Decreased Expression of TIM-3 on Th17 Cells Associated with Ophthalmopathy in Patients with Graves' Disease

Purpose:

Thyroid-associated Ophthalmopathy (TAO) is one of the most common orbital immunological diseases in adults. CD4+ helper T (Th) cells play important roles in the pathogenesis of TAO. But the mechanisms regulating CD4+ T cell activity is unclear. This study examines T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain 3 (TIM-3) expression in helper T cell type 1 (Th1), Th17, and regulatory T cells in sufferers of TAO.

Methods:

Participants were divided into 3 groups: patients with TAO, patients with Graves’ disease but without orbitopathy (GD), and healthy control patients (HC). Peripheral blood samples were collected for each patient in the designated group. Flow cytometry methods assessed the frequency of Th1 (CD4+IFN-γ+), Th17 (CD4+IL-17+), regulatory T cells (CD4+CD25hiCD127lo), and TIM-3 protein expression. Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) measured the magnitude of TIM-3 expression and the percentage of TIM-3+ cells for each patient.

Results:

Compared to the GD group, TAO patients possessed higher frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells in peripheral blood samples. The percentage of TIM-3+ Th1 and Th17 cells was significantly lower in the TAO patients than the GD group. Across all patients sampled, TIM-3+ cell percentage negatively correlated with Th1 cell frequency. Th1 and Th17 cells exhibited significantly decreased expression of TIM-3 in TAO patients compared to healthy controls. Regulatory T cells showed little TIM-3 expression and we observed no significant differences in frequency between groups.

Conclusion:

These results suggest a role for TIM-3 in the regulation of Th1 and Th17 cells and the pathogenesis of Graves’ ophthalmopathy.

Conserving evolutionary history does not result in greater diversity over geological time scales

Alternative prioritization strategies have been proposed to safeguard biodiversity over macroevolutionary time scales. The first prioritizes the most distantly related species—maximizing phylogenetic diversity (PD)—in the hopes of capturing at least some lineages that will successfully diversify into the future. The second prioritizes lineages that are currently speciating, in the hopes that successful lineages will continue to generate species into the future. These contrasting schemes also map onto contrasting predictions about the role of slow diversifiers in the production of biodiversity over palaeontological time scales. We consider the performance of the two schemes across 10 dated species-level palaeo-phylogenetic trees ranging from Foraminifera to dinosaurs. We find that prioritizing PD for conservation generally led to fewer subsequent lineages, while prioritizing diversifiers led to modestly more subsequent diversity, compared with random sets of lineages. Importantly for conservation, the tree shape when decisions are made cannot predict which scheme will be most successful. These patterns are inconsistent with the notion that long-lived lineages are the source of new species. While there may be sound reasons for prioritizing PD for conservation, long-term species production might not be one of them.

Abstract GS2-02: Efficacy and utilization trends of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage I, II, and III breast cancer in the elderly population: A National Cancer Database (NCDB) analysis

Background: The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in early stage breast cancer is well established with survival benefit seen in long term follow up studies, but only a small minority of patients in these studies were >65 years old. Dose and schedule can be tailored according to the special requirements of an elderly patient, as stated by the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). However the magnitude of the benefit and trends in utilization of adjuvant chemotherapy has not been well studied in this population.

Methods: Female patients above 65 years age with stage I to III breast cancer were identified from the NCDB database from 2004-2015. Factors predicting utility of chemotherapy were assessed with multivariate analysis. Kaplan Meier curves were constructed for calculation of overall survival (OS) with hazard ratio (HR) estimated from cox model. Log rank test and pearson chi square was used for comparison between groups. Groups were compared for OS benefit at 5 and 10 years.

Results: Of a total of 2,445,730 patients analyzed, 160,676 met our inclusion criteria. Of them, 21,743 were >80 years old. Factors predicting use of adjuvant chemotherapy were shown in table 1. OS benefit was seen in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy regardless of their age, ER, PR, HER-2 status or stage. Patients with TNBC had an HR of 0.547. More benefit was seen in the higher stages. HR for stages I, II, and III were 0.801, 0.608, and 0.666 respectively.

