No abstract

GC has received grants, research support or is coinvestigator in clinical trials by Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Celgene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Tigen Pharma, Iovance and Kite. GC has received honoraria for consultations or presentations by Roche, Genentech, BMS, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Nextcure and GeneosTx. GC has patents in the domain of antibodies and vaccines targeting the tumor vasculature as well as technologies related to T-cell expansion and engineering for T-cell therapy. GC receives royalties from the University of Pennsylvania. FH reports grants from Prostate Cancer Foundation, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Accuray Inc, Bioprotect, and non-financial support from Roche ImFlame cooperative group, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) chairman Gynecology Cancer Group. FH has received honoraria for consultations from

Increased body weight is independently associated with abnormal coronary circulatory function that progresses from an impairment in endothelium-related coronary vasomotion in overweight individuals to an impairment of the total vasodilator capacity in obese individuals. The findings that elevated leptin plasma levels in patients that are obese might exert beneficial effects on the coronary endothelium to counterbalance the adverse effects of increases in body weight on coronary circulatory function should be tested.

Background-Abnormal coronary endothelial reactivity has been demonstrated in diabetes and is associated with an increased rate of cardiovascular events. Our objectives were to investigate the presence of functional coronary circulatory abnormalities over the full spectrum of insulin resistance and to determine whether these would differ in severity with more advanced states of insulin resistance. Methods and Results-Myocardial blood flow (MBF) was measured with positron emission tomography and 13 N-ammonia to characterize coronary circulatory function in states of insulin resistance without carbohydrate intolerance (IR), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and normotensive and hypertensive type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) compared with insulin-sensitive (IS) individuals. Indices of coronary function were total vasodilator capacity (mostly vascular smooth muscle-mediated) during pharmacological vasodilation and the nitric oxide-mediated, endothelium-dependent vasomotion in response to cold pressor testing. Total vasodilator capacity was similar in normoglycemic individuals (IS, IR, and IGT), whereas it was significantly decreased in normotensive (Ϫ17%) and hypertensive (Ϫ34%) DM patients. Compared with IS, endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotion was significantly diminished in IR (Ϫ56%), as well as in IGT and normotensive and hypertensive diabetic patients (Ϫ85%, Ϫ91%, and Ϫ120%, respectively). Conclusions-Progressively worsening functional coronary circulatory abnormalities of nitric oxide-mediated, endothelium-dependent vasomotion occur with increasing severity of insulin-resistance and carbohydrate intolerance. Attenuated total vasodilator capacity accompanies the more clinically evident metabolic abnormalities in diabetes.

Optimal vaccine strategies must be identified for improving T-cell vaccination against infectious and malignant diseases. MelQbG10 is a virus-like nano-particle loaded with A-type CpG-oligonucleotides (CpG-ODN) and coupled to peptide16–35 derived from Melan-A/MART-1. In this phase IIa clinical study, four groups of stage III-IV melanoma patients were vaccinated with MelQbG10, given (i) with IFA (Montanide) s.c.; (ii) with IFA s.c. and topical Imiquimod; (iii) i.d. with topical Imiquimod; or (iv) as intralymph node injection. In total, 16/21 (76%) patients generated ex vivo detectable Melan-A/MART-1-specific T-cell responses. T-cell frequencies were significantly higher when IFA was used as adjuvant, resulting in detectable T-cell responses in all (11/11) patients, with predominant generation of effector-memory-phenotype cells. In turn, Imiquimod induced higher proportions of central-memory-phenotype cells and increased percentages of CD127+ (IL-7R) T cells. Direct injection of MelQbG10 into lymph nodes resulted in lower T-cell frequencies, associated with lower proportions of memory and effector-phenotype T cells. Swelling of vaccine site draining lymph nodes, and increased glucose uptake at PET/CT was observed in 13/15 (87%) of evaluable patients, reflecting vaccine triggered immune reactions in lymph nodes. We conclude that the simultaneous use of both Imiquimod and CpG-ODN induced combined memory and effector CD8+ T-cell responses.