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Bibliography on: Publications by FHCRC Researchers

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ESP: PubMed Auto Bibliography 12 Nov 2026 at 01:48 Created: 

Publications by FHCRC Researchers

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center began in 1975, with critical help from Washington State's U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson. Fred Hutch quickly became the permanent home to Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who had spent decades developing an innovative treatment for leukemia and other blood cancers. Thomas and his colleagues were working to cure cancer by transplanting human bone marrow after otherwise lethal doses of chemotherapy and radiation. At the Hutch, Thomas improved this treatment and readied it for widespread use. Since then, the pioneering procedure has saved hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. While improving bone marrow transplantation remains central to Fred Hutch's research, it is now only part of its efforts. The Hutch is home to five scientific divisions, three Nobel laureates and more than 2,700 faculty, who collectively have published more than 10,000 scientific papers, presented here as a full bibliography.

NOTE: From 1995 to 2009 I served as the Hutch's vice president for information technology — hence my interest in the organization. Although my role was in the admin division, if you dig through this bibliography, you will find a couple of papers with me as an author.

Created with PubMed® Query: ( fhcrc[Affiliation] OR "fred hutchinson"[Affiliation] OR "Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research"[Affiliation] OR "Fred Hutch"[affiliation] ) NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

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RevDate: 2026-10-31
CmpDate: 2026-10-30

Brick K, Jarman KH, Nolte F, et al (2026)

Microbial cell-free DNA sequencing for diagnosing lung infections in immunocompromised patients.

Respiratory research, 27(1):.

RATIONALE: Rapid and comprehensive detection of respiratory pathogens is essential for immunocompromised patients with suspected pneumonia. Conventional diagnostic methods are limited in scope, often slow, and lack sensitivity, leading to reduced diagnostic yield.

OBJECTIVES: To analytically and clinically validate a microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) sequencing assay for bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) that enables broad and sensitive detection of pathogens causing pneumonia in immunocompromised patients.

METHODS: The BALF-mcfDNA assay detects more than 500 bacteria, DNA viruses, fungi, and parasites. Analytical validation used 324 contrived samples containing DNA from 11 representative organisms and 1,294 in-silico samples. Clinical validation compared BALF-mcfDNA sequencing with usual care (UC) testing in 118 immunocompromised adults with suspected pneumonia. An independent expert panel adjudicated the etiologic diagnoses.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: BALF-mcfDNA testing demonstrated high inclusivity (97%), exclusivity (96%), and precision (coefficient of variation < 15%), with linear quantification across four orders of magnitude. Limits of detection were consistent across taxa, GC content, and genome size. In clinical evaluation, BALF-mcfDNA sequencing identified probable pneumonia pathogens in 34% of participants versus 24% for UC testing, increasing diagnostic yield by 43% (57% when combined with UC). In 24% of concordant cases, mcfDNA sequencing provided additional clinically relevant information by identifying new or species-level pathogens.

CONCLUSIONS: BALF-mcfDNA sequencing enables sensitive, comprehensive, and rapid pathogen detection from BALF specimens, outperforming conventional methods and improving etiologic diagnosis of pneumonia in immunocompromised hosts.

RevDate: 2026-11-03
CmpDate: 2026-10-30

Intara AS, Guthrie KA, Chauhan SSB, et al (2026)

Lanreotide for the prevention of postoperative pancreatic fistula (S2408): study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Trials, 27(1):.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) remains the defining complication of pancreatectomy, leading to significant morbidity, mortality, and increased healthcare costs. Multiple studied interventions have failed to meaningfully reduce the incidence of POPF, which is estimated to affect 25-30% of distal pancreatectomy patients. Since the early 1990s, studies have explored the role of perioperative somatostatin analogs (SSAs) for POPF prophylaxis, including octreotide. A randomized trial of perioperative pasireotide reported a reduced incidence of POPF, but faced criticism due to its single-center design, inconvenient dosing regimen, and pasireotide's high rate of dose-limiting side effects. Lanreotide is a more recently developed SSA with a simpler dosing regimen due to its depot formulation and a favorable side-effects profile that has been proposed for POPF prophylaxis. In a single-arm phase II trial, a single dose of preoperative lanreotide was associated with low POPF rates of 11% and 3% in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) and distal pancreatectomy (DP), respectively.

METHODS: S2408 is a multicenter, phase III randomized controlled trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Prevention comparing the incidence of POPF in participants receiving a single dose of preoperative lanreotide (120 mg subcutaneous) versus saline placebo immediately prior to DP for suspected or biopsy-proven pancreatic malignancy. Planned enrollment of 274 participants will take place at academic and community hospitals in North America. The primary objective is to compare the incidence of POPF within 60 days after surgery between treatment groups. Secondary objectives include comparing the incidences of other postoperative sequelae (biochemical leak, delayed gastric emptying, post-pancreatectomy hemorrhage) within 60 days of surgery, postoperative length of hospital stay, and changes from baseline in cancer-specific quality of life between treatment groups. Blood, drain fluid, and tissue specimens will be banked for future correlative studies.

DISCUSSION: S2408 is a multicenter clinical trial designed to evaluate the hypothesis that a single dose of preoperative lanreotide will reduce the incidence of POPF in patients undergoing DP compared to placebo.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06807437. Registered on February 2, 2025. Trial opened for accrual February 14, 2025. URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06807437 .

RevDate: 2026-10-31

Onwuka JU, Nobels MP, Kreimer AR, et al (2026)

Comparison of HPV Antibodies Measured Prior to Diagnosis of Anal, Cervical, Oropharyngeal, Penile and Vaginal Cancers in the HPV Cancer Cohort Consortium.

International journal of cancer [Epub ahead of print].

Antibodies against HPV proteins can provide pre-diagnostic information about cancer development. We described the prevalence of antibodies to proteins of oncogenic HPV types prior to diagnosis of HPV-related cancers. We analysed pre-diagnostic blood from 1700 participants with incident HPV-related cancers (anal = 387, cervical = 274, oropharyngeal = 788, penile = 168, vaginal = 83) and 6221 controls from nine prospective cohorts in Europe, North America and Australia in the HPV Cancer Cohort Consortium. We measured antibodies against E6, E7 and L1 proteins for 6 HPV types, and additionally against E1, E2, E4, E6, E7 and L1 proteins of HPV16 and 18. We described seroprevalence by lead time from blood draw to cancer diagnosis (range: 0-43 years). We found that among oropharyngeal cancers, seroprevalence increased approaching diagnosis for HPV16 E1, E2, E4, E6, E7, L1 and HPV18 E1, E2, L1 (HPV16-E6: from 10.4% at > 20 years to 35.8% at 0-5 years, vs. 0.3% in controls). Anal cancer showed similar patterns for HPV16 E1, E2, E4, E6 and L1 and HPV18 E2 (HPV16-E6: from 3.8% at > 20 years to 29.8% at 0-5 years). No trends were observed for cervical, penile, or vaginal cancers. In a multivariable model fit among cases, HPV16-E6 seropositivity was higher at shorter lead times and more recent calendar periods, lower among US non-Hispanic Blacks, and varied by cancer type (highest in oropharyngeal followed by anal, vaginal, penile and cervical) (all p < 0.03). In conclusion, pre-diagnostic HPV antibody responses vary by cancer type, with seroprevalence of 6-9 HPV proteins increasing approaching diagnosis for oropharyngeal and anal cancers, but not cervical, penile or vaginal cancers.

RevDate: 2026-10-31

Beydoun MA, Beydoun HA, Manson JE, et al (2026)

Body Mass Index-Specific Central Adiposity and Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes Among Aging Women.

The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism pii:9005737 [Epub ahead of print].

CONTEXT: Body mass index (BMI) does not capture central adiposity, which may provide additional information for type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk stratification.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate BMI-specific waist circumference (WC) categories in relation to incident T2D and assess their performance across independent cohorts.

METHODS: Prospective analyses included 133,620 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) participants free of T2D at baseline, randomly assigned to training (70%; n=93,463) and test (30%; n=40,157) samples. External validation included the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; n=2,885) and Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS; n=1,037). Cox models estimated T2D risk across BMI and BMI-specific WC categories. Discrimination was assessed using Harrell's C-statistic.

RESULTS: In WHI, T2D risk increased progressively across BMI categories (adjusted hazard ratios [HRs], 1.51-3.30) and joint BMI-WC categories (HRs, 1.40-4.43). Within BMI strata, higher WC generally identified greater T2D risk. Associations were directionally consistent in HRS and HANDLS. Age modified associations, with stronger gradients at younger ages, whereas race and ethnicity interactions were not statistically significant. Model discrimination was modest (C-statistics approximately 0.60-0.75).

CONCLUSIONS: BMI-specific WC categories refine adiposity-related T2D risk stratification beyond BMI alone but provide modest individual-level discrimination. WC may complement BMI in identifying women warranting more comprehensive metabolic risk assessment rather than serving as a stand-alone T2D prediction tool.

RevDate: 2026-11-05
CmpDate: 2026-11-05

Lee MA, Viallon V, Muller DC, et al (2026)

Proteomic markers of colorectal cancer risk: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences.

BACKGROUND: Circulating proteins are promising biomarkers of colorectal cancer risk. Most studies combine colon and rectal cancer despite their biological differences.

OBJECTIVE: To identify proteins associated with colorectal, colon, and rectal cancer risk and triangulate findings using cross-cohort confirmation and Mendelian randomisation (MR).

DESIGN: We profiled 6,402 proteins, using the SomaScan 7K assay in a case-cohort study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC; 658 colon and 319 rectal cancers). Cox models identified proteins associated with cancer risk at a false discovery rate <5%. Findings were confirmed in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (ARIC; SomaScan; 235 colon, 36 rectal) and UK Biobank (Olink Explore; 321 colon, 164 rectal). MR and genetic colocalisation evaluated potential causality.

RESULTS: We identified 36 proteins associated with colorectal cancer, 50 with colon cancer, and 2 with rectal cancer; 20 of the 36 were also associated with colon cancer and none with rectal cancer, and no protein was associated with both sites. Seven of the 40 colon cancer proteins available in ARIC were confirmed, including COMP, MIC-1/GDF15, TFF3, and THIK. Of these, MIC-1/GDF15 and TFF3 were also confirmed in UK Biobank. COMP was inversely associated with colon cancer risk observationally and in MR analyses.

CONCLUSION: Colon and rectal cancers have different pre-diagnostic proteomic profiles, underlining the need for site-specific analyses. COMP, MIC-1/GDF15, and TFF3 were the most robustly supported biomarkers of colon cancer risk. Future work should prioritise experimental validation of these associations and use of repeated measures to define timing.

RevDate: 2026-11-02
CmpDate: 2026-11-02

Tosto FA, Morris PJ, Qu Y, et al (2026)

Kinome profiling enabled development of a LATS1/2 inhibitor with wound healing potential.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(45):e2602240123.

System-level mapping of kinase inhibitors' polypharmacology can uncover opportunities for drug repurposing and identify starting points for medicinal chemistry campaigns aimed at novel targets. Here, we describe a large-scale profiling of 257 kinase inhibitors that revealed domains of promiscuity, a broad region of uninhibited targets and discrete pockets of selectivity. Focusing on a subcluster enriched for AGC group kinases and using the AKT inhibitor AT-7867 (an antiproliferative agent) as a starting point, we employed scaffold hopping and property-based optimization to discover NCGC-6782, a LATS1/2 inhibitor with robust proproliferative activity. In biochemical and cell-based assays, NCGC-6782 inhibited LATS1/2 activity, reduced YAP phosphorylation, and promoted rapid YAP nuclear translocation and transactivation of YAP-target genes. Kinome-wide profilings demonstrated good in vitro selectivity and exquisite chemoproteomic and kinetic selectivity. In vivo, NCGC-6782 exhibited favorable pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles following intraperitoneal (IP), intravenous (IV), or oral (PO) dosing, leading to rapid inhibition of YAP-phosphorylation in murine liver samples. Transcriptomics and proteomics following NCGC-6782 revealed upregulation of YAP-dependent genes (4 h) followed by activation of cell cycle programs (24 h). Consistently, NCGC-6782 accelerated proliferative regeneration in both cell-based and in vivo wound healing models of full-thickness excisional skin injury, significantly shortening wound-closure time without evidence of systemic toxicity. Altogether, we describe an optimized, potent, and selective LATS1/2 kinase inhibitor with desirable drug-like properties and broad potential for regenerative medicine applications following acute injury of nonproliferative, postmitotic tissues.

RevDate: 2026-11-02

Farhadfar N, He N, Logan B, et al (2026)

Quality of Life and Late Effects Following Haploidentical vs. Matched Unrelated Donor Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Secondary Analysis of BMT CTN 1702.

Transplantation and cellular therapy pii:S2666-6367(26)00865-1 [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: Quality of life (QoL) is a critical indicator of therapeutic benefit and long-term recovery after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The BMT CTN 1702 clinical trial (NCT03904134), a multicenter study (2019-2022) evaluating donor search, selection practices and outcomes of HCT using alternative donor sources, incorporated QoL as a secondary endpoint. The aim of the QoL sub-study was to explore the long-term QoL in a more homogenous subset of patients with AML/ALL in CR1 and early-stage MDS who provided additional clinical and patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data, comparing those receiving matched unrelated donor (MUD) with Haploidentical (Haplo) donors.

METHODS: QoL was assessed using PROMIS measures and the Lee Symptom Scale (LSS). PROs were completed at baseline, 1 and 2 years post-HCT. PRO analysis used a generalized estimating equation linear regression model. Late effects, infection rates, and healthcare utilization were also compared.

RESULTS: 304 patients were analyzed (61 Haplo and 243 MUD). While PRO submission rates at baseline were similar, retention in the MUD cohort was higher than Haplo (80% and 83% vs. 58% and 60% at year 1 and year 2, respectively). There were no significant differences in QoL between haplo and MUD HCT recipients at baseline or throughout the 2-year post-transplant period. Both groups entered transplantation with substantial impairments in global physical and mental health relative to the U.S. population norms. No significant differences in late effects were observed within 2 years of HCT. The use of Haplo donors was associated with significantly more hospital days (median days 27.0 vs. 21.0, p<0.01). and more viral infections (49.2% vs. 31.8%, p=0.01) in the first 100 days. In a subset analysis restricted to patients receiving PTCy (N=117) for GVHD prophylaxis, the differences in hospital days were diminished; however, differences in viral infection remained (48.2% vs. 28.0%, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the use of a haplo or MUD donor is not associated with differences in post-HCT QoL trajectories, while highlighting substantial pre-transplant symptom burden across all recipients. Despite similar QoL trajectories and late effect profile, the increased viral infections in Haplo HCT may reflect differences in post-transplant medical complications. Future studies with larger cohorts and longer follow-up will be essential to refine these observations and guide strategies to improve long term outcomes.

RevDate: 2026-11-02

Serber DW, Jhuraney A, Wittowski CL, et al (2026)

POLA2-Related Coats Plus Syndrome: Case Presentation and Description of an Emerging Disorder.

Clinical genetics [Epub ahead of print].

We report an adult male with bilateral retinal vascular disease, hypocellular bone marrow failure, severe gastrointestinal bleeding, and premature hair graying, with telomere lengths near the 10th percentile. Exome sequencing resulted in the diagnosis of POLA2-related Coats plus syndrome, making him the sixth reported case.

RevDate: 2026-11-05
CmpDate: 2026-11-02

Schildcrout R, Rhoads N, S Chandrasekaran (2026)

Roadmap for inferring metabolic regulation using multiomics, machine learning, and genome-scale modeling.

npj metabolic health and disease, 4(1):.

Machine learning and genome-scale metabolic modeling have accelerated the discovery of metabolic-regulatory relationships in model microbes and mammalian cells. This review provides a roadmap for integrating omics with computational methods for studying systems-level transcriptional, post-translational, and allosteric regulation. Developing methods to infer and integrate multiple regulatory mechanisms simultaneously is essential for discovering novel modes of metabolic regulation and precise engineering of metabolic networks.

RevDate: 2026-11-02

Wainberg M, Sinnott-Armstrong N, Clauw DJ, et al (2026)

Genomics for chronic overlapping pain conditions.

Nature reviews. Genetics [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2026-11-03

Ponce DM, DeFilipp Z, Ford CB, et al (2026)

A live biotherapeutic product for adult allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients: a partially randomized, placebo-controlled phase 1b trial.

Nature medicine [Epub ahead of print].

Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome disruption and impaired GI barrier integrity increase the risk of bloodstream infection (BSI) following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant. Here we report results from a two-cohort (open-label, n = 15; randomized, placebo-controlled, n = 45) phase 1b study of SER-155, an investigational, cultivated, multi-strain, oral live biotherapeutic designed to address GI microbiome disruption GI epithelial barrier integrity in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. In cohort 2, 34 of 45 participants received either SER-155 treatment (n = 20, SER-155 following microbiome conditioning with oral vancomycin), or placebo (n = 14), and subsequently received transplant. For the primary safety endpoint, SER-155 was well tolerated, with a safety profile comparable to placebo, no treatment-related serious adverse events and no infections with SER-155 species; the most common adverse events were diarrhea and nausea. Four participants in cohort 1 and four participants in cohort 2 (two participants in the SER-155 arm and two in the placebo arm) died during the study; none was attributable to SER-155. For the primary pharmacokinetic endpoint, engraftment was detected for 16 of 16 SER-155 strains, with a median of 11.5 strains detected after the first treatment course. The key secondary efficacy endpoint revealed a significantly lower incidence of BSI with SER-155 versus placebo (10.0% versus 43%; OR 0.15; 95% CI 0.01-1.13; P = 0.0423; 77% relative risk reduction). Other secondary efficacy endpoints (GI infection, acute graft-versus-host disease ≥grade 2, febrile neutropenia and a composite endpoint of BSI, GI infection or acute graft-versus-host disease) were not statistically significant. The secondary pharmacodynamic endpoint of GI domination by Enterococcus and Enterobacteriaceae spp. was not achieved. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04995653 .

RevDate: 2026-10-29

Mehta RS, Schmidt G, Williams K, et al (2026)

Corrigendum to Choosing Between HLA-Mismatched Unrelated and Haploidentical Donors: Donor Age Considerations Transplant Cell Ther. 2025 Sep;31(9):680-692. doi: 10.1016/j.jtct.2025.05.019. Epub 2025 May 24.

RevDate: 2026-11-03

Tsai AK, Rollins MR, Ellefson MA, et al (2026)

Promoting tumor antigen presentation unleashes therapeutic efficacy of Tgfbr2-deficient TCR-engineered T cells in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 14(10):.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a lethal malignancy with limited therapeutic options. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using tumor-reactive T cell receptor-engineered T cells (TCR-T) is a promising therapeutic modality for targeting PDA. However, additional strategies are needed to overcome the suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) that impairs T cell persistence and function. Tumor growth factor-β (TGFβ) is a prominent immunosuppressive component of the TME, but is also believed to be critical for T cell memory.

METHODS: We develop aggressive immunocompetent orthotopic Kras[LSL-G12D/+];Trp53[LSL-R172H/+];p48-Cre (KPC) PDA mouse models to identify obstacles to sustained activity of TCR-T cell therapy targeting the native tumor antigen, mesothelin (Msln). During ACT, we track TCR-T cell fate, function, antitumor effects, and interactions with type I dendritic cells using flow cytometry, two-photon microscopy, and live-cell imaging. Based on an abundance of TGFβ and a halt in TCR-T cell differentiation in orthotopic tumors, TCR-T cells with defective Tgfbr2 are tested in a new model, where peptide-major histocompatibility complex-I (pMHC-I) is incrementally augmented on KPC tumor cells.

