Phase 1/2 study of monalizumab plus durvalumab in patients with advanced solid tumors.

BACKGROUND: The combination of monalizumab (anti-NKG2A/CD94) and durvalumab (anti-programmed death ligand-1) may promote antitumor immunity by targeting innate and adaptive immunity. This phase 1/2 study of monalizumab and durvalumab evaluated safety, antitumor activity, and pharmacodynamics in patients with advanced solid tumors. MAIN BODY: Immunotherapy-naïve patients aged ≥18 years with advanced disease, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-1, and 1-3 prior lines of systemic therapy in the recurrent/metastatic setting were enrolled. In part 1 (dose escalation), patients received durvalumab 1500 mg every 4 weeks (Q4W) with increasing doses of monalizumab Q2W/Q4W (n=15). Dose expansion in part 1 included patients with cervical cancer (n=15; durvalumab 1500 mg Q4W and monalizumab 750 mg Q2W) or metastatic microsatellite stable (MSS)-colorectal cancer (CRC) (n=15; durvalumab 1500 mg Q4W and monalizumab 750 mg Q4W). In part 2 (dose expansion), patients with MSS-CRC (n=40), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; n=20), MSS-endometrial cancer (n=40), or ovarian cancer (n=40) received durvalumab 1500 mg Q4W and monalizumab 750 mg Q2W. The primary endpoint was safety. Secondary endpoints included antitumor activity per Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors version 1.1 (RECIST v1.1). Exploratory analyses included assessment of T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell activation and proliferation in peripheral blood and the tumor microenvironment (TME). The study enrolled 185 patients (part 1, 45; part 2, 140). No dose-limiting toxicities were observed and the maximum tolerated dose was not reached. In part 2, the most common treatment-related adverse events were fatigue (12.1%), asthenia (9.3%), diarrhea (9.3%), pruritus (7.9%), and pyrexia (7.1%). In the expansion cohorts, response rates were 0% (cervical), 7.7% (MSS-CRC), 10% (NSCLC), 5.4% (ovarian), and 0% (MSS-endometrial). Sustained NK cell activation, CD8+ T-cell proliferation, increased serum levels of CXCL10 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10) and CXCL11, and increased tumor infiltration of CD8+ and granzyme B+ cells were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Although efficacy was modest, monalizumab plus durvalumab was well tolerated and encouraging immune activation was observed in the peripheral blood and TME. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02671435.

Automated Spot Counting in Microbiology.

Biological samples are routinely analyzed for microbe concentration. The samples are diluted, loaded onto established host cell cultures, and incubated. If infectious agents are present in the samples, they form circular spots that do not contain the host cells. Each spot is assumed to be originated from a single microbial unit such as a bacterial colony forming unit or viral plaque forming unit. The undiluted sample concentration is estimated by counting the spots and back-calculating. Counting the number of spots by trained technicians is currently the gold standard but it is laborious, subjective, and hard to scale. This paper presents a new automated algorithm for spot counting, Localized and Sequential Thresholding (LoST). Validation studies showed that LoST performance was comparable with manual counting and outperformed several existing tools on images with overlapping spots. The LoST algorithm employs sequential thresholding through a two-stage segmentation and borrows information across all images from the same dilution series to fine-tune the count and identify right censoring. The algorithm increases the efficiency of the spot counting and the quality of the downstream analysis, especially when coupled with an appropriate statistical serial dilution model to enhance the undiluted sample concentration estimation procedure.

Population Pharmacokinetics of Monalizumab in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors.

Monalizumab is a novel, first-in-class humanized immunoglobulin G4 monoclonal antibody immune checkpoint inhibitor that targets the inhibitory CD94/NKG2A receptors. The objectives of this analysis were to develop a population pharmacokinetic (PK) model of monalizumab, evaluate the impact of clinically relevant covariates on monalizumab PK, and provide dose justification for clinical trials. We developed a monalizumab population PK model to characterize the PK properties of monalizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors or head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Data from clinical studies D419NC00001 (NCT02671435) and IPH2201-203 (NCT02643550) were pooled for the analysis, resulting in a data set of 3066 PK samples derived from 507 subjects. The PK of monalizumab were reasonably described by a 2-compartment model with first-order elimination. Monalizumab generally exhibited linear PK over a dose range of 22.5-750 mg or 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks. The estimate of clearance was ≈0.255 L/day, and apparent volume of distribution was 6.36 L for a typical individual, consistent with previous findings for endogenous immunoglobulin Gs and other therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Baseline albumin and body weight were identified as significant covariates of clearance; body weight, sex, and smoking status had a significant impact on volume of distribution; and none of these covariates had impact on peripheral volume of distribution. Although these covariates were identified as statistically significant, they are considered to be not clinically meaningful, as changes in monalizumab exposure were <30%. Therefore, no dose adjustments of monalizumab based on patient or disease characteristics are recommended.

