Publications by authors named "M T Heemskerk"

Background: SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with a higher proportion of asymptomatic infections and lower mortality in sub-Saharan Africa than high-income countries. However, there is currently a lack of data on cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in people living in Africa compared with people in high-income regions of the world. We aimed to assess geographical variation in peripheral and mucosal immune responses.

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Article Synopsis
  • Synovial sarcoma is a type of aggressive soft-tissue cancer with limited response to current immunotherapies, highlighting the need for better understanding of the immune cells in its tumor microenvironment.
  • Researchers studied 41 patients to analyze the relationship between immune cell types, tumor subtype (biphasic vs. monophasic), disease progression, and response to treatments like chemotherapy.
  • Findings indicated that biphasic synovial sarcomas had a higher presence of immune cells, particularly T cells, which correlated with better patient survival, suggesting they may respond more favorably to immunotherapies.
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Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) provides a curative treatment option for hematological malignancies. After HLA-matched alloSCT, donor-derived T cells recognize minor histocompatibility antigens (MiHAs), which are polymorphic peptides presented by HLA on patient cells. MiHAs are absent on donor cells due to genetic differences between patient and donor.

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Background: Cellular immunotherapy using modified T cells offers new avenues for cancer treatment. T-cell receptor (TCR) engineering of CD8 T cells enables these cells to recognize tumor-associated antigens and tumor-specific neoantigens. Improving TCR T-cell therapy through increased potency and in vivo persistence will be critical for clinical success.

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