Table 1-Factors predicting utilization of adjuvant chemotherapy  No chemotherapyWith chemotherapyp-valueHistology   <0.0001 All others9980 (16.8)12502 (13.9)  Ductal, infiltrating43453 (73)69631 (77.2)  Lobular6107 (10.3)8073 (8.9) Grade   <0.0001 Well differentiated15268 (25.6)8182 (9.1)  Moderately differentiated28813 (48.4)36028 (39.9)  Poorly differentiated15459 (26.0)45996 (51.0) Age   <0.0001 >8015766 (26.5)4501 (5.0)  65-8043774 (73.5)85705 (95.0) Race   <0.0001 Black5150 (8.6)9882 (11.0)  White52420 (88.0)76956 (85.3)  Others1970 (3.3)3368 (3.7) CDCC   <0.0001 043902 (73.7)70256 (77.9)  111883 (20.0)16219 (18.0)  22840 (4.8)3053 (3.4)  >3915 (1.5)678 (0.8) Radiation Therapy   <0.0001 With Radiation28978 (48.8)57507 (64.1)  Without Radiation30395 (51.2)32184 (35.9) Type of Surgery   <0.0001 Local/partial mastectomy35823 (60.2)43026 (47.7)  Mastectomy1234 (2.1)1005 (1.1)  None22467 (37.7)46112 (51.2) Stage   <0.0001 133574 (56.4)27829 (30.9)  220544 (34.5)41087 (45.5)  35422 (9.1)21290 (23.6) ER/PR Status   <0.0001 +/+42842 (73.1)46000 (52.0)  +/-7049 (12.0)13033 (14.7)  -/+451 (0.8)1315 (1.5)  -/-8279 (14.1)28155 (31.8) 

Conclusions: Adjuvant chemotherapy is considered standard of care for patients with early stage breast cancer. Elderly patients are more likely to get adjuvant chemotherapy based on histology, age<80, grade, stage, and hormone receptor status. In this study, we also learn that the OS benefit with adjuvant chemotherapy is significant in all subgroups analyzed for the elderly population.

Citation Format: Sinha S, Panebianco L, Wu X, Wang D, Huang D, Sivapiragasam A. Efficacy and utilization trends of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage I, II, and III breast cancer in the elderly population: A National Cancer Database (NCDB) analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS2-02.

Abstract P4-06-27: LncRNA NKILA promotes tumour immune evasion by sensitizing tumour-specific t cells to activation-induced cell death

Activation induced cell death (AICD) of T lymphocytes is critical to maintain T-cell homeostasis, which is adopted by malignant tumors to convey immune evasion by eliminating tumor-reactive cytotoxic T cells. In this study, we demonstrated excessive apoptosis of tumor antigen-specific CTLs in breast and lung cancers. However, the mechanism involved in AICD of tumor-specific T cells remains obscure. Here, we demonstrated that NF-κB activity in tumor-specific T cells is high at the early phase of CTL activation induced by breast tumor antigens, but is suppressed at the later phase. This results in massive apoptosis of tumor-specific CTLs challenged by tumor cells. Interestingly, NKILA, an NFκB interacting lncRNA, sensitizes CTLs to AICD by inhibiting NF-κB activities after their activation, leading to tumor immune evasion. In vivo, administering CTLs with NKILA silencing into immunocompromised mice with breast cancer patient derived xenografts (PDXs) effectively inhibits PDX growth by increasing CTL infiltration. Clinically, NKILA was overexpressed in the tumor specific CTLs of breast and lung cancers, which was associated with less CTL infiltration in the tumors and shorter patient survival. Our findings present the first evidence that AICD in tumor-specific CTLs is crucial to cancer immune evasion, and targeting NKILA in CTLs emerges as a novel anti-tumor immunotherapy.

Citation Format: Song E, Su S, Huang D. LncRNA NKILA promotes tumour immune evasion by sensitizing tumour-specific t cells to activation-induced cell death [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-06-27.

Tea consumption and bone health in Chinese adults: a population-based study

Tea is a worldwide drink with controversial effect on bone health. The sex-specific associations are unrevealed among general population. This study showed that prolonged moderate tea consumption benefited bone health in women, while no additional benefit with stronger tea. However, tea consumption was not associated with bone health in men.

INTRODUCTION

Tea consumption has been shown a potentially beneficial effect on bone health in postmenopausal women. However, little is known about such association in men, and whether stronger tea instead harms bone health due to elevated urinary excretion of calcium associated with caffeine in the tea. The aim of this study was to examine the association between various metrics of tea consumption and bone health.

METHODS

The present study included 20,643 participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), who have finished both baseline survey (2004-2008) and a re-survey (2013-2014). They were aged 38-86 years at re-survey. Tea consumption was self-reported at both baseline and re-survey. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured using calcaneal quantitative ultrasound once at re-survey.

