Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Dose-Escalation Safety and Tolerability Trial

BACKGROUND

We conducted a preliminary phase I, dose-escalating, safety, and tolerability trial in the population of patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) by using human allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells.

METHODS

Eligibility criteria included nontraumatic supratentorial hematoma less than 60 mL and Glasgow Coma Scale score greater than 5. All patients were monitored in the neurosciences intensive care unit for safety and tolerability of mesenchymal stem/stromal cell infusion and adverse events. We also explored the use of cytokines as biomarkers to assess responsiveness to the cell therapy. We screened 140 patients, enrolling 9 who met eligibility criteria into three dose groups: 0.5 million cells/kg, 1 million cells/kg, and 2 million cells/kg.

RESULTS

Intravenous administration of allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells to treat patients with acute ICH is feasible and safe.

CONCLUSIONS

Future larger randomized, placebo-controlled ICH studies are necessary to validate this study and establish the effectiveness of this therapeutic approach in the treatment of patients with ICH.

A cross-sectional study to test equivalence of low- versus intermediate-flip angle dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI measures of relative cerebral blood volume in patients with high-grade gliomas at 1.5 Tesla field strength

Introduction

1.5 Tesla (1.5T) remain a significant field strength for brain imaging worldwide. Recent computer simulations and clinical studies at 3T MRI have suggested that dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI using a 30° flip angle ("low-FA") with model-based leakage correction and no gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) preload provides equivalent relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) measurements to the reference-standard acquisition using a single-dose GBCA preload with a 60° flip angle ("intermediate-FA") and model-based leakage correction. However, it remains unclear whether this holds true at 1.5T. The purpose of this study was to test this at 1.5T in human high-grade glioma (HGG) patients.

Methods

This was a single-institution cross-sectional study of patients who had undergone 1.5T MRI for HGG. DSC-MRI consisted of gradient-echo echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) with a low-FA without preload (30°/P-); this then subsequently served as a preload for the standard intermediate-FA acquisition (60°/P+). Both normalized (nrCBV) and standardized relative cerebral blood volumes (srCBV) were calculated using model-based leakage correction (C+) with IBNeuro™ software. Whole-enhancing lesion mean and median nrCBV and srCBV from the low- and intermediate-FA methods were compared using the Pearson's, Spearman's and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).

Results

Twenty-three HGG patients composing a total of 31 scans were analyzed. The Pearson and Spearman correlations and ICCs between the 30°/P-/C+ and 60°/P+/C+ acquisitions demonstrated high correlations for both mean and median nrCBV and srCBV.

Conclusion

Our study provides preliminary evidence that for HGG patients at 1.5T MRI, a low FA, no preload DSC-MRI acquisition can be an appealing alternative to the reference standard higher FA acquisition that utilizes a preload.

Collateral status, hyperglycemia, and functional outcome after acute ischemic stroke

BACKGROUND

Mixed data exist regarding the association between hyperglycemia and functional outcome after acute ischemic stroke when accounting for the impact of leptomeningeal collateral flow. We sought to determine whether collateral status modifies the association between treatment group and functional outcome in a subset of patients with large vessel occlusion enrolled in the Stroke Hyperglycemia Insulin Network Effort (SHINE) trial.

METHODS

In this post-hoc analysis, we analyzed patients enrolled into the SHINE trial with anterior circulation large vessel occlusion who underwent imaging with CT angiography prior to glucose control treatment group assignment. The primary analysis assessed the degree to which collateral status modified the effect between treatment group and functional outcome as defined by the 90-day modified Rankin Scale score. Logistic regression was used to model the data, with adjustments made for thrombectomy status, age, post-perfusion thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (TICI) score, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) use, and baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. Five SHINE trial centers contributed data for this analysis. Statistical significance was defined as a p-value < 0.05.

RESULTS

Among the 1151 patients in the SHINE trial, 57 with angiographic data were included in this sub-analysis, of whom 19 had poor collaterals and 38 had good collaterals. While collateral status had no effect (p = 0.855) on the association between glucose control treatment group and functional outcome, patients with good collaterals were more likely to have a favorable functional outcome (p = 0.001, OR 5.02; 95% CI 1.37-16.0).

CONCLUSIONS

In a post-hoc analysis using a subset of patients with angiographic data enrolled in the SHINE trial, collateral status did not modify the association between glucose control treatment group and functional outcome. However, consistent with prior studies, there was a significant association between good collateral status and favorable outcome in patients with large vessel occlusion stroke.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier is NCT01369069. Registration date is June 8, 2011.

Glycemic Control in Hospitalized Stroke Patients: A Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The purpose of this review is to discuss clinical trials involving glycemic control in hospitalized stroke patients and to review oral medications used in glycemic control. GLP-1 agonists, which have some preliminary studies in ischemic stroke, will also be reviewed.

