Publications by authors named "O Chijioke"

S-methyl-5'-thioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) deficiency is an emerging biomarker in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and beyond. The MTAP gene is located in the chromosomal region 9p21.3, which shows one of the most common homozygous deletions across all human cancers (9p21 loss).

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Article Synopsis
  • Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is associated with about 2% of tumors globally, while over 90% of healthy adults carry the virus without symptoms, attributed to the immune system's defense.
  • Research using a mouse model with humanized immunity found that EBV infection leads to the creation of CD8+ tissue-resident memory T cells (TRMs) in nasal-associated lymphoid tissues, a region similar to tonsils in humans.
  • Despite showing cytotoxic abilities and producing cytokines, these TRMs were less effective at reducing EBV viral loads compared to systemic CD8+ effector memory T cells, which managed to control the virus in other parts of the body.
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Adoptive T cell therapy (ACT), the therapeutic transfer of defined T cell immunity to patients, offers great potential in the fight against different human diseases including difficult-to-treat viral infections, but persistence and longevity of the cells are areas of concern. Very-early-differentiated stem cell memory T cells (T) have superior self-renewal, engraftment, persistence, and anticancer efficacy, but their potential for antiviral ACT remains unknown. Here, we developed a clinically scalable protocol for expanding Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific T-enriched T cells with high proportions of CD4 T cells and broad EBV antigen coverage.

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Background: Humanized tumour models could be particularly valuable for cancer immunotherapy research, as they may better reflect human-specific aspects of the interfaces between tumour and immune system of human cancer. However, endogenous antitumour immunity in humanized models is still largely undefined.

Methods: We established an autologous humanized mouse tumour model by using NSG mice reconstituted with human immune cells from hematopoietic progenitors and tumours generated from transformed autologous human B cells.

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Background: CAR NK cells as vehicles for engineered "off-the-shelf" cellular cancer immunotherapy have attracted significant interest. Nonetheless, a comprehensive comparative assessment of the anticancer activity of CAR T cells and CAR NK cells carrying approved benchmark anti-CD19 CAR constructs is missing. Here, we report a direct head-to-head comparison of CD19-directed human T and NK cells.

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