Addition of rituximab to a CEOP regimen improved the outcome in the treatment of non-germinal center immunophenotype diffuse large B cell lymphoma cells with high Bcl-2 expression

Propensity of Patient-Derived iPSCs for Retinal Differentiation: Implications for Autologous Cell Replacement

Prior to use, newly generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) should be thoroughly validated. While excellent validation and release testing assays designed to evaluate potency, genetic integrity, and sterility exist, they do not have the ability to predict cell type-specific differentiation capacity. Selection of iPSC lines that have limited capacity to produce high-quality transplantable cells, places significant strain on valuable clinical manufacturing resources. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree and root cause of variability in retinal differentiation capacity between cGMP-derived patient iPSC lines. In turn, our goal was to develop a release testing assay that could be used to augment the widely used ScoreCard panel. IPSCs were generated from 15 patients (14-76 years old), differentiated into retinal organoids, and scored based on their retinal differentiation capacity. Despite significant differences in retinal differentiation propensity, RNA-sequencing revealed remarkable similarity between patient-derived iPSC lines prior to differentiation. At 7 days of differentiation, significant differences in gene expression could be detected. Ingenuity pathway analysis revealed perturbations in pathways associated with pluripotency and early cell fate commitment. For example, good and poor producers had noticeably different expressions of OCT4 and SOX2 effector genes. QPCR assays targeting genes identified via RNA sequencing were developed and validated in a masked fashion using iPSCs from 8 independent patients. A subset of 14 genes, which include the retinal cell fate markers RAX, LHX2, VSX2, and SIX6 (all elevated in the good producers), were found to be predictive of retinal differentiation propensity.

Expression of miR-711 and mechanism of proliferation and apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma

MicroRNAs (miRs) are involved in many aspects of cell biology, including cell proliferation and apoptosis, two critical aspects of tumor biology. We investigated the effect of miR-711 on Bcl-2 expression in human MGC803 gastric cancer cells and the mechanism of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion. Expression of miR-711 and Bcl-2 was significantly increased in gastric adenocarcinoma compared to adjacent normal tissue. Inhibition of miR-711 in MGC803 gastric cancer cells decreased the expression of Bcl-2, decreased cell proliferation, decreased the invasion ability, and increased apoptosis. The expression of Bcl-2 protein correlated with clinical staging, lymph node metastasis, and tumor differentiation in patients with gastric cancer. The expression of miR-711 positively correlated with the expression of Bcl-2, suggesting that miR-711 and Bcl-2 are co-regulated and involved in the development of gastric cancer.

Effects of miR-21 on proliferation and apoptosis in human gastric adenocarcinoma cells

The present study investigated the expression of miR-21 in MGC803 gastric cancer cells and its effects on Bcl-2 expression and cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion. In total 50 patients were recruited with gastric cancer who were admitted to the Henan Province People's Hospital. The samples of gastric cancer and the adjacent normal tissues were collected after surgery. We found that mRNA levels of miR-21 and Bcl-2 were significantly elevated in tumor tissues compared to control tissue. The expression of Bcl-2 protein was also elevated in cancerous tissue. This high expression of Bcl-2 was associated with clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, and tumor differentiation degree. Inhibition of miR-21 reduced the levels of miR-21 and Bcl-2 in MGC803 cells, and lowered cell proliferation and invasiveness. These results indicate that miR-21 and Bcl-2 may participate in the occurrence and development of gastric adenocarcinoma, suggesting their potential role as biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Impact of inadequate doses of rituximab in the treatment of diffuse large B cell lymphoma in Malaysian patients

BACKGROUND

The current standard treatment for patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is rituximab combined with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone (CHOP). A significant number of patients were not treated with recommended dose of rituximab due to limited financial resources in Malaysia. This study evaluates the efficacy of R-CHOP like chemotherapy in Malaysian patients with DLBCL.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study comprised a retrospective analysis of patients with DLBCL treated at a single centre. The outcome was compared with patients who were treated with R-CHOP like and CHOP like chemotherapy. Patients who were treated with lower dose of rituximab was subanalysed for outcome.

RESULTS

A total of 86 patients who had CHOP-like chemotherapy were included. Only 39 (45%) patients had rituximab and only 12 (29%) patients had the recommended dose. The overall response (OR) and complete response (CR) rates were 88% and 81% respectively. There was no significant difference in OR and CR in patients who had rituximab and those without rituxmab. Those with International Prognostic Index (IPI) score of ≤ 2 had significant higher CR rate, progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The lack of significant improvement in CR and DFS in our patients may be due to an inadequate dose of rituximab.