Protocol for a mixed-methods study to develop and feasibility test a digital system for the capture of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies (the PRO-CAR-T study).

INTRODUCTION: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies are novel, potentially curative therapies for haematological malignancies. CAR T-cell therapies are associated with severe toxicities, meaning patients require monitoring during acute and postacute treatment phases. Electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), self-reports of health status provided via online questionnaires, can complement clinician observation with potential to improve patient outcomes. This study will develop and evaluate feasibility of a new ePRO system for CAR-T patients in routine care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Multiphase, mixed-methods study involving multiple stakeholder groups (patients, family members, carers, clinicians, academics/researchers and policy-makers). The intervention development phase comprises a Delphi study to select PRO measures for the digital system, a codesign workshop and consensus meetings to establish thresholds for notifications to the clinical team if a patient reports severe symptoms or side effects. Usability testing will evaluate how users interact with the digital system and, lastly, we will evaluate ePRO system feasibility with 30 CAR-T patients (adults aged 18+ years) when used in addition to usual care. Feasibility study participants will use the ePRO system to submit self-reports of symptoms, treatment tolerability and quality of life at specific time points. The CAR-T clinical team will respond to system notifications triggered by patients' submitted responses with actions in line with standard clinical practice. Feasibility measures will be collected at prespecified time points following CAR T-cell infusion. A qualitative substudy involving patients and clinical team members will explore acceptability of the ePRO system. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Favourable ethical opinion was granted by the Health and Social Care Research Ethics Committee B(HSC REC B) (ref: 23/NI/0104) on 28 September 2023. Findings will be submitted for publication in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals. Summaries of results, codeveloped with the Blood and Transplant Research Unit Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement group, will be disseminated to all interested groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISCTRN11232653.

Promotion of haematopoietic activity in embryonic stem cells by the aorta-gonad-mesonephros microenvironment.

We investigated whether the in vitro differentiation of ES cells into haematopoietic progenitors could be enhanced by exposure to the aorta-gonadal-mesonephros (AGM) microenvironment that is involved in the generation of haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) during embryonic development. We established a co-culture system that combines the requirements for primary organ culture and differentiating ES cells and showed that exposure of differentiating ES cells to the primary AGM region results in a significant increase in the number of ES-derived haematopoietic progenitors. Co-culture of ES cells on the AM20-1B4 stromal cell line derived from the AGM region also increases haematopoietic activity. We conclude that factors promoting the haematopoietic activity of differentiating ES cells present in primary AGM explants are partially retained in the AM20.1B4 stromal cell line and that these factors are likely to be different to those required for adult HSC maintenance.

Severe global DNA hypomethylation blocks differentiation and induces histone hyperacetylation in embryonic stem cells.

It has been reported that DNA methyltransferase 1-deficient (Dnmt1-/-) embryonic stem (ES) cells are hypomethylated (20% CpG methylation) and die through apoptosis when induced to differentiate. Here, we show that Dnmt[3a-/-,3b-/-] ES cells with just 0.6% of their CpG dinucleotides behave differently: the majority of cells within the culture are partially or completely blocked in their ability to initiate differentiation, remaining viable while retaining the stem cell characteristics of alkaline phosphatase and Oct4 expression. Restoration of DNA methylation levels rescues these defects. Severely hypomethylated Dnmt[3a-/-,3b-/-] ES cells have increased histone acetylation levels, and those cells that can differentiate aberrantly express extraembryonic markers of differentiation. Dnmt[3a-/-,3b-/-] ES cells with >10% CpG methylation are able to terminally differentiate, whereas Dnmt1-/- ES cells with 20% of the CpG methylated cannot differentiate. This demonstrates that successful terminal differentiation is not dependent simply on adequate methylation levels. There is an absolute requirement that the methylation be delivered by the maintenance enzyme Dnmt1.

Interpretation with hindsight.

In his 1965 paper 'DNA content of tumours: cytophotometric measurements', Sandritter was for the first time able to relate tumour DNA content to the pathology and progression of a small number of tumours. In subsequent publications, these observations were extended to the progression of a much more comprehensive range of tumours. The interpretation of Sandritter's paper below follows the increasing sophistication of methodologies for tumour DNA content through the existing publications and evaluates the conclusions and hypotheses Sandritter proposed in the light of the contemporary account.

Expression of a novel homeobox gene Ehox in trophoblast stem cells and pharyngeal pouch endoderm.

Ehox is an X-linked paired like homeobox gene identified from a differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cell cDNA library and is expressed at low levels in the preimplantation blastocyst and in ES cells in vitro. In embryos at 6.5 days post coitum (dpc), Ehox expression was restricted to the extraembryonic ectoderm which correlates with high-level expression in cultures of trophoblast stem cells. Extraembryonic expression becomes further restricted to the chorion and by 15.5 dpc Ehox is expressed in chorionic trophoblast of the labyrinth and spongiotrophoblast layers of the placenta. Ehox expression in the embryo proper first appears at 8.5 dpc in the anterior foregut endoderm and by 9.5 dpc is visible in pharyngeal pouches 2-4. By 10.5 dpc, Ehox expression becomes restricted to the ventral end of pouches 2 and 3. The data presented here is the first description of Ehox expression during embryogenesis and suggests a dual role for Ehox: (1) in trophoblast stem cells and compartments of the developing placenta, and (2) during development of the pharyngeal pouches, possibly delineating the area to become thymus.

