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Background: The extent of cardiac involvement has a major impact on clinical outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed light chain (AL) amyloidosis. Here, we present the hematologic responses, major organ deterioration progression-free survival (MOD-PFS) and event-free survival (MOD-EFS), and organ responses by cardiac stage in patients with newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis treated with cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (VCd) with or without daratumumab subcutaneous (DARA SC) in the ANDROMEDA trial (NCT03201965). Methods: Key eligibility criteria included newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis with measurable hematologic disease, ≥1 involved organ, cardiac stage I-IIIA (based on the European Modification of the Mayo staging system), eGFR ≥20 mL/min, and absence of symptomatic multiple myeloma. Patients were randomized (1:1) to receive DARA-VCd or VCd alone. All patients received bortezomib (1.3 mg/m2 SC weekly), cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2 oral [PO] or intravenous [IV] weekly [500 mg maximum]), and dexamethasone (20-40 mg PO or IV weekly) for six 28-day cycles. DARA SC (1800 mg, co-formulated with recombinant human hyaluronidase PH20 in 15 mL) was administered by injection weekly in Cycles 1-2, every 2 weeks in Cycles 3-6, and every 4 weeks thereafter for up to 24 cycles. Disease evaluations occurred every 4 weeks (Cycles 1-6) and every 8 weeks (after Cycle 7) until major organ deterioration, hematologic progression, death, end of study, or withdrawal. The primary endpoint was overall (ie, at any time) hematologic complete response (CR) rate. Secondary endpoints included MOD-PFS, MOD-EFS, organ response rate, time to hematologic response, survival, and safety. Analyses of hematologic CR and MOD-PFS were performed on the intent-to-treat analysis set; cardiac response analyses were based on patients who were evaluable for cardiac response, defined as patients with baseline NT-ProNBP value ≥650 ng/L or baseline NYHA class 3 or 4 and received at least 1 administration of study treatment. Patients without a baseline assessment or post-baseline assessment were censored at randomization for the MOD-PFS analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize overall CR rate and organ response rate. Hazard ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were estimated based on Cox proportional hazard model. Results: A total of 388 patients were randomized to receive DARA-VCd (n=195) or VCd alone (n=193). Baseline characteristics were well balanced between treatment groups. The median age was 64 years and the proportions of patients with cardiac stage I, II, and III were 23%, 40%, and 37%, respectively. The median duration of treatment was 9.6 months for DARA-VCd and 5.3 months for VCd. Median follow-up was 11.4 months (range, 0.03-21.3+). Baseline characteristics were generally balanced across cardiac stages, except increasing cardiac stage was associated with older age (≥65 years), worse Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, more advanced renal failure (CrCl ≤30), and functionally worse heart failure (NYHA IIIA). Hematologic CR rates were higher in the DARA-VCd group than in the VCd group in patients with cardiac stages I, II, and III at baseline (Table). Cardiac and renal response rates at 6 months were also higher in the DARA-VCd group regardless of cardiac stage at baseline (Table). The hazard ratios (HRs) for MOD-PFS were 0.33, 0.55 and 0.66 for cardiac stages I, II and III, respectively, favoring DARA-VCd. Corresponding HRs for MOD-EFS were 0.24, 0.39, and 0.48, respectively. Rates of any grade adverse events (AEs) were similar in patients with and without cardiac involvement at baseline. Across both treatment arms, rates of serious treatment-emergent AEs were higher in patients with cardiac involvement at baseline than in those without. Conclusions: The benefit of DARA-VCd was retained over VCd alone across cardiac stages for hematologic CR, MOD-PFS, MOD-EFS, and organ responses. Disclosures Minnema: Kite, a Gilead Company: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Other: travel support, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy; Servier: Consultancy. Dispenzieri:Alnylam: Research Funding; Intellia: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. Comenzo:Unum: Consultancy; Prothena: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy; Sanofi: Consultancy; Caleum: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding. Kastritis:Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Genesis Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Wechalekar:Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel; Celgene: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria, Other: Advisory; Caelum: Other: Advisory. Witteles:Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Maurer:Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Alnylam: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Ionis: Research Funding; Eidos: Research Funding; Akcea: Research Funding. Tran:Janssen: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Qin:Janssen: Current Employment. Vasey:Janssen Research & Development: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Tromp:Janssen: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Weiss:Janssen: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Vermeulen:Janssen: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Jaccard:Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: A.J. has served in a consulting or advisory role for Janssen and has received honoraria from, received research funding from, and had travel, accommodations, or other expenses paid for or reimbursed by Janssen., Research Funding; Celgene: Honoraria, Other: A.J. has served in a consulting or advisory role for Janssen and has received honoraria from, received research funding from, and had travel, accommodations, or other expenses paid for or reimbursed by Celgene., Research Funding.

