Citations

Abstract Study Objectives The majority of patients with insomnia exhibit abnormal sleep in objective testing (e.g. decreased sleep duration, decreased slow wave sleep [SWS]). Previous studies have suggested that some of these objective measures of poor sleep, such as decreased sleep duration, are associated with a higher risk of hypertension in insomnia. We examined the relationship between SWS and morning and evening blood pressure (BP) levels in patients with clinically diagnosed insomnia. Methods A total of 229 normal sleepers and 1378 insomnia patients were included in this study. Insomnia was defined based on standard diagnostic criteria with symptoms lasting ≥6 months. All participants underwent in-laboratory polysomnography. Patients were classified into quartiles of percent SWS. Evening and morning hypertension were defined using BP measurements taken in the evening before and in the morning after polysomnography, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship between insomnia, SWS, and hypertension. Results Insomniacs with <3.5% SWS (OR 3.27, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.31 to 7.66) and those with 3.5%–10.2% SWS (OR 2.38, 95% CI: 1.28 to 5.91) had significantly greater odds of morning hypertension compared to normal sleepers. No associations were seen in insomnia with 10.2%–15.8% SWS and with >15.8% SWS. Significant effect modifications by sex (p = .043) were found, as decreased SWS was associated with morning hypertension only in men. Odds of evening hypertension were not significantly associated with SWS. Conclusions Decreased SWS is associated with morning hypertension in a dose-dependent manner in insomnia, especially in men.

Objective: Sleep fragmentation determined by repetitive arousals from sleep in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with hypertension. We aimed to quantify the independent association of arousals during rapid eye movement (REM)/non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep with prevalent hypertension. Methods: We included adults with 4 h of total sleep time and at least 30 min of REM sleep obtained from overnight in-laboratory polysomnography. Logistic regression models were fitted to explore the association between arousals during REM/NREM sleep and prevalent hypertension. All models controlled for OSA metrics and arousals during NREM/REM sleep, either by statistical adjustment or by stratification. Results: The sample comprised of 11 643 patients, of which 10 055 were OSA patients. Fully adjusted models demonstrated significant dose-relationships between arousal index during REM sleep (AI-REM) and prevalent hypertension (P trend = 0.002). The higher relative odds of prevalent hypertension were most evident with AI-REM > 40 events/h. In OSA patients with arousal index during NREM sleep (AI-NREM) <15 events/h, every10-unit increase in the AI-REM was associated with 18% higher odds of hypertension (odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.11–1.27) in OSA. On the contrary, AI-NREM was not a significant predictor of hypertension in any of the models. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that arousals during REM sleep are associated with prevalent hypertension. This is clinically relevant because treatment of OSA is often limited to the first half of the sleep period leaving most of sleep fragmentation during REM sleep untreated.

Background Sleep fragmentation induced by repetitive arousals is a hallmark of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Sleep fragmentation has been linked to hypertension in community‐based studies, but it is unclear if this association is manifest in OSA. We aimed to explore whether frequent arousals from sleep modify the relationship between OSA and prevalent hypertension. Methods and Results A total of 10 102 patients with OSA and 1614 primary snorers were included in the study. Hypertension was defined on either direct blood pressure measures or diagnosis by a physician. Spontaneous, respiratory, and movement arousals were derived by polysomnography. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between arousals and prevalent hypertension in patients with OSA and primary snorers. For every 10‐unit increase of total arousal index, odds of hypertension significantly increased in both the total sample (odds ratio [OR], 1.08; 95% CI, 1.03–1.14; P =0.002) and patients with OSA (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04–1.16; P <0.001), but not in the primary snoring group. Total arousal index was significantly associated with systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in the total sample (β=0.05 and β=0.06; P <0.001) and in patients with (β=0.05 and β=0.06; P <0.01), but not in primary snorers. In addition, a greater influence of respiratory events with arousals than respiratory events without arousals on blood pressure in OSA was also noted. Results were independent of confounders, including apnea‐hypopnea index and nocturnal hypoxemia. Conclusions We conclude that repetitive arousals from sleep are independently associated with prevalent hypertension in patients with OSA.