RECENT FINDINGS

Until recently, glycemic control targets in hospitalized stroke patients remained unclear. The SHINE (Stroke Hyperglycemia Insulin Network Effort) trial demonstrated no significant difference between aggressive versus standard of care glycemic control in the acute ischemic stroke patient. Although SHINE demonstrated a lack of statistical difference in glycemic control targets, many questions remain including glycemic control in patients with other stroke types (SAH, ICH). The role of non-insulin-based medications in glycemic control for hospitalized stroke patients remains unclear and presents an opportunity for further research. Finally, GLP-1 agonists present an interesting area of research for acute ischemic stroke.

Neurturin-containing laminin matrices support innervated branching epithelium from adult epithelial salispheres

Cell transplantation of autologous adult biopsies, grown ex vivo as epithelial organoids or expanded as spheroids, are proposed treatments to regenerate damaged branching organs. However, it is not clear whether transplantation of adult organoids or spheroids alone is sufficient to initiate a fetal-like program of branching morphogenesis in which coordinated branching of multiple cell types including nerves, mesenchyme and blood vessels occurs. Yet this is an essential concept for the regeneration of branching organs such as lung, pancreas, and lacrimal and salivary glands. Here, we used factors identified from fetal organogenesis to maintain and expand adult murine and human epithelial salivary gland progenitors in non-adherent spheroid cultures, called salispheres. These factors stimulated critical developmental pathways, and increased expression of epithelial progenitor markers such as Keratin5, Keratin14, FGFR2b and KIT. Moreover, physical recombination of adult salispheres in a laminin-111 extracellular matrix with fetal salivary mesenchyme, containing endothelial and neuronal cells, only induced branching morphogenesis when neurturin, a neurotrophic factor, was added to the matrix. Neurturin was essential to improve neuronal survival, axon outgrowth, innervation of the salispheres, and resulted in the formation of branching structures with a proximal-distal axis that mimicked fetal branching morphogenesis, thus recapitulating organogenesis. Epithelial progenitors were also maintained, and developmental differentiation programs were initiated, showing that the fetal microenvironment provides a template for adult epithelial progenitors to initiate branching and differentiation. Further delineation of secreted and physical cues from the fetal niche will be useful to develop novel regenerative therapies that instruct adult salispheres to resume a developmental-like program in vitro and to regenerate branching organs in vivo.

Using aggregated, de-identified electronic health record data for multivariate pharmacosurveillance: a case study of azathioprine

OBJECTIVE

To demonstrate the use of aggregated and de-identified electronic health record (EHR) data for multivariate post-marketing pharmacosurveillance in a case study of azathioprine (AZA).

METHODS

Using aggregated, standardized, normalized, and de-identified, population-level data from the Explore platform (Explorys, Inc.) we searched over 10 million individuals, of which 14,580 were prescribed AZA based on RxNorm drug orders. Based on logical observation identifiers names and codes (LOINC) and vital sign data, we examined the following side effects: anemia, cell lysis, fever, hepatotoxicity, hypertension, nephrotoxicity, neutropenia, and neutrophilia. Patients prescribed AZA were compared to patients prescribed one of 11 other anti-rheumatologic drugs to determine the relative risk of side effect pairs.

RESULTS

Compared to AZA case report trends, hepatotoxicity (marked by elevated transaminases or elevated bilirubin) did not occur as an isolated event more frequently in patients prescribed AZA than other anti-rheumatic agents. While neutropenia occurred in 24% of patients (RR 1.15, 95% CI 1.07-1.23), neutrophilia was also frequent (45%) and increased in patients prescribed AZA (RR 1.28, 95% CI 1.22-1.34). After constructing a pairwise side effect network, neutropenia had no dependencies. A reduced risk of neutropenia was found in patients with co-existing elevations in total bilirubin or liver transaminases, supporting classic clinical knowledge that agranulocytosis is a largely unpredictable phenomenon. Rounding errors propagated in the statistically de-identified datasets for cohorts as small as 40 patients only contributed marginally to the calculated risk.

CONCLUSION

Our work demonstrates that aggregated, standardized, normalized and de-identified population level EHR data can provide both sufficient insight and statistical power to detect potential patterns of medication side effect associations, serving as a multivariate and generalizable approach to post-marketing drug surveillance.

