Citations

Abstract Background: Bladder cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the United States1. The histology in > 90% of cases is urothelial carcinoma (UC). Tumors may present either as non-muscle-invasive (NMIBC) or muscle-invasive disease (MIBC). Current standard of care for patients with high risk NMIBC includes transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) followed by intravesical immunotherapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)2. Meanwhile, patients with BCG unresponsive NMIBC or MIBC are recommended to undergo radical cystectomy (RC), which adversely impacts quality of life and is associated with significant morbidity3. MV-NIS is an investigational oncolytic measles virus with an excellent clinical safety profile4. This ongoing phase I clinical study is designed to test the safety, efficacy and identify the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of intravesical MV-NIS in patients with NMIBC or MIBC who are scheduled for RC and not eligible for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: Bladder UC patients were evaluated for eligibility and provided informed consent prior to enrolling. To date 8 patients have been enrolled: 4 to the single dose safety cohort, and 4 to the multi-dose expansion cohort. Patients were administered intravesical ~1x109 TCID50 MV-NIS once at least 1 week prior to RC (safety cohort), or twice at 4 and 2 weeks prior to RC (expansion cohort). Patients were closely monitored during the 2-hour instillation period. Tumor specimens from the pre-treatment TURBT and post-treatment RC were analyzed to determine pre- and post-treatment pathological stage and evaluate tumor killing and immune cell infiltrate. Results: Intravesical MV-NIS treatment was well tolerated in all patients. Only a single Adverse Event (AE) attributable to MV-NIS treatment (Grade 1 hematuria). AEs Grade>2 were related to post-surgical complications. Tumor downstaging was observed in 4 of 8 patients. Among 4 patients in the expansion cohort, 2 had no residual disease (pT0). Central assessment of RC tissues showed significant inflammatory infiltrate in all treated bladder specimens. Detailed analyses are ongoing to characterize MV infection and immune infiltrate in bladder tissue. Conclusions: The higher-than-expected rate of tumor downstaging and pT0 pathology, paired with the significant immune infiltrate observed in post-treatment bladder tissue, provide compelling evidence that intravesical MV-NIS has clinical activity against UC. These results support the use of two doses of ~1x109 TCID50 as the RP2D in future clinical studies for BCG unresponsive NMIBC or MIBC patients. MV-NIS induced inflammation may act synergistically with checkpoint blockade therapies. References 1. Siegel, R.L., Miller, K.D. & Jemal, A. CA Cancer J Clin 69, 7-34 (2019). 2. Knowles, M.A. & Hurst, C.D. Nature reviews. Cancer 15, 25-41 (2015). 3. Zakaria, A.S., et al. Can Urol Assoc J 8, 259-267 (2014). 4. Galanis, E., et al. Cancer research 75, 22-30 (2015). Citation Format: Tanner S. Miest, Bradley Leibovich, Stephen Bardot, Paul R. Young, Stephen A. Boorjian, Mark Gonzalgo, Loren Herrera-Hernandez, Matthew K. Tollefson, Jeffrey Karnes, Paige Nichols, Tessa Kroeninger, Rachel Graham, Carole Lahana, Monica Reckner, Alysha Newsom, Nandakumar Packiriswamy, Janice Anoka, Kah Whye Peng, Erol Wiegert, Alice Bexon, Shruthi Naik. Safety and efficacy of neoadjuvant intravesical oncolytic MV-NIS in patients with urothelial carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2021 Oct 7-10. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2021;20(12 Suppl):Abstract nr P190.