RESULTS: TCR-T cells accumulated in orthotopic PDA but were rendered dysfunctional despite lacking features of exhaustion. KPC tumor cells express minimal constitutive MHC-I, resulting in suboptimal recognition by TCR-T cells. Modestly increasing pMHC-I on KPC tumor cells restored canonical differentiation of TCR-T cells into PD-1[+] progenitor exhausted (TPEX) in PDA, but failed to rescue interferon-γ (IFNγ) production. TGFβ was enriched in tumor nests, and deletion of Tgfbr2 in TCR-T cells enhanced dendritic cell interactions, reduced intratumoral TGFβ deposition, restored IFNγ production, and improved therapeutic efficacy without compromising TCR-T cell longevity or tissue residency.

CONCLUSIONS: Modestly enhancing tumor-intrinsic pMHC-I unleashes therapeutic efficacy and functionality of Tgfbr2-disrupted TCR-T cells in PDA.

RevDate: 2026-10-29
CmpDate: 2026-10-29

Demirci RA, A Iravani (2026)

Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen PET/Computed Tomography in Prostate Cancer: Staging, Restaging, Interpretation, and Clinical Management.

Radiologic clinics of North America, 64(6):1111-1126.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/computed tomography has transformed prostate cancer imaging, offering superior diagnostic accuracy over conventional modalities. This article provides radiology professionals with a practical guide to available PSMA PET agents, interpretation, appropriate use criteria, standardized reporting frameworks, and common interpretation pitfalls.

RevDate: 2026-10-30

Wang R, Hamilton EG, Almanza D, et al (2026)

Enhanced cfDNA methylation profiling by detection and correction of jagged ends.

Nature methods [Epub ahead of print].

Analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation can enable noninvasive disease detection by leveraging tissue-specific epigenetic differences between malignant and nonmalignant cells. However, such analyses can be confounded by the repair of jagged DNA fragment ends during double-stranded sequencing library preparation, which introduces spurious methylation signals into cfDNA molecules. Here we present JEEPERS, a framework to detect and correct jagged-end-induced methylation errors while preserving duplex integrity and native methylation patterns. We showed high fidelity for measuring tumor burden and demonstrated allele-specific methylation differences at recurrent somatic mutations, revealing a link between adjacent CpG methylation and EGFR/TP53 driver and resistance mutations. We further demonstrated enhanced diagnostic performance across liquid biopsy applications, including tumor-type-specific methylation profiles, hemimethylation profiling, epigenetic-clock-based age estimation and cell type deconvolution. By faithfully correcting end-repair errors, JEEPERS provides a versatile framework for integrating mutations and methylation features in cfDNA at high resolution, enabling more precise molecular profiling and disease monitoring.

RevDate: 2026-10-30

Im A, Wang T, DeFilipp Z, et al (2026)

Clinical risk factors alone do not predict the development of moderate-severe chronic graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic cell transplantation and post-transplant cyclophosphamide.

RevDate: 2026-11-05
CmpDate: 2026-10-29

Lundin JI, Graff M, Haessler J, et al (2026)

Transcriptomic signatures of lipids in blood provide hypotheses of functional mechanisms linked to lipid metabolism and immune-cell regulation.

Human molecular genetics, 35(22):.

Blood lipids are well-established risk factors for cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, yet the underlying functional mechanisms remain unclear. We conducted a large-scale, genome-wide transcriptome analysis of serum lipid levels using whole blood RNA-sequencing data from 6898 individuals of diverse races and ethnicities (17% Black or African American, 15% Hispanic Latino/a, 68% White). We utilized mixed-effects linear regression and meta-analyzed four discovery datasets (n = 4398 participants), identifying significant associations for 27 genes with low-density lipoproteins (LDL), 974 with high-density lipoproteins (HDL), 1229 with triglycerides (TRIG), and 276 with total cholesterol (TCHO). Two replication datasets (n = 2500 participants) confirmed 3, 55, 380, and 31 genes, respectively. Enrichment analysis revealed lipid metabolic processes for LDL, HDL, and TCHO associated genes, including LDLR, NPC2, and SQLE for LDL and TCHO, while TRIG associated genes highlighted immune and allergic response, cancer, and molecular signaling gene enrichment pathways. To infer causality, we performed bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization analyses. MR identified the expression of 8 genes as possibly causal for lipid levels; notable EEPD1 expression, linked with cellular cholesterol homeostasis, was inversely linked with TRIG levels. We also identified novel variants shared with LDL levels and gene expression of DDAH2, associated with cardiovascular disease, and TRIG level and expression of FCGRT, linked with maintaining triglyceride homeostasis. Phenome-wide enrichment analyses reported TRIG associated genes were enriched in secondary malignancy of bone suggesting broader systemic health implications of modified lipid levels. These findings highlight novel associations and genetic regulatory mechanisms as potential therapeutic targets for lipid dysregulation.

RevDate: 2026-10-29

Santos JJS, Souza CK, Zanella GC, et al (2026)

An mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine against H5N1 influenza virus protects lactating dairy cows from infection.

Nature biotechnology [Epub ahead of print].

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 virus has recently emerged in dairy cattle in the USA, leading to mastitis and sharp reductions in milk production. The main site of H5N1 viral replication is the mammary tissue rather than the respiratory tract and viral transmission between animals is thought to occur through viral shedding in milk. Here, we generate an mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) vaccine encoding the hemagglutinin (HA) of A/dairy cattle/Texas/24-008749-002/2024, representative of circulating bovine H5N1 viruses, and assess its immunogenicity and efficacy in lactating dairy cows. Eight cows were divided into vaccinated and control groups, receiving two intramuscular doses of the vaccine or saline, followed by intramammary viral challenge. Vaccination elicited HA-reactive and neutralizing antibodies in serum and HA-reactive antibodies in milk. Following viral challenge, vaccinated cows had ~1,000-fold lower peak viral RNA in milk and a lower occurrence of mastitis and mammary fibrosis.

RevDate: 2026-10-29

Najjar R, Wang X, Shaikh F, et al (2026)

T and B cells recognize splicing-derived neutrophil neoantigens in lupus.

Nature [Epub ahead of print].

Proteome diversity is generated through alternative mRNA splicing[1]. In tumours, mis-spliced transcripts that contain intronic sequences, skipped exons or noncanonical donor/acceptor splice junctions resulting in frameshifts are often translated into neoantigens that drive anti-tumour immunity[2,3]. Here we report that neutrophils from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), unlike neutrophils from healthy donors or patients with rheumatoid arthritis, contain many aberrantly spliced gene transcripts, the translation of which was predicted to result in novel amino acid sequences that are absent in normal splice variants or any other proteins. Twenty-one peptides derived from these novel amino acid sequences were detected by mass spectrometry on class I major histocompatibility complex molecules in patient samples. Co-culture of T cells from patients with overlapping sets of 15-mer peptides from the novel sequences resulted in the expansion of CD4[+] and CD8[+] T cells that were rapidly reactivated to secrete interferon-γ. T cell antigen receptor sequencing and re-expression transferred neoantigen reactivity to a reporter T cell. Serum from patients with SLE also contained IgG autoantibodies that recognized epitopes within the novel amino acid sequences. Our findings demonstrate that dysregulated mRNA splicing in SLE neutrophils generates neoantigens that have caused T and B cell activation, clonal expansion, IgG class-switch and autoimmunity.

RevDate: 2026-11-07
CmpDate: 2026-11-07

Simon JJ, Pendyala S, Adebanjo AF, et al (2026)

Pathway-scale variant effect mapping reveals the importance of cell context.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Variation alters inherent protein properties like thermodynamic stability and catalytic activity, and these intrinsic effects are shaped by the cellular environment. The RAS-MAPK signaling pathway typifies this interplay, with hundreds of proteins acting in concert through regulated states and interactions to transduce signals. To explore how cell context influences variant effects, we measured the abundance and pathway activity of 186,676 variants across 17 MAPK proteins in human cells under diverse conditions, for a total of 503,099 measurements. We discovered 14,412 dominant negative variants, nearly all previously unknown, that disrupt specific domains or interaction interfaces while preserving other functions. MAPK dominant negatives occur at conserved positions and are depleted from the human population relative to other activity-altering variants, representing a distinct constraint on the human genome. Modulating chaperone activity exposed previously hidden effects of genetic variation on protein abundance in human cells, revealing the HSP90 dependence of 67% of missense variants across the pathway. Combining hundreds of experimental and predicted protein interaction structures with variant effect data distinguished functional from non-functional interaction interfaces and revealed how their disruption affected function. We resolved the overlapping KRAS-LZTR1-SOS1 interface into partner-specific and shared binding determinants, identified allosteric networks supporting each interaction, and uncovered distinct mechanisms by which variants promote LZTR1-mediated degradation. Thus, we measure variant effects at pathway scale in human cells, illuminating fundamental MAPK pathway signaling mechanisms and demonstrating that cellular context profoundly shapes the effect of most variants.

RevDate: 2026-10-28
CmpDate: 2026-10-28

Lill E, Dinh E, Dhami M, et al (2026)

Profiling Active Regulatory Elements in Archival Mouse Tissue by Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Cleavage Under Targeted Accessible Chromatin.

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE.

The standard for long-term storage of tissue samples is formalin fixation and paraffin embedding (FFPE), a method that allows samples to be archived at room temperature for decades. However, RNA degrades during storage, and prolonged exposure to ~4% formaldehyde damages RNA and DNA, limiting the utility of RNA sequencing for expression profiling. Our Cleavage Under Targeted Accessible Chromatin (CUTAC) adaptation of CUT&Tag for in situ open chromatin mapping provides high-resolution, genome-wide profiling of FFPE samples, including sections from decades-old tissue blocks. Here, we demonstrate a step-by-step on-slide FFPE-CUTAC protocol, using an antibody to RNA Polymerase II Serine-5 phosphate (RNAPII-S5p), which marks the transcriptional machinery at active regulatory elements when it is paused just before productive elongation, thereby capturing a proxy for active transcription. This workflow makes epigenomic profiling simple and affordable, opening the door to profiling archival samples for clinical applications, retrospective studies, basic transcriptome research, and broader translational research.

RevDate: 2026-10-28

Shadman M, Nastoupil LJ, Patel K, et al (2026)

CAR T-cell therapy referral patterns and utilization for relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma in the United States.

Blood advances pii:571807 [Epub ahead of print].

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has improved outcomes for patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B‑cell lymphoma (LBCL), yet access in routine clinical practice remains limited. We evaluated referral patterns, durability of clinical benefit, and health care resource utilization (HCRU) among US patients with R/R LBCL. Komodo Health US claims data were retrospectively analyzed (October 2016‒May 2025). Adults with R/R LBCL after ≥2 prior lines of therapy who received CAR T-cell therapy at authorized treatment centers (ATC) were included; patients were stratified by referral and treatment status. Outcomes included referral rates, demographics and subsequent treatment, time‑to‑next treatment or death (TTNT-D), and 12‑month postinfusion HCRU. Among 8959 patients, 20% were referred to an ATC and 15% received CAR T-cell therapy (7% originated at an ATC, 8% referred to an ATC). Referred patients were younger (median age, 61.5 vs 67.3 years; P<0.001) and lived closer to ATCs (median distance 17 vs 24 miles; P<0.001). Among referred patients, baseline demographics were similar between CAR T-cell therapy-treated and nontreated groups. In the second‑line closed‑claims cohort, CAR T-cell therapy recipients had longer TTNT-D compared with the nontreated group (median 28 vs 12 months; P<0.005). Inpatient utilization peaked at 1 month postinfusion (mean 1.54 vs 0.62 visits) before declining to similar rates (0.81 vs 0.59). Most eligible patients with R/R LBCL did not receive CAR T-cell therapy due to referral gaps or alternative treatment selection at ATCs. Strengthening referral pathways and increasing awareness of the benefits of CAR T-cell therapy may enable broader, more equitable access.

RevDate: 2026-11-05

Schildkraut JM, Marks JR, Peres LC, et al (2026)

The Duffy-Null genotype and epithelial ovarian cancer survival in a cohort of Black women.

Gynecologic oncology, 215:16-24 [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVE: Black women experience poor survival from epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) for all stages at diagnosis and histotypes. The contribution of an ancestry-related genotype in the Atypical Chemokine Receptor 1 (ACKR1) gene to mortality after an EOC diagnosis in Black women has not been previously reported.

METHODS: The relationship between the Duffy-null genotype (CC) in the ACKR1 gene and overall post-enrollment mortality in 408 Black women with EOC, including 275 with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) was evaluated using Bayesian modeling approach to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% credible intervals (CI) adjusting for stage, age at diagnosis, socioeconomic factors, and ovarian cancer family history. Tumor immune and genetic features were generated from sequencing assays on subsets of the HGSC cases.

RESULTS: The CC genotype was associated with reduced all-cause mortality among EOC cases (adjusted HR = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.36-0.99). Among HGSC, the CC genotype was associated with higher African origin, lower ACKR1 expression (p = 0.049), lower cytotoxic T cell abundance (p = 0.062), and a higher frequency of homologous recombination deficient (HRD) tumors (p = 0.051).

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the Duffy-null CC genotype was associated with 40% lower EOC all-cause mortality in Black women. These are hypothesis-generating findings that require replication and further inquiry into mechanisms.

RevDate: 2026-11-06
CmpDate: 2026-11-06

Masyuko S, Gimbel S, Chan B, et al (2026)

Applying the Implementation Research Logic Model (IRLM) as a research planning tool in a multi-project, rural health initiative to improve cardiovascular health service delivery outcomes and quality.

Research square.

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, domestic and global initiatives are being designed to build synergistic networks of leading researchers to tackle major health challenges. In this case study, we applied the Implementation Research Logic Model (IRLM) to individual projects to enhance collaboration, learning and knowledge generation across a large research network.

METHODS: The ReciPROcal Innovations to Improve Cardiovascular Care in Rural America (Rural PRO-CARE) network, is a five-project initiative funded by the American Heart Association. The network used the IRLM to facilitate implementation planning and learning across projects testing a variety of implementation strategies to improve cardiovascular health outcomes in rural America. A collaborative case study approach identified determinants, implementation strategies, mechanisms and outcomes for each project using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC), and Implementation Outcomes Framework (IOF) respectively. Projects developed causal pathway diagrams to define mechanisms of action for their specified implementation strategies. Semi-structured group interviews using an After-Action Review (AAR) approach, elucidated each teams' understanding of how the IRLM worked, what was successful and how the process could improve.

RESULTS: Within the first year of the initiative, each project developed an IRLM which provided a visual and theoretical structure for planning, implementation and evaluation. This process identified similarities and differences across projects' determinants, strategies and outcomes. The most frequently identified barriers to effective implementation of cardiovascular health strategies in rural America were high care and insurance costs, complex cardiovascular intervention workforce limitations, limited scope of practice, misaligned external policies, conflicting patient beliefs/knowledge, and lack of readiness for change. The most frequently identified implementation outcomes across projects were reach, followed by acceptability and sustainability/maintenance. From the AAR, all project teams noted greater ease and use of common implementation language and reported linking facilitators and barriers to strategies, mechanisms, and intended outcomes deepened team members' alignment on project goals. New strategies to overcome barriers were highlighted through the IRLM process and specific measures were selected to assess implementation.

CONCLUSION: The IRLM strengthened cross-site learning by making common determinants and synergies visible across projects enabling the network to target shared challenges more strategically and improve coordination across the initiative.

RevDate: 2026-11-03

Ercan C, Pan X, Paulson TG, et al (2026)

Histopathology-Based Spatial Profiling of Immune and Molecular Features Predicts Cancer Risk in Barrett's Esophagus Patients.

Cancer research pii:789680 [Epub ahead of print].

Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients require improved cancer risk stratification to identify high-risk individuals while reducing over-treatment in low-risk populations. BE evolution towards adenocarcinoma is likely driven by a combination of genomic and microenvironmental factors, suggesting the potential of predictive models that integrate both. Here, we developed BEACON (Barrett's Esophagus DNA content Abnormality and immune ecology for Cancer Outcome), a spatially aware framework integrating deep learning-based prediction of DNA content and immune architecture from routine histopathology. First, DACOR, a multi-instance learning model that predicts DNA content from histopathology, was trained using 777 BE biopsies with flow cytometry-based DNA content data scanned at two institutions, and it demonstrated strong performance across both validation and test datasets for DNA content abnormality prediction. Patients classified as DNA content abnormal by DACOR demonstrated increased cancer progression. Complementary models for cell classification and tissue segmentation enabled spatial immune ecology metric computations. Abnormal regions exhibited increased lymphoplasmacytic inflammation versus normal regions. Among patients with DNA content abnormality, cancer progressors exhibited increased plasma cell clustering adjacent to abnormal epithelium compared to non-progressors. Finally, a logistic regression model was developed that integrated molecular, immune ecological, and epithelial morphology features for cancer risk stratification. The integrated risk classification model stratified DNA content abnormal patients into high- and low-risk groups that corresponded with progression and patient survival. Overall, BEACON spatially integrates molecular abnormality with immune ecology to stratify BE patients by cancer progression risk using routine pathology images.

RevDate: 2026-11-06

Biral LPA, Russell V, Selim MA, et al (2026)

Characterising the genomic landscape of two clinical risk groups in CD30+ T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders with cutaneous involvement: a multi-institutional retrospective study.

EBioMedicine, 133:106532 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: CD30+ T cell lymphoproliferative disorders (CD30+ T LPD) with cutaneous involvement comprise a diverse group of neoplasms with variable clinical outcomes. The molecular mechanisms underlying the prognostic differences in these diseases are poorly understood.

METHODS: In this multi-institutional retrospective study, 79 patients with CD30+ T LPD were evaluated. DNA and RNA sequencing were performed on skin biopsy samples to characterise molecular features. Patients were assigned to low- and high-risk groups based on treatment recommendations in clinical records. Pathogenic pathways, immune microenvironments, transcriptomic profiles, driver mutations, and mutation signatures were compared between the risk groups.

FINDINGS: Across risk groups, there was high mutational recurrence in genes involved in epigenetic regulation and intracellular signalling pathways. Mutational signature analysis revealed a shared prevalence of 5-methylcytosine deamination, UV exposure, defective mismatch repair, and POLE-associated proofreading deficiency. In contrast, gene set enrichment analysis showed that the high-risk group was enriched in pathways governing cell cycle progression, DNA damage response, and immune activation compared to the low-risk group. Furthermore, immune microenvironment deconvolution showed a higher abundance of resting dendritic cells in the low-risk group. Finally, high-risk patients exhibited significant overexpression of clinically relevant proteins, highlighting potential alternative treatment approaches for this population.

INTERPRETATION: Mutation analyses suggest diverse pathogenesis in these diseases. The high-risk and low-risk groups diverge in gene expression profiles and immune microenvironment, suggesting that these biological differences hold prognostic significance. Molecularly informed therapeutic strategies should be investigated prospectively through clinical trials.

FUNDING: This work was supported by developmental funds of the Duke Cancer Institute as part of the P30 Cancer Center Support Grant. Data generation was supported in an unrestricted fashion by the NIH, Data Driven Bioscience, Amazon and Google. SSD was supported by the Wellcome Trust Foundation and the NIH.

RevDate: 2026-11-02
CmpDate: 2026-10-28

Khuzwayo S, Zhang B, Voillet V, et al (2026)

mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in people with HIV: an immune correlates analysis of CD4 + T cell responses in the multicenter CoVPN 3008 observational study.