Insect-Inspired, Spike-Based, in-Sensor, and Night-Time Collision Detector Based on Atomically Thin and Light-Sensitive Memtransistors.

Detecting a potential collision at night is a challenging task owing to the lack of discernible features that can be extracted from the available visual stimuli. To alert the driver or, alternatively, the maneuvering system of an autonomous vehicle, current technologies utilize resource draining and expensive solutions such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) or image sensors coupled with extensive software running sophisticated algorithms. In contrast, insects perform the same task of collision detection with frugal neural resources. Even though the general architecture of separate sensing and processing modules is the same in insects and in image-sensor-based collision detectors, task-specific obstacle avoidance algorithms allow insects to reap substantial benefits in terms of size and energy. Here, we show that insect-inspired collision detection algorithms, when implemented in conjunction with in-sensor processing and enabled by innovative optoelectronic integrated circuits based on atomically thin and photosensitive memtransistor technology, can greatly simplify collision detection at night. The proposed collision detector eliminates the need for image capture and image processing yet demonstrates timely escape responses for cars on collision courses under various real-life scenarios at night. The collision detector also has a small footprint of ∼40 µm2 and consumes only a few hundred picojoules of energy. We strongly believe that the proposed collision detectors can augment existing sensors necessary for ensuring autonomous vehicular safety.

Phase Ia/b, Open-Label, Multicenter Study of AZD4635 (an Adenosine A2A Receptor Antagonist) as Monotherapy or Combined with Durvalumab, in Patients with Solid Tumors.

PURPOSE: To evaluate AZD4635, an adenosine A2A receptor antagonist, as monotherapy or in combination with durvalumab in patients with advanced solid tumors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In phase Ia (dose escalation), patients had relapsed/refractory solid tumors; in phase Ib (dose expansion), patients had checkpoint inhibitor-naïve metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) or colorectal carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer with prior anti-PD-1/PD-L1 exposure, or other solid tumors (checkpoint-naïve or prior anti-PD-1/PD-L1 exposure). Patients received AZD4635 monotherapy (75-200 mg once daily or 125 mg twice daily) or in combination with durvalumab (AZD4635 75 or 100 mg once daily). The primary objective was safety; secondary objectives included antitumor activity and pharmacokinetics; exploratory objectives included evaluation of an adenosine gene signature in patients with mCRPC. RESULTS: As of September 8, 2020, 250 patients were treated (AZD4635, n = 161; AZD4635+durvalumab, n = 89). In phase Ia, DLTs were observed with monotherapy (125 mg twice daily; n = 2) and with combination treatment (75 mg; n = 1) in patients receiving nanosuspension. The most common treatment-related adverse events included nausea, fatigue, vomiting, decreased appetite, dizziness, and diarrhea. The RP2D of the AZD4635 capsule formulation was 75 mg once daily, as monotherapy or in combination with durvalumab. The pharmacokinetic profile was dose-proportional, and exposure was adequate to cover target with 100 mg nanosuspension or 75 mg capsule once daily. In patients with mCRPC receiving monotherapy or combination treatment, tumor responses (2/39 and 6/37, respectively) and prostate-specific antigen responses (3/60 and 10/45, respectively) were observed. High versus low blood-based adenosine signature was associated with median progression-free survival of 21 weeks versus 8.7 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: AZD4635 monotherapy or combination therapy was well tolerated. Objective responses support additional phase II combination studies in patients with mCRPC.

A Sparse and Spike-Timing-Based Adaptive Photoencoder for Augmenting Machine Vision for Spiking Neural Networks.

