Non-genotoxic Restoration of the Hematolymphoid System in Fanconi Anemia.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for patients with many different blood and immune diseases; however, current treatment regimens contain non-specific chemotherapy and/or irradiation conditioning, which carry both short-term and long-term toxicities. The use of such agents may be particularly harmful for patients with Fanconi anemia (FA), who have genetic mutations resulting in deficiencies in DNA repair, leading to increased sensitivity to genotoxic agents. mAb-based conditioning has been proposed as an alternative conditioning strategy for HSCT that minimizes these toxicities by eliminating collateral tissue damage. Given the high need for improved treatments for FA patients, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of different αCD117 mAb agents and immunosuppression on hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) depletion and explored their ability to safely establish therapeutic donor hematopoiesis post-HSCT in FA disease models. We evaluated the effects of different concentrations of αCD117 mAbs in vitro and in vivo on HSC growth and depletion. To further assess the efficacy of mAb-based conditioning, Fancd2-/- animals were treated with αCD117 mAb and combination agents with αCD47 mAb and antibody-drug-conjugates (ADCs) for syngeneic HSCT. Immunosuppression αCD4 mAb was added to all in vivo experiments due to a slightly mismatched background between the donor grafts and recipients. Immunosuppressant cocktails were also given to Fancd2-/- animals to evaluate the efficacy of mAb-based conditioning in the haploidentical setting. Statistical analyses were done using the unpaired t-test. We found that antagonistic αCD117 mAbs alone do not deplete host HSCs or enhance HSCT effectively in FA mouse models; however, the potency of αCD117 mAbs can be safely augmented through combination with αCD47 mAbs and with ADCs, both of which lead to profound HSC depletion and establishment of long-term donor engraftment post-syngeneic HSCT. This is the first time these approaches have been tested in parallel in any disease setting, with the greatest donor engraftment observed after CD117-ADC conditioning. Interestingly, our data also suggest that HSC-targeted conditioning is not necessary in HSCT for FA, as high donor HSC engraftment was observed with mAb-based immune suppression alone with immunologically matched and mismatched haploidentical grafts. These results demonstrate the safety and efficacy of several different non-genotoxic mAb-based conditioning strategies in the FA setting. In addition, they show that if sufficient immunosuppression is given to obtain initial donor HSC engraftment, turnover of a majority of the hematolymphoid system can result, likely owing to the survival advantage of wild-type HSCs over FA HSCs. Such non-toxic all-mAb-based conditioning strategies could be transformative for FA patients and those with other hematolymphoid diseases.

Reduced-Intensity/Reduced-Toxicity Conditioning Approaches Are Tolerated in XIAP Deficiency but Patients Fare Poorly with Acute GVHD.

X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) deficiency is an inherited primary immunodeficiency characterized by chronic inflammasome overactivity and associated with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with fully myeloablative conditioning may be curative but has been associated with poor outcomes. Reports of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) and reduced-toxicity conditioning (RTC) regimens suggest these approaches are well tolerated, but outcomes are not well established. Retrospective data were collected from an international cohort of 40 patients with XIAP deficiency who underwent HCT with RIC or RTC. Thirty-three (83%) patients had a history of HLH, and thirteen (33%) patients had IBD. Median age at HCT was 6.5 years. Grafts were from HLA-matched (n = 30, 75%) and HLA-mismatched (n = 10, 25%) donors. There were no cases of primary graft failure. Two (5%) patients experienced secondary graft failure, and three (8%) patients ultimately received a second HCT. Nine (23%) patients developed grade II-IV acute GVHD, and 3 (8%) developed extensive chronic GVHD. The estimated 2-year overall and event-free survival rates were 74% (CI 55-86%) and 64% (CI 46-77%), respectively. Recipient and donor HLA mismatch and grade II-IV acute GVHD were negatively associated with survival on multivariate analysis with hazard ratios of 5.8 (CI 1.5-23.3, p = 0.01) and 8.2 (CI 2.1-32.7, p < 0.01), respectively. These data suggest that XIAP patients tolerate RIC and RTC with survival rates similar to HCT of other genetic HLH disorders. Every effort should be made to prevent acute GVHD in XIAP-deficient patients who undergo allogeneic HCT.

Clinico-epidemiology of neuroblastoma in north east Egypt: A 5-year multicenter study.

Neuroblastoma, an embryonal malignancy of the sympathetic nervous system, is the most frequent extracranial solid tumor The clinico-epidemiological features of neuroblastoma in infants and children were investigated between January 2005 and January 2010 at the Pediatric Oncology units of Mansoura, Zagazig, and Tanta University Children's Hospitals (Egypt). Of 142 cases of neuroblastoma, 10 were omitted from the study due to defective data. The median age of the patients was 30 months, with 75.8% aged ≥1 year and 24.2% aged <1 year at time of diagnosis. The male-to-female ratio was 1.06. Suprarenal glands were the most common primary tumor site (72.7%). The majority of the patients (76.7%) had stage IV disease. Favorable pathology was observed in 43.8% of patients, while 56.2% exhibited unfavorable pathology. The estimated survival rate of patients was 30.7±10.0%, and mean survival time was 24.2±5.2 months. The rate of mortality was 28.6% for patients aged <1 year, and 81.8% for those aged ≥1 year (P=0.005). For patients with favorable pathology, the rate of mortality was significantly lower (28.6%) compared with that of patients with unfavorable pathology (77.8%; P=0.049). Although the association between outcome and each of the primary tumor sites, children's oncology group risk and gender was statistically insignificant, a large effect size was identified between outcome and primary tumor site, as well as children's oncology group risk and a medium effect size was identified between outcome and gender. Additionally, an age of ≥1 year was associated with unfavorable pathology (P=0.024), stage IV disease (P=0.026) and a suprarenal primary tumor site (P=0.001).