No abstract

Purpose Adoptive transfer of natural killer (NK) cells combined with tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has therapeutic potential for malignancies. We determined if large numbers of activated NK (aNK) cells can be grown ex vivo from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of children with high-risk neuroblastoma using artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPC). Experimental Design Irradiated K562-derived Clone 9.mbIL21 aAPC were co-cultured with PBMC, and propagated NK cells were characterized with flow cytometry, cytotoxicity assays, Luminex® multi-cytokine assays, and a NOD/SCID mouse model of disseminated neuroblastoma. Results Co-culturing patient PBMC with aAPC for 14 days induced 2,363±443-fold expansion of CD56+CD3−CD14− NK cells with 83±4% purity (n=10). Results were similar with PBMC from normal donors (n=5). Expression of DNAM-1, NKG2D, FcγRIII/CD16 and CD56 increased 6±3, 10±2, 21±20, and 18±3-fold respectively on day 14 compared to day 0, demonstrating activation of NK cells. In vitro, aNK cells were highly cytotoxic against neuroblastoma cell lines, and killing was enhanced with GD2-specific monoclonal antibody ch14.18. When mediating cytotoxicity with ch14.18, release of TNFα, GM-CSF, IFNγ, sCD40L, CCL2/MCP-1, CXCL9/MIG, and CXCL11/I-TAC by aNK cells increased 4-, 5- 6-, 15-, 265-, 917- and 363-fold (151 to 9,121 pg/mL), respectively, compared to aNK cells alone. Survival of NOD/SCID mice bearing disseminated neuroblastoma improved when treated with thawed and immediately intravenously infused cryopreserved aNK cells compared to un-treated mice and was further improved when ch14.18 was added. Conclusion Propagation of large numbers of aNK cells that maintain potent anti-neuroblastoma activities when cryopreserved supports clinical testing of adoptive cell therapy with ch14.18.

Large-scale treatment of oily water arising from frequent marine oil spills presents a major challenge to scientists and engineers. Although the recently emerged phase-selective organogelators (PSOG) do offer very best promises for oil spill treatment, there still exists a number of technical barriers to overcome collectively, including gelators’ high solubility, high gelling ability, general applicability toward crude oil of various types, rapid gelation with room temperature operation, low toxicity, and low cost. Here, a denovo-designed unusually robust molecular gelling scaffold is used for facile construction of a PSOG library and for rapid identification of PSOGs with the most sought-after practical traits. The identified gelators concurrently overcome the existing technical hurdles, and for the first time enable instant room-temperature gelation of crude oil of various types in the presence of seawater. Remarkably, these excellent gelations were achieved with the use of only 0.058–0.18 L of environmentally benign carrier solvents and 7–35 g of gelator per liter of crude oil. Significantly, 2 out of 20 gelators could further congeal crude oil in the powder form at room temperature, highlighting another excellent potential of the developed modularly tunable system in searching for more powerful powder-based gelators for oil spill treatment.