The representation of external stimuli in the form of action potentials or spikes constitutes the basis of energy efficient neural computation that emerging spiking neural networks (SNNs) aspire to imitate. With recent evidence suggesting that information in the brain is more often represented by explicit firing times of the neurons rather than mean firing rates, it is imperative to develop novel hardware that can accelerate sparse and spike-timing-based encoding. Here a medium-scale integrated circuit composed of two cascaded three-stage inverters and one XOR logic gate fabricated using a total of 21 memtransistors based on photosensitive 2D monolayer MoS2  for spike-timing-based encoding of visual information, is introduced. It is shown that different illumination intensities can be encoded into sparse spiking with time-to-first-spike representing the illumination information, that is, higher intensities invoke earlier spikes and vice versa. In addition, non-volatile and analog programmability in the photoencoder is exploited for adaptive photoencoding that allows expedited spiking under scotopic (low-light) and deferred spiking under photopic (bright-light) conditions, respectively. Finally, low energy expenditure of less than 1 µJ by the 2D-memtransistor-based photoencoder highlights the benefits of in-sensor and bioinspired design that can be transformative for the acceleration of SNNs.

Phenotype-Based Threat Assessment.

Bacterial pathogen identification, which is critical for human health, has historically relied on culturing organisms from clinical specimens. More recently, the application of machine learning (ML) to whole-genome sequences (WGSs) has facilitated pathogen identification. However, relying solely on genetic information to identify emerging or new pathogens is fundamentally constrained, especially if novel virulence factors exist. In addition, even WGSs with ML pipelines are unable to discern phenotypes associated with cryptic genetic loci linked to virulence. Here, we set out to determine if ML using phenotypic hallmarks of pathogenesis could assess potential pathogenic threat without using any sequence-based analysis. This approach successfully classified potential pathogenetic threat associated with previously machine-observed and unobserved bacteria with 99% and 85% accuracy, respectively. This work establishes a phenotype-based pipeline for potential pathogenic threat assessment, which we term PathEngine, and offers strategies for the identification of bacterial pathogens.

Anticipated pharmacological role of Aviptadil on COVID-19.

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuropeptide that is produced by the lymphoid cells and plays a major role in immunological functions for controlling the homeostasis of the immune system. VIP has been identified as a potent anti-inflammatory factor, in boosting both innate and adaptive immunity. Since December 2019, SARS-Cov-2 was found responsible for the disease COVID-19 which has spread worldwide. No specific therapies or 100% effective vaccines are yet available for the treatment of COVID-19. Drug repositioning may offer a strategy and several drugs have been repurposed, including lopinavir/ritonavir, remdesivir, favipiravir, and tocilizumab. This paper describes the main pharmacological properties of synthetic VIP drug (Aviptadil) which is now under clinical trials. A patented formulation of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), named RLF-100 (Aviptadil), was developed and finally got approved for human trials by FDA in 2001 and in European medicines agency in 2005. It was awarded Orphan Drug Designation in 2001 by the US FDA for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome and for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in 2005. Investigational new drug (IND) licenses for human trials of Aviptadil was guaranteed by both the US FDA and EMEA. Preliminary clinical trials seem to support Aviptadil's benefit. However, such drugs like Aviptadil in COVID-19 patients have peculiar safety profiles. Thus, adequate clinical trials are necessary for these compounds.

First-in-Human, Phase 1 Dose-Escalation Study of Biparatopic Anti-HER2 Antibody-Drug Conjugate MEDI4276 in Patients with HER2-positive Advanced Breast or Gastric Cancer.

MEDI4276 is a biparatopic tetravalent antibody targeting two nonoverlapping epitopes in subdomains 2 and 4 of the HER2 ecto-domain, with site-specific conjugation to a tubulysin-based microtubule inhibitor payload. MEDI4276 demonstrates enhanced cellular internalization and cytolysis of HER2-positive tumor cells in vitro This was a first-in-human, dose-escalation clinical trial in patients with HER2-positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer or gastric cancer. MEDI4276 doses escalated from 0.05 to 0.9 mg/kg (60- to 90-minute intravenous infusion every 3 weeks). Primary endpoints were safety and tolerability; secondary endpoints included antitumor activity (objective response, progression-free survival, and overall survival), pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity. Forty-seven patients (median age 59 years; median of seven prior treatment regimens) were treated. The maximum tolerated dose was exceeded at 0.9 mg/kg with two patients experiencing dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) of grade 3 liver function test (LFT) increases, one of whom also had grade 3 diarrhea, which resolved. Two additional patients reported DLTs of grade 3 LFT increases at lower doses (0.4 and 0.6 mg/kg). The most common (all grade) drug-related adverse events (AEs) were nausea (59.6%), fatigue (44.7%), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) increased (42.6%), and vomiting (38.3%). The most common grade 3/4 drug-related AE was AST increased (21.3%). Five patients had drug-related AEs leading to treatment discontinuation. In the as-treated population, there was one complete response (0.5 mg/kg; breast cancer), and two partial responses (0.6 and 0.75 mg/kg; breast cancer)-all had prior trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). MEDI4276 has demonstrable clinical activity but displays intolerable toxicity at doses >0.3 mg/kg.

