lambda-Carrageenan was suggested to be a useful dietary supplement to ameliorate allergic reactions while maintaining oral tolerance-dependent intestinal homeostasis.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the pathogen that most commonly triggers infection-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and ectopically infects CD8(+) T cells in EBV-associated HLH (EBV-HLH). We recently described an EBV-HLH patient who had a clonally expanded population of EBV-infected CD8(+) T cells with CD5 down-regulation. To determine whether this finding could serve as a useful marker for EBV-HLH, we investigated 5 additional patients. We found a significant increase in the subpopulation of CD8(+) T cells with CD5 down-regulation and bright human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR expression in all patients with EBV-HLH but not in patients with infectious mononucleosis or in control subjects. Such T cells were frequently found to be larger cells that stained positive for a specific T cell receptor VB. We also demonstrated that those cells were the major cellular target of EBV, and their numbers progressively declined in parallel with the serum ferritin levels. All together, our findings reveal the immunophenotypic characteristics of EBV-infected CD8(+) T cells and may provide a valuable tool for the diagnosis of EBV-HLH.

BackgroundMost patients with multiple myeloma (MM) are considered to be incurable, and relapse owing to minimal residual disease (MRD) is the main cause of death among these patients. Therefore, new technologies to assess deeper response are required.Patients and methodsWe retrospectively analyzed 125 patients with MM who underwent high-dose melphalan plus autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) to detect MRD in autograft/bone marrow (BM) cells using a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based method and allele-specific oligonucleotide-polymerase chain reaction (ASO-PCR).ResultsNGS-based method was applicable to 90% and this method had at least one to two logs greater sensitivity compared to ASO-PCR. MRD negative by NGS [MRDNGS(−)] (defined as <10−6) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 26) showed a significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) (96% at 4 years, P < 0.001) and overall survival (OS) (100% at 4 years, P =0.04) than MRDNGS(+) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 25). When restricting the analysis to the 39 complete response cases, patients who were MRDNGS(−) (n = 24) showed a significantly better PFS than those that were MRDNGS(+) (n = 15) (P =0.02). Moreover, MRDNGS(−) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 12) showed significantly a better PFS than MRDNGS(+) cases (n = 7) where MRD was not detected by ASO-PCR (P = 0.001). Patients whose autografts were negative by NGS-based MRD assessment (<10−7) (n = 19) had 92% PFS and 100% OS at 4 years post-ASCT. Conversely, the NGS-based MRD positive patients who received post-ASCT treatment using novel agents (n = 49) had a significantly better PFS (P = 0.001) and tended to have a better OS (P= 0.214) than those that were untreated (n = 33).ConclusionsLow level MRD detected by NGS-based platform but not ASO-PCR has significant prognostic value when assessing either the autograft product or BM cells post-ASCT.

The mb-1 gene is located on chromosome 7 of the mouse genome and it is composed of five exons encoding Ig-␣, which is a B cell-specific protein and an element of the B cell antigen receptor complex (BCR) (Sakaguchi et al., 1998;Hombach et al., 1990). Expression of Ig-␣ is required for the transport of BCR onto the cell surface. Together with Ig-␤, Ig-␣ forms a heterodimer that mediates signal transduction from the BCR (Kim et al., 1993).The mb-1 gene is expressed at every stage of B cell development and activation, excluding terminally differentiated plasma cells. The knock-out of mb-1 results in complete block of B cell development at the progenitor stage in mice, as well as in humans (Minegishi et al., 1999; Pelanda et al. unpublished observations). Thus, we created conditional alleles of mb-1 to study the behavior of mature B cells with or without Ig-␣ expression. Cre-mediated recombination of inverted loxP sites results in the inversion of the loxP-flanked (floxed) DNA sequence (Nagy 2000). By flanking the mb-1 coding sequence with inverted loxP sites we generated a conditional mb-1 allele that allows switching "on" or "off" (and vice versa) of mb-1 expression under the control of Cre recombinase. In addition, BAP31N-EGFP, which encodes a membrane-associated form of the enhanced green fluorescent protein (mEGFP), was cloned in the opposite transcriptional orientation relative to mb-1 coding sequence into the conditional mb-1 allele. This allows the detection of cells at the "off" state of mb-1 transcription by the expression of mEGFP.Embryonic stem (ES) cells carrying the conditional mb-1 allele were generated by homologous recombination following standard techniques (Torres and Kühn 1997). By transiently transfecting these latter cells with a Cre-expressing vector, we isolated ES clones carrying the deletion of the neomycin resistance (neo r ) cassette and the floxed mb-1 targeted allele in either orientation, thus resulting in the generation of mice carrying either mEGFP/mb-1 inv or mb-1/mEGFP inv conditional alleles. A schematic representation and Southern analysis of wild-type and targeted mb-1 alleles are shown in Figure 1a-c.Expression of mEGFP (Fig. 2) and of Ig-␣ (data not shown) by the targeted mb-1 alleles was confirmed by flow cytometric analysis of bone marrow, spleen, and lymph node cells isolated from heterozygous mEGFP/mb-1 inv and homozygous mb-1/mEGFP inv mice, respectively. The mEGFP/mb-1 inv allele directs expression of mEGFP, but not Ig-␣. Thus we found that homozygous mEGFP/mb-1 inv mice lack any Ig-␣ expression and their B cell development is absolutely blocked at the B cell progenitor stage (data not shown). On the other hand, the mb-1/mEGFP inv allele encodes for Ig-␣, but not mEGFP ( Fig. 2c and data not shown). The expression of Ig-␣ by the conditional allele was found to be reduced compared to wild-type (data not shown).As expected and observed in previous cell line experiments, the continuous presence of Cre in the nuclei results in the repetitive inversion (flipping) of the fl...

