Expansion of Lymphocytes from Prostatic Adenocarcinoma and Adjacent Nonmalignant Tissue.

Background: The evaluation of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in solid malignancies has yielded insights into immune regulation within the tumour microenvironment and has also led to the development and optimisation of adoptive T cell therapies.

Objectives: This study examined the expansion of TILs from prostate adenocarcinoma, as a preliminary step to evaluate the potential of TILs for adoptive T cell therapy. .

Phase II clinical trial of adoptive cell therapy for patients with metastatic melanoma with autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and low-dose interleukin-2.

Adoptive cell therapy using autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) has shown significant clinical benefit, but is limited by toxicities due to a requirement for post-infusion interleukin-2 (IL-2), for which high dose is standard. To assess a modified TIL protocol using lower dose IL-2, we performed a single institution phase II protocol in unresectable, metastatic melanoma. The primary endpoint was response rate.

Double-stranded DNA break polarity skews repair pathway choice during intrachromosomal and interchromosomal recombination.

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) inflicts DNA damage at Ig genes to initiate class switch recombination (CSR) and chromosomal translocations. However, the DNA lesions formed during these processes retain an element of randomness, and thus knowledge of the relationship between specific DNA lesions and AID-mediated processes remains incomplete. To identify necessary and sufficient DNA lesions in CSR, the Cas9 endonuclease and nickase variants were used to program DNA lesions at a greater degree of predictability than is achievable with conventional induction of CSR.

Kin17 facilitates multiple double-strand break repair pathways that govern B cell class switching.

Class switch recombination (CSR) in B cells requires the timely repair of DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) that result from lesions produced by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Through a genome-wide RNAi screen, we identified Kin17 as a gene potentially involved in the maintenance of CSR in murine B cells. In this study, we confirm a critical role for Kin17 in CSR independent of AID activity.

The SAGA Deubiquitination Module Promotes DNA Repair and Class Switch Recombination through ATM and DNAPK-Mediated γH2AX Formation.

Class switch recombination (CSR) requires activation-induced deaminase (AID) to instigate double-stranded DNA breaks at the immunoglobulin locus. DNA breaks activate the DNA damage response (DDR) by inducing phosphorylation of histone H2AX followed by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair. We carried out a genome-wide screen to identify CSR factors.

AID-expressing germinal center B cells cluster normally within lymph node follicles in the absence of FDC-M1+ CD35+ follicular dendritic cells but dissipate prematurely.

Upon activation with T-dependent Ag, B cells enter germinal centers (GC) and upregulate activation-induced deaminase (AID). AID(+) GC B cells then undergo class-switch recombination and somatic hypermutation. Follicular dendritic cells (FDC) are stromal cells that underpin GC and require constitutive signaling through the lymphotoxin (LT) β receptor to be maintained in a fully mature, differentiated state.