Daum, Joshua

Abstract Background and Aims Proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits (PGNMID) has a poor renal prognosis and a high rate of recurrence after kidney transplantation, up to 90%, typically within the first-year post-transplant. Nearly 50% of patients lose their renal allograft within 3 years of recurrence. It has been suggested that pretreatment therapy (with B cell depleting or plasma-cell directed therapy) can help prevent recurrence or modulate the course of disease post-transplant. The aim of our study is to evaluate the effect of pretreatment therapy given within 6 months prior to kidney transplant on outcomes including PGNMID recurrence and all cause graft loss. Method Between 1996 and 2022, a total of 28 patients with biopsy-proven PGNMID as the cause of end stage kidney disease received a total of 31 kidney transplants. All patients had at least one year of follow-up data, for all but one patient this included surveillance kidney transplant biopsies completed at our center. Recurrence was defined histologically by immunofluorescence finding of monoclonal immunoglobulin deposits, independent of other histological or clinical parameters. The incidence of recurrence and all cause graft loss were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier plots. Results Median age of patients at transplant was 57 years, 87% were white, 65% were male, 74% received living donor transplant, 59% received thymoglobulin induction, 81% received maintenance with tacrolimus, mycophenolate, and prednisone. Median follow up time was 80 months. A total of 9 patients received pretreatment within 6 months of transplant, 8 received Rituximab and one received Daratumumab. The pretreatment group was generally younger at transplant (53 years vs 57 years) and had a shorter median follow up time (65 months vs 96.5 months), but neither were statistically significant. Overall recurrence rate was 78% for pretreatment and 91% for control, though difference in time to recurrence was not statistically significant (Fig. 1). The difference in all cause graft loss between groups was not statistically significant, however, none in the pretreatment group had graft loss by 60 months (Fig. 2). One patient who received daratumumab had no recurrence by 1 year post-transplant. Conclusion In kidney transplant recipients with PGNMID, pretreatment (primarily with rituximab) may be modulating the post-transplant course of disease. Further studies are needed to determine the extent of this effect and if plasma-cell directed vs B-cell directed therapy may be superior.

Background Ovarian cancer (OC), a highly lethal cancer in women, has a 48% 5-year overall survival rate. Prior studies link the presence of IL-17 and Th17 T cells in the tumor microenvironment to improved survival in OC patients. To determine if Th17-inducing vaccines are therapeutically effective in OC, we created a murine model of Th17-inducing dendritic cell (DC) (Th17-DC) vaccination generated by stimulating IL-15 while blocking p38 MAPK in bone marrow-derived DCs, followed by antigen pulsing. Methods ID8 tumor cells were injected intraperitoneally into mice. Mice were treated with Th17-DC or conventional DC (cDC) vaccine alone or with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Systemic immunity, tumor associated immunity, tumor size and survival were examined using a variety of experimental strategies. Results Th17-DC vaccines increased Th17 T cells in the tumor microenvironment, reshaped the myeloid microenvironment, and improved mouse survival compared with cDC vaccines. ICB had limited efficacy in OC, but Th17-inducing DC vaccination sensitized it to anti-PD-1 ICB, resulting in durable progression-free survival by overcoming IL-10-mediated resistance. Th17-DC vaccine efficacy, alone or with ICB, was mediated by CD4 T cells, but not CD8 T cells. Conclusions These findings emphasize using biologically relevant immune modifiers, like Th17-DC vaccines, in OC treatment to reshape the tumor microenvironment and enhance clinical responses to ICB therapy.

Public trust in physicians has declined over the last 50 years. Future physicians will need to mend the patient–physician trust relationship. In conjunction with the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative, the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine implemented the Science of Health Care Delivery (SHCD) curriculum—a 4-year curriculum that emphasizes interdisciplinary training across population-centered care; person-centered care; team-based care; high-value care; leadership; and health policy, economics, and technology—in 2015. In this medical student perspective, the authors highlight how the SHCD curriculum has the potential to address issues that have eroded patient–physician trust. The curriculum reaches this aim through didactic and/or experiential teachings in health equity, cultural humility and competence, shared decision making, patient advocacy, and safety and quality of care. It is the authors’ hope that novel medical education programs such as the SHCD curriculum will allow the nation’s future physicians to own their role in rebuilding and fostering public trust in physicians and the health care system.

Abstract Ligation of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) in the tumor microenvironment is known to inhibit effective adaptive antitumor immunity. Blockade of PD-1 in humans has resulted in impressive, durable regression responses in select tumor types. However, durable responses have been elusive in ovarian cancer patients. PD-1 was recently shown to be expressed on and thereby impair the functions of tumor-infiltrating murine and human myeloid dendritic cells (TIDC) in ovarian cancer. In the present work, we characterize the regulation of PD-1 expression and the effects of PD-1 blockade on TIDC. Treatment of TIDC and bone marrow–derived dendritic cells (DC) with IL10 led to increased PD-1 expression. Both groups of DCs also responded to PD-1 blockade by increasing production of IL10. Similarly, treatment of ovarian tumor–bearing mice with PD-1 blocking antibody resulted in an increase in IL10 levels in both serum and ascites. While PD-1 blockade or IL10 neutralization as monotherapies were inefficient, combination of these two led to improved survival and delayed tumor growth; this was accompanied by augmented antitumor T- and B-cell responses and decreased infiltration of immunosuppressive MDSC. Taken together, our findings implicate compensatory release of IL10 as one of the adaptive resistance mechanisms that undermine the efficacy of anti–PD-1 (or anti–PD-L1) monotherapies and prompt further studies aimed at identifying such resistance mechanisms. Cancer Res; 77(23); 6667–78. ©2017 AACR.