Publications by authors named "M W Besser"

Article Synopsis
  • The study explores how the PD-1 immune checkpoint protein is regulated on CD8 T cells, aiming to find ways to lower its abundance without hindering T cell activation, which is crucial for effective cancer therapy.
  • Researchers conducted a CRISPR-Cas9 screen on murine CD8 T cells to identify genes impacting PD-1 levels, discovering that inhibiting the TMED protein family, especially TMED10, could reduce PD-1 on the cell surface and enhance T cell function.
  • The findings highlight a new regulatory mechanism for PD-1 and suggest that targeting TMED could be a promising therapeutic strategy to improve T cell responses in cancer treatment, as indicated by correlations in mouse models and patient survival data.
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Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD), a genetic blood disorder that affects red blood cells and oxygen delivery to body tissues, is characterized by haemolytic anaemia, pain episodes, fatigue, and end-organ damage with acute and chronic dimensions. Caring for patients with SCD imposes a high burden on informal caregivers. This study aims to capture the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and economic burden of caregiving for patients with SCD.

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Genes limiting T cell antitumor activity may serve as therapeutic targets. It has not been systematically studied whether there are regulators that uniquely or broadly contribute to T cell fitness. We perform genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screens in primary CD8 T cells to uncover genes negatively impacting fitness upon three modes of stimulation: (1) intense, triggering activation-induced cell death (AICD); (2) acute, triggering expansion; (3) chronic, causing dysfunction.

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The treatment of chronic wounds still represents a major challenge in wound management. Recent estimates suggest that 60-80% of chronic wounds are colonized by pathogenic microorganisms, which are strongly considered to have a major inhibiting influence on the healing process. By means of an innovative biofilm model based on human plasma, the time-dependent behavior of various bacterial strains under wound-milieu-like conditions were investigated, and the growth habits of different cocci species were compared.

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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited, progressively debilitating blood disorder. Emerging gene therapies (GTx) may lead to a complete remission, the benefits of such can only be realized if GTx is affordable and accessible in the low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) with the greatest SCD burden. To estimate the health impacts and country-specific value-based prices (VBP) of a future gene therapy for SCD using a cost-utility model framework.

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