RESULTS

Compared with non-consumers, prolonged weekly tea consumers in women was associated with higher calcaneus BMD measures, with β (95% CI) of 0.98 (0.22, 1.74) for BUA, 4.68 (1.74, 7.61) for SOS, and 1.95 (0.81, 3.10) for SI. Among prolonged weekly tea consumers, no linear increase in BMD measures with the amount of tea leaves added was observed. The SOS and SI were higher in consumers with tea leaves 3.0-5.9 g/day than in those with < 3.0 g/day, but were reduced to non-significant for those with ≥ 6.0 g/day. Tea consumption was not associated with calcaneus BMD measures in men.

CONCLUSION

Prolonged moderate tea consumption benefited bone health in women but not in men. For stronger tea consumption with more tea leaves added, neither benefit nor harm to bone health was observed.

Mechanisms of endogenous repair failure during intervertebral disc degeneration

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is frequently associated with Low back pain (LBP), which can severely reduce the quality of human life and cause enormous economic loss. However, there is a lack of long-lasting and effective therapies for IVD degeneration at present. Recently, stem cell based tissue engineering techniques have provided novel and promising treatment for the repair of degenerative IVDs. Numerous studies showed that stem/progenitor cells exist naturally in IVDs and could migrate from their niche to the IVD to maintain the quantity of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. Unfortunately, these endogenous repair processes cannot prevent IVD degeneration as effectively as expected. Therefore, theoretical basis for regeneration of the NP in situ can be obtained from studying the mechanisms of endogenous repair failure during IVD degeneration. Although there have been few researches to study the mechanism of cell death and migration of stem/progenitor cells in IVD so far, studies demonstrated that the major inducing factors (compression and hypoxia) of IVD degeneration could decrease the number of NP cells by regulating apoptosis, autophagy, and necroptosis, and the particular chemokines and their receptors played a vital role in the migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These studies provide a clue for revealing the mechanisms of endogenous repair failure during IVD degeneration. This article reviewed the current research situation and progress of the mechanisms through which IVD stem/progenitor cells failed to repair IVD tissues during IVD degeneration. Such studies provide an innovative research direction for endogenous repair and a new potential treatment strategy for IVD degeneration.

[HER2 status in gastric adenocarcinoma of Chinese: a multicenter study of 40 842 patients]

Objective: To investigation HER2 status in gastric adenocarcinoma of Chinese and contributing factors to the HER2 expression. Methods: HER2 status of 40 842 gastric adenocarcinomas and clinical data were retrospectively collected from 23 hospitals dated from 2013 to 2016. The association between HER2 positivity and clinicopathologic features was analyzed. Results: Of the 40 842 patients the median age was 62 years, the male female ratio was 2.6∶1.0. The rate of HER2 positivity was 8.8% (3 577/40 842). HER2 expression was related to the tissue type, tumor location, Lauren classification and tumor differentiation (P values: 0.009, 0.001, <0.01 and <0.01, respectively). Different HER2 expression status was observed between primary and recurrent tumors in 7.6% (48/635) cases. The rates of HER2 positivity ranged from 2% to 10% among different institutions. The rates of HER2 FISH amplification were dramatically different among the 23 hospitals (0-100%) with an average rate of 10% (810/8 156) in patients with HER2 IHC 2+ . Conclusions: HER2 expression is associated with clinicopathologic characteristics. HER2 re-assessment of tumor tissue and use of in situ hybridization techniques increase HER2 positivity. The current retrospective study should reflect the HER2 status in gastric adenocarcinoma of Chinese patients.

Real-time observation of leukocyte-endothelium interactions in tissue-engineered blood vessel

Human cell-based 3D tissue constructs play an increasing role in disease modeling and drug screening. Inflammation, atherosclerosis, and many autoimmune disorders involve the interactions between immune cells and blood vessels. However, it has been difficult to image and model these interactions under realistic conditions. In this study, we fabricated a perfusion and imaging chamber to allow the real-time visualization of leukocyte perfusion, adhesion, and migration inside a tissue-engineered blood vessel (TEBV). We monitored the elevated monocyte adhesion to the TEBV wall and transendothelial migration (TEM) as the TEBV endothelium was activated by the inflammatory cytokine TNF-α. We demonstrated that treatment with anti-TNF-α or an NF-kB signaling pathway inhibitor would attenuate the endothelium activation and reduce the number of leukocyte adhesion (>74%) and TEM events (>87%) close to the control. As the first demonstration of real-time imaging of dynamic cellular events within a TEBV, this work paves the way for drug screening and disease modeling in TEBV-associated microphysiological systems.