No abstract

Faecal microbiota transplantation is effective for treating recurrent forms of Clostridium difficile infection and its use in this indication is recommended in the most recent European and North American guidelines. In this context, faecal microbiota transplantation is beginning to be performed in France in clinical practice, while the rules governing this procedure have been defined in France only for clinical trials. To unify, secure, and evaluate practice in this field in France, the French Group of Faecal microbiota Transplantation (FGFT) was created in October 2014 with the support of the French National Society of Gastroenterology, the French Infectious Disease Society, and the National Academy of Pharmacy. We present here the deliberations of this group regarding the use of faecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. The issues addressed are the indications, therapeutic sequence, delivery procedures, donor selection, methods and conditions of specimen preparation, and traceability.

Heparanase is an endo-β-D-glucuronidase capable of cleaving heparan sulfate (HS) side chains contributing to break down of the extracellular matrix. Increased expression of heparanase has been found in numerous malignancies, and is associated with a poor prognosis. It has generated significant interest as a potential anti-neoplastic target because of the multiple roles it plays in tumor growth and metastasis. The pro-tumorigenic effects of heparanase are enhanced by the release of HS side chains, with subsequent increase in bioactive fragments and increased cytokine levels; both promoting tumor invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Preclinical experiments have shown heparanase inhibitors to substantially reduce tumor growth and metastasis leading to clinical trials with heparan sulfate mimetics. In this review we will examine heparanase’s role in tumor biology, its interaction with heparan surface proteoglycans, specifically syndecan-1; as well as the mechanism of action for heparanase inhibitors developed as anti-neoplastic therapeutics.

We report the case of a 60-year-old man with septic shock due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus that was diagnosed in 24 hours by a novel whole-genome next-generation sequencing assay. This technology shows great promise in identifying fastidious pathogens, and, if validated, it has profound implications for infectious disease diagnosis.

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T Cells) have led to dramatic improvements in the survival of cancer patients, most notably those with hematologic malignancies. Early phase clinical trials in patients with solid tumors have demonstrated them to be feasible, but unfortunately has yielded limited efficacy for various cancer types. In this article we will review the background on CAR T cells for the treatment of solid tumors, focusing on the unique obstacles that solid tumors present for the development of adoptive T cell therapy, and the novel approaches currently under development to overcome these hurdles.

Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) are fusion proteins engineered from antigen recognition, signaling, and costimulatory domains that can be used to reprogram T cells to specifically target tumor cells expressing specific antigens. Current CAR-T cell technology utilizes the patient’s own T cells to stably express CARs and has achieved exciting clinical success in the past few years. However, current CAR-T cell therapy still faces several challenges, including suboptimal persistence and potency, impaired trafficking to solid tumors, local immunosuppression within the tumor microenvironment and intrinsic toxicity associated with CAR-T cells. This review focuses on recent strategies to improve the clinical efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy and other exciting CAR approaches currently under investigation, including CAR natural killer (NK) and NKT cell therapies.

No abstract

The development of immunotherapies for lymphoma has undergone a revolutionary evolution over the past decades. Since the advent of rituximab as the first successful immunotherapy for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma over two decades ago, a plethora of new immunotherapeutic approaches to treat lymphoma has ensued. Four of the most exciting classes of immunotherapies include: chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, bispecific antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and vaccines. However, with addition of these novel therapies the appropriate timing of treatment, optimal patient population, duration of therapy, toxicity, and cost must be considered. In this review, we describe the most-promising immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of lymphoma in clinical development, specifically focusing on clinical trials performed to date and strategies for improvement.