On April 22, 2016 Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: PVCT, www.pvct.com), a clinical-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company ("Provectus" or "The Company"), reported that researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, presented a poster titled, "T cell Mediated Immunity After Combination Therapy with Intralesional PV-10 and Co-Inhibitory Blockade in a Melanoma Model," at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2016, held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana (Filing, 8-K, Provectus Pharmaceuticals, APR 22, 2016, View Source [SID:1234511259]).

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In the poster, authors Amy M Weber, Hao Liu, Krithika Kodumudi, Amod A Sarnaik and Shari Pilon-Thomas state that "treatment with IL PV-10 and anti-PD-1 antibody results in a delay in tumor growth and enhanced T cell activation in the M05 tumor model." They also conclude that "the effect of combination therapy with IL PV-10 and PD-1 blockade is mediated by CD8+ T cells, and depletion of either CD4+ T cells or CD25+ Tregs enhances anti-tumor immunity in the M05 melanoma model." The abstract of the poster (number 4978) may be viewed at: View Source

Shari Pilon-Thomas, Ph.D., who leads the research team at Moffitt, noted, "Our results show that combining intralesional PV-10 with anti-PD-1 co-inhibitory blockade not only suppresses tumor growth vs. either agent alone but also yields marked increases in tumor-specific T cell activation against injected tumor."

Eric Wachter, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer of Provectus, observed, "The nonclinical data reported by our collaborators at Moffitt reaffirm the crucial role T cells play in response to tumor ablation with intralesional PV-10, and further demonstrate the potential value of combining PV-10 with T cell directed checkpoint inhibition, such as the anti-PD-1 agent pembrolizumab. Intriguingly, these data also highlight possible strategies for augmenting this paradigm by harnessing additional targets in T cell signaling."

Provectus is currently enrolling patients in a phase 3 study of PV-10 as a single agent therapy for patients with locally advanced cutaneous melanoma (Clinical Trials ID NCT02288897) and in a phase 1b study of PV-10 in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in patients with metastatic melanoma (Clinical Trials ID NCT02557321).

Cell clusters were observed in the seminiferous tubules of C57BL/6J mice as a spontaneous lesion in a 2-week toxicity study, and they were demonstrated to be basically composed of Sertoli cells by immunohistochemistry for claudin-11 and GATA-4 (GATA-binding protein 4), which are both Sertoli cell markers. The clusters were composed of about 5 to 50 cells, which had eosinophilic and occasionally vacuolated cytoplasm with an unclear cell boundary. The cell clusters involved some sperm. No mitotic figures were observed and no immunoreactivity for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was detected in the clusters. In most cases, the cell clusters were observed in seminiferous tubules that also showed degenerative changes. In rare instances, cell aggregates immunohistochemically positive for claudin-11 were observed in the lumen of the epididymis, suggesting that some of the Sertoli cell clusters were sloughed off from the seminiferous epithelium into the epididymal ducts. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Sertoli cell clusters in any animal species except for transgenic or surgically altered animals.
© 2015 by The Author(s).

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Phenotypic assays have a proven track record for generating leads that become first-in-class therapies. Whole cell assays that inform on a phenotype or mechanism also possess great potential in drug repositioning studies by illuminating new activities for the existing pharmacopeia. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) pharmaceutical collection (NPC) is the largest reported collection of approved small molecule therapeutics that is available for screening in a high-throughput setting. Via a wide-ranging collaborative effort, this library was analyzed in the Open Innovation Drug Discovery (OIDD) phenotypic assay modules publicly offered by Lilly. The results of these tests are publically available online at www.ncats.nih.gov/expertise/preclinical/pd2 and via the PubChem Database (View Source) (AID 1117321). Phenotypic outcomes for numerous drugs were confirmed, including sulfonylureas as insulin secretagogues and the anti-angiogenesis actions of multikinase inhibitors sorafenib, axitinib and pazopanib. Several novel outcomes were also noted including the Wnt potentiating activities of rotenone and the antifolate class of drugs, and the anti-angiogenic activity of cetaben.

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The few studies that have examined rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) transformation in lenalidomide-treated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients have been limited to deletion 5q MDS. The association between lenalidomide and subsequent primary malignancies (SPMs) in MDS patients has not been evaluated previously. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the risk of both SPM and AML in association with lenalidomide. A cohort of MDS patients (n = 1248) treated between 2004 and 2012 at Moffitt Cancer Center were identified, and incident cases of SPM and AML transformation were ascertained. Using a nested case-control design, MDS controls were 1:1 matched to SPM (n = 41) and AML (n = 150) cases, on age and date of MDS diagnosis, gender, follow-up time, IPSS, and del (5q). Associations between lenalidomide and (1) SPM incidence and (2) AML transformation were estimated with hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in the cohort and odds ratios (OR) in the case-control analysis. SPM incidence did not differ significantly between cohort MDS patients treated with (0.7 per 100 person-years) or without lenalidomide (1.4 per 100 person-years) (HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.40-2.74), whereas a significantly reduced SPM risk was observed in the case-control sample (OR = 0.03, 95% CI = <0.01-0.63). Lenalidomide was not associated with AML transformation in the cohort analysis (HR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.44-1.27) or in the case-control analyses (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.52-2.56), after adjustment for potential confounders. Lenalidomide was not associated with increased risk of SPM or AML transformation in a large cohort of MDS patients mostly including nondeletion 5q MDS.
© 2016 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1) is a profound deficiency of T, B, and natural killer (NK) cell immunity caused by mutations inIL2RGencoding the common chain (γc) of several interleukin receptors. Gamma-retroviral (γRV) gene therapy of SCID-X1 infants without conditioning restores T cell immunity without B or NK cell correction, but similar treatment fails in older SCID-X1 children. We used a lentiviral gene therapy approach to treat five SCID-X1 patients with persistent immune dysfunction despite haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplant in infancy. Follow-up data from two older patients demonstrate that lentiviral vector γc transduced autologous HSC gene therapy after nonmyeloablative busulfan conditioning achieves selective expansion of gene-marked T, NK, and B cells, which is associated with sustained restoration of humoral responses to immunization and clinical improvement at 2 to 3 years after treatment. Similar gene marking levels have been achieved in three younger patients, albeit with only 6 to 9 months of follow-up. Lentiviral gene therapy with reduced-intensity conditioning appears safe and can restore humoral immune function to posthaploidentical transplant older patients with SCID-X1.
Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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