Publications by authors named "Rachel Tam"

Purpose: To evaluate linrodostat mesylate, a selective, oral indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) inhibitor, combined with nivolumab ± ipilimumab in advanced solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

Patients And Methods: In this phase 1/2 study, patients received once-daily (QD) linrodostat (part 1 [escalation], 25-400 mg; part 2 [expansion], 100 or 200 mg) plus nivolumab (480 mg every [Q] 4 weeks [W] or 240 mg Q2W) or triplet therapy (part 3, linrodostat 20-100 mg QD; nivolumab 360 mg Q3W or 480 mg Q4W; ipilimumab 1 mg/kg Q6W or Q8W). Endpoints included safety and efficacy (co-primary; parts 2, 3), pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, biomarkers, and efficacy (part 1).

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  • Alzheimer's disease is associated with impaired proteostasis, and enhancing it might help delay cognitive decline.
  • KPT-330 (Selinexor), an XPO1 inhibitor, shows promise in improving proteostasis and enhancing autophagy in neurons, leading to better memory in Alzheimer's models.
  • While KPT-330 increased overall amyloid deposition in the brain, it also resulted in lower levels of amyloid in specific areas like the thalamus, indicating that its effects on proteostasis and amyloid formation are region-specific.
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Memory T cells play a key role in immune protection against cancer. Vaccine-induced tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells in the lung have been shown to protect against lung metastasis. Identifying the source of lung TRM cells can help to improve strategies, preventing tumor metastasis.

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Aims: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems are standard of care for youth with type 1 diabetes with the goal of spending >70% time in range (TIR; 70-180 mg/dL, 3.9-10 mmol/L). We aimed to understand paediatric CGM user experiences with TIR metrics considering recent discussion of shifting to time in tight range (TITR; >50% time between 70 and 140 mg/dL, 3.

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  • COVID-19 can lead to heart issues, and different SARS-CoV-2 variants vary in how they impact heart cells (cardiomyocytes).
  • The study examined the effects of these variants using human heart cells grown in labs and tested them in Golden Syrian hamsters, revealing that the Omicron BA.2 variant had the most significant harmful effects on heart cells.
  • Findings indicate that Omicron BA.2 infects heart cells through a unique process and causes changes that could lead to heart dysfunction, suggesting that even variants seen as mild can pose serious risks for cardiac health and warrant further research.
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An intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, DelNS1-based RBD vaccines composed of H1N1 subtype (DelNS1-nCoV-RBD LAIV) was developed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity in healthy adults. We conducted a phase 1 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study on healthy participants, age 18-55 and COVID-19 vaccines naïve, between March and September 2021. Participants were enrolled and randomly assigned (2:2:1) into the low and high dose DelNS1-nCoV-RBD LAIV manufactured in chicken embryonated eggs or placebo groups.

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Background: Anti-programmed cell death protein 1 antibodies plus multikinase inhibitors have shown encouraging activity in several tumour types, including colorectal cancer. This study assessed regorafenib plus nivolumab in patients with microsatellite stable/mismatch repair-proficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

Methods: This single-arm, open-label, multicentre phase 2 study enrolled adults from 13 sites in the USA with previously treated advanced microsatellite stable/mismatch repair-proficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

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Current available vaccines for COVID-19 are effective in reducing severe diseases and deaths caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection but less optimal in preventing infection. Next-generation vaccines which are able to induce mucosal immunity in the upper respiratory to prevent or reduce infections caused by highly transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed. We have developed an intranasal vaccine candidate based on a live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) with a deleted NS1 gene that encodes cell surface expression of the receptor-binding-domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, designated DelNS1-RBD4N-DAF.

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Background: Therapeutic options are limited in pediatric CNS malignancies. CheckMate 908 (NCT03130959) is an open-label, sequential-arm, phase 1b/2 study investigating nivolumab (NIVO) and NIVO + ipilimumab (IPI) in pediatric patients with high-grade CNS malignancies.

Methods: Patients (N = 166) in 5 cohorts received NIVO 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks (Q2W) or NIVO 3 mg/kg + IPI 1 mg/kg every 3 weeks (4 doses) followed by NIVO 3 mg/kg Q2W.

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Background: The clinical development of immune checkpoint-targeted immunotherapies has been disappointing so far in paediatric solid tumours. However, as opposed to adults, very little is known about the immune contexture of paediatric malignancies.

Methods: We investigated by gene expression and immunohistochemistry (IHC) the immune microenvironment of five major paediatric cancers: Ewing sarcoma (ES), osteosarcoma (OS), rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), medulloblastoma (MB) and neuroblastoma (NB; 20 cases each; n = 100 samples total), and correlated them with overall survival.

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-shortening genetic disorder that affects the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. In the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, CFTR dysfunction results in low intestinal pH, thick and inspissated mucus, a lack of endogenous pancreatic enzymes, and reduced motility. These mechanisms, combined with antibiotic therapies, drive GI inflammation and significant alteration of the GI microbiota (dysbiosis).

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  • Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a serious genetic disorder that primarily affects the lungs but also impacts the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, leading to chronic inflammation and changes in gut bacteria.
  • The problems in the GI system are thought to arise from CFTR gene dysfunction, a high-fat diet typically followed by CF patients, and the frequent use of antibiotics.
  • Research indicates a connection between GI issues and overall health in CF, including impacts on growth, nutrition, quality of life, and lung function, suggesting that improving GI health could be beneficial, which warrants further studies and therapies.
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Background: Vaccines in emergency use are efficacious against COVID-19, yet vaccine-induced prevention against nasal SARS-CoV-2 infection remains suboptimal.

