Anti-B-cell Maturation Antigen Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell Function against Multiple Myeloma Is Enhanced in the Presence of Lenalidomide.

Anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have shown promising clinical responses in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Lenalidomide, an immunomodulatory drug, potentiates T cell functionality, drives antimyeloma activity, and alters the suppressive microenvironment; these properties may effectively combine with anti-BCMA CAR T cells to enhance function. Using an anti-BCMA CAR T, we demonstrated that lenalidomide enhances CAR T cell function in a concentration-dependent manner.

Interleukin-21 combined with PD-1 or CTLA-4 blockade enhances antitumor immunity in mouse tumor models.

Recent advances in cancer treatment with checkpoint blockade of receptors such as CTLA-4 and PD-1 have demonstrated that combinations of agents with complementary immunomodulatory effects have the potential to enhance antitumor activity as compared to single agents. We investigated the efficacy of immune-modulatory interleukin-21 (IL-21) combined with checkpoint blockade in several syngeneic mouse tumor models. After tumor establishment, mice were administered recombinant mouse IL-21 (mIL-21) alone or in combination with blocking monoclonal antibodies against mouse PD-1 or CTLA-4.

Parkin-deficient mice are not more sensitive to 6-hydroxydopamine or methamphetamine neurotoxicity.

Background: Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP) is caused by mutations in the parkin gene which encodes an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase. Parkin is thought to be critical for protecting dopaminergic neurons from toxic insults by targeting misfolded or oxidatively damaged proteins for proteasomal degradation. Surprisingly, mice with targeted deletions of parkin do not recapitulate robust behavioral or pathological signs of parkinsonism.

Norepinephrine- and epinephrine-deficient mice gain weight normally on a high-fat diet.

Objective: Signaling through adrenergic receptors (ARs) by norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (Epi) regulates weight gain when mice are fed a high-fat diet (HFD) by controlling diet-induced thermogenesis. Thus, one would predict that mice unable to make NE/Epi because of inactivation of the dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene (Dbh-null mice) would have a propensity to become obese. We characterized the response of Dbh-null and control mice to a HFD.

Neuropeptide Y protects against methamphetamine-induced neuronal apoptosis in the mouse striatum.

Methamphetamine (METH) is an illicit drug that causes neuronal apoptosis in the mouse striatum, in a manner similar to the neuronal loss observed in neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, injections of METH to mice were found to cause the death of enkephalin-positive projection neurons but not the death of neuropeptide Y (NPY)/nitric oxide synthase-positive striatal interneurons. In addition, these METH injections were associated with increased expression of neuropeptide Y mRNA and changes in the expression of the NPY receptors Y1 and Y2.