Nature communications, 17(1):.

T cell correlates of COVID-19 risk are poorly defined, particularly in people with HIV (PWH). CoVPN 3008 (NCT05168813) Part A was a prospective 14,002-participant cohort study that administered one or two doses of mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine, depending on baseline SARS-CoV-2 serostatus, in participants (83% PWH) in sub-Saharan Africa. Participants self-monitored for prespecified COVID-19 symptoms, defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention symptom criteria. Previous work showed that protection from COVID-19 was superior for hybrid versus vaccine-induced immunity, and that neutralizing antibody titers inversely associated with COVID-19 risk. In the present work, we measured T cell responses to Spike and Nucleocapsid at baseline and 4 weeks post last-vaccination (Peak) in a case-cohort study and assessed them as correlates of risk. In Hybrid Group PWH (n = 22 cases), COVID-19 risk over 6 months decreased with increasing Peak Spike BA.4/5-specific CD4 + T cell responses, from 15.8%, 4.7%, and 0% risk at 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% IFN-γ and/or IL-2 response magnitude, respectively. Including baseline Spike-specific neutralizing antibody titer and Peak CD4 + T cell functionality score in the same model increased the association's strength (overall p < 0.001). Thus, CD4 + T cell responses are an independent correlate of COVID-19 risk among PWH with pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 immunity.

RevDate: 2026-10-28

Woolston DW, Churchill M, Grandori C, et al (2026)

Glasdegib and inotuzumab ozogamicin in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Assessing drug responses in a stromal co-culture model.

Biomolecules & biomedicine [Epub ahead of print].

Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling is implicated in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and represents a potential therapeutic target. This proof-of-concept study evaluated glasdegib, alone and combined with inotuzumab ozogamicin, in primary B-ALL cells using a stromal co-culture model. Peripheral blood or bone marrow samples from seven patients were co-cultured with HS-5 stromal cells and treated for four days. Viability relative to vehicle controls was assessed using an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-based luminescence assay after mechanical separation from stromal cells. Expression of four SHH pathway genes was examined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in four patient samples following treatment with 20 μM glasdegib, with or without 10 ng/mL inotuzumab ozogamicin. Co-culture showed descriptively more stable viability measurements than monoculture, although the between-condition difference in changes in dispersion was not statistically significant (p = 0.154). Glasdegib reduced B-ALL cell viability in a dose-dependent manner by day 4, while HS-5 stromal cells showed negligible sensitivity. Adding inotuzumab ozogamicin did not clearly enhance the response to glasdegib at the tested concentration. Gene expression changes were heterogeneous and inconclusive, with downregulation of selected genes observed in some samples. These preliminary findings support further investigation of glasdegib in B-ALL. Larger studies are needed to determine the value of combination treatment and clarify treatment-associated transcriptional effects.

RevDate: 2026-11-03

Goodman JS, Stanaway IB, Krueger MA, et al (2026)

Transcriptional Signatures Associated with Etiology of Post-Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Lung Injury.

Transplantation and cellular therapy [Epub ahead of print].

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) is a potentially curative therapy for many hematologic disorders but is frequently complicated by infectious and noninfectious pulmonary injury. Differentiating these etiologies is challenging in clinical practice, and it remains unclear whether response signatures can distinguish infectious from non-infectious lung injury following transplantation. We performed bulk RNA sequencing of whole-blood samples from 52 alloHCT recipients within 120 days of transplantation who developed lung injury due to bacterial, viral, or fungal pathogens as well as idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS). We compared expression of genes and immune programs across etiologies of lung injury. Distinct transcriptional programs were observed across etiologies. Viral pneumonia showed enrichment of interferon and adaptive immune signaling pathways. Bacterial pneumonia demonstrated enrichment of innate immune and heme metabolism pathways. Fungal pneumonia exhibited the strongest enrichment of cellular proliferation pathways. IPS showed lower enrichment of immune signaling pathways than infectious etiologies. Transcriptomic responses differ between infectious and noninfectious lung injury following alloHCT. These findings highlight the potential utility of transcriptomic profiling to support diagnosis, guide therapeutic management, and risk-stratify patients following transplantation.

RevDate: 2026-10-24

Kalinsky K, Wander SA, Hamilton E, et al (2026)

Overall survival from the phase III postMONARCH trial of abemaciclib plus fulvestrant versus placebo plus fulvestrant for HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer following progression on a prior CDK4/6 inhibitor plus endocrine therapy.

Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology pii:S0923-7534(26)08075-0 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: The phase III postMONARCH trial demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) with abemaciclib plus fulvestrant versus placebo plus fulvestrant in participants with HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer (ABC) after disease progression on prior CDK4/6i plus endocrine therapy (ET). Here we report the prespecified final overall survival (OS) analysis.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Eligible patients had disease progression on a CDK4/6i plus aromatase inhibitor as initial therapy for ABC or recurrence on or after adjuvant CDK4/6i plus ET. Participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive abemaciclib plus fulvestrant or placebo plus fulvestrant. The final OS analysis was pre-specified at 200 OS events (HR boundary 0.753). Time-to-event analyses used the Kaplan-Meier method, and stratified Cox models were used to estimate the HR and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS: A total of 368 participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to abemaciclib plus fulvestrant (n = 182) or placebo plus fulvestrant (n = 186). At data cutoff, median follow-up was approximately 37 months; 200 OS events were observed (90 [50%] vs 110 [59%]). Median OS was 32.1 months with abemaciclib plus fulvestrant versus 24.6 months with placebo plus fulvestrant (HR, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.60 to 1.06]; P = 0.11, boundary for significance not reached). OS differences were consistent across subgroups. Updated PFS was consistent with the primary analysis (HR, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.62 to 0.99]; nominal P = 0.039). Time to second progression and chemotherapy-free survival also favored abemaciclib plus fulvestrant. Safety was consistent with the established abemaciclib profile with no new signals identified.

CONCLUSION: Abemaciclib plus fulvestrant resulted in numerically longer median OS versus placebo plus fulvestrant, though statistical significance was not reached. The totality of evidence supports consideration of abemaciclib-based treatment for patients with HR+, HER2- ABC after disease progression on prior CDK4/6i plus ET.

NCT05169567.

RevDate: 2026-11-05
CmpDate: 2026-11-04

Jiang C, JJ Li (2026)

scStable: assessing scRNA-seq analysis stability under bulk-derived between-sample variation.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) studies often profile only one or a few biological samples, limiting assessment of discovery stability under between-sample variation. We present scStable, a framework for assessing scRNA-seq analysis stability by generating synthetic samples that preserve cell-level heterogeneity from a single-sample reference while injecting bulk-derived between-sample variation. In gastric cancer data comprising 21 matched scRNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq profiles, scStable better recapitulates observed between-sample variation than ZINB-WaVE, subsampling, and Gaussian noise injection. Using synthetic samples, scStable enables stability-aware analysis, including prioritization of stable differentially expressed genes and selection of clustering methods and hyperparameters.

RevDate: 2026-10-30
CmpDate: 2026-10-30

Chavan A, Ries R, Biswas P, et al (2026)

CBFA2T3-GLIS2 establishes transcriptionally permissive enhancer hypermethylation associated with venetoclax response in pediatric AML.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

CBFA2T3-GLIS2 (C/G) defines a high-risk pediatric AML subtype in which de novo enhancer rewiring sustains an aggressive leukemic transcriptional state. The early epigenomic mechanisms reinforcing this program and linking it to leukemic survival remain incompletely defined. Here, we identify enhancer-proximal hypermethylation as a noncanonical, transcription-permissive feature of C/G AML. Using primary C/G-positive AML samples and a developmentally relevant C/G-transformed cord blood hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell model, we integrated DNA methylation, chromatin state, fusion occupancy, and gene expression across early and leukemia-stage contexts. Early C/G-associated hypermethylated regions localized near H3K27ac/H3K4me1-marked active or primed cis-regulatory elements, were enriched for ERG/ETS-like motifs, and showed related architecture in leukemia-stage contexts. DNMT3B was prominently increased in C/G contexts, and its loss selectively altered methylation-associated gene expression without measurably changing global 5mC. Genetic DNMT3B loss increased venetoclax sensitivity in vitro, while pharmacologic DNMT3B inhibition with Nanaomycin-A similarly enhanced venetoclax response. During venetoclax treatment, DNMT3B-deficient xenografts showed reduced disease burden and prolonged survival. To assess whether this interaction extended to clinically used hypomethylating agents, azacitidine or decitabine plus venetoclax induced apoptosis-related transcriptional programs and mitochondrial depolarization. These findings identify hypermethylated active cis-regulatory elements as C/G-associated states linked to transcriptional dysregulation and venetoclax response.

RevDate: 2026-11-01
CmpDate: 2026-11-01

Chankhunthod AB, Sorenson-Graff R, Mercoli J, et al (2026)

Single-Cell Behavioromics Enables Fate Prediction of Individual Hematopoietic Stem Cells.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Achieving near-single-cell precision in the prospective identification of long-term engrafting hematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSCs) remains challenging, likely because current static, point-in-time single-cell phenotyping technologies do not capture the dynamic nature of cell fate decisions. Here, we overcome this barrier by longitudinally tracking individual hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in ex vivo niche cultures using live imaging, coupled with downstream immunophenotyping, single-cell transcriptomics, and transplant assays. Deep learning analysis of live imaging data achieved 98.5% average precision in predicting serially-engrafting LT-HSC (serial-LT-HSC) identity from each cell's behaviorome (the totality of observed behaviors), outperforming currently available technologies. Serial-LT-HSCs exhibited lower motility among HSPC populations, which was associated with reduced Activin signaling activity and elevated expression of cell adhesion genes. Correspondingly, antagonizing Activin signaling by Inhibin-A treatment in ex vivo niche cultures suppressed HSPC motility while increasing the frequency of post-expansion serial-LT-HSCs, revealing a novel role for Activin signaling in HSPC behavior and fate determination. Collectively, this study establishes a broadly applicable framework that connects behavioromic analysis and single-cell transcriptomics to enable near-single-cell precision in predicting stem cell fate and uncover molecular mechanisms governing behavior-fate relationships.

RevDate: 2026-10-25

Arthur JA, Case AA, Patel JN, et al (2026)

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Urine Drug Testing.

Journal of palliative medicine [Epub ahead of print].

Opioid therapy is a key component of palliative care delivery but may sometimes be associated with complications such as nonmedical opioid use (NMOU) behavior. Clinicians are encouraged to adopt risk-mitigation strategies to minimize NMOU while optimizing opioid prescribing practices. Urine drug testing (UDT) is usually implemented in palliative care (PC) settings to mitigate such risks, but its role is not well-defined. In this article, a group of PC specialists with specific clinical and research interests and expertise in UDT offers 10 tips regarding the current evidence surrounding UDT, its appropriate application, interpretation of results, and the utilization of test results within the PC context. The goal is to inform practicing PC clinicians regarding the use of UDT in routine opioid therapy.

RevDate: 2026-10-26

Gillessen S, Turco F, Davis ID, et al (2026)

Management of Patients with High-risk Localised, Locally Advanced, and Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer: Report from the 2026 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference.

European urology pii:S0302-2838(26)02438-3 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Innovations have improved outcomes in high-risk localised, locally advanced, and biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (PC), yet high-level evidence remains limited for many management decisions. The 2026 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC) surveyed an international panel on key clinical questions to complement evidence-based guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: Here we present the voting results for the questions on high-risk localised, locally advanced, and biochemically recurrent PC from APCCC 2026.

Before the conference, a multidisciplinary panel of 144 international PC experts used a modified Delphi process to develop 313 multiple-choice consensus questions, of which 134 covered high-risk localised and locally advanced PC, including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) persistence and PSA recurrence, and side effects of treatment. These questions were administered to the 133 voting panel members "panellists" via a web-based survey prior to the conference.

Consensus was defined a priori as ≥75% agreement, with strong consensus defined as ≥90% agreement. Overall, consensus was reached for 44 of the 134 questions (32.8%), with seven questions reaching a strong consensus. Results and limitations The voting results show varying degrees of consensus, as discussed in this article and as detailed in the Supplementary Material. An interactive heat map for the questions can be found at https://apccc.org/APCCC2026-votings-localised-and-locally-advanced-prostate-cancer/. These findings do not include a formal literature review or meta-analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: The voting results can help physicians and patients navigate controversial areas of clinical management for which evidence is scant or conflicting. The findings can also help funders and policymakers in prioritising areas for future research. Importantly, APCCC 2026 once again identified important gaps (areas of no consensus) that merit evaluation in specifically designed trials.

RevDate: 2026-10-27

Owoyemi I, Sprangers B, Bregman A, et al (2026)

Best clinical practice in kidney transplant and cancer clinics.

Current opinion in nephrology and hypertension pii:00041552-990000000-00348 [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Transplant onconephrology is an evolving subspeciality within nephrology that focuses on the interaction between cancer and the kidney. The goal of this subspecialty is to provide optimal care for people with cancers who are risk or develop cancer-related kidney complications or nephrotoxicity from cancer therapeutics. This goal is accomplished through application of increasing knowledge about transplant nephrology and oncology.

RECENT FINDINGS: People with a history of malignancy who are evaluated for kidney transplant need careful risk assessment to inform candidacy, immunosuppression management and prevent post-transplant recurrence. Post-transplant malignancies occur frequently and are a leading cause of death in kidney transplant recipients. People with pre- and post-transplant cancers experience significant stressors and healthcare demands, and benefit from multidisciplinary clinical care to address their high-risk conditions.

SUMMARY: This review provides a comprehensive overview of the best practices of outpatient clinical care for the growing population of high-risk patients with cancer before and after kidney transplant based on clinical experience and available data.

RevDate: 2026-10-27

Borad MJ, Droz Dit Busset M, Javle MM, et al (2026)

A pivotal Phase 2 study of derazantinib for previously-treated, locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 aberrations: FIDES-01.

Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) pii:01515467-990000000-01697 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND AIMS: To evaluate safety and efficacy of FGFR1-3 kinase inhibitor derazantinib, in advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) harboring FGFR2 fusions or rearrangements (FGFR2F), mutations (FGFR2M), or amplifications (FGFR2A), previously treated with chemotherapy.

APPROACH RESULTS: Open-label, non-controlled Phase 2 trial. Patients with advanced iCCA, ≥1 prior chemotherapy, and FGFR2F (Substudy 1) or FGFR2M/FGFRA (Substudy 2), received once-daily oral derazantinib 300 mg until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, consent withdrawal or investigator decision to stop. Efficacy was assessed by central radiology review using RECIST v1.1. Primary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR; Substudy 1) and 3-month progression-free survival (PFS3; Substudy 2). Other endpoints were PFS, ORR (Substudy 2), disease control rate (DCR), duration of response (DOR), and overall survival (OS). In Substudy 1, ORR and DCR were 22.3% (23/103 partial responses) and 75.7%, respectively; median (95% CI) PFS was 8.1 (5.5,8.3) months, DOR was 6.5 (4.6,9.2) months, and OS was 17.2 (12.5,22.4) months. In Substudy 2, PFS3 was 63% (27/43), ORR was 9.3% (3 partial, 1 complete response), DCR was 69.8%, and OS was 11.9 (8.4,15.9) months. There were no Grade 4 or 5 drug-related events. FGFR inhibitor class-specific toxicities included drug-related hyperphosphataemia (38%, Grade 3: 3%) and dry eye (36%). Nail disorders (10%, any grade or causality), stomatitis (5%), retinal events (5%), and palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia (1%) were infrequent.

CONCLUSIONS: In previously chemotherapy treated, FGFR-inhibitor-naïve patients with iCCA harboring FGFR2 fusions, mutations, or amplifications, derazantinib showed clinically meaningful efficacy with durable objective responses, and a manageable safety profile.

RevDate: 2026-10-29
CmpDate: 2026-10-27

Zhang J, Murray J, Mu W, et al (2026)

Evaluation of Anti-HIV-1 HSPC-Based Gene Therapy with Negative Selection Marker in Pigtail Macaques.

Viruses, 18(10):.

Despite significant medical progress, HIV-1 remains a critical global health crisis. While combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) effectively suppresses viremia, it is not curative due to the persistence of latent viral reservoirs. Autologous hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) gene therapy offers a promising avenue toward sustained, drug-free remission. In this study, we investigated the feasibility and safety of a multifunctional "defend and attack" HSPC gene therapy strategy in the pigtail macaque (Macaca nemestrina) model. The species-optimized lentiviral vector, PM-MNDU-anti-HIV-1-huEGFRt, carries four therapeutic payloads: a pigtail macaque-specific CCR5 shRNA (PM-CCR5sh1005), a CD4-based chimeric antigen receptor (D1D2CAR), a C46 fusion inhibitor peptide, and a truncated human epidermal growth factor receptor (huEGFRt) serving as a cell-surface tracking marker and anti-EGFR antibody Cetuximab (CTX)-mediated negative selection marker. Following busulfan conditioning, autologous transplantation of vector-modified HSPCs in two pigtail macaques resulted in safe hematopoietic recovery. Both animals achieved sustained, multilineage gene marking in peripheral blood and lymphoid tissues without adverse effects. In one animal, upon Simian-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (SHIV) challenge, vector-modified cells underwent robust, antigen-driven multilineage expansion across both lymphoid and myeloid compartments, which contracted during cART-induced viral suppression and rapidly rebounded following treatment interruption. Administration of CTX demonstrated partial, transient reduction in huEGFRt[+] cells, accompanied with a reciprocal increase in plasma viral load. These findings support the feasibility of evaluating a multi-pronged anti-HIV HSPC gene therapy strategy with a negative selection marker in a non-human primate (NHP) model.

RevDate: 2026-10-29
CmpDate: 2026-10-27

Cornelisse E, Kousa D, Menz BD, et al (2026)

Development and Pilot Evaluation of a Standardized and Accessible Rubric (OMNI) for Assessing Generative AI in Health Care Contexts: Four-Stage Mixed Methods Study.

Journal of medical Internet research, 28:e100531.

BACKGROUND: The rapid adoption of generative AI in the community and health care necessitates reliable, human-led evaluation.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a standardized rubric to support health care professionals, administrators, and researchers in evaluating generative AI outputs in health contexts.

METHODS: A rubric was developed through a 4-stage mixed methods study: literature synthesis, expert refinement, pilot application, and post-pilot feedback. The rubric was informed by 69 publications and refined through iterative feedback from a multidisciplinary expert panel (n=23). The pilot rubric was applied to 4 health care scenarios: responses to health-related Reddit questions, generation of health-related images and videos, responses to health professional continuing education questions, and automated physician-to-physician clinical documentation generation. Via these scenarios, 15 clinicians (medical practitioners, pharmacists, and medical oncologists) evaluated 250 input-output pairs using domain-level ratings and qualitative comments. The evaluated outputs included 200 AI-generated responses across the 4 health care scenarios and 50 physician-tagged replies in the health-related Reddit questions scenario.

RESULTS: The final rubric, OMNI, comprised 10 evaluation domains (Accuracy, Safety, Recognizes Uncertainty, Completeness, Communicates Clearly, Empathetic, Context Aware, Referencing, Follows Instructions, and Avoids Coerciveness) assessed on 4-point Likert scales, supported by detailed instructional and example materials. Via the 4 pilot scenarios, assessors generated 9600 domain-level ratings and 4010 qualitative comments. The mean pairwise agreement for the 4-point Likert groups ranged from 30.8% to 53.4%, increasing to 59.3% to 79.6% when collapsed into broad agreement categories; Gwet's AC2 ranged from 0.49 to 0.80. OMNI differentiated strengths and weaknesses between models within scenarios, while recurrent limitations in Referencing, Recognizes Uncertainty, Completeness, Empathetic, and Accuracy were identified across scenarios. Multimodal image and video outputs had the highest occurrence of negative rating domains. Assessors reported OMNI was usable and indicated they would reuse it.