Phytohormone Priming of Tomato Plants Evoke Differential Behavior in Rhizoctonia solani During Infection, With Salicylate Priming Imparting Greater Tolerance Than Jasmonate.

In the field of phytohormone defense, the general perception is that salicylate (SA)-mediated defense is induced against biotrophic pathogens while jasmonate (JA)-mediated defense functions against necrotrophic pathogens. Our goals were to observe the behavior of the necrotrophic pathogen Rhizoctonia solani in the vicinity, on the surface, and within the host tissue after priming the host with SA or JA, and to see if priming with these phytohormones would affect the host defense differently upon infection. It was observed for the first time, that R. solani could not only distinguish between JA versus SA-primed tomato plants from a distance, but surprisingly avoided SA-primed plants more than JA-primed plants. To corroborate these findings, early infection events were monitored and compared through microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy using transformed R. solani expressing green fluorescence protein gene (gfp). Different histochemical and physiological parameters were compared between the unprimed control, JA-primed, and SA-primed plants after infection. The expression of a total of fifteen genes, including the appressoria-related gene of the pathogen and twelve marker genes functioning in the SA and JA signaling pathways, were monitored over a time course during early infection stages. R. solani being traditionally designated as a necrotroph, the major unexpected observations were that Salicylate priming offered better tolerance than Jasmonate priming and that it was mediated through the activation of SA-mediated defense during the initial phase of infection, followed by JA-mediated defense in the later phase. Hence, the present scenario of biphasic SA-JA defense cascades during R. solani infection, with SA priming imparting maximum tolerance, indicate a possible hemibiotrophic pathosystem that needs to be investigated further.

Few-Shot Induction of Generalized Logical Concepts via Human Guidance.

We consider the problem of learning generalized first-order representations of concepts from a small number of examples. We augment an inductive logic programming learner with 2 novel contributions. First, we define a distance measure between candidate concept representations that improves the efficiency of search for target concept and generalization. Second, we leverage richer human inputs in the form of advice to improve the sample efficiency of learning. We prove that the proposed distance measure is semantically valid and use that to derive a PAC bound. Our experiments on diverse learning tasks demonstrate both the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.

Ramucirumab with cisplatin and fluoropyrimidine as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic gastric or junctional adenocarcinoma (RAINFALL): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.