Quantitative developmental anatomy of definitive haematopoietic stem cells/long-term repopulating units (HSC/RUs): role of the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region and the yolk sac in colonisation of the mouse embryonic liver.

In the developing mouse embryo the first definitive (transplantable-into-the-adult) haematopoietic stem cells/long-term repopulating units (HSC/RUs) emerge in the AGM region and umbilical vessels on 10-11 days post coitum (d.p.c.). Here, by limiting dilution analysis, we anatomically map the development of definitive HSC/RUs in different embryonic tissues during early colonisation of the liver. We show that by day 12 p.c. the mouse embryo contains about 66 definitive HSC/RUs (53 in the liver, 13 in other tissues), whereas on the previous day the total number of definitive HSC/RUs in the entire conceptus is only about 3. Owing to the length of the cell cycle this dramatic increase in the number of definitive HSC/RUs in only 24 hours is unlikely to be explained purely by cell division. Therefore, extensive maturation of pre-definitive HSCs to a state when they become definitive must take place in the day 11-12 embryo. Here we firstly identify the numbers of HSCs in various organs at 11-13 d.p.c. and secondly, using an organ culture approach, we quantitatively assess the potential of the aorta-gonadmesonephros (AGM) region and the yolk sac to produce/expand definitive HSC/RUs during days 11-12 of embryogenesis. We show that the capacity of the AGM region to generate definitive HSC/RUs is high on 11 d.p.c. but significantly reduced by 12 d.p.c. Conversely, at 12 d.p.c. the YS acquires the capacity to expand and/or generate definitive HSCs/RUs, whereas it is unable to do so on 11 d.p.c. Thus, the final steps in development of definitive HSC/RUs may occur not only within the AGM region, as was previously thought, but also in the yolk sac microenvironment. Our estimates indicate that the cumulative activity of the AGM region and the yolk sac is sufficient to provide the day 12 liver with a large number of definitive HSC/RUs, suggesting that the large pool of definitive HSC/RUs in day 12 foetal liver is formed predominantly by recruiting 'ready-to-use' definitive HSC/RUs from extra-hepatic sources. In accordance with this we observe growing numbers of definitive HSC/RUs in the circulation during days 11-13 of gestation, suggesting a route via which these HSCs migrate.

Cloning and characterization of Ehox, a novel homeobox gene essential for embryonic stem cell differentiation.

We report here the identification and characterization of a novel paired-like homeobox-containing gene (Ehox). This gene, identified in embryonic stem (ES) cells, is differentially expressed during in vitro ES cell differentiation. We have assessed Ehox function using the ES cell in vitro differentiation system. This has involved molecular and biological analyses of the effects of sense or antisense Ehox expression (using episomal vectors) on ES cell differentiation. Analysis of antisense Ehox-expressing ES cells indicates that they are unable to express marker genes associated with hematopoietic, endothelial, or cardiac differentiation following removal of leukemia inhibitory factor. In contrast, overexpression of Ehox using the sense construct accelerated the appearance of these differentiation markers. ES cell self-renewal and differentiation assays reveal that inhibition of Ehox activity results in the maintenance of a stem cell phenotype in limiting concentrations of leukemia inhibitory factor and the almost complete impairment of the cardiomyocyte differentiation capacity of these cells. We therefore conclude that Ehox is a novel homeobox-containing gene that is essential for the earliest stages of murine ES cell differentiation.

DNA ligase I null mouse cells show normal DNA repair activity but altered DNA replication and reduced genome stability.

DNA ligase I is the key ligase for DNA replication in mammalian cells and has also been reported to be involved in a number of recombination and repair processes. Our previous finding that Lig1 knockout mouse embryos developed normally to mid-term before succumbing to a specific haematopoietic defect was difficult to reconcile with a report that DNA ligase I is essential for the viability of cultured mammalian cells. To address this issue, we generated a second Lig1 targeted allele and found that the phenotypes of our two Lig1 mutant mouse lines are identical. Widely different levels of Lig1 fusion transcripts were detected from the two targeted alleles, but we could not detect any DNA ligase I protein, and we believe both are effective Lig1 null alleles. Using foetal liver cells to repopulate the haematopoietic system of lethally irradiated adult mice, we demonstrate that the haematopoietic defect in DNA-ligase-I-deficient embryos is a quantitative deficiency relating to reduced proliferation rather than a qualitative block in any haematopoietic lineage. DNA ligase I null fibroblasts from Lig1 mutant embryos showed an accumulation of DNA replication intermediates and increased genome instability. In the absence of a demonstrable deficiency in DNA repair we postulate that, unusually, genome instability may result directly from the DNA replication defect. Lig1 null mouse cells performed better in the survival and replication assays than a human LIG1 point mutant, and we suggest that the complete absence of DNA ligase I may make it easier for another ligase to compensate for DNA ligase I deficiency.