CONCLUSIONS: OMNI is a standardized, accessible rubric for expert-led evaluation of generative AI outputs in health contexts. Pilot application demonstrated that OMNI could differentiate AI performance across models and domains while generating structured feedback. Further work is needed to assess its applicability to purpose-built health AI tools, agentic systems, and organizational evaluation settings.

RevDate: 2026-11-04

Lam DL, H Rahbar (2026)

Strengthening the Case for Personalized Breast Cancer Screening Approaches.

AJR. American journal of roentgenology, 227(4):e2634789.

RevDate: 2026-10-28
CmpDate: 2026-10-23

Afrough A, Pasvolsky O, Portuguese AJ, et al (2026)

Impact of extramedullary plasmacytoma on outcomes in patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma treated with talquetamab: U.S. Myeloma Immunotherapy Consortium.

Blood cancer journal, 16(1):.

Talquetamab, a GPRC5D-targeting bispecific antibody, shows promising activity in relapsed-refractory multiple myeloma. However, real-world outcomes in patients with extramedullary disease (EMD) remain poorly described. We studied 360 patients treated with talquetamab at 15 U.S. centers by Dec 2024. Soft tissue plasmacytomas (STP) were classified as EMD (not contiguous with bone) or paraskeletal disease (PSD; contiguous with bone). If both were present, patients were assigned to the EMD category. Of those, 97 (27%) had EMD, 22 (6%) had PSD, and 241 (67%) had No-STP. Median follow-up was 12.8 months. Overall response rates were 68% in EMD, 63% in PSD, and 65% in No-STP (p = 0.8). Median progression-free survival was 4.3, 4.5, and 7.8 months, respectively (p = 0.009), and median overall survival was 10.3 months, 13.0 months, and not reached (p = 0.070). These findings demonstrate that EMD and PSD are associated with preserved response rates but shorter PFS and OS with talquetamab. While systemic markers of tumor burden and inflammation-particularly lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and ferritin-emerged as independent predictors of inferior PFS, elevated LDH also retained independent prognostic significance for OS. While EMD was associated with shorter PFS and OS on univariate analysis, it did not retain independent prognostic significance on multivariable analysis, suggesting that inferior outcomes are driven by aggressive disease biology rather than by lesion anatomy alone. These findings are hypothesis-generating and require prospective validation. Talquetamab retains clinical utility in this high-risk population with EMD, though outcomes are suboptimal with a need for further refinement of treatment approaches.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Walsh C, Anderson N, Tsosie U, et al (2026)

A Study of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Lung Cancer Prevention Care for American Indian/Alaska Native People.

Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people. Lung cancer screening (LCS) remains underutilized among AI/AN people. Multi-disciplinary perspectives can help to inform lung cancer prevention care for this population.

METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study with healthcare providers and researchers who intersect with AI/AN care. Participants completed an electronic questionnaire and qualitative interviews about their role(s), perceptions of commercial tobacco use and cessation services, and LCS in AI/AN communities. Survey data were analyzed descriptively. Interview transcripts were analyzed using applied thematic analysis, with final themes organized by Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research domains.

RESULTS: Multi-disciplinary care providers (n = 21) reported significant gaps in awareness of and access to tobacco cessation and LCS in AI/AN communities. Key themes include tailoring lung health resources to AI/AN cultures and improving access to and awareness of LCS. Ideal programming centers culture and family and applies Indigenous methodologies to optimize resource development.

CONCLUSION: Study findings support culturally tailored resources and barrier directed supports to enhance commercial tobacco cessation and LCS in marginalized communities. By working collaboratively within and across disciplines, healthcare systems, and Tribal communities, we can optimize care to promote lung cancer prevention in AI/AN communities.

RevDate: 2026-10-24
CmpDate: 2026-10-24

Yi JC, Paras G, Barnett MJ, et al (2026)

Moderating Role of Social Support Between Financial Hardship and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Psycho-oncology, 35(10):.

OBJECTIVE: Financial hardship is common for cancer survivors. Little is known about the relationships between financial hardship, social support (emotional, informational and instrumental) and quality of life and mental health.

METHODS: Cross-sectional, secondary analyses of survey data from breast cancer survivors that included financial hardship, social support and quality of life. The survivors needed to be diagnosed within 2 years prior to approach and were part of a cancer registry. The patient reported measures included a financial hardship measure our team developed for cancer survivors, the FACT-G7, PROMIS mental health and social support and the Cancer and Treatment Distress scale. Interaction terms were computed to test for moderation. Separate hierarchical regressions assessed how much if any variance was accounted for in these moderation analyses.

RESULTS: A total of 598 breast cancer survivors completed the survey. Participants were predominantly over age 40 (97%), 98% female and 83% White. The correlations between financial hardship, mental health, quality of life and social support were in the moderate range. There were no significant associations with emotional or informational social support. However, instrumental social support moderated the relationships between financial coping and quality of life, financial depression and mental health and financial anxiety and mental health.

CONCLUSIONS: Instrumental social support moderated the relationships between financial hardship and quality of life and mental health outcomes but emotional and informational social support did not. For financial hardship, it may be useful to increase instrumental social support.

RevDate: 2026-10-30
CmpDate: 2026-10-30

Arora S, Suresh R, Holland N, et al (2026)

A pan-cohort transcriptional landscape of breast cancer maps subtype and microenvironmental programs.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Breast cancer comprises heterogeneous transcriptional states that are incompletely captured by discrete clinical or molecular subtype labels. To visualize this heterogeneity in a unified framework, we integrated bulk RNA-seq data from 2,284 patient samples across 13 studies using 18,089 protein coding genes, a harmonized processing pipeline, batch correction, consensus clustering and PaCMAP dimensionality reduction to construct an interactive breast cancer transcriptional landscape. Consensus clustering identified five major regions, which were annotated using PAM50 scores calculated for each sample: Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-enriched, and two basal-associated clusters. The basal clusters separated into an immune-rich region marked by T cell-inflamed, tumor-associated macrophages (TAM), and low-purity signatures, and a cell-cycle-driven region enriched for proliferation and DNA replication programs. Overlay of marker genes, pathways, kinases, neuronal-like signaling programs, cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF) states, and TAM programs revealed spatially organized subtype biology and microenvironmental heterogeneity. Finally, projection of therapy-associated resistance signatures identified landscape regions linked to predicted resistance to HER2-targeted therapy and hormone receptor-directed endocrine therapies. By enabling interactive exploration of transcriptional states, marker genes, pathways, and therapeutic response programs, this resource provides a community framework for biomarker discovery in breast cancer.

RevDate: 2026-11-01
CmpDate: 2026-11-01

Brusselmans M, Baele G, Hong SL, et al (2026)

An adaptive time-tree transition kernel for Bayesian phylogenetic inference.

ArXiv.

Bayesian phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses can be very time-consuming, owing to the combination of complex models that are used to estimate key parameters from increasingly large genomic data sets and their associated metadata. The use of high-performance computer hardware can - to a certain extent - alleviate the computational burden and markedly decrease the time to results. Still, even converging to the posterior can be a lengthy endeavour, with the burn-in aspect of such analyses potentially taking days or even weeks for large data sets. One of the key aspects that hampers performance in Bayesian phylogenetic inference is the efficiency with which tree topology proposals explore tree space. We here propose a novel adaptive tree transition kernel, which we call 'subTreeLeap' (STL), which involves modifying the phylogeny by walking along patristic distance paths in the tree according to an adaptable radius parameter. STL is a general proposal, which can be used with contemporaneous or time-calibrated sequence data, being particularly suited to the latter due to respecting temporal precedence constraints. We carefully assess its impact on convergence and statistical mixing of the exploration of posterior tree space, by comparison to replicate "golden runs" obtained from lengthy analyses of empirical data under standard tree transition kernels. We find that STL successfully explores the same posterior tree space as standard kernels, but often does so in a more efficient manner. We discuss limitations as well as future potential improvements to STL that could substantially increase the speed at which Bayesian phylogenetic inferences are obtained.

RevDate: 2026-11-01
CmpDate: 2026-10-29

Park MS, Crotty E, Prall T, et al (2026)

Concordance of rapid whole genome and targeted long read sequencing of pediatric brain tumors with standard clinical testing.

Research square.

BACKGROUND: The 2021 WHO classification of central nervous system tumors requires integrated molecular testing for accurate diagnosis and risk stratification. Current clinical workflows typically require separate assays for single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number variants (CNVs), structural variants (SVs), and DNA methylation profiling, leading to diagnostic delays of weeks to months and substantial tissue consumption. Long-read sequencing (LRS) offers the potential to deliver all required molecular data from a single assay with dramatically reduced turnaround time.

METHODS: We evaluated 23 pediatric brain tumor samples, representing 10 different tumor types, using LRS on the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) platform, performing whole-genome sequencing (wgLRS; n=9), adaptive sampling (AS; n=20), or both (n=6). Using a streamlined protocol with an approximately 60-minute sample preparation time, we compared LRS-derived variant calls and methylation-based tumor classification against clinical testing results.

RESULTS: Both wgLRS and AS showed high concordance with clinical testing across all variant classes. SNVs and indels were detected with high sensitivity above 15% allele fraction (42 of 51 clinically reported variants), and a somatic-optimized caller recovered four additional driver mutations missed by the standard germline pipeline. CNV profiles showed strong agreement with clinical testing, and 5 of 6 clinically reported gene fusions were identified. Methylation classification was concordant with clinical diagnosis in 18 of 22 (82%) evaluable tumors after only 10 minutes of sequencing using Sturgeon alone, increasing to 19 of 22 (86%) within one hour of sequencing using three real-time classifiers. Adding MNP-Flex, which draws on an expanded 184-class reference, resolved one additional tumor for an overall methylation concordance of 20 of 22 (91%). All discordances were attributable to differences in sampled tissue (autopsy versus surgical specimen), low tumor content, subclonal variants below detection thresholds, or limitations of classifier reference sets.

CONCLUSION: LRS allows for comprehensive molecular characterization of pediatric brain tumors from a single library preparation, with methylation-based classification often available within an hour of sequencing initiation. This integrated approach has the potential to accelerate diagnostic workflows, reduce tissue requirements, tailor neurosurgical approaches, and facilitate timely treatment decisions in pediatric neuro-oncology.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-24

Back AL, Price CJ, McGregor BA, et al (2026)

Preparing the body for psilocybin therapy: receptive and generative interoception in cancer patients.

Frontiers in psychiatry, 17:1890966.

Cancer patients arrive for psilocybin therapy with bodies altered by illness and treatment - bodies that they have learned to brace against, dissociate from, or scan for threat. Research on psilocybin-assisted therapy for cancer-related depression and anxiety consistently identifies the quality of the acute subjective experience - reflected in constructs such as acceptance, surrender, boundlessness, and emotional breakthrough - as a key predictor of therapeutic benefit. Yet most preparation protocols focus on cognitive intention-setting and basic mindfulness while neglecting to address the body directly. We propose that anxiety and depression in this setting may involve a somatic substrate that has not been adequately specified. We distinguish two capacities to 'feel into the body' relevant to psychedelic therapy: interoception as perception (the perceptual access to bottom-up bodily signal) and interoceptive engagement (the broader capacity that links bodily perception to posture, breath, structural intent, and affective stance). We describe a six-category phenomenological taxonomy of somatic experiences in psilocybin therapy (exteroceptive, deep somatic, visceral, vestibular, nociceptive, emergent). We also map receptive practices, designed to improve interoception as perception, and generative practices, designed to improve interoceptive engagement. The framework is grounded in current predictive-coding accounts of interoception, but does not depend on any single neuroscientific model. An ongoing Phase 2 trial of group retreat psilocybin therapy for metastatic cancer patients will provide an initial test of our hypothesis that interoceptive training may influence therapeutic outcomes in psilocybin therapy for patients with cancer.

RevDate: 2026-10-26
CmpDate: 2026-10-24

von Eckstaedt HV, Weng KY, Jimenez DF, et al (2026)

Frailty characterization and patient-reported outcomes in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-related inflammatory arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica.

Rheumatology advances in practice, 10(4):rkag122.

OBJECTIVES: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs), including inflammatory arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. We aimed to (i) characterize frailty status in patients who develop ICI-related inflammatory arthritis (ICI-IA) and immunotherapy-related polymyalgia rheumatica (ICI-PMR) and (ii) describe patient-reported outcomes (PROs) across key domains of the disease experience, stratified by frailty status.

METHODS: Consecutive new referrals to our Rheumatology-irAE clinic between April 2024 and April 2025 for evaluation of ICI-IA or ICI-PMR were recruited to this cross-sectional study. Frailty and PROs were measured using validated surveys. PROMIS-29 domain scores were summarized descriptively for patients classified as robust/pre-frail versus frail. Given the small sample size, no inferential statistical testing was performed and no P-values are reported.

RESULTS: A total of 14 patients (eight males and six females) were included, of whom 10 were characterized as robust or pre-frail and 4 as frail. The mean ages were similar between those robust/prefrail and frail patients. Two patients in each group had ICI-PMR. Two patients in the frail group were diagnosed with ICI-IA, compared with eight patients in the pre-frail group. Frail patients reported higher median scores in the fatigue and pain interference domains (median T-score fatigue 67.9 [IQR 65.5-70.6] versus 53.0 [IQR 48.6-57.1]; median T-score pain interference 66.7 [IQR 66.4-68.9] versus 58.2 [IQR 57.5-62.3]). Median social roles and activities and physical function scores were also lower in the frail group.

CONCLUSION: In this small cross-sectional cohort, (i) frailty was present in approximately one-third of patients with ICI-related rheumatic irAEs and (ii) patients classified as frail reported higher fatigue and pain interference scores on PROMIS-29. These observations are descriptive and hypothesis-generating, and are intended to inform the design of larger prospective studies of frailty assessment and geriatric-informed care in this population.

RevDate: 2026-11-03
CmpDate: 2026-11-03

Glover LM, Gillman MG, Green MD, et al (2026)

Role of Plasma Proteins in the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Disease Events: Results From Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Cohorts.

Journal of the American Heart Association, 15(21):e043751.

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease burden and risk. Plasma proteins may elucidate a biological mechanism through which low SES increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: Participants from the following 3 cohorts were included: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (n=2139), Jackson Heart Study (n=967), and Women's Health Initiative (n=1104). SES was approximated using a cumulative score (range 0-3) across education, income, and employment status. A meta-analysis of Cox proportional hazards ratios was used to assess the association between SES and incident events for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. Linear regression was used within each cohort to determine associations between SES and Olink proteins (n=1270 proteins) and the results were meta-analyzed across cohorts. Regression-based mediation analysis was used to determine whether the identified proteins were statistical mediators of the association of SES and incident events.

RESULTS: Higher SES scores were associated with a lower risk of CHD (hazard ratio [HR], 0.74 [95% CI, 0.63-0.87]) and stroke (HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.66-1.00]). After correcting for multiple testing (P<3.937×10[-5]), 233 proteins were associated with SES in the meta-analysis. Of these 233 proteins, 21 had a significant indirect effect on SES and CHD. Because the SES-stroke association was not statistically significant, proteins were not tested as mediators.

CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of multiple cohorts identified evidence of different proteomic pathways associated with SES and cardiovascular disease. This work suggests that exogenous social factors (eg, SES) may influence cardiovascular disease via proteomic profiles.

RevDate: 2026-10-24

Bender Ignacio RA, Jonsson C, Perazzolo S, et al (2026)

A novel injectable drug-combination nanoparticle containing three antiretrovirals designed for HIV treatment: A first-in-human trial.

The Journal of infectious diseases pii:8986218 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Long-acting antiretroviral therapy may improve adherence and decrease stigma, yet affordable combination formulations for global usage are lacking. The TLC-ART program engineered an injectable 3-drug combination in a novel nanoparticle (DcNP) product "TLC-ART 101," composed of lopinavir (LPV), ritonavir (RTV), and tenofovir (TVF) and two lipid excipients. We report safety and pharmacokinetics from this first-in-human study.

METHODS: Three dose cohorts of people without HIV received a single subcutaneous dose of 1.5, 3.0 or 4.0 mL in an adaptive trial of up to64 days. LPV, RTV, and TFV were measured over time in plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and lymph nodes (n=2).

RESULTS: All 12 participants completed the study. One participant experienced anaphylaxis, and four had non-serious hypersensitivity events (rash, lip swelling, generalized pruritis). All participants had grade 1-2 injection-site reactions.. At the highest dose, median LPV T1/2 was 17 days, and LPV was detectable through two months in most participants. RTV T1/2 was 12hrs. Plasma TFV T1/2 was 3.5 days; TFV-diphosphate was detected intracellularly through 14 days. Total exposure (AUC) was higher in peripheral blood mononuclear cells versus plasma for all 3 drugs.

CONCLUSIONS: The first human application of this novel HIV DcNP resulted in detection of LPV through two months and TFV up to four days in plasma, and no meaningful prolongation of RTV. Systemic hypersensitivity was common, and although IgE elevation was not observed, additional mechanistic understanding is required prior to further development of this DcNP pipeline.

RevDate: 2026-10-24

Gaevert JA, Mayer-Blackwell K, Pogorelyy MV, et al (2026)

Infection history and TCR sequence features shape the breadth of TCR cross-reactivity.

Cell reports, 45(11):118182 pii:S2211-1247(26)01261-1 [Epub ahead of print].

The T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire enables recognition of a vast array of pathogens, despite containing far fewer unique TCRs than the diversity of encountered epitopes. This potential contradiction is resolved by TCR cross-reactivity, whereby individual TCRs recognize multiple distinct epitopes. However, the features defining broadly cross-reactive TCRs remain poorly understood. Here we systematically analyze TCRs from mice sequentially infected with influenza viruses containing naturally occurring single amino acid variants of the D[b]NP366 epitope. We identify 967 unique paired TCR sequences across 18 infection histories and test 22 representative TCRs against 172 epitope variants, yielding 3,784 TCR-epitope interaction measurements. These TCRs exhibit a continuum of cross-reactivity, with infection history influencing both TCR sequence similarity and reactivity profiles. We find specific TCR sequence features associated with broader cross-reactivity, highlighting the interplay between epitope exposure, TCR diversity, and function, and providing insights into CD8[+] T cell adaptability, immune memory, and vaccine design.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Slamon DJ, Hortobagyi GN, Stroyakovskiy D, et al (2026)

Overall survival with adjuvant ribociclib plus nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor in patients with high-risk HR+/HER2- early breast cancer: Six-year follow-up of the NATALEE trial.

Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology pii:S0923-7534(26)08640-0 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Ribociclib plus nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (NSAI) demonstrated a statistically significant invasive disease-free survival (iDFS) benefit over NSAI alone in patients with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) early breast cancer (EBC) at the primary efficacy analysis of the phase 3 NATALEE trial. This prespecified 6-year analysis assessed overall survival (OS) and other efficacy outcomes as well as safety.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eligible patients were adults with HR+/HER2- EBC and anatomic stage IIA (N1 or N0 with high-risk factors), IIB, or III disease. Enrolled patients were randomized 1:1 to ribociclib 400 mg/day (3 weeks on/1 week off for 3 years) plus NSAI (letrozole 2.5 mg/day or anastrozole 1 mg/day for 5 years) or NSAI alone. Premenopausal women and men also received goserelin. The primary endpoint was iDFS, and secondary/exploratory endpoints included OS, distant disease-free survival (DDFS), and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS).