BACKGROUND: VEGF and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2)-mediated signalling and angiogenesis can contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of gastric cancer. We aimed to assess whether the addition of ramucirumab, a VEGFR-2 antagonist monoclonal antibody, to first-line chemotherapy improves outcomes in patients with metastatic gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. METHODS: For this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial done at 126 centres in 20 countries, we recruited patients aged 18 years or older with metastatic, HER2-negative gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1, and adequate organ function. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) with an interactive web response system to receive cisplatin (80 mg/m2, on the first day) plus capecitabine (1000 mg/m2, twice daily for 14 days), every 21 days, and either ramucirumab (8 mg/kg) or placebo on days 1 and 8, every 21 days. 5-Fluorouracil (800 mg/m2 intravenous infusion on days 1-5) was permitted in patients unable to take capecitabine. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed progression-free survival, analysed by intention to treat in the first 508 patients. We did a sensitivity analysis of the primary endpoint, including a central review of CT scans. Overall survival was a key secondary endpoint. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02314117. FINDINGS: Between Jan 28, 2015, and Sept 16, 2016, 645 patients were randomly assigned to receive ramucirumab plus fluoropyrimidine and cisplatin (n=326) or placebo plus fluoropyrimidine and cisplatin (n=319). Investigator-assessed progression-free survival was significantly longer in the ramucirumab group than the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] 0·753, 95% CI 0·607-0·935, p=0·0106; median progression-free survival 5·7 months [5·5-6·5] vs 5·4 months [4·5-5·7]). A sensitivity analysis based on central independent review of the radiological images did not corroborate the investigator-assessed difference in progression-free survival (HR 0·961, 95% CI 0·768-1·203, p=0·74). There was no difference in overall survival between groups (0·962, 0·801-1·156, p=0·6757; median overall survival 11·2 months [9·9-11·9] in the ramucirumab group vs 10·7 months [9·5-11·9] in the placebo group). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia (85 [26%] of 323 patients in the ramucirumab group vs 85 [27%] of 315 in the placebo group), anaemia (39 [12%] vs 44 [14%]), and hypertension (32 [10%] vs 5 [2%]). The incidence of any-grade serious adverse events was 160 (50%) of 323 patients in the ramucirumab group and 149 (47%) of 315 patients in the placebo group. The most common serious adverse events were vomiting (14 [4%] in the ramucirumab group vs 21 [7%] in the placebo group) and diarrhoea (11 [3%] vs 19 [6%]). There were seven deaths in each group, either during study treatment or within 30 days of discontinuing study treatment, which were the result of treatment-related adverse events. In the ramucirumab group, these adverse events were acute kidney injury, cardiac arrest, gastric haemorrhage, peritonitis, pneumothorax, septic shock, and sudden death (n=1 of each). In the placebo group, these adverse events were cerebrovascular accident (n=1), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (n=2), pulmonary embolism (n=2), sepsis (n=1), and small intestine perforation (n=1). INTERPRETATION: Although the primary analysis for progression-free survival was statistically significant, this outcome was not confirmed in a sensitivity analysis of progression-free survival by central independent review, and did not improve overall survival. Therefore, the addition of ramucirumab to cisplatin plus fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy is not recommended as first-line treatment for this patient population. FUNDING: Eli Lilly and Company.

Drug-Drug Interaction Discovery: Kernel Learning from Heterogeneous Similarities.

We develop a pipeline to mine complex drug interactions by combining different similarities and interaction types (molecular, structural, phenotypic, genomic etc). Our goal is to learn an optimal kernel from these heterogeneous similarities in a supervised manner. We formulate an extensible framework that can easily integrate new interaction types into a rich model. The core of our pipeline features a novel kernel-learning approach that tunes the weights of the heterogeneous similarities, and fuses them into a Similarity-based Kernel for Identifying Drug-Drug interactions and Discovery, or SKID3. Experimental evaluation on the DrugBank database shows that SKID3 effectively combines similarities generated from chemical reaction pathways (which generally improve precision) and molecular and structural fingerprints (which generally improve recall) into a single kernel that gets the best of both worlds, and consequently demonstrates the best performance.

Isolation and Characterization of Novel Broad Host Range Bacteriophages of Vibrio cholerae O1 from Bengal.

OBJECTIVES: We have isolated a total of five newer cholera phages which are novel broad host range to incorporate with the existing phage typing schemes for an extended typing scheme. MATERIALS AND METHODS: These newly isolated phages were well characterized including the electron micrograph. A total of 300 Vibrio cholerae strains were isolated from the different endemic region in India were included in phage typing study. RESULTS: These phages were found different from the existing phages. Electron microscopic results showed that the phages belonged to myophage and podophage group. Characterization of the phages based on pH, temperature, and organic solvent sensitivity showed differences among the phages used in this study. All the strains of Vibrio O1 were typeable (100%) with the five set of cholera phages. Of these, 40% strains were clustered under Type-1. CONCLUSION: The newer Vibrio phages are novel and broad host range and will be useful to incorporate with the existing phage typing system for more precisely discriminate the strains of Vibrio cholerae.

Transmission of phage by glassy-winged sharpshooters, a vector of Xylella fastidiosa.

Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa (Xff) is the causal agent of Pierce's Disease (PD) of grapevines and is vectored by the glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS, Homalodisca vitripennis). Previously we have reported the development of a bacteriophage (phage) based biocontrol system for PD, but no information on insect transmission of phages has been reported. Here we communicate that laboratory reared GWSSs fed on cowpea plants (Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata) harboring the virulent phage Paz were able to uptake of phage efficiently when the phage was present in high concentration, but were inefficient in transfer to plants.