Abstract Summary Distance-based tests of microbiome beta diversity are an integral part of many microbiome analyses. MiRKAT enables distance-based association testing with a wide variety of outcome types, including continuous, binary, censored time-to-event, multivariate, correlated and high-dimensional outcomes. Omnibus tests allow simultaneous consideration of multiple distance and dissimilarity measures, providing higher power across a range of simulation scenarios. Two measures of effect size, a modified R-squared coefficient and a kernel RV coefficient, are incorporated to allow comparison of effect sizes across multiple kernels. Availability and implementation MiRKAT is available on CRAN as an R package. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

AbstractDisturbed intrauterine development increases the risk of renal disease. Various studies have reported that Notch signalling plays a significant role in kidney development and kidney diseases. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain 10 (ADAM10), an upstream protease of the Notch pathway, is also reportedly involved in renal fibrosis. However, how ADAM10 interacts with the Notch pathway and causes renal fibrosis is not fully understood. In this study, using a prenatal chlorpyrifos (CPF) exposure mouse model, we investigated the role of the ADAM10/Notch axis in kidney development and fibrosis. We found that prenatal CPF‐exposure mice presented overexpression of Adam10, Notch1 and Notch2, and led to premature depletion of Six2+ nephron progenitors and ectopic formation of proximal tubules (PTs) in the embryonic kidney. These abnormal phenotypic changes persisted in mature kidneys due to the continuous activation of ADAM10/Notch and showed aggravated renal fibrosis in adults. Finally, both ADAM10 and NOTCH2 expression were positively correlated with the degree of renal interstitial fibrosis in IgA nephropathy patients, and increased ADAM10 expression was negatively correlated with decreased kidney function evaluated by serum creatinine, cystatin C, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Regression analysis also indicated that ADAM10 expression was an independent risk factor for fibrosis in IgAN. © 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Abstract Techniques that enable longitudinal tracking of cell fate after myocardial delivery are imperative for optimizing the efficacy of cell-based cardiac therapies. However, these approaches have been underutilized in preclinical models and clinical trials, and there is considerable demand for site-specific strategies achieving long-term expression of reporter genes compatible with safe noninvasive imaging. In this study, the rhesus sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) gene was incorporated into rhesus macaque induced pluripotent stem cells (RhiPSCs) via CRISPR/Cas9. Cardiomyocytes derived from NIS-RhiPSCs (NIS-RhiPSC-CMs) exhibited overall similar morphological and electrophysiological characteristics compared to parental control RhiPSC-CMs at baseline and with exposure to physiological levels of sodium iodide. Mice were injected intramyocardially with 2 million NIS-RhiPSC-CMs immediately following myocardial infarction, and serial positron emission tomography/computed tomography was performed with 18F-tetrafluoroborate to monitor transplanted cells in vivo. NIS-RhiPSC-CMs could be detected until study conclusion at 8 to 10 weeks postinjection. This NIS-based molecular imaging platform, with optimal safety and sensitivity characteristics, is primed for translation into large-animal preclinical models and clinical trials.

Abstract Blood lipids have been associated with the development of a range of cancers, including breast, lung and colorectal cancer. For endometrial cancer, observational studies have reported inconsistent associations between blood lipids and cancer risk. To reduce biases from unmeasured confounding, we performed a bidirectional, two‐sample Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the relationship between levels of three blood lipids (low‐density lipoprotein [LDL] and high‐density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, and triglycerides) and endometrial cancer risk. Genetic variants associated with each of these blood lipid levels ( P < 5 × 10 −8 ) were identified as instrumental variables, and assessed using genome‐wide association study data from the Endometrial Cancer Association Consortium (12 906 cases and 108 979 controls) and the Global Lipids Genetic Consortium (n = 188 578). Mendelian randomization analyses found genetically raised LDL cholesterol levels to be associated with lower risks of endometrial cancer of all histologies combined, and of endometrioid and non‐endometrioid subtypes. Conversely, higher genetically predicted HDL cholesterol levels were associated with increased risk of non‐endometrioid endometrial cancer. After accounting for the potential confounding role of obesity (as measured by genetic variants associated with body mass index), the association between genetically predicted increased LDL cholesterol levels and lower endometrial cancer risk remained significant, especially for non‐endometrioid endometrial cancer. There was no evidence to support a role for triglycerides in endometrial cancer development. Our study supports a role for LDL and HDL cholesterol in the development of non‐endometrioid endometrial cancer. Further studies are required to understand the mechanisms underlying these findings.

Abstract Background Flow diversion is a common endovascular treatment for cerebral aneurysms, but studies comparing different types of flow diverters are scarce. Objective To perform a propensity score matched cohort study comparing the Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) and Flow Redirection Intraluminal Device (FRED) for posterior circulation aneurysms. Methods Consecutive aneurysms of the posterior circulation treated at 25 neurovascular centers with either PED or FRED were collected. Propensity score matching was used to control for age, duration of follow-up imaging, adjunctive coiling, and aneurysm location, size, and morphology; previously ruptured aneurysms were excluded. The two devices were compared for the following outcomes: procedural complications, aneurysm occlusion, and functional outcome. Results A total of 375 aneurysms of the posterior circulation were treated in 369 patients. The PED was used in 285 (77.2%) and FRED in 84 (22.8%) procedures. Aneurysms treated with the PED were more commonly fusiform and larger than those treated with FRED. To account for these important differences, propensity score matching was performed resulting in 33 PED and FRED unruptured aneurysm pairs. No differences were found in occlusion status and neurologic thromboembolic or hemorrhagic complications between the two devices. The proportion of patients with favorable functional outcome was higher with FRED (100% vs 87.9%, p=0.04). Conclusion Comparative analysis of PED and FRED for the treatment of unruptured posterior circulation aneurysms did not identify significant differences in aneurysm occlusion or neurologic complications. Variations in functional outcomes warrant additional investigations.