RESULTS: With a median OS follow-up of 66.5 months, ribociclib plus NSAI demonstrated an OS benefit over NSAI alone (6-year ΔOS, 2.1%; HR, 0.809 [95% CI: 0.661-0.989]; nominal 1-sided P = .019), which was generally consistent across key subgroups. An increasing iDFS benefit with ribociclib plus NSAI was also observed (6-year ΔiDFS, 5.3%; HR, 0.741 [95% CI: 0.646-0.849]; nominal 1-sided P < .0001), which was also generally consistent across key subgroups. DDFS (HR, 0.744 [95% CI: 0.646-0.858]) and DRFS (HR, 0.738 [95% CI: 0.634-0.858]) results supported these findings. No new safety signals were observed.

CONCLUSIONS: This prespecified descriptive 6-year OS analysis demonstrated positive OS results with a clinically relevant benefit of ribociclib plus NSAI, consistent with the increasing reduction in recurrence risk. These results reinforce the benefit of ribociclib plus NSAI in the adjuvant setting across the broad NATALEE-eligible population.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03701334 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Orvain C, Othus M, Halpern AB, et al (2026)

Risk Factors for Admission to the Intensive Care Unit and Mortality in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Transplantation and cellular therapy pii:S2666-6367(26)00850-X [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are at risk of requiring intensive care unit (ICU)-level care following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Risk factors for admission to the ICU and outcomes are, however, poorly defined.

OBJECTIVE: To assess risk factors associated with ICU admission in such patients, identify variables associated with ICU mortality, and analyze the outcome of ICU survivors in comparison to HCT recipients not admitted to the ICU.

STUDY DESIGN: Here, we retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 1,265 adults with MDS/AML or AML who received an allograft while in first or second remission between 2006 and 2023.

RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of ICU admission was 9.2% on day +100 after HCT. HCT-comorbidity index (hazard ratio [HR]=1.15, P=0.005), treatment-related mortality (TRM) score (HR=1.07, P=0.004), and graft from an HLA-mismatched donor (HR=2.19, P=0.018) were independently associated with ICU admission. Within 100 days of ICU admission, 50 patients (43%) died; poor performance status (odds ratio [OR]=5.45, P=0.005), higher TRM score (OR per one unit increase=1.14, P=0.035), and secondary AML (OR=2.71 P=0.035) were associated with increased day +100 mortality after ICU admission. In a landmark analysis, patients admitted to the ICU during the first 100 days after HCT and alive at day +150 had significantly higher NRM (HR=2.36, P<0.001) after multivariable adjustment.

CONCLUSION: Together, these results highlight that ICU admission is common after allografting in adults with AML and is associated with high mortality. Identification of patients at increased risk may, ultimately, help develop possible preventive strategies and allow testing in particularly vulnerable individuals.

RevDate: 2026-11-02
CmpDate: 2026-11-02

Bootsma ML, Sharifi MN, Sperger JM, et al (2026)

Longitudinal Phenotyping of Circulating Tumor Cells Using a Scalable Deep Learning Framework.

Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 32(21):4988-4999.

PURPOSE: Circulating tumor cells (CTC) provide a minimally invasive window into metastatic disease and treatment response, but their clinical utility has been constrained by manual, subjective, low-throughput identification in multichannel fluorescence microscopy data.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: To address this limitation, we developed and clinically validated the System for Enhanced Evaluation of Tumor Cells (SEE-TC), a deep learning approach for scalable, reproducible phenotyping of individual circulating cells. SEE-TC was developed and evaluated on more than 8.5 million cells from 3,386 blood samples spanning six cancer types, enabling generalization across heterogeneous imaging conditions, staining panels, and acquisition platforms.

RESULTS: SEE-TC achieved single-cell segmentation accuracy on par with humans, learned biologically relevant latent cellular representations that correlate with established morphologic and immunofluorescent biomarkers, and reliably distinguished CTCs from background populations without reliance on arbitrary thresholds. When applied longitudinally, SEE-TC provides a quantitative, patient-level readout of CTC burden over time, which was significantly associated with worse overall survival across multiple cancer types.

CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first fully automated artificial intelligence approach to single-cell segmentation and CTC phenotyping. By transforming CTC analysis from a human-dependent task into a scalable and reproducible digital assay, SEE-TC enables high-fidelity longitudinal monitoring of tumor burden and supports broader clinical deployment of CTC-based liquid biopsies in precision oncology. It is currently being deployed to identify CTCs and quantify target expression for both prognostic and predictive biomarker evaluation in multiple prospective clinical trials on a commercial platform.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Martin AC, Cattin AL, Lockwood PK, et al (2026)

Bacteria inside kidney tumors associate with myeloid inflammation and disease progression: A TRACERx Renal study.

Med (New York, N.Y.) pii:S2666-6340(26)00338-7 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Intratumoral bacteria are increasingly recognized as active contributors to neutrophil-driven inflammation and disease progression in solid tumors. Yet, in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), where myeloid inflammation is a key feature of aggressive disease, live bacterial presence, their intratumoral distribution, and interaction with the tumor microenvironment remain unexplored.

METHODS: We genetically characterized the microbiome of primary ccRCC tumors across two independent cohorts (TRACERx: 616 samples, 143 patients; The Cancer Genome Atlas [TCGA]: 511 samples and patients), confirming live bacterial presence through culture. Multi-regional sampling enabled within-tumor analysis of bacterial distribution. Associations with the tumor microenvironment were explored at scale using bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) across both cohorts and corroborated in depth through spatial transcriptomics and in vitro infection assays.

FINDINGS: Across both cohorts, the commensal Cutibacterium emerged as the dominant genus, accumulating in discrete niches enriched toward the tumor center and associating with more advanced (TRACERx p = 0.024; TCGA p = 0.0011) tumors and shorter progression-free survival (TRACERx p = 0.0022; TCGA p = 4.4 × 10[-4]). Both across and within tumors, Cutibacterium accumulation associated with neutrophil recruitment and myeloid inflammation. In vitro, Cutibacterium induced sustained expression of neutrophil-attracting chemokines in macrophages, recapitulating patient tumor findings.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings establish intratumoral bacteria as novel prognostic components of the ccRCC tumor microenvironment and suggest an active role in shaping local myeloid inflammation, laying the groundwork for investigating their potential as therapeutic targets.

FUNDING: This work was supported by the Francis Crick Institute (Cancer Research UK, MRC, Wellcome Trust). TRACERx Renal is funded by Cancer Research UK (C50947/A18176).

RevDate: 2026-10-23
CmpDate: 2026-10-23

Irving R, Dasari A, Duke S, et al (2026)

Zn2+-Induced Dissociation of Transthyretin Tetramers Generates Toxic, Seeding-Active Misfolded Oligomers.

Biochemistry, 65(19):3017-3025.

The aggregation of transthyretin (TTR) is a hallmark of ATTR amyloidosis. Accumulating evidence suggests that metal ions, particularly Zn2+, promote TTR aggregation; however, the molecular mechanism underlying Zn2+-induced misfolding remains poorly understood. Here, we present a comprehensive biophysical characterization of Zn2+-induced misfolding of wild-type transthyretin (TTRwt) under physiologically relevant conditions. Two-dimensional 1H/15N HSQC NMR analyses reveal that Zn2+ binding induces millisecond-time scale conformational exchange that destabilizes the native tetramer. These structural and dynamic perturbations promote the formation of small, toxic oligomeric species capable of self-propagation through the seeding of native TTR. Comparative structural analyses using solid-state NMR also show that Zn2+-induced oligomers adopt broadly native-like secondary structures, but exhibit distinct non-native molecular conformations. The early stages of misfolding were further investigated using 19F NMR of TTRwt containing fluorinated tryptophan residues. Notably, 19F NMR not only reports on Zn2+ binding but also enables direct detection of a transient monomeric intermediate generated upon tetramer dissociation, a key species in the amyloidogenic cascade. Together, these findings define the structural and dynamic basis of Zn2+-mediated TTR misfolding and establish combined solution and solid-state NMR approaches as powerful tools for probing metal-induced misfolding landscapes in TTR and related amyloidogenic proteins.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Fitzpatrick MJ, Yuan J, Akuma DC, et al (2026)

Acute Erythroid Leukemia Associated With Myeloid Neoplasms: Clinicopathologic Features and Evidence of Clonal Continuity.

Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc pii:S0893-3952(26)00150-X [Epub ahead of print].

Acute erythroid leukemia (AEL) is a rare and aggressive variant of leukemia with erythroid differentiation. AEL can arise de novo or transform from underlying myeloid neoplasms (MNs); however, the clinicopathologic and molecular genetic features associated with AEL transformation are poorly defined. Through a multi-institutional collaboration, we characterized 116 cases of AEL transformed from MNs, predominantly myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS; 59%, n=68) and BCR::ABL1-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN; 28%, n=33). Median age at AEL diagnosis was 66 years (range, 26-94 years) with a male-to-female ratio of 1.3:1. At initial MN diagnosis, the MDS group had a significantly higher rate of complex karyotypes (76% vs. 8%; P < 0.0001) and TP53 mutations (98% vs. 11%; P < 0.0001), and a shorter median time to transformation (7.6 vs. 82.4 months; P < 0.0001), compared with the MPN group. Conversely, the MPN group preferentially acquired complex karyotypes and co-mutations including TP53 and TET2, during progression. Consequently, at the time of AEL transformation, both groups exhibited similar frequencies of complex karyotypes (94% vs. 92%; P = 0.6574) and TP53 mutations (100% vs. 92%; P = 0.1176) and a dismal median overall survival (1.4 vs. 1.5 months; P = 0.7893). Notably, among 58 cases with longitudinal cytogenetic and molecular data, 100% shared at least one genetic aberration between the MN and AEL stages, suggesting a direct clonal relationship. Taken together, these findings show that AEL can clonally evolve from underlying MNs through distinct initial molecular genetic pathways that ultimately converge into an adverse genetic landscape with poor prognosis.

RevDate: 2026-10-25

Tong APS, Poljakov K, Lane DD, et al (2026)

Reprogramming the tumor microenvironment from within: intratumoral immunoadjuvants in cancer immunotherapy.

Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 14(10):.

The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) limits antigen presentation, immune trafficking, and therapeutic durability. Tumors range from immunoreactive microenvironments with pre-existing immune infiltration to immunosuppressive microenvironments characterized by myeloid-driven immunosuppression, dense stromal barriers, and effector T-cell exclusion. Intratumoral immunoadjuvants facilitate the transition of immunosuppressive TMEs toward immunoreactive states through activation of local innate immune signaling, chemokine-driven effector T-cell recruitment, and myeloid reprogramming, while amplifying pre-existing immunity in immunoreactive tumors. However, clinical translation is challenged by poor local retention and heterogeneous tumor architecture. This review integrates TME biology with advances in biomaterial-formulated delivery. Key immunoadjuvant classes, including STING, TLR, and RIG-I agonists, cytokines, and oncolytic viruses, are discussed with hydrogel depots, polymeric nanoparticles, and collagen-binding platforms that enhance retention and controlled release. Physical modulation through methods such as ultrasound and radiation is examined as a complementary approach to disrupt stromal barriers. A framework is proposed for matching immunoadjuvant class, biomaterial carrier, and dosing schedule to tumor-specific immunologic features that can drive lasting antitumor immunity.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Maskarinec G, Laxamana MA, Lim U, et al (2026)

The association of the gut microbiome with intermediate markers of breast cancer risk-mammographic density and blood steroid hormones-in the multiethnic cohort study.

Cancer treatment and research communications, 49:101497 pii:S2468-2942(26)00406-5 [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: The gut microbiota may influence breast cancer risk through different biologic pathways. This analysis examined the association of the gut microbial composition with percent mammographic density (PMD), a strong predictor of breast cancer risk.

METHODS: Postmenopausal women in the Adiposity Phenotype Study, a cross-sectional subset of the Multiethnic Cohort, from five racial/ethnic groups, provided a stool sample. Extracted bacterial DNA was sequenced for the V1-V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Bioinformatic analysis determined alpha-diversity and the abundance of 10 phyla and 152 genera. PMD was assessed in routine mammograms taken before stool collection with a quantitative computer-assisted method. Blood levels of estrogen metabolites were assessed using standard assays. General linear models regressed PMD on gut microbial diversity, phyla, and genera while adjusting for relevant covariates.

RESULTS: Of 649 women (69.1 ± 2.7 years), 311 had low (<15%) and 338 had high (>=15%) PMD. Whereas alpha diversity or phyla were not associated with PMD, 10 genera were nominally related to PMD (p < 0.05) but not after adjusting for multiple comparisons: 7 positively (Bifidobacterium, Blautia, Dialister, Eubacterium_fissicatena_group, Lachnospira, Lachnospiraceae_UCG-008, Lachnospiraceae_uncultured) and 3 inversely (Alistipes, Senegalimassilia, Eubacterium_oxidoreducens_group), potentially implicating estrogen metabolism and short-chain fatty acid production. All blood steroid metabolites were significantly related to PMD, but only SHBG was associated with 2 genera after Bonferroni adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS: The nominal associations detected in this analysis suggest that certain gut microbiota may be associated with PMD, a marker of risk but not a measure of breast cancer incidence, due to their ability to affect circulating hormones or SCFA production.

RevDate: 2026-10-31
CmpDate: 2026-10-31

Xu G, Yee JX, IIcisin SM, et al (2026)

HIV-1 prime-boost vaccination shapes distinct clonal trajectories and memory precursor states of Env- and Gag-specific T cells.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Despite decades of HIV-1 vaccine development, the clonal and cellular determinants of durable vaccine-induced T cell memory remain incompletely understood. Here, we combined antigen-specific T cell receptor (TCR) identification, longitudinal TCR sequencing, and single-cell multi-omics to characterize Env- and Gag-specific memory precursor T cells elicited by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) 505 DNA prime-recombinant adenovirus serotype 5 (rAd5) boost (DNA/rAd5) vaccine regimen. We developed a generalizable high-throughput approach to identify HIV-1 Env- and Gag-specific TCRs and found distinct patterns of clonal expansion, persistence, and contribution to memory between Env- and Gag-specific CD8[+] T cell responses. The DNA prime and rAd5 boost differentially shaped these repertoires, with rAd5-induced clones contributing proportionally more to the Gag-specific than to the Env-specific memory precursor compartment. Single-cell immune profiling further revealed distinct memory precursor states, with Env-specific responses enriched for GZMB [+] PRF1 [+] cytotoxic effector-memory (EM) CD8[+] T cells and Gag-specific responses containing a larger cycling/proliferative population. Together, these findings demonstrate that heterologous DNA/rAd5 vaccination generates antigen-specific CD8[+] T cell memory with distinct clonal trajectories and cellular programs, providing new insights into how vaccine platform and antigen-specificity shape the durability and functional properties of HIV-1 specific cellular immunity.

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Subramanian AK, Avery RK, Syed A, et al (2026)

Building a One-Year Transplant Infectious Diseases Fellowship: A North American Perspective From Established Programs.

Transplant infectious disease : an official journal of the Transplantation Society pii:e70349 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2026-10-23

Palazzo L, Hansell L, Wernli KJ, et al (2026)

Determinants of lung cancer screening follow-up care in community care settings: A qualitative multi-case study in the ACCELL trial.

Chest pii:S0012-3692(26)06929-1 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Adherence to lung cancer screening (LCS) follow-up is essential to achieve mortality benefits from screening. However, population-based studies demonstrate follow-up is <50% in clinical settings. Determinants (barriers and facilitators) of LCS follow-up in community settings are under-studied.

RESEARCH QUESTION: What are determinants of LCS follow-up in community settings?

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This qualitative multi-case study informed a pre-post intervention trial, testing pragmatic interventions to address LCS follow-up in community settings. We conducted rapid ethnographic assessments (REA) through virtual and in person site visits of LCS delivery in three community-based healthcare systems in Washington state. Additionally at the two future intervention sites, we conducted provider and patient interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed using Rapid Group Analysis Process. All data were triangulated according to Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Framework domains.

RESULTS: Twenty-eight organizational leaders, providers, and staff participated in REA. Thirty-one patients and 15 providers from the future intervention sites participated in interviews. Determinants of LCS follow-up in the intervention domain included role of primary care, LCS complexity and care process standardization. In the inner setting domain (organization and clinic), screening prioritization, EHR use, radiology support, and context of wellness visits affected LCS. The main theme in the outer setting domain was the influence of social determinants of health on LCS. In the individuals domain, shared beliefs in LCS and LCS education and information sharing were key. In the process implementation domain, clinical champions and use of data and metrics were crucial.

INTERPRETATION: Integrated findings suggest determinants related to LCS complexity, care fragmentation, socioeconomic status and language, and limitations of PCPs could be overcome through more centralized approaches. However, increased use of EHR tools, increased education and standardizing LCS performance metrics may enable follow-up in decentralized settings.

CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT06324110.

RevDate: 2026-10-30
CmpDate: 2026-10-30

Azizoglu A, Bijman EY, R Brent (2026)

Evolverator: An engineered yeast system to drive rapid continuous in vivo evolution of proteins.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Continuous in vivo evolution of non-essential proteins requires an engineered link between target protein and host cell fitness, which is difficult to establish and vulnerable to escape mutations. We systematically designed and tested Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene circuits guided by quantitative mathematical models that predicted circuit, organism, and population behavior. We identified four generalizable design principles for escape-resistant continuous evolution and built the Evolverator, a yeast platform that couples protein binding to proliferation rate while suppressing escape mutations. We used the Evolverator to improve human estrogen receptor ligand affinity and generate stronger yeast repressors from the bacterial LacI protein. The resulting variants revealed previously undescribed hER substitutions within and outside the binding pocket, as well as LacI mutations that enhance repression in yeast despite reduced activity in Escherichia coli. Our work establishes a generalizable, model-guided framework for building yeast strains to allow continuous evolution of diverse protein functions in vivo.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

Talavera IC, Thomas KK, Graham JB, et al (2026)

Genital Tract and Circulating CD8+ T Cell Phenotypes Vary Across the Menstrual Cycle.

American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989), 96(4):.

PROBLEM: The menstrual cycle consists of two main phases: the follicular phase, characterized by rising estradiol and low progesterone, and the luteal phase, marked by elevated progesterone following ovulation. Changes in sex hormones have profound physiological effects, yet their impact on immunity remains poorly understood. The prevailing theory suggests that reduced immunity during the luteal phase facilitates embryo implantation but also increases susceptibility to infections. Thus, defining the impact of the menstrual cycle on genital and systemic immunity is critical to understanding how immunity at different sites may be affected.

METHOD OF STUDY: We examined phenotypic differences in T cells from ectocervical and vaginal tissue biopsies and blood samples collected from 58 women in the follicular phase and 20 women in the luteal phase using flow cytometry and measured seventy-one cytokines and chemokines from serum and cervicovaginal secretions.

RESULTS: The proportions of CD8+ memory T cell subsets varied with menstrual phase, with a higher frequency of central memory cells during the luteal phase and more TEMRA cells during the follicular phase. Cervical CD8+ T cells exhibited higher frequencies of CD38 and CD39 during the luteal phase. We found higher CCL15 and IL-2 concentrations in cervicovaginal fluid, and higher CXCL12 in serum, during the follicular phase. During the luteal phase, CXCL13 was higher in cervicovaginal secretions.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide insight into how menstrual phase modulates genital CD8+ T cell phenotypes and memory subsets throughout the cycle and may influence immunity in distinct tissue compartments with consequences for local infection vulnerability.