Background. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent an important novel class of noncoding RNA molecule greater than 200 nucleotides that play a key role in the regulation of autoimmune diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated that MAFTRR (MAF transcriptional regulator RNA) regulated Th1 cells differentiation by inhibiting the expression of MAF in activated CD4+ T cells. However, the effect of MAFTRR on the pathogenesis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) remains unclear. This research was aimed at investigating the expression of MAFTRR in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) as well as the correlation between MAFTRR and Th1 cells. Methods. Thirty-eight HT patients and thirty-eight healthy controls were enrolled in the study. The proportion of Th1 cells and CD8+IFN-γ+ T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from these specimens was determined by flow cytometric analysis. The transcript levels of MAFTRR, MAF, and IFNG in PBMCs and thyroid glands were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the potential value of MAFTRR in the HT patients. Results. We found that the proportion of circulating Th1 cells and the transcript levels of IFNG were increased in peripheral blood of the HT patients. The transcript levels of MAFTRR were significantly increased in the HT patients and positively correlated with the percentage of Th1 cells and serum levels of antithyroglobulin antibody and antithyroperoxidase antibody. The transcript levels of MAF, a transcription factor that inhibits Th1 cells activity and IFN-γ production, were attenuated in PBMCs from the HT patients. The transcript levels of IFNG had positive and inverse correlations with MAFTRR and MAF expression in PBMCs from the HT patients, respectively. Additionally, a significantly positive correlation between upregulated MAFTRR expression and augmented IFNG expression was revealed in thyroid tissues from the HT patients. ROC curve suggested that MAFTRR could potentially differentiate the HT patients from healthy controls. Conclusion. MAFTRR is significantly augmented in the HT patients and may contribute to the pathogenic role of the Th1 cells response in HT.

PurposeTo improve the estimation of coil sensitivity functions from limited auto‐calibration signals (ACS) in SENSE‐based reconstruction for brain imaging.MethodsWe propose to use deep learning to estimate coil sensitivity functions by leveraging information from previous scans obtained using the same RF receiver system. Specifically, deep convolutional neural networks were designed to learn an end‐to‐end mapping from the initial sensitivity to the high‐resolution counterpart. Sensitivity alignment was further proposed to reduce the geometric variation caused by different subject positions and imaging FOVs. Cross‐validation with a small set of datasets was performed to validate the learned neural network. Iterative SENSE reconstruction was adopted to evaluate the utility of the sensitivity functions from the proposed and conventional methods.ResultsThe proposed method produced improved sensitivity estimates and SENSE reconstructions compared to the conventional methods in terms of aliasing and noise suppression with very limited ACS data. Cross‐validation with a small set of data demonstrated the feasibility of learning coil sensitivity functions for brain imaging. The network learned on the spoiled GRE data can be applied to predict sensitivity functions for spin‐echo and MPRAGE datasets.ConclusionA deep learning‐based method has been proposed for improving the estimation of coil sensitivity functions. Experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility and potential of the proposed method for improving SENSE‐based reconstructions especially when the ACS data are limited.

Abstract Introduction: Factors contributing to the antitumor activity of systemic oncolytic virotherapy (OV) include (i) generalized innate immune activation due to virus infusion; (ii) direct oncolytic and/or immune-mediated destruction of OV infected tumor cells due to intratumoral spread of the virus infection; (iii) collateral boosting of tumor antigen-specific T cell responses that target uninfected tumor cells. We investigated the relative contributions of these 3 factors T cell lymphoma (TCL) patients (pts) responding to a single intravenous infusion of Voyager-V1, an oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) encoding IFNβ and sodium iodide symporter (NIS) on NCT03017820. Of relevance, the virally encoded IFNβ enhances tumor specificity, boosts proinflammatory activity & serves as a convenient serum biomarker of infection. Methods: In a first in human trial, a single infusion of Voyager-V1 was administered to 15 pts with relapsed refractory hematologic cancers; 4 dose levels (DL) were tested (5x10 9, 1.7x10 10, 5x10 10, 1.7x10 11 TCID50); 7 pts had TCL. Cytokine levels and CRS symptoms were determined as a measure of generalized immune activation; serum IFNβ levels were monitored as a pharmacodynamic