Abstract Background Allogeneic (off the shelf) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy addresses the logistical challenges, availability (including insufficient T-cell yields from low baseline absolute lymphocyte count), and variable product quality of autologous CAR T therapy. ALLO-501A is a genetically modified anti-CD19 AlloCAR T™ cell product that uses TALEN ® gene editing to disrupt the T-cell receptor alpha constant gene (TRAC) and the CD52 gene to reduce the risk of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and permit the use of ALLO-647, an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody (mAb), for selective and transitory host lymphodepletion (LD). Here we present an update on the preliminary safety, efficacy, and correlative data. ALLO-501A uses Cellectis technologies. Methods ALPHA2 (NCT04416984) is a single-arm, open-label, Phase 1/2 trial of ALLO-501A in patients (pts) with relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL including [R/R] diffuse LBCL [DLBCL], transformed follicular lymphoma [tFL], marginal zone lymphoma [tMZL], primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma [PMBCL], follicular lymphoma grade 3B [FL3B]) who received ≥2 prior lines of therapy (including an anthracycline and anti-CD20 mAb), have an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1. Subjects with donor specific antibodies are excluded. Following LD with ALLO-647, fludarabine 30 mg/m 2/d x 3d (F), and cyclophosphamide 300 or 500 mg/m 2/d x 3d (C), either a single (40 [DL1] or 120 [DL2] x 10 6 viable CAR T cells) or consolidation dose of ALLO-501A (DL2) are given. For consolidation dose, pts with ≥stable disease (SD) at day 28 receive consolidation with second ALLO-647 (no chemo) for LD and ALLO-501A (DL2) cell infusion. Results As of July 9, 2021, 20 pts were enrolled; 15 pts were treated with ALLO-501A (12 evaluable and 3 pending D28 assessment); 3 pts pending treatment; 2 pts withdrew due to adverse event (AE)/progressing disease (PD) prior to dosing. Patients were heavily pretreated with advanced-stage disease (Stage III: 4 [22.2%], Stage IV: 8 [44.4%]), median number of prior treatments was 3 with a high of 7. Three pts (16.7%) had primary refractory disease. Safety profile was manageable in both single dose and consolidation cohorts. Events of interest in the single dose cohort have been previously reported (ASCO 2021). In the consolidation cohort (13 enrolled, 9 pts dosed thus far), no cytokine release syndrome (CRS), no GvHD, no immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), no dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs), no dose reductions, no Grade (Gr) 3+ infections and no related serious adverse events (SAEs) occurred, and infusion-related reactions were Gr 1. Among all treated, cytopenias were the most common AE and occurred in 72% of pts. Of the 12 evaluable pts (6 each treated in the single dose and consolidation dose cohort), both the overall response rate (ORR) and complete response (CR) were 50% (95% CI: 21.1, 78.9). In the consolidation cohort, both ORR and CR rate were 66.7% (95% CI: 22.3, 95.7) with 3/3 partial responses (PRs) converting to CR after consolidation; 1 pt had CR at days 28 and 56 post consolidation and 2 pts had PD at month 1 and did not receive consolidation. In single dose cohort, 2 pts have ongoing CR at 9 and 12+ months. CAR T expansion was greater in pts who achieved a CR with a geometric mean area under the curve (AUC) at D1-28 of 206,990 copies/ug*days (n=6; GSD 4.94) compared to pts who did not achieve a CR with AUC at D1-28 of 3,571 copies/ug*days (n=3; GSD 2.41). Pts who received the consolidation dose continued to have CAR T expansion after the 2 nd CAR T infusion with geometric mean AUC from D30-56 of 92,893 copies/ug*days (n=4; GSD 5.42). Conclusions ALLO-501A with consolidation dosing demonstrated comparable safety and an improved efficacy profile compared to single dosing with all 4 pts who received consolidation remaining in CR. Persistence of CAR T at D28 and expansion after consolidation dose was observed in addition to the observed deepening of responses in pts whose initial response was PR. Additional follow up is needed to determine whether consolidation also improves the durability of response. Consolidation was well tolerated and given the generally favorable overall safety profile, ALLO-501A may have the potential to be given in the outpatient setting. Enrollment is ongoing. Updated efficacy and follow-up will be presented at the meeting. Currently, an ALLO-501A Phase 2 trial is planned. Disclosures Locke: Cowen: Consultancy; Umoja: Consultancy, Other; Wugen: Consultancy, Other; Takeda: Consultancy, Other; Novartis: Consultancy, Other, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; Bluebird Bio: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; BMS/Celgene: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; Calibr: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; Amgen: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; GammaDelta Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; Cellular Biomedicine Group: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role, Research Funding; Legend Biotech: Consultancy, Other; Iovance Biotherapeutics: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role; EcoR1: Consultancy; Allogene Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Role, Research Funding; Emerging Therapy Solutions: Consultancy; Gerson Lehrman Group: Consultancy; Moffitt Cancer Center: Patents & Royalties: field of cellular immunotherapy. Neelapu: Kite, a Gilead Company, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Celgene, Pfizer, Allogene Therapeutics, Cell Medica/Kuur, Incyte, Precision Biosciences, Legend Biotech, Adicet Bio, Calibr, Unum Therapeutics and Bluebird Bio: Honoraria; Kite, a Gilead Company, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Celgene, Pfizer, Allogene, Kuur, Incyte, Precision BioSciences, Legend, Adicet Bio, Calibr, and Unum Therapeutics: Other: personal fees; Kite, a Gilead Company, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Poseida, Cellectis, Celgene, Karus Therapeutics, Unum Therapeutics (Cogent Biosciences), Allogene, Precision BioSciences, Acerta and Adicet Bio: Research Funding; Takeda Pharmaceuticals and related to cell therapy: Patents & Royalties. Hamadani: Janssen, Incyte, ADC Therapeutics, Omeros, Morphosys, Kite: Consultancy; Sanofi, Genzyme, AstraZeneca, BeiGene: Speakers Bureau; Takeda, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma: Research Funding. Frank: Allogene Therapeutics: Research Funding; Kite-Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Research Funding. Popplewell: Novartis: Other: Travel; Pfizer: Other: Travel; Hoffman La Roche: Other: Food. Abramson: Bluebird Bio: Consultancy; Kymera: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Incyte Corporation: Consultancy; Astra-Zeneca: Consultancy; Allogene Therapeutics: Consultancy; Seagen Inc.: Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Morphosys: Consultancy; Kite Pharma: Consultancy; C4 Therapeutics: Consultancy; Genmab: Consultancy; EMD Serono: Consultancy; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy. Munoz: Pharmacyclics/Abbvie: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Bayer: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Gilead/Kite Pharma: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Juno/Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Kyowa: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Alexion: Consultancy; Beigene: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Fosunkite: Consultancy; Innovent: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Debiopharm: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Genmab: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Epizyme: Consultancy; Servier: Consultancy; Merck: Research Funding; Portola: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Millennium: Research Funding; Targeted Oncology: Honoraria; OncView: Honoraria; Physicians' Education Resource: Honoraria; Roche: Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Speakers Bureau; Verastem: Speakers Bureau; Acrotech/Aurobindo: Speakers Bureau. Shin: Allogene Therapeutics, Inc.: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Loomis-Navale: Allogene: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Miklos: Pharmacyclics, Amgen, Kite, a Gilead Company, Novartis, Roche, Genentech, Becton Dickinson, Isoplexis, Miltenyi, Juno-Celgene-Bristol Myers Squibb, Allogene, Precision Biosciences, Adicet, Adaptive Biotechnologies: Research Funding; Kite, a Gilead Company, Amgen, Atara, Wugen, Celgene, Novartis, Juno-Celgene-Bristol Myers Squibb, Allogene, Precision Bioscience, Adicet, Pharmacyclics, Janssen, Takeda, Adaptive Biotechnologies and Miltenyi Biotechnologies: Consultancy; Adaptive Biotechnologies, Novartis, Juno/Celgene-BMS, Kite, a Gilead Company, Pharmacyclics-AbbVie, Janssen, Pharmacyclics, AlloGene, Precision Bioscience, Miltenyi Biotech, Adicet, Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics: Patents & Royalties. OffLabel Disclosure: Discussion of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide in combination with ALLO-647 as conditioning regimen prior to administration of ALLO-501A in patients with R/R LBCL.

