A novel functional mast cell assay for the detection of allergies.

Background: Clinical management of allergic diseases has been hampered by the lack of safe and convenient tests to reliably identify culprit allergens and to closely follow changes in disease activity over time. Because allergy diagnosis is a complex and laborious multistep procedure, there is an urgent need for simpler but still functionally accurate ex vivo assays allowing objective diagnosis, substantiating treatment choices, and quantifying therapeutic responses.

Objective: In this study, we sought to develop a novel functional cell-based assay that relies on passive sensitization of allergic effector cells with patient serum, circumventing current limitations in allergy diagnosis.

Clinical Activity of an hTERT-Specific Cancer Vaccine (Vx-001) in "Immune Desert" NSCLC.

Background: Tumors can be separated into immunogenic/hot and non-immunogenic/cold on the basis of the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), the expression of PD-L1 and the tumor mutation burden (TMB). In immunogenic tumors, TILs become unable to control tumor growth because their activity is suppressed by different inhibitory pathways, including PD-1/PD-L1. We hypothesized that tumor vaccines may not be active in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of immunogenic/hot tumors while they could be efficient in the immune naïve microenvironment of non-immunogenic/cold tumors.

Masitinib as an add-on therapy to riluzole in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a randomized clinical trial.

To assess masitinib in the treatment of ALS. Double-blind study, randomly assigning 394 patients (1:1:1) to receive riluzole (100 mg/d) plus placebo or masitinib at 4.5 or 3.

Calcium signalling in T cells.

Calcium (Ca) signalling is of paramount importance to immunity. Regulated increases in cytosolic and organellar Ca concentrations in lymphocytes control complex and crucial effector functions such as metabolism, proliferation, differentiation, antibody and cytokine secretion and cytotoxicity. Altered Ca regulation in lymphocytes leads to various autoimmune, inflammatory and immunodeficiency syndromes.