Control of Pierce's Disease by Phage.

Pierce's Disease (PD) of grapevines, caused by Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa (Xf), is a limiting factor in the cultivation of grapevines in the US. There are presently no effective control methods to prevent or treat PD. The therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy of a phage cocktail composed of four virulent (lytic) phages was evaluated for control of PD. Xf levels in grapevines were significantly reduced in therapeutically or prophylactically treated grapevines. PD symptoms ceased to progress one week post-therapeutic treatment and symptoms were not observed in prophylactically treated grapevines. Cocktail phage levels increased in grapevines in the presence of the host. No in planta phage-resistant Xf isolates were obtained. Moreover, Xf mutants selected for phage resistance in vitro did not cause PD symptoms. Our results indicate that phages have great potential for biocontrol of PD and other economically important diseases caused by Xylella.

Evaluation of antitumor activity using change in tumor size of the survivin antisense oligonucleotide LY2181308 in combination with docetaxel for second-line treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer: a randomized open-label phase II study.

Chemoresistance is mediated, in part, by the inhibition of apoptosis in tumor cells. Survivin is an antiapoptotic protein that blocks chemotherapy-induced apoptosis. To investigate whether blocking survivin expression enhances docetaxel-induced apoptosis in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we compared the antitumor activity of the survivin inhibitor LY2181308 plus docetaxel with docetaxel alone. We used change in tumor size (CTS) as a primary endpoint to assess its use in early decision-making for this and future studies of novel agents in NSCLC. Patients (N = 162) eligible for second-line NSCLC treatment (stage IIIB/IV) with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1 were randomized 2:1 to receive LY2181308 (750 mg intravenously, weekly) and docetaxel (75 mg/m intravenously, day 1) or docetaxel alone every 21 days. CTS from baseline to the end of cycle 2 was compared between the two treatment arms. The mean (SD) tumor size ratio for LY2181308/docetaxel and docetaxel was 1.05 (0.21) and 1.00 (0.15) (p = 0.200), respectively, suggesting no significant improvement in antitumor activity between the arms. Because there was also no significant difference between the two arms for progression-free survival (PFS) (2.83 months with LY2181308/docetaxel and 3.35 months with docetaxel [p = 0.191]), both arms were combined. Using the combined arms, CTS correlated with PFS (PFS = 4.63 months in patients with decreased CTS compared with 2.66 months in patients with increased CTS), supporting its use in early decision-making in phase II studies.

Association between gene expression profiles and clinical outcome of pemetrexed-based treatment in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer: exploratory results from a phase II study.

INTRODUCTION: We report exploratory gene-expression profiling data from a single-arm Phase-II-study in patients with non-squamous (ns)NSCLC treated with pemetrexed and cisplatin. Previously disclosed results indicated a significant association of low thymidylate-synthase (TS)-expression with longer progression-free and overall survival (PFS/OS). METHODS: Treatment-naïve nsNSCLC patients (IIIB/IV) received 4 cycles of pemetrexed/cisplatin; non-progressing patients continued on pemetrexed-maintenance. Diagnostic tissue-samples were used to assess TS-expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and mRNA-expression array-profiling (1,030 lung cancer-specific genes). Cox proportional-hazard models were applied to explore the association between each gene and PFS/OS. Genes significantly correlated with PFS/OS were further correlated with TS-protein expression (Spearman-rank). Unsupervised clustering was applied to all evaluable samples (n = 51) for all 1,030 genes and an overlapping 870-gene subset associated with adenocarcinoma (ADC, n = 47). RESULTS: 51/70 tissue-samples (72.9%) were evaluable; 9 of 1,030 genes were significantly associated with PFS/OS (unadjusted p < 0.01, genes: Chromosome 16 open reading frame 89, napsin A, surfactant protein B, aquaporin 4, TRAF2- and Nck-interacting kinase, Lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 1, Interleukin 1 receptor type II, NK2 homeobox 1, ABO glycosyl-transferase); expression for all except IL1R2 correlated negatively with nuclear TS-expression (statistically significant for 5/8 genes, unadjusted p<0.01). Cluster-analysis based on 1,030 genes revealed no clear trend regarding PFS/OS; the ADC-based cluster analysis identified 3 groups (n = 21/11/15) with median (95%CI) PFS of 8.1(6.9,NE)/2.4(1.2,NE)/4.4(1.2,NE) months and OS of 20.3(17.5,NE)/4.3(1.4,NE)/8.3(3.9,NE) months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These exploratory gene-expression profiling results describe genes potentially linked to low TS-expression. Nine genes were significantly associated with PFS/OS but could not be differentiated as prognostic or predictive as this was a single-arm study. Although these hypotheses-generating results are interesting, they provide no evidence to change the current histology-based treatment approach with pemetrexed.