RevDate: 2026-10-22

Colgan JN, Gooley TA, Pedersen JB, et al (2026)

Prospective phase 2 trial of high- and intermediate-intensity myeloablative conditioning for cord blood transplantation.

Blood advances pii:571662 [Epub ahead of print].

Umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) is an important alternative donor strategy for patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. While myeloablative conditioning (MAC) is associated with superior disease control following UCBT compared to reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC), its benefits can be offset by non-relapse mortality (NRM). Intermediate-intensity MAC may preserve the anti-leukemic effects of historically high-intensity MAC while reducing NRM. We conducted a prospective phase 2 trial evaluating outcomes of patients undergoing UCBT following either high-intensity or intermediate-intensity MAC. A total of 132 patients were enrolled between 2006 and 2022, with acute leukemia being the predominant indication. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), with secondary endpoints including relapse-free survival (RFS), relapse and NRM. For the overall study population at 1 year, OS was 78% (95% CI, 70-85%) and RFS was 72% (95% CI, 64-79%). Outcomes were comparable between conditioning regimens, with encouragingly low NRM observed in patients receiving intermediate-intensity conditioning, including in the pediatric cohort. Among patients with acute leukemia, measurable residual disease (MRD) positivity at transplant was not associated with an increase in relapse, supporting enhanced GVL following UCBT. These findings were particularly notable in patients with AML. These data demonstrate that UCBT following intermediate intensity MAC is a viable strategy that may reduce toxicity while preserving disease control in selected patients. Collectively, these findings support the unique anti-leukemic properties of UCBT and reinforce its role as a highly effective donor platform for high-risk leukemia in children and adults. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT00719888.

RevDate: 2026-10-22

Choe M, Bhatt NS, Keenan C, et al (2026)

Maintenance ALK inhibitor after hematopoietic cell transplantation in patients with anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Blood advances pii:571663 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2026-10-22

Aljawai YM, Ueda Oshima M, Astha V, et al (2026)

Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Outcomes in the Era of Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide: Comprehensive Donor Analysis.

Blood advances pii:571661 [Epub ahead of print].

Donor types influence outcomes after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), but their relative impact in the post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) era is uncertain. We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study using Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research data for adults with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes undergoing first HCT from matched sibling donors (MSD), 8/8 matched unrelated donors (MUD), 7/8 mismatched unrelated donors (MMUD), or haploidentical donors between 2017 and 2023 with PTCy-based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. The primary cohort included 12,617 patients: 1,263 MSD, 4,117 MUD, 1,426 MMUD, and 5,811 haploidentical recipients. In multivariable models adjusted for donor age and clinical covariates, overall survival (OS) was lower with MUD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.16; 95% CI, 1.00-1.34, p=0.004), MMUD (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.12-1.55, p<0.001), and haploidentical donors (HR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.24-1.64, p<0.001) compared with MSD. GVHD-free, relapse-free survival (GRFS) was similar for MUD and MSD (reference) but lower with MMUD and haploidentical donors. Compared to MSD, all other donor groups had lower relapse risk but higher non-relapse mortality and acute GVHD, with similar chronic GVHD. In sensitivity analyses excluding donor-age adjustment, compared to MSD, OS was similar for MUD and MMUD, and GRFS was improved with MUD and similar for MMUD and haploidentical donors. These findings suggest that PTCy narrows outcome differences across donor types, shifting donor selection from rigid hierarchies and supporting timely HCT using the best available donor.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

Wu CI, Banda K, Arora R, et al (2026)

HRDPath: an explainable multi-model deep learning architecture for predicting homologous recombination deficiency from histopathology images.

Nature communications, 17(1):.

Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) is a critical biomarker for guiding treatment decisions in high-grade serous tubo-ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), a cancer with few reliable biomarkers. However, existing genomics-based tests for HRD are variable, expensive, and time-consuming. We develop HRDPath, a patient-level deep learning architecture that predicts HRD status from whole slide images, requiring no additional molecular testing. HRDPath is validated across three cohorts of female patients and achieves an AUC of 0.846, significantly outperforming previously reported results in HGSOC. By incorporating multiple slides per patient and targeted optimization strategies, we strengthen the model clinical utility, with both specificity and sensitivity reaching 0.90. Our interpretability pipeline enhances model trustworthiness and reveals important clinical and biological insights into HRD-positive cancers, highlighting the associated morphological and pathological changes at the cellular and tissue levels. HRDPath provides a foundation for an accessible and scalable digital biomarker to improve treatment stratification in ovarian cancer globally.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

Sharma S, Martinez Di Pietro B, Nandula A, et al (2026)

Early Prediction of Cardiomyopathy in Pediatric Cancer Survivors Using Echocardiographic Video-Based Deep Learning.

Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.), 43(10):.

PURPOSE: Cardiomyopathy (CM) is a leading cause of late mortality in childhood cancer survivors, but it is often identified only after irreversible cardiac remodeling has already occurred. In this proof-of-concept study, we assessed whether deep learning applied to routine echocardiographic videos can identify features predictive of future CM.

METHODS: We analyzed parasternal short-axis clips from cancer survivors ≤21 years old at cancer diagnosis. 3D deep convolutional neural networks were trained to classify CM-positive versus CM-negative studies from echocardiograms conducted up to five years prior to CM diagnosis. The performance was assessed on internal hold-out validation (Center 1) and external validation cohorts (Centers 2, 3). The model's prognostic value was evaluated by stratifying patients into high- and low-risk groups for developing CM, and probability of future CM was assessed using cumulative incidence and proportional hazards regression analysis.

RESULTS: The model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.87±0.05 and an area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.74±0.07 on the internal hold-out set. External validation showed near-chance single-study discrimination (AUROC 0.55±0.02 and 0.60±0.03; AUPRC 0.22±0.02 and 0.21±0.03 for Centers 2 and 3, respectively). Nevertheless, analysis of the external cohort showed significantly higher probability of CM in high- versus low-risk groups (hazard ratio 2.78, 95% CI = 1.52-5.10, p = 0.00056).

CONCLUSION: Deep learning models have the potential to identify subtle echocardiographic markers years before CM diagnosis in pediatric cancer survivors and could serve as a preliminary step toward risk-guided CM surveillance. Further refinement and validation are needed to determine the utility of deep learning for early identification of pathologic cardiac remodeling in this population.

RevDate: 2026-10-19

Malcomson FC, O'Connell CP, Farhat Z, et al (2026)

Gut microbiome-related plasma metabolites and risk of colorectal cancer.

Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology pii:789453 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Perturbations in gut microbiome composition and altered levels of related metabolites may be related to colorectal cancer (CRC). This study assessed whether pre-diagnostic, circulating, microbiome-related metabolite concentrations were associated with CRC risk.

METHODS: We undertook a nested case-control study of 739 participants in the Colon Cancer Family Registry Cohort (312 cases, 427 controls). Median follow-up time from blood draw to diagnosis was 7 years. Pre-diagnostic plasma concentrations of 70 metabolites were quantified by targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for metabolite concentrations and CRC risk using multivariable conditional logistic regression models. Stratified analyses were conducted by sex, Lynch syndrome diagnosis, and age at tumor onset.

RESULTS: The primary bile acids, cholate and chenodeoxycholate, were positively associated with CRC incidence, overall and among females. The odds of CRC were higher in individuals in the highest compared with the lowest quartiles of cholate (ORQ4vQ1=1.61, 95% CI=1.05-2.49) and chenodeoxycholate (ORQ4vQ1=1.60, 95% CI=1.03-2.50). Two short-chain fatty acids (caproate, valerate) and three metabolites involved in phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism (cinnamoylglycine, phenylpropionate, 4-ethylphenylsulfate) were suggested to be associated, positively and negatively, respectively, with incident CRC but these associations did not withstand correction for multiple comparisons. In stratified analyses, some differences were observed according to sex, Lynch syndrome diagnosis, and age at tumor onset.

CONCLUSIONS: Circulating microbiome-related metabolites, including bile acids and short-chain fatty acids, may be associated with CRC risk.

IMPACT: These findings provide insight into potential pathways linking the gut microbiome to colorectal carcinogenesis.

RevDate: 2026-10-22

Chrisman SPD, Bollinger BJ, Flaat A, et al (2026)

Mobile Subthreshold Exercise Program (MSTEP) for Youth With Prolonged Concussion Recovery: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

JAMA pediatrics [Epub ahead of print].

IMPORTANCE: Research suggests that aerobic exercise improves recovery for youth with concussion; however, prior studies primarily focused on acute concussion and required multiple in-person visits.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a virtually delivered aerobic exercise program improves recovery following concussion compared to a stretching control and examine potential moderators.

A randomized clinical trial was conducted from 2021 to 2025 comparing the Mobile Subthreshold Exercise Program (MSTEP) to a stretching control for 11- to 18-year-olds with concussion up to 1 year from injury. Participants were recruited from a variety of outpatient locations in 4 US states (Washington, Utah, Wisconsin, and Oregon). Recruitment and data collection occurred from March 2021 until October 2025, and data analysis occurred from November 2025 to April 2026.

INTERVENTIONS: Youth randomized to MSTEP were provided activity trackers and an aerobic exercise program initiated at 60% of heart rate maximum. Exercise was advanced in intensity and duration over 6 weeks through weekly videoconferencing calls. Youth in the control group were given stretching exercises and similar weekly calls.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes included (1) concussive symptoms and (2) health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Secondary outcomes included sleep, depression, and anxiety. Moderation by sex, age, and time since injury was examined. Patients were followed up for 6 months.

RESULTS: The sample included 210 participants, among whom 122 (58.1%) were female, mean (SD) age was 15.1 (2.2) years, and mean (SD) time since injury was 73.3 (63.3) days. Covariate-adjusted regression analysis showed significant improvement in concussive symptoms and HRQoL at all time points, with greater improvement in MSTEP compared to control at the 3-month time point for both concussive symptoms (β, -3.15; 95% CI, -6.05 to -0.25; adjusted P = .04) and HRQoL (β, 4.15; 95% CI, 0.64-7.66; adjusted P = .04). No significant differences by group were seen at 6 months. Nonlinear mixed-effects modeling with exponential decay showed significantly faster symptom recovery in MSTEP compared to control (difference in rates, -0.68; 95% CI, -2.22 to -0.04; P = .002). Secondary outcomes (sleep, depression, and anxiety) improved in all participants but were not different by group. Benefit of the intervention was only significant for individuals less than 3 months from injury (concussive symptoms: β, -4.44; 95% CI, -7.99 to -0.90; unadjusted P = .01; HRQoL: β, 6.64; 95% CI, 2.55-10.72; unadjusted P = .002). No evidence was found for moderation by other factors.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Per the results of this randomized clinical trial, an aerobic exercise program improves speed of recovery following concussion for youth compared to stretching and can be delivered remotely. However, this type of program appears to be most beneficial for individuals with acute or subacute injury (<3 months since injury).

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04688255.

RevDate: 2026-10-20

Melão BVLA, Jardim DL, Li R, et al (2026)

Rare prostate cancer histologies: detection, characteristics and treatment.

Nature reviews. Urology [Epub ahead of print].

Relatively rare histologies of prostate cancer collectively account for <5% of all prostate cancers and comprise mucinous adenocarcinoma, intraductal carcinoma, ductal adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine prostate cancer (including treatment-emergent small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma), sarcomatoid carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. These histologies have distinct morphological, molecular and clinical features from each other and the most common histological type, acinar adenocarcinoma. The perceived rarity of these histologies often reflects sampling limitations rather than biological prevalence, as many treatment-emergent phenotypes are seldom encountered in routine practice owing to the infrequent use of metastatic biopsies. These histologies demonstrate aggressive behaviour, atypical metastatic patterns and reduced responsiveness to conventional therapies. Despite their clinical importance, these entities remain under-represented in standard guidelines and clinical trials. Histological types and subtypes, such as ductal, mucinous, intraductal, neuroendocrine and sarcomatoid carcinomas, pose diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, and conventional screening with PSA exhibits limitations, so they are often diagnosed at advanced stages. Multiparametric MRI, immunohistochemistry and genomic profiling are crucial tools for accurate recognition and risk stratification. Histological type-specific genomic alterations, including DNA repair deficiencies, RB1 and TP53 loss, and mismatch repair mutations, provide potential therapeutic opportunities, but treatment recommendations are still largely extrapolated from acinar adenocarcinoma. Limited retrospective data suggest worse outcomes for patients with a rare histology than those with typical acinar adenocarcinoma, highlighting the urgent need for prospective registries and dedicated clinical trials. Rare histologies of prostate cancer are an under-recognized source of morbidity and mortality. Improved diagnostic precision, incorporation of molecular profiling and collaborative data collection efforts are essential to develop evidence-based strategies.

RevDate: 2026-10-22
CmpDate: 2026-10-20

Di M, Huntington SF, Voutsinas JM, et al (2026)

Survival Outcomes in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia During the Novel Agent Era: A Population-Based Analysis.

Cancer medicine, 15(10):e72408.

Chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) had long been used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) until 2014 when the first novel agent, ibrutinib, was approved in the United States. Numerous novel therapies have since become available. Nevertheless, as novel therapies have largely replaced CIT in CLL/SLL, its impact on survival has yet to be examined on the population level. In this study, we used the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) database to compare survival in patients with CLL/SLL before and after the approval of the first novel therapy. We included 9913 patients who started treatment within 2 years of CLL/SLL diagnosis. In the multivariable analyses, the overall survival improved significantly (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.86, 95% confidence interval: 0.81, 0.92), and death from CLL/SLL and other cancer (subdistribution-HR: 0.69 and 0.77) also decreased significantly. Nevertheless, CLL/SLL remains the main cause of death during the novel agent era.

RevDate: 2026-10-24
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

Madden DA, Dusic E, Rios IE, et al (2026)

From Collection to Collaboration: Building Ethical Frameworks for Genetic Research.

Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.), 52(3-4):286-297.

Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (TNGD) communities are not routinely included as partners in the research that will impact them. The expansion of genomic and gender identity data collection has allowed researchers to explore transgender identity genomics research (TIGR), or associations between genomics and gender identity. We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to explore TNGD perspectives on TIGR in order to advance ethical practices, minimize harms, and maximize potential benefits. An Executive Stakeholder Board of TNGD community members, advocates, clinicians, and ethics, legal, genomics, and health equity scholars co-developed recruitment strategies, data collection tools, analytic strategies, and a dissemination plan which informed qualitative interviews with 31 U.S.-based TNGD adults. The mean age was 34 years (range = 19-73). Twelve participants were nonbinary, 12 were trans women, and 7 were trans men. The majority (61%) were people of color. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we conceptualized four themes related to ethical TIGR research practices: 1) Are we represented? 2) Are we protected? 3) Are we benefiting? 4) Are we understood? Findings underscore the importance of conducting any TIGR or genomics research with and not on TNGD communities. Ethical research benefits from sustained partnership, transparency, and reflexivity, particularly amidst ideologically motivated threats to inclusive science. Centering TNGD voices in, and recommendations for, genomics strengthens both scientific rigor and community trust. The incongruity of attempting to interrupt a CBPR study focused on ethical research practices in TIGR underscores the contradiction between stated federal commitments to research integrity and the actions taken. (4,064 words).

RevDate: 2026-10-24
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

Gao Q, Wei K, Pan D, et al (2026)

CREBBP loss drives immune evasion by epigenetically silencing STING and MHC-I in small cell lung cancer.

Science advances, 12(43):eaef1693.

Most small cell lung cancers (SCLCs) exhibit low immunogenicity and intrinsic resistance to immunotherapy, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify CREBBP loss, a frequent genetic alteration in SCLC, as a key suppressor of tumor cell-intrinsic immune responses that drives an immune-cold tumor microenvironment in Rb1/Trp53-driven autochthonous mouse models. Consistently, Crebbp deletion promotes immune escape in syngeneic SCLC models. Mechanistically, Crebbp loss suppresses Sting and major histocompatibility complex class-I expression by reducing histone H3 acetylation. Notably, HDAC inhibition restores histone acetylation, reactivates these silenced genes, and induces tumor cell-intrinsic immune responses. Moreover, pharmacological HDAC inhibition synergizes with immune checkpoint blockade to suppress tumor growth in both Crebbp-mutant and Crebbp-wild-type SCLCs, with a more prominent effect in Crebbp-mutant tumors. Collectively, these findings establish CREBBP loss as a key mechanism of immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance in SCLC, highlighting HDAC inhibition as a promising strategy to enhance immunotherapy efficacy.

RevDate: 2026-10-27
CmpDate: 2026-10-22

DeWolf S, Siegel SJ, Schmalz J, et al (2026)

Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis shapes T cell biology and immune reconstitution after hematopoietic cell transplant.

Science translational medicine, 18(872):eaef7406.

Successful hematopoietic cell transplant requires immunosuppression to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a lethal, T cell-mediated complication. The phase 3 BMT CTN 1703 trial demonstrated superior GVHD-free/relapse-free survival for posttransplant cyclophosphamide (PT-Cy)-based GVHD prophylaxis versus tacrolimus/methotrexate (Tac/MTX), but the T cell biology underpinning these outcomes remains unknown. To determine this, 324 patients were coenrolled onto BMT CTN 1801 to investigate the distinct T cell immune reconstitution pathways of these regimens, including extensive evaluation of T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, via sequencing of 2359 longitudinal samples and 180,432,350 T cells. Multimodal T cell analysis revealed that PT-Cy was associated with pan-T cell deletion followed by delayed T cell expansion from a smaller founder population compared with Tac/MTX. This created a T cell diversity bottleneck, leading to reduced TCR repertoire diversity for 2 years posttransplant. Reduced TCR diversity, more common in patients receiving PT-Cy, was linked to protection against chronic GVHD when patients were analyzed without regard to study arm. Leveraging donor- and host-specific TCR clonal analysis, we determined that PT-Cy-mediated T cell depletion also depleted pathogen-specific TCRs, rendering PT-Cy patients more likely to lack detectable graft-derived pathogen-specific TCRs early after transplant, which was associated with an increased risk of severe infection. This study reveals how distinct immunosuppression strategies uniquely remodel T cell immunity and shape divergent transplant outcomes.

RevDate: 2026-10-28
CmpDate: 2026-10-28

Ma J, Kundu P, Randolph T, et al (2026)

Mediation Analysis with Compositional Exposures.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Understanding the causal pathways linking the gut microbiome to downstream biomarkers and clinical outcomes is central to microbiome research. When the microbiome acts as the exposure, the high dimensionality and compositional structure of the data introduce unique methodological challenges for mediation analysis. To address these challenges, we propose a latent variable mediation framework that captures variation in microbial composition through a microbial balance, defined as the log-ratio between two unknown subsets of taxa. This balance serves as a latent scalar exposure and simplifies the estimation of the overall indirect effect at the community level, while simultaneously identifying specific taxa that contribute to the overall direct and indirect effects. We describe the model's estimation and inference, and illustrate the method using data from the Multiethnic Cohort-Adiposity Phenotype Study, where we examine the mediation pathway from the gut microbiome through lipopolysaccharide-binding protein, a marker of metabolic endotoxemia, to percent liver fat.