biomarker of virus infection; antitumor T cell responses were measured using ELISPOT assays. Results: Of 8 TCL pts, 3 had RECIST responses: PR at DL 2, a CR & PR at DL 4. Most pts experience short lived CRS typically resolving within 24 hours of virus infusion. Serum IFNβ levels increased post-therapy in all pts, typically peaking by 24 hours post virus infusion and returning to baseline by median day 10. T cell responses could not be accurately determined in most cases due to suboptimal T cell viability and/or function after thawing of frozen PBMC. Factors contributing to tumor regression in each of the responding pts appeared to differ significantly, as exemplified by the case reports below. Pt (I) with CTCL experienced grade 1 CRS followed by brisk regression of multiple cutaneous lesions. The PR lasted 3 mo, after relapse of an eye lesion, but responses at other sites deepened after the relapsed lesion was irradiated; pt remained off active therapy for the next 2 yrs. Peak serum IFNβ 4 hours post infusion was only 182 pg/ml suggesting that disease response may have been driven by nonspecific innate immune activation associated with the virus infusion. Pt (IV) (CD30+ PTCL/ cutaneous relapse) had short lived grade 2 CRS, then developed signs of IFNβ toxicity with AST elevation and thrombocytopenia. Oral ruxolitinib was administered for 5 days as IFNβ toxicity mitigation leading to normalization of AST and platelets. All PET-avid tumors regressed completely. This CR continues 16 months post virus infusion. Peak serum IFNβ was 18,213 pg/ml strongly suggesting that response was driven by extensive intratumoral amplification of the virus and oncolytic tumor destruction. Robust CTL responses to tumor neoantigens were detected in this pt at baseline indicating that collateral boosting of tumor-specific T cells may have been responsible for the long term maintenance of this CR Pt (V) (CD30+ PTCL) had short lived grade 2 CRS followed by response at all disease sites (including complete normalization of an enlarged FDG-avid spleen). Her PR ended after 6 months due to relapse in cervical lymph nodes. Peak serum IFNβ level was modest, 600 pg/ml & sustained over 48 hours suggesting slower intratumoral spread of the virus infection. The deepening of the response long after resolution of the oncolytic phase points strongly to a contribution from antitumor CTL but the assay was technically unsatisfactory in this pt. Conclusion: Analysis of the correlative data supports that intravenous Voyager-V1 therapy can recruit diverse antitumor effector mechanisms to impact tumor response in pts with heavily pretreated TCL. Importantly, intratumoral virus amplification, which results in high circulating concentrations of IFNβ, does not necessarily lead to tumor regression perhaps because of defective immune cell recruitment and/or activation in some tumors but not in others. This will be further evaluated in future study participants by performing CTL assays on fresh, rather than frozen PBMC. In conclusion, a single IV infusion of Voyager-V1 shows highly promising activity against treatment refractory TCL and should be further advanced as a new single-shot or combination therapy for this therapeutically challenging indication. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Witzig: Karyopharm Therapeutics, Celgene/BMS, Incyte, Epizyme: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene/BMS, Acerta Pharma, Kura Oncology, Acrotech Biopharma, Karyopharm Therapeutics: Research Funding. Paludo: Karyopharm: Research Funding. Patnaik: StemLine: Research Funding; Kura Oncology: Research Funding. Dispenzieri: Takeda: Research Funding; Alnylam: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Oncopeptides: Consultancy; Sorrento Therapeutics: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding. Bennani: Kymera: Other: Advisory Board; Vividion: Other: Advisory Board; Kyowa Kirin: Other: Advisory Board; Daichii Sankyo Inc: Other: Advisory Board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory Board; Verastem: Other: Advisory Board. Ansell: Bristol Myers Squibb, ADC Therapeutics, Seattle Genetics, Regeneron, Affimed, AI Therapeutics, Pfizer, Trillium and Takeda: Research Funding. Gertz: Aurora Biopharma: Other: Stock option; Akcea Therapeutics, Ambry Genetics, Amgen Inc, Celgene Corporation, Janssen Biotech Inc, Karyopharm Therapeutics, Pfizer Inc (to Institution), Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria; Akcea Therapeutics, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc, Prothena: Consultancy; AbbVie Inc, Celgene Corporation: Other: Data Safetly & Monitoring; Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Other: Advisory Board. Dingli: Janssen: Consultancy; Sanofi: Consultancy; GSK: Consultancy; Apellis: Consultancy; Novartis: Research Funding; Alexion: Consultancy. Kumar: Astra-Zeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Beigene: Consultancy; Carsgen: Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Oncopeptides: Consultancy; Roche-Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding; KITE: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Antengene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Tenebio: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Bluebird Bio: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Abbvie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Adaptive: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding. Bergsagel: Oncopeptides: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Genetech: Consultancy, Honoraria; GSK: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Patents & Royalties: human CRBN mouse; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria. Kapoor: Karyopharm: Consultancy; Cellectar: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Sanofi: Consultancy; Amgen: Research Funding; Ichnos Sciences: Research Funding; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Glaxo SmithKline: Research Funding; Karyopharm: Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; AbbVie: Research Funding. Lin: Sorrento: Consultancy; Vineti: Consultancy; Legend: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Bluebird Bio: Consultancy, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Juno: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy, Research Funding; Gamida Cell: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. OffLabel Disclosure: VSV-IFNβ-NIS is an oncolytic virus in clinical trial for systemic administration in hematologic malignancies

Abstract Clinical significance of somatic gene variants needs to be comprehensively characterized for their diagnostic, prognostic and/or therapeutic actionability in patient management. However, challenges remain due to discrepancies in interpretation and reporting of these somatic variants among different testing labs. Therefore, standardized curation, clinical interpretation and reporting of somatic variants in hematologic cancers is critical. To address this issue, the Hematologic Cancer Taskforce (HCT), composed of 52 multi-disciplinary experts including oncologists, molecular pathologists, lab directors, genomic scientists and biocurators, was formed in January 2020 within the ClinGen Somatic Cancer Clinical Domain Working Group (CDWG) with a goal to undertake systematic curation and evidence-based clinical interpretation of genes/somatic variants associated with hematologic malignancies. In collaboration with the Clinical Interpretation of Variants in Cancer (CIViC) (civicdb.org) knowledgebase, HCT members curate, edit, and verify Evidence Items for each variant extracted from peer-reviewed publications. Monthly discussions based on these Evidence Items lead to the preparation of variant Assertions, which summarize the state of the field consensus variant interpretation and include tiering based on the AMP/ASCO/CAP guidelines (PMID: 27993330). FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) encodes a class III receptor tyrosine kinase expressed in hematopoietic cells. FLT3 mutations, including both internal tandem duplication (ITD) and mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain (TKD), are the most common mutations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), occurring in approximately 30% of all AML cases. Implementing FLT3 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in different treatment regimens for FLT3 mutated AML patients has led to significantly improved overall survival. Type I FLT3 inhibitors, including midostaurin, gilteritinib, sunitinib, lestaurtinib, and crenolanib, bind to the ATP-binding site when the receptor is in active conformation. Type II FLT3 inhibitors, including sorafenib, ponatinib, and quizartinib, interact with a hydrophobic region directly adjacent to the ATP-binding domain that is only accessible when the receptor is inactive, which prevents receptor activation. Generally in AML cells, type I FLT3 inhibitors prevent activity for both ITD and TKD mutations, while Type II inhibitors target ITD but lack efficiency against TKD mutations. The development of TKD mutations in AML cells with ITD have proved to be a mechanism of acquired, or secondary resistance to Type II FLT3 inhibitors. The HCT is piloting curation assessments of FLT3 alterations, including ITD, TKD and non-TKD variants, in AML. So far, the HCT has curated 75 evidence items for FLT3 somatic variants. FLT3-ITD, as well as D835 and I836 were asserted as tier 1 level A variants based on the prediction of response to gilteritinib in relapsed/refractory AML (PMIDs: 27993330, 31665578, 28645776, 28516360, 27908881). Recent curation activities are focused on FLT3 D839G and N676K, as clinical trials using large AML patient cohorts are lacking in their ability to validate drug response/resistance associations of these two TKD variants due to their low frequency. Functional studies showed both variants result in increased proliferation and protection from apoptosis, supporting the oncogenic potential of these two variants (PMIDs: 26891877, 2468088). FLT3 D839G combined with ITD confers resistance to