This prospective, multicenter phase I/II study of unmanipulated HLA-haploidentical reduced-intensity stem cell transplantation using a low dose of anti-T lymphocyte globulin (ATG) and steroid was conducted in 5 institutions in Japan. Thirty-four patients with hematologic malignancies who were in an advanced stage or at a high risk of relapse at the time of transplantation were enrolled. Among them, 7 patients underwent transplantation as a second transplantation because of relapse after the previous allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The conditioning regimen consisted of fludarabine, busulfan, and ATG (Fresenius, 8 mg/kg), and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of tacrolimus and methylprednisolone (1 mg/kg). All patients except 1 (97.1%) achieved donor-type engraftment. Rapid hematopoietic engraftment was achieved, with neutrophils > .5 × 10(9)/L on day 11 and platelets > 20 × 10(9)/L on day 17.5. Treatment was started for ≥grade I GVHD, and the cumulative incidences of acute grade I and grade II to IV GVHD were 27.5% and 30.7%, respectively. The incidence of chronic GVHD (extensive type) was 20%. Fourteen patients (41.2%) had a relapse. The cumulative incidence of transplantation-related mortality at 1 year after transplantation was 26.5%. The survival rate at day 100 was 88.2%. The survival rates at 1 year for patients with complete remission (CR)/chronic phase (n = 8) and non-CR (n = 26) status before transplantation were 62.5% and 42.3%, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, non-CR status before transplantation was the only factor significant prognostic factor of increased relapse (P = .0424), which tended to be associated with a lower survival rate (P = .0524). This transplantation protocol is safe and feasible, if a suitable donor is not available in a timely manner. As the main cause of death was relapse and not GVHD, more intensified conditioning or attenuation of GVHD prophylaxis and/or donor lymphocyte infusion may be desirable for patients with non-CR status.

No abstract

Sixty-six B-cell lymphoma patients were treated with a CHOP-based chemotherapy containing rituximab (R-CHOP-like regimen). Immune reconstitution was assessed by measuring lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulins. Fifty-five patients (83.3%) underwent six cycles of the R-CHOP-like regimen. CD19(+) and CD20(+) cells were completely eliminated from the peripheral blood after one cycle of the R-CHOP-like regimen; they were detected again 6 months after the therapy. One year after the therapy, B-cell numbers recovered to their level at diagnosis and almost doubled 2 years after the therapy. The lowest numbers of CD3(+) , CD8(+) and CD56(+) cells were seen after three cycles of the regimen, but continued to increase until 1 year after the therapy, remaining stable thereafter. CD4(+) T-cells were at their lowest after six cycles of the regimen and recovered slowly for 2 years after the therapy; however, their numbers were still lower than that at diagnosis. Immunoglobulins decreased over six cycles of the R-CHOP-like regimen and then recovered gradually for 2 years after the therapy. The percentage of IgG, IgA and IgM 2 years after the therapy compared with those at diagnosis was 93.9%, 90.1%, 76.3%, respectively. Twelve infectious complications occurred which consisted of three febrile neutropenia, three Herpes Zoster, two tympanitis, two Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia and two hepatitis B virus reactivation. B-cells required 1 year and CD4(+) T-cells and immunoglobulins needed 2 years to recover after the therapy.

This study was conducted as a prospective, multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of micafungin as an empirical therapy for suspected invasive fungal infections (IFIs), including febrile neutropenia (FN), and to evaluate the usefulness of β-D: -glucan (BG) and Aspergillus galactomannan (GM) antigen in patients with hematologic diseases. A total of 121 patients were enrolled and assessed for safety, and 119 were examined for clinical efficacy. The main underlying diseases were acute myeloid leukemia (38.0%), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (18.2%), and malignant lymphoma (18.2%). The median initial daily dose and duration of micafungin treatment were 150 mg/day and 13 days, respectively. The overall response rate for suspected IFIs (n = 119), based on four composite endpoints, including baseline IFI, breakthrough IFIs (proven and probable), survival, and premature discontinuation, was 79.0%. In addition, the response rate for FN (n = 81), based on these four endpoints as well as defervescence during neutropenia, was 39.5%. Breakthrough IFIs (proven, probable, and possible) occurred in five patients during micafungin treatment. All of these patients were positive for either BG or GM before the breakthrough IFIs. The incidence of adverse events (AEs) associated with micafungin was 10.7% and most were mild. The majority of AEs were liver dysfunction. These results indicate the effectiveness and safety of micafungin as an empirical therapy for suspected IFIs, including FN, and the usefulness of monitoring both BG and GM to detect breakthrough IFIs.