Lifeboat Foundation

Bendamustine administration within 9 months of apheresis significantly reduced response rates and survival in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma:

CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy provides durable responses and a potential cure in approximately one third of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL). Although it is known that therapy with the lymphotoxic chemotherapy agent bendamustine, prior to autologous T-cell collection, can impair T-cell number and function, its impact on patient outcomes has not been systematically addressed.

Investigators have now conducted a retrospective, multicenter study of 439 patients with R/R LBCL who had received two or more previous lines of therapy and were infused with commercially available CD19-targeted CAR T cells (axicabtagene ciloleucel or tisagenlecleucel). Of these patients, 80 (18%) had received one or more cycles of bendamustine, including 42 who had been treated within 9 months of apheresis. At baseline, bendamustine-exposed patients, compared with bendamustine-naive patients, were older (66 vs. 61 years), had poorer performance status (1, 16% vs. 7%), were more heavily pretreated (2 previous lines of therapy, 71% vs. 28%), and were more likely to have transformed indolent B-cell lymphoma (45% vs. 15%).

At apheresis, bendamustine-exposed patients, compared with bendamustine-naive patients, had a significantly poorer overall response rate (ORR; 53% vs. 72%; P0.01), shorter progression-free survival (PFS; 3.1 vs. 6.2 months; P0.04), and shorter overall survival (OS; 10.3 vs. 23.5 months; P0.01). For those who received bendamustine within 9 months of apheresis, ORR was even lower (40%), and PFS and OS were shorter (1.3 and 4.6 months, respectively). Bendamustine-exposed patients also had lower absolute lymphocyte counts, lower CD4⁺ T-cell counts, and poorer CAR T-cell expansion, but had similar rates of cytokine release syndrome and immune-effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome.

Continue reading “Bendamustine Impairs Outcomes with CAR T-Cell Therapy” »

Washington [US], March 5 (ANI): A team of researchers from Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine made a discovery that may have significance for therapeutic gene editing strategies, cancer diagnostics and therapies and other advancements in biotechnology. Kathy Meek, a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and collaborators at Cambridge University and the National Institutes of Health have uncovered a previously unknown aspect of how DNA double-stranded breaks are repaired.

A large protein kinase called DNA-PK starts the DNA repair process; in their new report, two distinct DNA-PK protein complexes are characterized, each of which has a specific role in DNA repair that cannot be assumed by the other.

“It still gives me chills,” says Meek. “I don’t think anyone would have predicted this.”

The study, led by Jimo Borjigin, associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology and neurology at Michigan, was very small, featuring only four patients. But the findings echo animal model studies, where the presence of gamma waves in dying brains has also been observed, including in a previous study in rats that Borjigin and colleagues ran a decade earlier.

“These data demonstrate that the surge of gamma power and connectivity observed in animal models of cardiac arrest can be observed in select patients during the process of dying,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published in PNAS.

What are gamma waves? Gamma waves are high-frequency brain waves researchers believe represent multiple areas of the brain working together in complex thoughts. Take, for example, combining the sight, sound, and smell of a car to get a full picture of the vehicle, Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville uninvolved with the study, told Science.

Continue reading “Complex brain activity detected in dying patients” »

Summary: A new speech prosthetic offers hope for those with speech-impairing neurological disorders.

By converting brain signals into speech using high-density sensors and machine learning, the technology represents a significant advancement over current slower communication aids.

Though still in early stages, the device has achieved a 40% accuracy in decoding spoken data during limited trials and is moving towards a cordless design.

Summary: Researchers challenge a 75-year-old neuroscience hypothesis, suggesting dendrites play a crucial role in brain computation, not just the neuronal soma.

Experiments conducted under non-physiological conditions revealed that neuron features like firing frequency and stimulation threshold are controlled by dendrites.

This groundbreaking discovery implies that dendrites could be pivotal in learning processes and may even influence our understanding of brain states and degenerative diseases.

Equivalent to an 80-year-old human reverting to the age of 26.

A groundbreaking study into anti-aging has reported significant rejuvenation effects using exosomes, tiny particles which can be extracted from biological fluids such as blood plasma.

Old and young rat. Image generated by DALL·E 3

Continue reading “New treatment reverses epigenetic age of rats by 67.4%” »

This research is still in the initial stages and needs further investigation before it becomes part of the pacemakers used today.

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle successfully designed a leadless pacemaker that can be partially charged using energy generated by the beating heart. The research findings will be presented at the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Scientific Sessions to be held later this weekend, a press release said.

Pacemakers are small devices that detect a patient’s heartbeat and send electrical pulses to the heart if it needs to be paced. According to the AHA’s report, as many as 93,000 pacemaker and defibrillator procedures were performed in the US in 2018.

The new material mimics human tissue under X-rays, allowing for more accurate and safer imaging of tumors, bones, and organs.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have developed a new type of flexible X-ray detector.

Credit: Dr Prabodhi Nanayakkara.

Continue reading “New flexible X-Ray detectors could revolutionise cancer treatment” »

The breakthrough opens the way for designing and building more complex structures.