DepoVax™ is an innovative and strongly immunogenic vaccine platform. Survivin is highly expressed in many tumor types and has reported prognostic value. To generate tumor-specific immune response, a novel cancer vaccine was formulated in DepoVax platform (DPX-Survivac) using survivin HLA class I peptides. Safety and immune potency of DPX-Survivac was tested in combination with immune-modulator metronomic cyclophosphamide in ovarian cancer patients. All the patients receiving the therapy produced antigen-specific immune responses; higher dose vaccine and cyclophosphamide treatment generating significantly higher magnitude responses. Strong T cell responses were associated with differentiation of naïve T cells into central/effector memory (CM/EM) and late differentiated (LD) polyfunctional antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. This approach enabled rapid de novo activation/expansion of vaccine antigen-specific CD8+ T cells and provided a strong rationale for further testing to determine clinical benefits associated with this immune activation. These data represent vaccine-induced T cell activation in a clinical setting to a self-tumor antigen previously described only in animal models.
A new 14pi-electron tricyclic organoarsenium cation (5-hydrophenarsazinium, AN, C12H9AsN+) has been prepared in situ and used as a Lewis acceptor with trimethylphosphine, triphenylphosphine, bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm), bis(dimethylphosphino)methane (dmpm), and 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)benzene (dppb) ligands. Solid-state structures and spectroscopic characterization data are reported for complexes of the general formula [AN-PMe3]+, [AN-PPh3]+, [AN-dppm]+, [AN-dppm-AN]2+, [AN-dmpm-AN]2+, and [AN-dppb-AN]2+ as tetrachlorogallate salts. Depending on reaction stoichiometry, dppm forms adducts at one or both of the donor sites. Structural comparisons with analogous complexes of phosphenium cations provide interesting similarities and differences.
Increasingly, social life—and accordingly, social research—is conducted in online environments. Asynchronous online focus groups (AOFGs) have emerged as an important tool to conduct remote research with geographically diverse populations. However, there remain few systematic accounts of AOFG methods to guide researchers’ decision-making in designing and implementing studies. This paper seeks to address this gap by describing a recent study on body image and health among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) young adults. In this study, eight AOFGs were conducted in August-October 2019 with 66 TGD young adults residing in 25 U.S. states. Each AOFG lasted four consecutive days with two prompts posted by moderators per day. Overall, participant satisfaction with AOFGs was high: 98% reported their experience was excellent, very good, or good and 95% would be somewhat or very likely to sign up for another AOFG. This example is used to illustrate key methodological decision-points, acceptability of the method to participants, and lessons learned. The goal of this paper is to encourage other researchers, particularly health researchers, to consider using AOFGs and to engage with the method’s strengths and limitations in order to develop new opportunities for online technologies to enrich the field of qualitative health research.
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