Characterization of novel virulent broad-host-range phages of Xylella fastidiosa and Xanthomonas.

The xylem-limited bacterium Xylella fastidiosa is the causal agent of several plant diseases, most notably Pierce's disease of grape and citrus variegated chlorosis. We report the isolation and characterization of the first virulent phages for X. fastidiosa, siphophages Sano and Salvo and podophages Prado and Paz, with a host range that includes Xanthomonas spp. Phages propagated on homologous hosts had observed adsorption rate constants of ~4 × 10(-12) ml cell(-1) min(-1) for X. fastidiosa strain Temecula 1 and ~5 × 10(-10) to 7 × 10(-10) ml cell(-1) min(-1) for Xanthomonas strain EC-12. Sano and Salvo exhibit >80% nucleotide identity to each other in aligned regions and are syntenic to phage BcepNazgul. We propose that phage BcepNazgul is the founding member of a novel phage type, to which Sano and Salvo belong. The lysis genes of the Nazgul-like phage type include a gene that encodes an outer membrane lipoprotein endolysin and also spanin gene families that provide insight into the evolution of the lysis pathway for phages of Gram-negative hosts. Prado and Paz, although exhibiting no significant DNA homology to each other, are new members of the phiKMV-like phage type, based on the position of the single-subunit RNA polymerase gene. The four phages are type IV pilus dependent for infection of both X. fastidiosa and Xanthomonas. The phages may be useful as agents for an effective and environmentally responsible strategy for the control of diseases caused by X. fastidiosa.

Thymidylate synthase expression and outcome of patients receiving pemetrexed for advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer in a prospective blinded assessment phase II clinical trial.

INTRODUCTION: In retrospective analyses of patients with nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer treated with pemetrexed, low thymidylate synthase (TS) expression is associated with better clinical outcomes. This phase II study explored this association prospectively at the protein and mRNA-expression level. METHODS: Treatment-naive patients with nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (stage IIIB/IV) had four cycles of first-line chemotherapy with pemetrexed/cisplatin. Nonprogressing patients continued on pemetrexed maintenance until progression or maximum tolerability. TS expression (nucleus/cytoplasm/total) was assessed in diagnostic tissue samples by immunohistochemistry (IHC; H-scores), and quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Cox regression was used to assess the association between H-scores and progression-free/overall survival (PFS/OS) distribution estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Maximal χ² analysis identified optimal cutpoints between low TS- and high TS-expression groups, yielding maximal associations with PFS/OS. RESULTS: The study enrolled 70 patients; of these 43 (61.4%) started maintenance treatment. In 60 patients with valid H-scores, median (m) PFS was 5.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9-6.9) months, mOS was 9.6 (95% CI, 7.3-15.7) months. Higher nuclear TS expression was significantly associated with shorter PFS and OS (primary analysis IHC, PFS: p < 0.0001; hazard ratio per 1-unit increase: 1.015; 95%CI, 1.008-1.021). At the optimal cutpoint of nuclear H-score (70), mPFS in the low TS- versus high TS-expression groups was 7.1 (5.7-8.3) versus 2.6 (1.3-4.1) months (p = 0.0015; hazard ratio = 0.28; 95%CI, 0.16-0.52; n = 40/20). Trends were similar for cytoplasm H-scores, quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and other clinical endpoints (OS, response, and disease control). CONCLUSIONS: The primary endpoint was met; low TS expression was associated with longer PFS. Further randomized studies are needed to explore nuclear TS IHC expression as a potential biomarker of clinical outcomes for pemetrexed treatment in larger patient cohorts.