Methods: Since mucosal immunity is critical for nasal prevention, we investigated the efficacy of an intramuscular PD1-based receptor-binding domain (RBD) DNA vaccine (PD1-RBD-DNA) and intranasal live attenuated influenza-based vaccines (LAIV-CA4-RBD and LAIV-HK68-RBD) against SARS-CoV-2.

Findings: Substantially higher systemic and mucosal immune responses, including bronchoalveolar lavage IgA/IgG and lung polyfunctional memory CD8 T cells, were induced by the heterologous PD1-RBD-DNA/LAIV-HK68-RBD as compared with other regimens.

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  • Emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, like the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), quickly outcompete original strains in humans soon after they appear.
  • Research showed that the Alpha variant has higher competitive fitness, meaning it can spread more effectively than earlier strains.
  • In hamster models, the Alpha variant was able to replicate and be shed more efficiently in the nasal cavity, highlighting its potential for causing rapid transmission due to lower infection doses.
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  • - SARS-CoV-2, which originated from animals, has a specific genetic feature (PRRA polybasic cleavage motif) that helps it infect humans effectively.
  • - Researchers have developed a modified variant of the virus called Ca-DelMut, which shows better replication in lab cells but does not cause disease in hamsters despite replication in their respiratory tissues.
  • - Ca-DelMut stimulates a strong immune response in hamsters and mice and provides complete protection against a wild type SARS-CoV-2 challenge, showing it can induce sterilizing immunity.
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The neonatal mouse heart is capable of transiently regenerating after injury from postnatal day (P) 0-7 and macrophages are found important in this process. However, whether macrophages alone are sufficient to orchestrate this regeneration; what regulates cardiomyocyte proliferation; why cardiomyocytes do not proliferate after P7; and whether adaptive immune cells such as regulatory T-cells (Treg) influence neonatal heart regeneration have less studied. : We employed both loss- and gain-of-function transgenic mouse models to study the role of Treg in neonatal heart regeneration.

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Purpose: Four consensus molecular subtypes (CMS1-4) of colorectal cancer were identified in primary tumors and found to be associated with distinctive biological features and clinical outcomes. Given that distant metastasis largely accounts for colorectal cancer-related mortality, we examined the molecular and clinical attributes of CMS in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Experimental Design: We developed a colorectal cancer-focused NanoString-based CMS classifier that is ideally suited to interrogate archival tissues.

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Purpose: CALGB/SWOG 80405 was a randomized phase III trial that found no statistically significant difference in overall survival (OS) in patients with first-line metastatic colorectal cancer treated with chemotherapy plus either bevacizumab or cetuximab. Primary tumor DNA from 843 patients has been used to discover genetic markers of OS.

Patients And Methods: Gene mutations were determined by polymerase chain reaction.

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The HERBY trial was a phase II open-label, randomized, multicenter trial evaluating bevacizumab (BEV) in addition to temozolomide/radiotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed non-brainstem high-grade glioma (HGG) between the ages of 3 and 18 years. We carried out comprehensive molecular analysis integrated with pathology, radiology, and immune profiling. In post-hoc subgroup analysis, hypermutator tumors (mismatch repair deficiency and somatic POLE/POLD1 mutations) and those biologically resembling pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma ([PXA]-like, driven by BRAF_V600E or NF1 mutation) had significantly more CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and longer survival with the addition of BEV.

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Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and patients are managed clinically based on ER, PR, HER2 expression, and key risk factors. We sought to characterize the molecular landscape of high-risk breast cancer patients enrolled onto an adjuvant chemotherapy study to understand how disease subsets and tumor immune status impact survival. DNA and RNA were extracted from 861 breast cancer samples from patients enrolled onto the United States Oncology trial 01062.

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Background: The tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib improves the outcomes of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) harbouring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. The coexistence of the T790M resistance mutation with another EGFR mutation in treatment-naive patients has been associated with a shorter progression-free survival to EGFR inhibition than in the absence of the T790M mutation. To test this hypothesis clinically, we developed a proof-of-concept study, in which patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC were treated with the combination of erlotinib and bevacizumab, stratified by the presence of the pretreatment T790M mutation.

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  • - CLEC16A is linked to several autoimmune diseases, but its exact role in autoimmunity is not well understood.
  • - Recent research indicates that CLEC16A inhibits starvation-induced autophagy by activating the mTOR pathway, affecting how cells respond to nutrient availability.
  • - The study finds that CLEC16A is located in cytosolic vesicles and the Golgi, where it may regulate mTOR activity and autophagy, suggesting a connection to autoimmune mechanisms.
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In the age of personalized medicine stratifying tumors into molecularly defined subtypes associated with distinctive clinical behaviors and predictable responses to therapies holds tremendous value. Towards this end, we developed a custom microfluidics-based bladder cancer gene expression panel for characterization of archival clinical samples. In silico analysis indicated that the content of our panel was capable of accurately segregating bladder cancers from several public datasets into the clinically relevant basal and luminal subtypes.

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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multi-organ autoimmune disease characterized by hyperactivated immune responses to self-antigens and persistent systemic inflammation. Previously, we reported abnormalities in circulating and bone marrow (BM)-derived plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) from SLE patients. Here, we aim to seek for potential regulators that mediate functional aberrations of pDCs in SLE.

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