We have compared prospectively the outcome and immune reconstitution of patients receiving either post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCY) (n = 30) or anti-thymocyte globulin ATG (n = 15) as Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis after reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation (allo-SCT). The outcome and immune reconstitution of patients receiving either of these two regimens were compared prospectively. This study allowed also to investigate the impact of PTCY between haplo-identical vs matched donors and of clofarabine as part of the RIC regimen. The γ/δ T-cells, α/β T-cells (CD8+ and CD4+), NK T-cells, NK cells, B-cells, Tregs and monocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry from a total of 583 samples. In the PTCY group significant delayed platelets recovery, higher CD3+ donor chimerism, higher HHV-6 and lower EBV reactivations were observed. Early survival advantage for CD4+ T-cells, Tregs and α/β T-cells was documented in the PTCY group while it was the case for α/β T-cells, NK cells and monocytes in the ATG group. Higher counts of NK and monocytes were observed at days +30 and/or day+60 in the ATG group. Both results were retained even in the case of mismatched donors. However, higher percentages of CD4+ T-cells, α/β T-cells and Tregs were observed with haplo-identical donors in the PTCY group. Finally, clofarabine was responsible for early survival advantage of NK T-cells in the PTCY group while it abrogated the early survival advantage of γ/δ T-cells in the ATG group. In conclusion, there are marked differences in the immunological effects of ATG vs PTCY as GVHD prophylaxis for RIC PBSC allo-SCT.
BackgroundThere is an ever-increasing need of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for biomedical applications and fully human binders are particularly desirable due to their reduced immunogenicity in patients. We have applied a strategy for the isolation of antigen-specific B cells using tetramerized proteins and single-cell sorting followed by reconstruction of human mAbs by RT-PCR and expression cloning.ResultsThis strategy, using human peripheral blood B cells, enabled the production of low affinity human mAbs against major histocompatibility complex molecules loaded with peptides (pMHC). We then implemented this technology using human immunoglobulin transgenic rats, which after immunization with an antigen of interest express high affinity-matured antibodies with human idiotypes. Using rapid immunization, followed by tetramer-based B-cell sorting and expression cloning, we generated several fully humanized mAbs with strong affinities, which could discriminate between highly homologous proteins (eg. different pMHC complexes).ConclusionsTherefore, we describe a versatile and more effective approach as compared to hybridoma generation or phage or yeast display technologies for the generation of highly specific and discriminative fully human mAbs that could be useful both for basic research and immunotherapeutic purposes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-016-0322-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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