Network signatures of survival in glioblastoma multiforme

To determine a molecular basis for prognostic differences in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), we employed a combinatorial network analysis framework to exhaustively search for molecular patterns in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. We identified a dysregulated molecular signature distinguishing short-term (survival<225 days) from long-term (survival>635 days) survivors of GBM using whole genome expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). A 50-gene subnetwork signature achieved 80% prediction accuracy when tested against an independent gene expression dataset. Functional annotations for the subnetwork signature included “protein kinase cascade,” “IκB kinase/NFκB cascade,” and “regulation of programmed cell death” – all of which were not significant in signatures of existing subtypes. Finally, we used label-free proteomics to examine how our subnetwork signature predicted protein level expression differences in an independent GBM cohort of 16 patients. We found that the genes discovered using network biology had a higher probability of dysregulated protein expression than either genes exhibiting individual differential expression or genes derived from known GBM subtypes. In particular, the long-term survivor subtype was characterized by increased protein expression of DNM1 and MAPK1 and decreased expression of HSPA9, PSMD3, and CANX. Overall, we demonstrate that the combinatorial analysis of gene expression data constrained by PPIs outlines an approach for the discovery of robust and translatable molecular signatures in GBM.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor in adults, and, while the median survival time for treated patients is approximately one year, subgroups of patients respond differently to the same treatments, with some patients showing little improvement and other patients living far longer than expected. These differences in treatment response indicate that the tumors may show molecular differences that we can harness to tailor cancer therapy. To this end, we sought to identify biomarkers of patient survival in GBM. To improve the applicability of our molecular markers to other patient groups, we constrained our markers using maps of protein-protein interactions, and we also employed a unique computational strategy that incorporates patient-to-patient molecular variability into the results. We identified a set of 50 genes comprising a subnetwork signature that successfully separated GBM patients by their survival times. Our approach to identifying this subnetwork signature also improved our ability to identify its protein products in an independent cohort of patients. In the ongoing search to improve cancer detection and treatment, our work represents a successful strategy for identifying reproducible biomarkers that can more efficiently lead to the discovery of druggable protein targets.

The neuro-critical care management of the endovascular stroke patient

OPINION STATEMENT

Acute ischemic stroke carries high morbidity and mortality. The advent of intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular reperfusion techniques have helped improve clinical outcomes for patients with large vessel acute ischemic stroke. The care of the post-endovascular stroke patient is complex and encompasses almost all aspects of medicine. Hemodynamics should be optimized post procedure to ensure adequate cerebral perfusion and strict hemodynamic parameters must be adhered to minimize reperfusion injury. Though no studies have specifically examined hemodynamic goals, our practice is to maintain a mean arterial pressure (MAP) > 70 and systolic blood pressure (SBP) < 140 for patients following successful recanalization. Early anti-thrombotic therapy is indicated in patients with stent placement. It remains less clear which patients may benefit from additional anticoagulation or therapy with IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Careful consideration must be paid to volume status to reduce risk of contrast nephropathy and maximize cerebral perfusion. Oral care and attention to dysphagia are key in preventing aspiration pneumonia. Glycemic control should be optimized to avoid excessive hyper and hypoglycemia. In the absence of data to guide treatment of anemia, our practice is to transfuse asymptomatic anemia when Hgb < 7 mg/dL, or if the patient is symptomatic or hemodynamically unstable. Neuro-protective strategies should be considered in the context of clinical trials until further studies are complete. At a minimum, fever should be treated aggressively. Young patients with good pre-morbid functional status who continue to have large volume infarcts may benefit from decompressive hemicraniectomy. When appropriate, aggressive and early mobilization is recommended to prepare patients for acute rehabilitation. Because randomized prospective data is lacking, patients should be encouraged to enroll in clinical trials to optimize care of this growing patient population.

BiC: a web server for calculating bimodality of coexpression between gene and protein networks

Bimodal patterns of expression have recently been shown to be useful not only in prioritizing genes that distinguish phenotypes, but also in prioritizing network models that correlate with proteomic evidence. In particular, subgroups of strongly coexpressed gene pairs result in an increased variance of the correlation distribution. This variance, a measure of association between sets of genes (or proteins), can be summarized as the bimodality of coexpression (BiC). We developed an online tool to calculate the BiC for user-defined gene lists and associated mRNA expression data. BiC is a comprehensive application that provides researchers with the ability to analyze both publicly available and user-collected array data.

AVAILABILITY

The freely available web service and the documentation can be accessed at http://gurkan.case.edu/software.

CONTACT

gurkan@case.edu.

High prevalence of suspected HIV-associated dementia in adult Malawian HIV patients

HIV-associated dementia (HAD) has received little attention in sub-Saharan Africa, and there are no data available from Malawi. We used the International HIV Dementia Scale (IHDS), a cross-cultural, simple and validated screening tool to study the prevalence of suspected HAD, defined as an IHDS score <or=10, in adult patients of a large urban antiretroviral (ART) clinic in Blantyre, Malawi. Use of the IHDS was feasible in our setting. The overall prevalence of suspected HAD was 14.0% (95% confidence interval 8.9-19.1%); there was no significant difference in prevalence between 134 patients on ART for at least six months and 45 patients not on ART (13.4% versus 15.6%; P = 0.722). Male gender and low education level were independent risk factors of suspected HAD. More knowledge of the value of the IHDS to predict ART outcomes is required.