RevDate: 2026-10-28
CmpDate: 2026-10-28

O'Brien S, Fujimoto MH, Lowe AR, et al (2026)

Transcriptional adaptation influences buffering among essential paralog gene families.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Buffering among paralogous genes is a well-described phenomenon in which genetic redundancy provides genetic robustness. Shared function among paralogs allows for a compensation effect when one or more paralog family genes are inactivated. Considering the role of transcriptional adaptation in influencing gene expression among highly homologous genes, we sought to identify whether transcriptional adaptation has a role in paralog buffering. We performed Perturb-seq of 110 paralog gene knockouts and assessed compensatory gene expression effects among paralogs as well as at the whole transcriptome level. This analysis identified six paralog pairs that undergo a transcriptional adaptation following CRISPR-mediated loss of one paralog in the pair. Further, we found that the upregulation of TIA1 following paralog TIAL1 loss requires nonsense-mediated decay, and active nuclear import via the importin IPO8. These data provide a comprehensive evaluation of transcriptional adaptation and show that transcriptional adaptation is recurrent but not pervasive among paralogous human genes.

RevDate: 2026-10-18

Yuan R, Yaniv B, Grivas P, et al (2026)

Severe Cytopenias Following Radioligand Therapy: A Real-World Analysis.

Clinical genitourinary cancer, 24(8):102684 pii:S1558-7673(26)00184-9 [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: Two radiopharmaceuticals are approved for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC): Radium-223 and [177]Lu-PSMA-617. While short-term hematologic toxicity is well-studied, the long-term risk of severe cytopenias and therapy-related myeloid neoplasm (t-MN) remains unclear. We compared the risk of severe cytopenias between these 2 agents.

PATIENTS: Adults with prostate cancer with ≥ 1 administration of [177]Lu-PSMA-617 or Radium-223. Exclusion criteria included pre-existing grade ≥ 3 cytopenias in the 30 days prior to first infusion and receipt of alternate radiopharmaceutical.

METHODS: Propensity score matching (PSM) was based on age, race, and prior cancer-directed therapies. Primary endpoints were risk of grade ≥ 3 anemia, thrombocytopenia, and neutropenia, assessed at early (0-12 weeks), intermediate (12-36 weeks), and late (> 36 weeks) timepoints from first infusion.

RESULTS: After PSM, 1015 patients remained in each group with well-balanced baseline characteristics. Radium-223 was associated with higher risk of grade ≥ 3 anemia across all 3 time windows compared with [177]Lu-PSMA-617: early (12.3% vs. 7.4%, RR 1.67, P < .001), intermediate (25.5% vs. 13.5%, RR 1.89, P < .001), and late (27% vs. 13.9%, RR 1.94, P < .001). Radium-223 was associated with higher risk of grade ≥ 3 thrombocytopenia in the intermediate (10.7% vs. 6.7%, RR 1.60, P = .001) and late time windows (11.1% vs. 7.1%, RR 1.57, P = .001) as well as higher risk of grade ≥ 3 neutropenia in the intermediate (3.9% vs. 1.9%, RR 2.10, P = .006) and late time windows (4.5% vs. 2.6%, RR 1.77, P = .01).

CONCLUSION: This large, real-world study demonstrated that Radium-223 is associated with significantly higher risk of severe cytopenias compared with [177]Lu-PSMA-617. Findings may inform appropriate patient selection, and sequencing of radiopharmaceutical therapy. Future studies aimed at evaluating the bone marrow environment may further elucidate the potential for clonal hematopoiesis and therapy-related myeloid neoplasms.

RevDate: 2026-10-18

Linden HM, O'Brien SR, van de Ven SM, et al (2026)

Clinical Utility of [[18]F]Fluoroestradiol PET/CT to Guide Second Line Treatment Decision in ER-Positive HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer After Progression on First Line Endocrine Therapy.

Clinical breast cancer, 26(11):32-39 pii:S1526-8209(26)00171-0 [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: Many patients with ER-positive HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) derive limited benefit from second line endocrine therapy. This study evaluated the impact of [[18]F]fluoroestradiol (FES) PET/CT on second line therapeutic decision-making.

METHODS: Patients with progression of ER-positive HER2-negative MBC on first line endocrine therapy were prospectively enrolled in 17 U.S. centers to undergo [[18]F]FES PET/CT after standard-of-care (SoC) imaging. [[18]F]FES uptake in MBC lesions was evaluated. Treating oncologists completed questionnaires before and after [[18]F]FES PET/CT, detailing therapeutic decisions plus their confidence in the decisions. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients whose therapeutic management changed after [[18]F]FES PET/CT.

RESULTS: Between January 2023 and May 2024, 45 patients underwent [[18]F]FES PET/CT. Imaging results led to management changes in 17 patients (37.8%; 95% CI, 23.8%-53.5%). Twenty-five patients avoided further diagnostic testing, while 7 patients received additional tests. Oncologist's confidence in second line treatment decision increased on average from 6.6 before [[18]F]FES PET/CT to 8.6 afterward on a ten-point scale (P < .0001). In 25 patients (55.6%), lesions visible on SoC imaging were reported as "absent" (FES-negative) on [[18]F]FES PET/CT, suggesting potential loss or downregulation of ER that functionally binds estrogen.

CONCLUSION: [[18]F]FES PET/CT altered therapeutic management in 37.8% of patients with MBC progressing on first line endocrine therapy and significantly increased oncologist's confidence in treatment selection. This imaging modality could help prevent unnecessary prolongation of ineffective endocrine therapy and delays in initiation of more effective options. Future studies should investigate potential outcome benefits after [[18]F]FES PET/CT-informed management changes.

RevDate: 2026-10-18
CmpDate: 2026-10-18

Brennan M, Javid SH, Flanagan MR, et al (2026)

Surgical management in HER2 + de novo metastatic breast cancer: disease progression and survival.

Breast cancer research and treatment, 220(1):.

PURPOSE: Advancements in human epidermal growth factor (HER)-targeted therapy have significantly improved survival in patients with de novo metastatic HER-2 positive (HER2+) breast cancer (dnMBC). The role of breast surgery is debated. We examined which HER2 + dnMBC patients undergo surgery and compared outcomes to systemic therapy alone.

METHODS: We performed a single institution retrospective review of patients with HER2 + dnMBC diagnosed 2011-2023. Data included demographics, clinicopathologic details, treatment information, local and distant disease progression, and survival outcomes. Analyses included logistic regression, Kaplan Meier, and Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS: The study included 103 patients. Of these, 42.7% underwent breast surgery (70.5% mastectomy, 29.5% lumpectomy). Of these, 72.7% underwent axillary surgery (38.6% axillary lymph node dissection, 27.3% sentinel lymph node biopsy, 6.8% targeted axillary dissection). The median age at diagnosis was 48 years (surgery) and 56 years (no surgery) (p = 0.10). The surgery group had lower number of metastatic sites (1.3 vs. 1.9, p = 0.003) and exhibited higher rates of local disease progression pre-operatively (39% vs. 23.5%, p = 0.05). Post-operatively, there was no significant difference in local disease progression (17.1% vs. 23.5%, p = 0.42). After adjusting for age, sites of metastases, and number of metastatic sites, those who underwent surgery had improved overall survival (HR 0.33 (0.14-0.77), p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION: Patients with HER2 + dnMBC with lower metastatic disease burden and local disease progression were more likely to undergo breast surgery. There was no significant difference in local disease control post-operatively. The significant association between surgery and improved survival must be interpreted with caution due selection bias in this retrospective study.

RevDate: 2026-10-20
CmpDate: 2026-10-19

Balwan R, Hew YY, Gurumurthy G, et al (2026)

Microplastics, nanoplastics, and thrombogenesis.

Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis, 10(7):106931.

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are produced through mechanical, chemical, and ultraviolet-mediated degradation of plastics and may enter the human bloodstream via ingestion, inhalation, dermal exposure, and iatrogenic sources. Their detection in human blood, atheromas, and thrombi has raised concerns that they may contribute to thrombogenesis. We conducted a structured narrative review of English-language studies indexed in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus over the preceding 15 years, up to March 31, 2026. The search identified 981 database records and 39 additional manually identified articles; after removing duplicates and screening, 72 articles were included. Evidence was synthesized according to Virchow's triad, focusing on endothelial injury, altered blood flow, hypercoagulability, cellular uptake, polymer type, surface charge, weathering, and protein corona formation. MNPs may contribute to all 3 components of Virchow's triad. Proposed mechanisms include oxidative endothelial injury, glycocalyx disruption, monocyte adhesion, foam-cell formation, plaque instability, immune cell-mediated microvascular obstruction, platelet activation, NETosis, von Willebrand factor interactions, factor XII activation, thrombin generation, and fibrin-rich clot stabilization. These effects appear to vary with particle size, polymer composition, surface charge, and environmental weathering. However, mechanistic evidence largely comes from polystyrene nanoparticle models, whereas human thrombus and atheroma studies more commonly detect polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride. MNPs are biologically plausible contributors to thrombogenesis, but their clinical relevance remains uncertain. Prospective human studies, standardized contamination-controlled detection methods, and dose-response experiments using clinically relevant particles and concentrations are required.

RevDate: 2026-10-27

Xiao F, Qin F, Luo X, et al (2026)

Large-scale association study identifies lung cancer susceptibility copy number variants and their potential functional role in genetic instability.

Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology pii:789451 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous lung cancer susceptibility loci based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), yet a substantial proportion of heritability remains unexplained. We therefore evaluated germline copy number variants (CNVs) as an underexplored source of genetic susceptibility and potential contributors to genomic instability in lung cancer.

METHODS: We conducted a genome-wide analysis of germline CNVs using 19,342 cases and 15,917 controls from the Transdisciplinary Research in Cancer of the Lung (TRICL) consortium, with replication in two independent cohorts. High-confidence CNVs were identified by integrating two CNV callers including PennCNV and modSaRa2. Association analyses were performed using both gene-based and CNV region-based approaches. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) were constructed from top loci, and functional validation was conducted using siRNA-mediated knockdown in lung fibroblast cells.

RESULTS: We identified CNVs in four genomic regions (1p36.22, 2q31.2, 6p21.32, and 19q13.32) significantly or suggestively associated with lung cancer risk. Two loci (1p36.22 and 2q31.2) were consistently supported across both analytical strategies. A CNV-based PRS constructed from four key genes (CLCN6, NFE2L2, OPA3, and PSMB8) was significantly associated with lung cancer risk and replicated across independent datasets. Functional assays demonstrated that knockdown of NFE2L2 and OPA3 increased endogenous DNA damage, supporting a role in genomic stability.

CONCLUSIONS: Germline CNVs contribute to lung cancer susceptibility and may influence carcinogenesis through mechanisms related to genomic instability.

IMPACT: These findings expand our knowledge of the genetic architecture of lung cancer and suggest that the cumulative burden of germline CNVs may contribute to lung cancer susceptibility.

RevDate: 2026-10-16

Osarogiagbon RU, Unger JM, Doolittle GC, et al (2026)

Exemplar 1: Clinical Trials Innovations for Rural Areas.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs pii:8930864 [Epub ahead of print].

People who reside in rural areas have higher incidence of cancer, limited access to timely high-quality cancer care, and worse survival. Limited clinical trials access for rural residents with cancer exemplifies the challenge of rural cancer care. As clinical trials become more deeply integrated into high quality routine cancer care delivery, finding innovative ways to expand access to rural residents has become a high priority. The fundamental solution is to bring clinical trials to where rural residents routinely receive their care, ideally as close to home as safely possible. We provide examples of innovative solutions to achieve this fundamental goal, including: The NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) which has sought to integrate National Clinical Trials Network infrastructure into community and rural healthcare delivery infrastructure; support policy changes promoting decentralized clinical trials processes; telehealth strategies to decentralize key clinical trials processes and create virtual clinical trials infrastructure with a centralized research workforce; and to promote pragmatic approaches to engage administrators and clinicians in community and rural healthcare systems who traditionally have not adopted the clinical trials mission.

RevDate: 2026-10-16
CmpDate: 2026-10-16

Koutsakos M, Crawford JC, Grzelak L, et al (2026)

TCRαβ repertoire plasticity defines universal CD8+ T cell responses directed at influenza-specific HLA-A*02:01-PB1413-421 epitope.

Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950), 215(10):.

HLA-A*02:01-restricted PB1413+CD8+ T cells provide the broadest reported cross-reactive immunity against influenza A, B, and C viruses. Here, we investigated T cell receptor (TCR) clonotypic signatures within these universal A2/PB1413+CD8+ T cell pools, compared with immunodominant influenza A-specific M158+CD8+ T cells and codominant influenza B-specific A2/HA543+CD8+ memory T cells. Using single-cell reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and RNA sequencing methodologies, we defined TCRαβ repertoire composition and diversity. Our study shows that CD8+ T cells responding to these 3 epitopes differ in magnitude and TCRαβ repertoires in terms of gene usage and sharing, underpinned by specific TCR and structural features for each pMHC-I specificity. Our data demonstrated that the A2/PB1413+CD8+ TCRαβ repertoire encompassed diverse gene segment usage within both TCRα and TCRβ chains. These were, however, greatly variable across HLA-A2*02:01-expressing individuals and lacked any shared features within TRAV, TRBV, TRBJ, and TRAJ gene segments. This A2/PB1413+CD8+ TCRαβ diversity stemmed from the low probability of recombination attributed to a large number of N-insertions in the TCRβ chain. PB1413+CD8+ T cells also displayed remarkable plasticity in recognition of the A2/PB1413 epitope depicted by versatile CD8+ T cell recognition patterns of the universal A2/PB1413 epitope across HLA-A*02:01-expressing individuals. Conversely, TCRαβ repertoires within A2/BHA543+CD8+ and M158+CD8+ T cells displayed common TRAV, TRBV, TRBJ, and TRAJ gene segments, shared across HLA-A*02:01-expressing individuals and recognizing key residues within A2/BHA543 and A2/M158 epitopes. Overall, our data showed a great level of TCRαβ gene usage diversity within universal A2/PB1413+CD8+ T cells, indicating that the TCRαβ clonal plasticity defines universal immunity toward human influenza viruses.

RevDate: 2026-10-16
CmpDate: 2026-10-16

Peng Y, Wang M, Abe SK, et al (2026)

Processed meat, unprocessed red meat, poultry, seafood, and egg intake and stomach cancer risk: a pooled analysis of 20 cohorts.

International journal of epidemiology, 55(6):.

BACKGROUND: Processed meat is classified as a carcinogen and unprocessed red meat a probable carcinogen, but their associations with stomach cancer are not established. We evaluated intakes of these food groups and poultry, seafood, and eggs in relation to stomach cancer risk.

METHODS: Individual-level data for 1 100 370 females and 891 919 males from 20 cohorts were analysed. Diet was assessed at baseline by using food-frequency questionnaires or diet histories generally covering the past year and harmonized across studies. We used Cox regression to estimate multivariable-adjusted study- and sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations with each food group and combined study-specific estimates by using random-effects meta-analysis. We repeated analyses using an aggregated dataset combining all studies.

RESULTS: During follow-up (mean = 8-23 years across studies), 8561 invasive gastric adenocarcinomas were diagnosed. Processed meat intake showed weak evidence of an overall association with stomach cancer risk (HR, 1.15 for ≥45 vs <3 g/day; 95% CI, 1.00-1.32 and HR, 1.03 per 25-g/day increment; 95% CI, 0.99-1.07). This association was limited to current smokers (Pinteraction = .01) and differed by geographic region, with evidence for an association in Australian and European studies and no association observed in Asian studies (Pinteraction = .02). Positive associations with stomach cancer were observed for egg intake; no association was found for unprocessed red meat, poultry, or seafood.

CONCLUSION: Higher processed meat intake was associated with a modestly increased risk of stomach cancer among current smokers, although residual confounding by smoking dose remains possible. Findings for eggs warrant further investigation.

RevDate: 2026-10-27
CmpDate: 2026-10-16

Roychoudhury P, Bennett JC, Elias-Warren A, et al (2026)

RSV Molecular Epidemiology Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Periods in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Influenza and other respiratory viruses, 20(10):e70332.

BACKGROUND: Globally, RSV declined to historically low levels following stay-at-home orders in 2020 and re-emerged as restrictions lifted, with large inter-seasonal outbreaks and other shifts in epidemiology. The effect of the pandemic restrictions on genomic diversity has not been well studied.

METHODS: Individuals with respiratory symptoms were enrolled into community-based surveillance studies and provided nasal swabs over three respiratory virus seasons from 2019 to 2022 in the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington State, USA. Samples were tested for RSV by RT-qPCR, with whole genome sequencing performed for a subset.

RESULTS: Among children and adults, respectively, 1.8% (232/13,014) and 0.2% (86/46,042) of samples tested positive for RSV-A and 1.1% (139/13016) and 0.3% (119/46043) for RSV-B. Positive cases were observed in childcare (n = 39), clinic (n = 270), university (n = 20), workplace (n = 32) or nursing facility (n = 1) sites and through at-home self-administered testing (n = 253). Median age for all participants was 33 years (IQR: 23, 48) and 3 years (IQR: 3, 33) for those who tested positive. Cough (≥ 85%) and rhinorrhea (≥ 85%) were the most common symptoms for RSV cases. During 2019-2020, six RSV-A and three RSV-B lineages circulated (majority lineages A.D.1 and B.D.4.1.1). Almost no RSV was detected during 2020-2021. During 2021-2022, RSV-B lineage B.D.E.1 was dominant.

CONCLUSIONS: In a community surveillance study spanning several years, RSV was commonly detected in young children across several sites. Circulation of RSV was disrupted by pandemic mitigation measures, with shifts in genomic diversity detected after lifting of pandemic restrictions.

RevDate: 2026-10-20
CmpDate: 2026-10-17

Yan G, Li JJ, MD Biggin (2026)

Q-SID: Detecting collusion groups from exam question scores with error quantification.

Patterns (New York, N.Y.), 7(10):101642.

Collusion in online exams undermines the integrity of exam results. Existing detection methods identify suspicious student pairs and are often limited to multiple-choice formats. We introduce Question-Score Identity Detection (Q-SID), a statistical algorithm that efficiently detects likely collusion groups and quantifies uncertainty using only graded numeric question scores. This enables Q-SID to support a broad range of multiple-choice and non-multiple-choice exams. Q-SID reports two false-positive rates (FPRs) for each collusion group: (1) an empirical FPR, whose null data are from strictly proctored exam datasets, and (2) a synthetic FPR, whose null data are simulated from a copula-based model. Across 34 unproctored exam datasets, including two benchmark datasets with verified positives and negatives from textual analysis, Q-SID performs robustly across exam formats, class sizes, numbers of questions, and levels of complexity. It is more accurate and substantially faster than widely used pairwise statistics and group-level baselines, including answer similarity at group level (ASIg) and clique detection.

RevDate: 2026-10-17

Sesay FA, Balkus JE, Jaoko W, et al (2026)

Association Between Vaginal Gram Stain Categories and Cervicitis in Kenyan Women Who Engage in Sex Work.

The Journal of infectious diseases pii:8935267 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Cervicitis is often caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, but remains unexplained in approximately half of cases. Studies examining associations between the vaginal microbiota and cervicitis have produced conflicting results.

METHODS: This study analyzed data from a cohort of women who engage in sex work in Mombasa, Kenya (2004-2023). Vaginal microbiota was categorized by Nugent criteria as normal (0-3), intermediate (4-6), or bacterial vaginosis (BV, 7-10). Lactobacillus status by culture was classified as none detected, non-H2O2-producing, or H2O2-producing. Cervicitis was defined as >30 polymorphonuclear cells per high-power field. Modified Poisson regression with generalized estimating equations was used to examine associations between Nugent category, Lactobacillus status, and cervicitis.