Due to frequent abnormal breathing events and their effects on sleep architecture, patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) exhibit decreased amounts of slow wave sleep (SWS). Reduced SWS has been linked to hypertension in community-based studies. We sought to investigate whether SWS percentage modifies the association between OSA and prevalent hypertension. We studied 7107 patients with OSA and 1118 primary snorers who underwent in-laboratory polysomnography. Patients were classified into quartiles of percent SWS. Hypertension was defined based either on clinic blood pressure measures or on physician diagnosis. Multivariable logistic regression model showed a significant interaction effect of OSA and SWS on prevalent hypertension ( P =0.002). Decreased SWS was associated with higher odds for hypertension in OSA but not in primary snoring, with patients with OSA exhibiting <0.1% SWS (OR, 1.44 [95% CI, 1.21–1.70]; P =0.001) and those with 0.1% to 4.8% SWS (OR, 1.20 [95% CI, 1.03–1.40]; P =0.02) being more likely to have hypertension compared with those with >11.1% SWS. In analysis stratified by OSA severity, significant associations between percent SWS and blood pressure emerged only in moderate and severe OSA. Effect modifications by sex ( P =0.040) and age ( P =0.007) were also only evident in OSA, indicating that decreased SWS was associated with hypertension only in men and in patients <60 years old. Decreased SWS is associated with a dose-dependent increase in odds of prevalent hypertension in patients with OSA. The effects of SWS are likely to be modulated by OSA severity. SWS may be implicated in the heightened risk of cardiovascular diseases exhibited by patients with OSA.

