotherapy strategies for ovarian cancer have been hampered by limitations in target cell infectivity and nonspecific tissue replication. In an effort to circumvent these limitations, we evaluated various CRAds modified to incorporate novel capsid targeting motifs (RGD and chimeric Ad5/3) with a novel tissue-specific promoter (CXCR4). METHODS: Two novel CRAds (Ad5-CXCR4-F5/3 and Ad5-CXCR4-RGD) were constructed via homologous recombination and verified by PCR and DNA sequencing. The infectivity and viral replication rates of these two CRAds were analyzed via quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) in cell line experiments using three ovarian cancer cell lines (SKOV3.ip1, Hey, and OV4) and compared to that achieved with a clinical grade CRAd (delta24-RGD) to be evaluated in a Phase I trial. Cytocidal effects were determined by crystal violet staining in these same cell lines infected with different concentrations of viral particles per cell (0, 0.1, 1, 10, 100, and 500). Additionally, viral replication was evaluated by QRT-PCR in primary ovarian cancer tissue slices from multiple patients with ovarian cancer as well as in primary human normal liver tissue slices in order to establish CRAd selectivity. All experiments incorporated appropriate controls and repeated in triplicate. RESULTS: Compared to RGD-capsid CRAds (delta24-RGD and CXCR4-RGD), the F5/3-capsid CRAd (CXCR4-F5/3) demonstrated significant improvements in infection rates (p=0.025, 0.006, and 0.006) in all ovarian cancer cell lines tested (SKOV3.ip1, Hey, and OV4, respectively). In addition to improved transduction of virus into the cells, the TSP CXCR4-based CRAds demonstrated improved viral replication. Specifically, CXCR4-F5/3 further enhanced viral replication 89-fold (p=0.009, 0.010, 0.003) in the same cancer cell lines. Furthermore, CXCR4-F5/3 showed a 4-log improvement in oncolytic potential over delta24-RGD. In the ex vivo primary ovarian tissue slices, CXCR4-F5/3 showed a 58-fold improvement in viral replication (p=0.005) compared to the clinical grade delta24-RGD. Both CXCR4-F5/3 and CXCR4-RGD demonstrated significant reduction of viral replication in normal liver slices (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that a dual targeted approach is feasible for the combined enhancement of infectivity and replication in ovarian cancer with a specificity that was attenuated in normal liver tissues. In fact, CXCR4-F5/3 outperformed our best CRAd agent to date nearly 60-fold in our most stringent ex vivo model of primary ovarian cancer tissue slices and suggests that this novel agent could be useful for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Targeting lung cancer using an infectivity enhanced CXCR4-CRAd.

Conventional treatments are not adequate for the majority of lung cancer patients. Conditionally replicating adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for the treatment of neoplastic diseases, including non-small cell lung cancer. Specifically, following cellular infection, the virus replicates selectively in the infected tumor cells and kills the cells by cytolysis. Next, the progeny virions infect a new population of surrounding target cells, replicate again and eradicate the infected tumor cells while leaving normal cells unaffected. However, to date, there have been two main limitations to successful clinical application of these CRAd agents; i.e. poor infectivity and poor tumor specificity. Here we report the construction of a CRAd agent, CRAd-CXCR4.RGD, in which the adenovirus E1 gene is driven by a tumor-specific CXCR4 promoter and the viral infectivity is enhanced by a capsid modification, RGD4C. This agent CRAd-CXCR4.RGD, as expected, improved both of the viral infectivity and tumor specificity as evaluated in an established lung tumor cell line and in primary tumor tissue from multiple patients. As an added benefit, the activity of the CXCR4 promoter was low in human liver as compared to three other promoters regularly used for targeting tumors. In addition, this agent has the potential of targeting multiple other tumor cell types. From these data, the CRAd-CXCR4.RGD appears to be a promising novel CRAd agent for lung cancer targeting with low host toxicity.

Survivin promoter-based conditionally replicative adenoviruses target cholangiocarcinoma.

Cholangiocarcinoma is a highly malignant neoplasm with no effective treatment. Conditionally replicative adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for the treatment of cancer in general. A key contribution in this regard was the introduction of tumor-selective viral replication for amplification of the initial inoculum in the neoplastic cell population. Under ideal conditions following cellular infection, the viruses replicate selectively in the infected tumor cells and kill the cells by cytolysis, leaving normal cells unaffected. However, to date there have been two limitations to the clinical application of these CRAd agents, i.e. poor viral infectivity and tumor specificity. Here we report the construction of three new CRAd agents, CRAd-S.RGD, CRAd-S.F5/3 and CRAd-S.pk7, in which the tumor specificity is regulated by a tumor-specific promoter, the survivin promoter, and the viral infectivity is enhanced by incorporating a capsid modification (RGD, F5/3 or pk7) in the adenovirus fiber region. These CRAd agents effectively target cholangiocarcinoma cells, induce strong cytoxicity in these cells in vitro and inhibit tumor growth in a murine xenograft model in vivo. In addition, the survivin promoter has extremely low activity both in the non-transformed cell line, HMEC, and in human liver tissue. Our results suggest that the survivin-based CRAds are promising agents for targeting cholangiocarcinoma with low host toxicity. Such results should provide important insights into the identification of novel therapeutic strategies for cholangiocarcinoma.

Targeting mesothelioma using an infectivity enhanced survivin-conditionally replicative adenoviruses.