RESULTS: Among 1,615 participants (25,322 visits), cervicitis prevalence was 5.8% with normal microbiota, 9.1% with intermediate microbiota (RR 1.39 [95% CI 1.24-1.56]), and 6.8% with BV (RR 1.14 [95% CI 1.02-1.26]). Cervicitis prevalence also varied by Lactobacillus status: 5.1% with none detected, 8.5% with non-H2O2-producing (RR 1.33 [95% CI 1.18-1.50]), and 11.9% with H2O2-producing Lactobacillus (RR 1.70 [95% CI 1.52-1.90]). Findings remained consistent in multivariable analyses.

CONCLUSION: Intermediate microbiota was associated with the greatest cervicitis risk among Gram stain categories, exceeding both normal microbiota and BV. Unexpectedly, cervicitis risk increased progressively from no Lactobacillus to non-H2O2-producing to H2O2-producing Lactobacillus. These findings suggest that intermediate microbiota may represent a state in which proinflammatory pathways from BV and Lactobacillus-dominated microbiota intersect, potentially driving enhanced neutrophil recruitment. Future studies should test this hypothesis.

RevDate: 2026-10-26
CmpDate: 2026-10-26

Gogarten SM, Martschenko DO, Patel R, et al (2026)

Large language model-based bibliometric evaluation of population descriptors in human genetics.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

As the use of population descriptors such as race, ethnicity, and ancestry have become increasingly common in modern genetics research, there have been growing calls to critically examine their use. Most notably, in 2023, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a report titled Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A New Framework for an Evolving Field, which included eight specific and actionable recommendations for researchers to implement the ethical and accurate use of population descriptors in genetic research. Here, we use the 2023 NASEM report as a benchmark to analyze the use of population descriptors in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We develop a general toolkit for large language model-based bibliometrics, operationalize the reporťs recommendations into an evaluation framework, and apply this framework to evaluate all 4,007 papers from the GWAS Catalog published between 2007 and 2025 with full text available on PubMedCentral. We find significant improvements in adherence to NASEM report recommendations over time. However, most improvements predate the publication of the NASEM report itself, suggesting the report functioned primarily as a synthesis of existing best practices rather than a catalyst for change. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for growth in the field of human genetics.

RevDate: 2026-10-22
CmpDate: 2026-10-16

Wang Z, Afshar N, Hodge AM, et al (2026)

Consumption of Processed Meat and Unprocessed Red Meat and Risk of Bladder Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of 30 Cohort Studies.

Cancers, 18(19):.

Background: Processed meat and unprocessed red meat are considered carcinogenic and 'probably carcinogenic' to humans, respectively, but findings for bladder cancer remain inconsistent. Objectives: We assessed associations between processed meat and unprocessed red meat intake and bladder cancer risk using data from the Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer. Methods: Associations with bladder cancer risk were assessed using individual-level data from 30 cohort studies from North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Diet was assessed at enrolment using validated food frequency questionnaires or diet histories. Following a pre-specified analysis plan, study- and sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox regression, adjusted for smoking status and duration and other potential confounders, and pooled using inverse-variance-weighted random-effects meta-analysis. Results: During median follow-up across cohorts of 8-29 years, among 2,575,971 participants, 20,780 were diagnosed with bladder cancer. Processed meat intake was associated with increased bladder cancer risk (HR comparing ≥40 with <5 g/day = 1.08; 95% CI: 1.02-1.15; HR per 20 g/day = 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00-1.03). Weaker evidence of association with increased risk was also observed for unprocessed red meat (HR comparing ≥100 with <20 g/day = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.00-1.13; HR per 50 g/day = 1.01; 95% CI: 0.99-1.03). There was no evidence of heterogeneity by study, sex, or region. Conclusions: Higher intakes of processed meat and unprocessed red meat were associated with a small increase in risk of bladder cancer. These findings are consistent with existing public health recommendations to limit consumption of red and processed meat.

RevDate: 2026-10-20
CmpDate: 2026-10-16

Xu X, Burwick NR, Baxter SK, et al (2026)

Sustained Platelet Improvement Temporally Associated with Dupilumab in Chronic Immune Thrombocytopenia: A Case Study.

Journal of clinical medicine, 15(19):.

Introduction: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by reduced platelet counts. Dupilumab, an IL-4 receptor antagonist, is effective in allergic and auto-inflammatory diseases; however, use in ITP remains unexplored. Case Presentation: A 78-year-old male with chronic ITP, maintained on a thrombopoietin receptor agonist (TPO-RA) with an average platelet count of around 78,000/μL, demonstrated a sustained rise in platelet counts (>100,000/μL) shortly following initiation of dupilumab for an unrelated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This improvement enabled a stepwise reduction in TPO-RA to <20% of his base dosage while maintaining adequate platelet levels for three years since. Despite detailed patient interviews and chart review, we were unable to identify any clinical factors besides commencement of dupilumab as a potential explanation. If indeed causative, we speculate that a TPO-RA-sparing effect of dupilumab might occur via disruption of IL-4 signaling, leading to inhibited Th9 cell activation and subsequent IL-21 production to restore Treg/Th17 balance, thus contributing to decreased platelet destruction. Discussion: This case supports a potential role for dupilumab in the treatment of chronic ITP. To our knowledge, it is the first report suggesting a therapeutic benefit of IL-4 blockade in this disease. Identification of predictive immunologic biomarkers, such as cytokine profiles or T-cell subset signatures, might help identify patients most likely to benefit from IL-4 pathway modulation. Further controlled studies are warranted to clarify the immunologic mechanisms underlying this response and to assess the therapeutic potential of targeting the IL-4 axis in ITP.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-25

Varnum-Finney B, Heck AM, Srivatsan SR, et al (2026)

Multiplexed single cell transcriptomics optimizes mesodermal patterning and hemogenic endothelial output from murine embryonic stem cells.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

BACKGROUND: Early patterning of mesodermal precursor populations is a key step of hematopoietic development in the embryo. To better understand this process, we employed sci-Plex, a high-throughput method of measuring multiplexed perturbations at the single-cell level, to evaluate the transcriptional response of mouse embryonic stem cells subjected to a gradient of two key morphogens in early mesoderm/hematopoietic development, Activin and BMP4.

RESULTS: sci-Plex revealed varying combinations of Activin and BMP4 temporally influenced mesoderm patterning in vitro and subsequent production of cell types reflecting their in vivo counterparts. We leveraged sci-Plex data to further optimize the generation of intraembryonic-like hemogenic endothelial cells that serve as the precursors of definitive hematopoietic lineages, including hematopoietic stem cells.

CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the utility of sci-Plex to dissect how dose and temporal integration of interacting signal pathways determines cell fates and serves as a resource to analyze cell fate choices in early mesoderm patterning at single cell resolution.

RevDate: 2026-10-25
CmpDate: 2026-10-25

Bussey-Sutton CR, Gray CN, Wu BJ, et al (2026)

RelB proximity proteomics and CRISPR screening define chromatin regulators of noncanonical NF-κB control of HIV latency and reactivation.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Activation of the non-canonical NF-κB pathway via RelB/p52 signaling by SMAC mimetics such as AZD5582 is a promising strategy to induce HIV expression from latency, but the chromatin mechanisms linking RelB/p52 to proviral regulation remain poorly defined. Here, we combine RelB BioID proteomics, targeted HIV-CRISPR screening, and pharmacologic validation to identify ncNF-κB-associated regulators of HIV expression. RelB BioID revealed an extensive interaction network of chromatin and transcriptional regulators in basal and AZD5582-activated states. Basally associated RelB proteins included NSD2, SWI/SNF components, UHRF1, and DNMT1, while AZD5582-enriched proteins included p300, USP7, LSD1/KDM1A, NuRD components, SIN3A, and HBO1/KAT7. Functional screening using a custom guide RNA library targeting all BioID-identified factors identified regulators that promote HIV reactivation, including HBO1/KAT7, NSD2, and SIN3A, and regulators that restrict HIV expression, including p300, CHD4, and USP7. Because KAT7/HBO1 and p300 encode acetyltransferases with opposing screen phenotypes, we tested whether their catalytic activities contribute to HIV transcriptional regulation and found that, consistent with the CRISPR screen, KAT7/HBO1 inhibition reduced AZD5582-induced reactivation, whereas p300 inhibition enhanced it. Together, these data define a resource linking the RelB-associated chromatin landscape to HIV latency and reactivation.

RevDate: 2026-10-20
CmpDate: 2026-10-15

Sohn MH, Dubocanin D, Vollger MR, et al (2026)

A telomere-to-telomere map of somatic mutation burden and functional impact in a cancer.

Cell, 189(21):6630-6647.e8.

Cancer genomes harbor extensive somatic genetic and epigenetic variation, yet large portions of the genome remain inaccessible to conventional reference-based analyses. Here, we demonstrate that pairing a near-telomere-to-telomere (near-T2T) diploid assembly of a donor with deep short- and long-read sequencing of their melanoma reveals that 16% of somatic variants localize to sequences absent from GRCh38, with satellite repeats acting as hotspots for UV-associated mutagenesis. Centromere kinetochore binding domains emerge as focal sites of chromosome arm aneuploidy breakpoints and somatic genetic variation, features we further demonstrate are also present in non-cancerous tissues. By contrast, extensive epigenetic remodeling of kinetochore binding domains appears specific to oncogenesis. Single-molecule telomere analyses reconstruct the cycle of telomere erosion and telomerase-mediated extension during tumor evolution, while haplotype-resolved chromatin maps reveal widespread somatic epimutations impacting regulatory elements. Together, these findings define previously inaccessible dimensions of somatic variation and establish a framework for telomere-to-telomere studies of human mosaicism.

RevDate: 2026-10-15

Iovino L, Ma N, Davis C, et al (2026)

Comprehensive, simplified, and objective comorbidity assessment before allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation: a comparative cohort study.

Transplantation and cellular therapy pii:S2666-6367(26)00812-2 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Pretransplant comorbidity assessment informs risk stratification before allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT), but the optimal balance among comprehensiveness, simplicity, and objectivity of the information captured under the available comorbidity indices (CI) remains uncertain.

OBJECTIVE(S): Here, we are comparing the performance of different CIs of assessing pre-HCT comorbidities and predicting outcomes.

STUDY DESIGN: We calculated the HCT-CI, the augmented HCT-CI (augHCT-CI), and the recently proposed simplified comorbidity index (SCI) based on a set of fewer comorbidities. We generated a fourth, objective HCT-CI (objHCT-CI), constructed from the measurable components of the augHCT-CI. We analyzed data from 3,473 consecutive single-center allo-HCT recipients transplanted from 2008-2022. We estimated the Harrell's C-index of the four CIs, their time-dependent ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve, and their ability of stratifying cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM) and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS: All four indices significantly stratified NRM and OS (P<0.001). C-indices for NRM were 0.600 for HCT-CI, 0.632 for augHCT-CI, 0.628 for SCI, and 0.610 for objHCT-CI; corresponding C-indices for OS were 0.584, 0.612, 0.587, and 0.591. On the question on comprehensiveness versus simplicity, among 951 patients classified as SCI score 0, the augHCT-CI identified additional risk heterogeneity: 1-year NRM was 5.4%, 8.1%, and 10.9% for augHCT-CI scores 0, 1-2, and ≥3, respectively (Gray P=0.025), and OS differed significantly across these groups (P<0.0001).

CONCLUSION(S): Performance of all indices was comparable. SCI offers simplicity, but may lose prognostic granularity among patients classified as lowest risk. Future tools should improve reproducibility and automation without sacrificing clinically meaningful comorbidity information.

RevDate: 2026-10-24
CmpDate: 2026-10-24

Bauer MS, Kumar S, Donald-Paladino M, et al (2026)

De novo design of selective kinase modulators.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Protein kinases are critical regulators of cellular signaling, but precise modulation of their activity remains challenging due to their high structural conservation. Here, we present de novo designed genetically encoded miniproteins capable of activating or inhibiting focal adhesion kinase (FAK) by directly targeting the kinase domain itself. Among 96 binders designed to stabilize distinct conformational states of FAK, 33 modulated kinase activity. Biochemical characterization of the four most potent modulators revealed that two designs inhibit FAK with low-nanomolar IC50 values while the remaining two potentiated FAK activity by more than two-fold. When expressed in cells, the modulators preserved the same inhibitory and activating effects observed in vitro, establishing that designed conformational binders can directly tune FAK signaling in living cells. Taking advantage of the high similarity between kinases, we redesigned the FAK inhibitors to inhibit Src kinase. Our approach establishes a versatile platform for selective and genetically encoded kinase control as a way to rewire cell signaling and as a starting point for the discovery of novel modulatory sites of kinases.

RevDate: 2026-10-20
CmpDate: 2026-10-20

Saini J, Wong T, Schwarz M, et al (2026)

An operational key performance indicator framework and reference data from a multi-room pencil beam scanning proton therapy center.

PloS one, 21(10):e0360926.

PURPOSE: Multi-room proton therapy centers face unique operational challenges related to shared beam delivery systems, extended treatment hours, and high clinical complexity. This study presents a structured framework of key performance indicators (KPIs) and reports longitudinal single-institution operational reference data from a multi-room proton therapy center to support operational assessment and continuous quality improvement.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Operational KPIs were retrospectively evaluated for calendar year 2024 at a three-room proton therapy center utilizing pencil beam scanning. KPIs were categorized into three areas: beam performance, treatment planning and pre-treatment workflow, and treatment room operations. Beam performance metrics included site- and room-specific uptime and beam pauses. Treatment planning metrics quantified CT simulation-to-patient scheduling timelines with attribution to physician, dosimetry, and physics components. Treatment room operations metrics included appointment variance, slot utilization, and waiting-for-beam (WFB) time. Data were collected automatically using a commercial analytics platform integrating radio-frequency identification tracking and oncology information system. Metrics were analyzed longitudinally and stratified by treatment room, disease site, and workflow component.

RESULTS: For calendar year 2024, aggregate site uptime was 95.3%, weighted according to clinical operating time across the three treatment rooms; individual room uptimes ranged from 91.8% to 97.2%. Beam pauses were frequent but brief, resulting in 2,238 minutes of cumulative lost treatment time across 2024, equivalent to approximately 0.5% of total clinical operating time. Annual mean treatment planning time was 8.5 business days, with physician-related activities contributing the greatest variability across disease sites. Monthly average appointment variance ranged from 5 to 11 minutes, with most treatments initiated within 10 minutes of scheduled time. Across 2024, slot utilization was stable, with 73% of fractions completed within scheduled slots. Mean overrun and underrun durations were modest, although P90 overrun durations exceeded 10 minutes throughout the year. Mean WFB times were low and consistent, ranging from 1.5 to 2.3 minutes.

CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a practical KPI framework and a single-institution operational reference data for multi-room proton therapy center. These metrics may support longitudinal monitoring, identification of workflow inefficiencies, data-driven decision-making, and future multi-institutional benchmarking efforts.

RevDate: 2026-10-14

Amaravadi H, Prusynski RA, Fishman P, et al (2026)

Incentives for Access: Changes in Admissions and Care Delivery for Metastatic Cancer Patients in Medicare Skilled Nursing Facilities, After the Patient-Driven Payment Model.

Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society [Epub ahead of print].

BackgroundCancer patients experience suboptimal care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Medicare's Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) incentivized SNFs to admit complex patients, potentially promoting admissions without appropriate changes in care delivery.ObjectiveTo evaluate changes in SNF admissions, rehabilitation therapy volume, and chemotherapy/radiation around admission or discharge, following PDPM and COVID-19.MethodsAdjusted interrupted time series examining 1,125,782 hospital stays from metastatic cancer patients, using 100% Traditional Medicare claims (2018-2021).ResultsPDPM was associated with increased SNF admissions (0.47 pp/month; 95% CI: [0.17, 0.76]) and an immediate reduction in therapy volume (-24.95 minutes per day, 95% CI: [-26.40, -23.48]). Chemotherapy use remained low, but increased by 21% at PDPM implementation, without subsequent slope change (RR: 1.21; 95% CI: [1.01, 1.46]); radiation was unchanged. COVID-19 reversed admission gains. SNF admissions for metastatic cancer patients increased without sustained changes in cancer-relevant care delivery, warranting investigation of health outcomes and outcome-driven policy.

RevDate: 2026-10-15

Houghton AM (2026)

Analytical and technical advances collide to produce novel insights into the tumor immune microenvironment.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine pii:8917303 [Epub ahead of print].

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ESP Origins

In the early 1990's, Robert Robbins was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins, where he directed the informatics core of GDB — the human gene-mapping database of the international human genome project. To share papers with colleagues around the world, he set up a small paper-sharing section on his personal web page. This small project evolved into The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Support

In 1995, Robbins became the VP/IT of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Soon after arriving in Seattle, Robbins secured funding, through the ELSI component of the US Human Genome Project, to create the original ESP.ORG web site, with the formal goal of providing free, world-wide access to the literature of classical genetics.

ESP Rationale

Although the methods of molecular biology can seem almost magical to the uninitiated, the original techniques of classical genetics are readily appreciated by one and all: cross individuals that differ in some inherited trait, collect all of the progeny, score their attributes, and propose mechanisms to explain the patterns of inheritance observed.

ESP Goal

In reading the early works of classical genetics, one is drawn, almost inexorably, into ever more complex models, until molecular explanations begin to seem both necessary and natural. At that point, the tools for understanding genome research are at hand. Assisting readers reach this point was the original goal of The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.

ESP Usage

Usage of the site grew rapidly and has remained high. Faculty began to use the site for their assigned readings. Other on-line publishers, ranging from The New York Times to Nature referenced ESP materials in their own publications. Nobel laureates (e.g., Joshua Lederberg) regularly used the site and even wrote to suggest changes and improvements.

ESP Content

When the site began, no journals were making their early content available in digital format. As a result, ESP was obliged to digitize classic literature before it could be made available. For many important papers — such as Mendel's original paper or the first genetic map — ESP had to produce entirely new typeset versions of the works, if they were to be available in a high-quality format.

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Early support from the DOE component of the Human Genome Project was critically important for getting the ESP project on a firm foundation. Since that funding ended (nearly 20 years ago), the project has been operated as a purely volunteer effort. Anyone wishing to assist in these efforts should send an email to Robbins.

ESP Plans

With the development of methods for adding typeset side notes to PDF files, the ESP project now plans to add annotated versions of some classical papers to its holdings. We also plan to add new reference and pedagogical material. We have already started providing regularly updated, comprehensive bibliographies to the ESP.ORG site.

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Cancer is the generic name for more than 100 diseases in which cells begin to grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner. Usually, when cells get too old or damaged, they die and new cells take their place. Cancer begins when genetic changes impair this orderly process so that some cells start to grow uncontrollably. The Emperor of All Maladies is a "biography" of cancer — from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. This is a must read book for anyone with an interest in cancer. R. Robbins

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Papers in Classical Genetics

The ESP began as an effort to share a handful of key papers from the early days of classical genetics. Now the collection has grown to include hundreds of papers, in full-text format.

Digital Books

Along with papers on classical genetics, ESP offers a collection of full-text digital books, including many works by Darwin and even a collection of poetry — Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg.

Timelines

ESP now offers a large collection of user-selected side-by-side timelines (e.g., all science vs. all other categories, or arts and culture vs. world history), designed to provide a comparative context for appreciating world events.

Biographies

Biographical information about many key scientists (e.g., Walter Sutton).

Selected Bibliographies

Bibliographies on several topics of potential interest to the ESP community are automatically maintained and generated on the ESP site.

ESP Picks from Around the Web (updated 28 JUL 2024 )