Abstract Establishment and subsequent maintenance of distinct chromatin domains during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation are crucial for lineage specification and cell fate determination. Here we show that the histone chaperone Chromatin Assembly Factor 1 (CAF-1), which is recruited to DNA replication forks through its interaction with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) for nucleosome assembly, participates in the establishment of H3K27me3-mediated silencing during differentiation. Deletion of CAF-1 p150 subunit impairs the silencing of many genes including Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog as well as the establishment of H3K27me3 at these gene promoters during ESC differentiation. Mutations of PCNA residues involved in recruiting CAF-1 to the chromatin also result in defects in differentiation in vitro and impair early embryonic development as p150 deletion. Together, these results reveal that the CAF-1-PCNA nucleosome assembly pathway plays an important role in the establishment of H3K27me3-mediated silencing during cell fate determination.

SummaryWe aimed at assessing cardiac autonomic function by heart rate variability during sleep in patients with obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements during sleep, and to compare it with that of patients with obstructive sleep apnea only, periodic limb movements during sleep only, and controls. We also aimed at investigating the interaction effect between apnea–hypopnea index and periodic limb movement index on heart rate variability. Four groups of patients (n = 42 each, total = 168) were identified based on the presence/absence of obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements during sleep: + obstructive sleep apnea/− periodic limb movements during sleep (5 ≤ apnea–hypopnea index < 30 events per hr), − obstructive sleep apnea/+ periodic limb movements during sleep (periodic limb movement index > 15 events per hr), + obstructive sleep apnea/+ periodic limb movements during sleep, − obstructive sleep apnea/− periodic limb movements during sleep (controls). All groups were matched for age, sex and body mass index. Time‐ and frequency‐domain heart rate variability measures were calculated over 5‐min periods of stable stage 2 non‐rapid eye movement sleep. In patients with both obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements during sleep, LFnu and LF/HF ratio were higher than in those with obstructive sleep apnea only, periodic limb movements during sleep only, and controls, while HFnu was the lowest among the four groups. LFnu, HFnu and LF/HF ratio were significantly and independently associated with minimal oxygen saturation in the + obstructive sleep apnea/+ periodic limb movements during sleep group. There was a significant interaction effect between apnea–hypopnea index and periodic limb movement index on LF/HF ratio (p = 0.038) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Patients with elevated apnea–hypopnea index and elevated periodic limb movement index exhibited higher sympathovagal balance compared with those with high apnea–hypopnea index and low periodic limb movement index, and compared with those with low apnea–hypopnea index (regardless of periodic limb movement index). Increased sympathetic activation and decreased parasympathetic control appear to be related to the severity of oxygen desaturation. Apnea–hypopnea index and periodic limb movement index had interactive effects on increased sympathovagal balance in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.