T-VEC with ipilimumab had a tolerable safety profile, and the combination appeared to have greater efficacy than either T-VEC or ipilimumab monotherapy.

Posttransplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) effectively prevents graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), but its immunologic impact is poorly understood. We assessed lymphocyte reconstitution via flow cytometry (n = 74) and antigen receptor sequencing (n = 35) in recipients of myeloablative, HLA-matched allogeneic BM transplantation using PTCy. Recovering T cells were primarily phenotypically effector memory with lower T cell receptor β (TRB) repertoire diversity than input donor repertoires. Recovering B cells were predominantly naive with immunoglobulin heavy chain locus (IGH) repertoire diversity similar to donors. Numerical T cell reconstitution and TRB diversity were strongly associated with recipient cytomegalovirus seropositivity. Global similarity between input donor and recipient posttransplant repertoires was uniformly low at 1–2 months after transplant but increased over the balance of the first posttransplant year. Blood TRB repertoires at ≥3 months after transplant were often dominated by clones present in the donor blood/marrow memory CD8+ compartment. Limited overlap was observed between the TRB repertoires of T cells infiltrating the skin or gastrointestinal tract versus the blood. Although public TRB sequences associated with herpesvirus- or alloantigen-specific CD8+ T cells were detected in some patients, posttransplant TRB and IGH repertoires were unique to each individual. These data define the immune dynamics occurring after PTCy and establish a benchmark against which immune recovery after other transplantation approaches can be compared.

We have shown previously that the ELR-negative CXC chemokines interferon-inducible protein 10, monokine induced by gamma interferon, and platelet factor 4 inhibit epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced m-calpain activation and thereby EGF-induced fibroblast cell motility (H. Shiraha, A. Glading, K. Gupta, and A. Wells, J. Cell Biol. 146:243-253, 1999). However, how this cross attenuation could be accomplished remained unknown since the molecular basis of physiological m-calpain regulation is unknown. As the initial operative attenuation signal from the CXCR3 receptor was cyclic AMP (cAMP), we verified that this second messenger blocked EGF-induced motility of fibroblasts (55% ؎ 4.5% inhibition) by preventing rear release during active locomotion. EGF-induced calpain activation was inhibited by cAMP activation of protein kinase A (PKA), as the PKA inhibitors H-89 and Rp-8Br-cAMPS abrogated cAMP inhibition of both motility and calpain activation. We hypothesized that PKA might negatively modulate m-calpain in an unexpected manner by directly phosphorylating m-calpain. A mutant human large subunit of m-calpain was genetically engineered to negate a putative PKA consensus sequence in the regulatory domain III (ST369/370AA) and was expressed in NR6WT mouse fibroblasts to represent about 30% of total m-calpain in these cells. This construct was not phosphorylated by PKA in vitro while a wild-type construct was, providing proof of the principle that m-calpain can be directly phosphorylated by PKA at this site. cAMP suppressed EGF-induced calpain activity of cells overexpressing a control wild-type human m-calpain (83% ؎ 3.7% inhibition) but only marginally suppressed that of cells expressing the PKA-resistant mutant human m-calpain (25% ؎ 5.5% inhibition). The EGF-induced motility of the cells expressing the PKA-resistant mutant also was not inhibited by cAMP. Structural modeling revealed that new constraints resulting from phosphorylation at serine 369 would restrict domain movement and help "freeze" m-calpain in an inactive state. These data point to a novel mechanism of negative control of calpain activation, direct phosphorylation by PKA.

The increasing use of multiple immunomodulatory (IMD) agents for cancer therapies (e.g. antibodies targeting immune checkpoints, bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor [CAR]-T cells), is raising questions on their potential immunogenicity and effects on treatment. In this review, we outline the mechanisms of action (MOA) of approved, antibody-based IMD agents, potentially related to their immunogenicity, and discuss the reported incidence of anti-drug antibodies (ADA) as well as their clinical relevance in patients with cancer. In addition, we discuss the impact of the administration route and potential strategies to reduce the incidence of ADA and manage treated patients. Analysis of published reports indicated that the risk of immunogenicity did not appear to correlate with the MOA of anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1)/PD-ligand 1 monoclonal antibodies nor to substantially affect treatment with most of these agents in the majority of patients evaluated to date. Treatment with B-cell depleting agents appears associated with a low risk of immunogenicity. No significant difference in ADA incidence was found between the intravenous and subcutaneous administration routes for a panel of non-oncology IMD antibodies. Additionally, while the data suggest a higher likelihood of immunogenicity for antibodies with T-cell or antigen-presenting cell (APC) targets versus B-cell targets, it is possible to have targets expressed on APCs or T cells and still have a low incidence of immunogenicity. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-019-0586-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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