Publications by authors named "Pablo E Morande"

Here, we present a protocol for the direct isolation of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from the spleen of preclinical murine models of leukemia using ultracentrifugation. We describe steps for tissue collection, sample preparation, ultracentrifugation-based isolation, and sEV characterization. This protocol allows for efficient enrichment of both leukemia and its microenvironment-derived sEV (LME-sEV), providing a valuable tool for studying their composition and functional roles.

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Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is an incurable, rare lymphoproliferative hematological malignancy of mature B cAlthough first line therapy with purine analogues leads to positive results, almost half of HCL patients relapse after 5-10 years, and standard treatment may not be an option due to intolerance or refractoriness. Proliferation and survival of HCL cells is regulated by surrounding accessory cells and soluble signals present in the tumor microenvironment, which actively contributes to disease progression. studies show that different therapeutic approaches tested in HCL impact the tumor microenvironment, and that this milieu offers a protection affecting treatment efficacy.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study explores the role of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs or exosomes) in the tumor microenvironment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) using mouse models, highlighting their impact on immune cell function.
  • The research found that sEVs contain specific miRNAs and proteins that alter CD8+ T-cell activity and contribute to immune cell exhaustion, which can worsen cancer progression.
  • Elevated levels of sEV-related genes are linked to poor survival outcomes in CLL patients, suggesting that analyzing these vesicles could be a valuable prognostic tool for assessing cancer severity.
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Current standard treatment of patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL), a chronic B-cell neoplasia of low incidence that affects the elderly, is based on the administration of purine analogs such as cladribine. This chemotherapy approach shows satisfactory responses, but the disease relapses, often repeatedly. Venetoclax (ABT-199) is a Bcl-2 inhibitor currently approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adult patients ineligible for intensive chemotherapy.

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Most cancers become more dangerous by the outgrowth of malignant subclones with additional DNA mutations that favor proliferation or survival. Using chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a disease that exemplifies this process and is a model for neoplasms in general, we created transgenic mice overexpressing the enzyme activation-induced deaminase (AID), which has a normal function of inducing DNA mutations in B lymphocytes. AID not only allows normal B lymphocytes to develop more effective immunoglobulin-mediated immunity, but is also able to mutate nonimmunoglobulin genes, predisposing to cancer.

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Extracellular vesicles (EV), comprising microvesicles and exosomes, are particles released by every cell of an organism, found in all biological fluids, and commonly involved in cell-to-cell communication through the transfer of cargo materials such as miRNA, proteins, and immune-related ligands (e.g., FasL and PD-L1).

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Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) initiates somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination of the immunoglobulin genes. As a trade-off for its physiological function, AID also contributes to tumor development through its mutagenic activity. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), AID is overexpressed in the proliferative fractions (PFs) of the malignant B lymphocytes, and its anomalous expression has been associated with a clinical poor outcome.

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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the main cause of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AHA). However, the cellular basis underlying this strong association remains unclear. We previously demonstrated that leukemic B cells from patients with CLL recognize the erythrocyte protein Band 3, a prevalent autoantigen in AHA.

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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by the progressive accumulation of clonal B lymphocytes. Proliferation occurs in lymphoid tissues upon interaction of leukemic cells with a supportive microenvironment. Therefore, the mobilization of tissue-resident CLL cells into the circulation is a useful therapeutic strategy to minimize the reservoir of tumor cells within survival niches.

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The increasing need for multiple-labeling of cells and whole organisms for fluorescence microscopy has led to the development of hundreds of fluorophores that either directly recognize target molecules or organelles, or are attached to antibodies or other molecular probes. DNA labeling is essential to study nuclear-chromosomal structure, as well as for gel staining, but also as a usual counterstain in immunofluorescence, FISH or cytometry. However, there are currently few reliable red to far-red-emitting DNA stains that can be used.

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Activated T cells from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) provide survival and proliferative signals to the leukemic clone within lymphoid tissues. Recruitment of both, CLL cells and T lymphocytes, to this supportive microenvironment greatly depends on CXCL12 production by stromal and myeloid cells. CXCL12 also supplies survival stimuli to leukemic B cells, but whether it exerts stimulatory effects on T lymphocytes from CLL patients is unknown.

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Aplidin is a novel cyclic depsipeptide, currently in Phase II/III clinical trials for solid and hematologic malignancies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Aplidin in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common leukemia in the adult. Although there have been considerable advances in the treatment of CLL over the last decade, drug resistance and immunosuppression limit the use of current therapy and warrant the development of novel agents.

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Objective:  Richter's transformation of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is very rare. We took the advantage of one of these cases to test the hypothesis that the chemokine receptor CCR4 is involved in the homing of CLL cells to skin.

Patients And Methods:  We evaluated CCR4 expression by flow cytometry in both circulating and skin CD19(+) leukemic cells from a patient with cutaneous DLBCL.

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Background: T cells from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia may play an important role in contributing to the onset, sustenance, and exacerbation of the disease by providing survival and proliferative signals to the leukemic clone within lymph nodes and bone marrow.

Design And Methods: By performing chemotaxis assays towards CXCL12, CCL21 and CCL19, we sought to evaluate the migratory potential of T cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. We next analyzed the chemokine-induced migration of T cells, dividing the chronic lymphocytic leukemia samples according to their expression of the poor prognostic factors CD38 and ZAP-70 in leukemic cells determined by flow cytometry.

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