Mesothelioma is a highly malignant neoplasm with no effective treatment. Conditionally replicative adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for the treatment of cancer in general. A key contribution in this regard is the introduction of tumor-selective viral replication for amplification of the initial inoculum in the neoplastic cell population. Under ideal conditions following cellular infection, the viruses replicate selectively in the infected tumor cells and kill the cells by cytolysis, leaving normal cells unaffected. However, to date there have been two limitations to clinical application of these CRAd agents; viral infectivity and tumor specificity have been poor. Herein we report on two CRAd agents, CRAd-S.RGD and CRAd-S.F5/3, in which the tumor specificity is regulated by a tumor-specific promoter, the survivin promoter, and the viral infectivity is enhanced by incorporating a capsid modification (RGD or F5/3) in the adenovirus fiber region. These CRAd agents effectively target human mesothelioma cell lines, induce strong cytoxicity in these cells in vitro, and viral replication in a H226 murine xenograft model in vivo. In addition, the survivin promoter has extremely low activity both in the non-transformed cell line, HMEC, and in human liver tissue. Our results suggest that the survivin-based CRAds are promising agents for targeting mesothelioma with low host toxicity. These agents should provide important insights into the identification of novel therapeutic strategies for mesothelioma.

Incorporating the survivin promoter in an infectivity enhanced CRAd-analysis of oncolysis and anti-tumor effects in vitro and in vivo.

Conditionally replicating adenoviruses (CRAds) represent a promising new modality for the treatment of cancer. A key contribution in this regard was the introduction of tumor-selective viral replication for amplification of the initial inoculum. Specifically, following cellular infection, the virus replicates selectively in the infected tumor cells and kills the cells by cytolysis. Next, the progeny virions infect surrounding target cells, replicate and eradicate the infected tumor cells, leaving normal cells unaffected. However, to date there have been two limitations to clinical application of these CRAd agents; i.e., both infectivity and tumor specificity are poor. Survivin protein is a novel member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) protein family, which plays an important role in the survival of cancer cells and progression of malignancies. Previous data have shown the survivin promoter has high activities in multiple cancer cells with a low activity in mouse liver. In this study, we propose an improved CRAd agent to circumvent the obstacles. We constructed a novel CRAd agent, CRAd-Survivin-RGD, which contains both the survivin promoter (either the short version, S-S, or the long version, S-L) to selectively drive E1 gene expression in tumor cells and a capsid modification and RGD4C to specifically enhance the tumor infectivity of CRAd agents. Both CRAd agents (S-S and S-L) showed high replication rates in the breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-361, and low promoter activity in both normal mouse and human liver, thus signifying the CRAd agents have the phenotype of 'tumor on/liver off'. In cytocidal experiments, the CRAd agents demonstrated a high cytocidal effect on multiple cancer cell lines, including the breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231; the glioma cell line, D65, the melanoma cell line, MEL-28; and mesothelioma, Meso2374. The results also showed the tumor growth was dramatically inhibited by intertumoral administration of the CRAd agents in a breast cancer (MDA-MB-361) xenograft animal model. These data clearly demonstrate that CRAd-Survivin-RGD is a potential novel therapeutic agent for treatment in many, but not all, human cancers.

Transport across a polarized monolayer of Caco-2 cells by transferrin receptor-mediated adenovirus transcytosis.

Adenoviral vectors have a poor record of transgene delivery efficiency through physical barriers such as the epithelium or endothelium. We report here the construction of an adenoviral vector that has the capability to be transported across polarized epithelial monolayers of Caco-2 cells (a colon carcinoma cell line) by transcytosis. This transcytosis is transferrin receptor (TfR)-mediated with use of a bifunctional adaptor, soluble coxsackie adenovirus receptor (sCAR)-Tf, and is both temperature and iron dependent. Under experimental conditions, the adenoviral transcytosis was inhibited by pretreatment of Caco-2 cells with colchicine, an inhibitor of transcytosis, and was not enhanced by pretreatment with Brefeldin A (BFA), an enhancer of transcytosis. In these Caco-2 cells, the transcytosis rate was 0.3 +/- 1.3% (SD). The transcytosed adenoviruses remain biologically functional. These data suggest the potential clinical benefit under conditions where drug delivery is a challenge, such as within the airway epithelium, at the bladder lumen urothelial cell interface, and across the blood-brain barrier for clinical treatment of lung, urogenital, and brain disorders, respectively, by adenoviral transcytosis of transgene delivery.

Transcriptional targeting of tumors with a novel tumor-specific survivin promoter.

It has been demonstrated that survivin, a novel member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) protein family, is expressed in human cancers but is undetectable in normal differentiated tissues. We employed a recombinant adenoviral vector (reAdGL3BSurvivin) in which a tumor-specific survivin promoter and a luciferase reporter gene were inserted into the E1-deleted region of adenovirus vector. Luciferase activity was measured in both multiple tumor cell lines and two primary melanoma cells infected with reAdGL3BSurvivin. Human fibroblast and mammary epithelial cell lines were used as negative controls. A reAdGL3CMV, containing the CMV promoter and luciferase gene, was used as a positive control to normalize the luciferase activity generated by the survivin promoter. Our data revealed that the survivin promoter showed high activity in both established tumor cell lines and the primary melanoma cells. In contrast, the in vivo studies indicated that the activities of survivin promoter were extremely low in the major mouse organs. The survivin promoter appears to be a promising tumor-specific promoter exhibiting a "tumor on" and "liver off" profile, and therefore, it may prove to be a good candidate for transcriptional targeting of cancer gene therapy in a wide variety of tumors.