pexidartinib and ponatinib, both Type II FLT3 inhibitors (PMIDs: 25847190, 23430109). FLT3 N676K predicts response to the Type I FLT3 inhibitor, gilteritinib, when N676K is present alone or in combination with ITD. Interestingly, FLT3 N676K in the absence of ITD predicts response to sorafenib, a Type II FLT3 inhibitor (PMIDs: 32040554, 32984009). However, these results are mostly derived from in vitro studies. Two separate Tier II, Level D Assertions have been submitted for FLT3-ITD&D839G for its response to pexidartinib and ponatinib, and more evidence is being collected to form an Assertion for FLT3 N676K. The complexity of the prediction of response/resistance associated with FLT3 D839G and N676K supports the importance of evidence-based curation and collection for these variants in the context of the overall mutation profile, disease context and specific FLT3 TKIs to clearly define their clinical impact. Disclosures Pullarkat: Stemline Therapeutics: Honoraria.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used in various studies to induce immunomodulatory effects in clinical conditions associated with immune dysregulation such as graft versus host disease (GvHD). However, most of these clinical trials failed to go beyond early phase 2 studies because of limited efficacy. Various methods have been assessed to increase the potency of MSCs. IL-10 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine that is known to modulate immune responses in GvHD. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of transfecting IL-10 mRNA to enhance MSC therapeutic potential. IL-10 mRNA engineered MSCs (eMSCs-IL10) maintained high levels of IL-10 expression even after freezing and thawing. IL-10 mRNA transfection did not appear to alter MSC intrinsic characteristics. eMSCs-IL10 significantly suppressed T cell proliferation relative to naïve MSCs in vitro. In a mouse model for GvHD, eMSCs-IL10 induced a decrease in plasma level of potent pro-inflammatory cytokines and inhibited CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation in the spleen. In summary, our studies demonstrate the feasibility of potentiating MSCs to enhance their immunomodulatory effects by IL-10 mRNA transfection. The use of non-viral transfection may generate a safe and potent MSC product for treatment of clinical conditions associated with immune dysregulation such as GvHD.

Background: Among patients receiving percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), the role of a genotype-guided approach for antiplatelet therapy compared with usual care is unclear. We conducted a Bayesian analysis of the entire TAILOR-PCI (Tailored Antiplatelet Initiation to Lessen Outcomes Due to Decreased Clopidogrel Response After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) randomized clinical trial population to evaluate the effect of the genotype-guided antiplatelet therapy post-PCI compared with the usual care on the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Methods: The primary outcome for our study was the composite of MACE (myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular death). Secondary outcomes included cardiovascular death, stroke, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, and major/minor bleeding. Bayesian modeling was used to estimate the probability of clinical benefit of genotype-guided therapy using (1) noninformative priors (ie, analyzing the TAILOR-PCI trial) and (2) informative priors derived from the ADAPT, POPular Genetics, IAC-PCI, and PHARMCLO trials (ie, analyzing TAILOR-PCI trial in the context of prior evidence). Risk ratio (RR: ratio of cumulative outcome incidence between genotype-guided and conventional therapy group) and 95% credible interval (CrI) were estimated for the study outcomes, and probability estimates for RR <1 were computed. Results: Using noninformative priors, in TAILOR-PCI the RR for MACE was 0.78 (95% CrI, 0.55–1.07) in genotype-guided therapy after PCI, and the probability of RR <1 was 94%. Using noninformative priors, the probability of RR <1 for cardiovascular death (RR, 0.95 [95% CrI, 0.52–1.74]), stroke (RR, 0.68 [95% CrI, 0.44–1.06]), myocardial infarction (RR, 0.84 [95% CrI, 0.37–1.89]), stent thrombosis (RR, 0.75 [95% CrI, 0.37–1.45]), and major or minor bleeding (RR, 1.22 [95% CrI, 0.84–1.77]) were 57%, 96%, 67%, 81%, and 15%, respectively. Using informative priors, the posterior probability of RR <1 for MACE, from genotype-guided therapy, was 99% (RR, 0.69 [95% CrI, 0.57–0.84]). Using informative priors, the posterior probability of RR <1 for cardiovascular death (RR, 0.86 [95% CrI, 0.61–1.19]), stroke (RR, 0.69 [95% CrI, 0.48–0.99]), myocardial infarction (RR:0.56 [95% CrI, 0.40–0.78]), stent thrombosis (RR, 0.59 [95% CrI, 0.38–0.94]), and major or minor bleeding (RR, 0.84 [95% CrI, 0.70–0.99]) were 81%, 99%, 99%, 99%, and 99%, respectively. Conclusions: Bayesian analysis of the TAILOR-PCI trial provides clinically meaningful data on the posterior probability of reducing MACE using genotype-guided P2Y 12 inhibitor therapy after PCI.