Posts Tagged ‘oncology’

IDO for Commitment of a Life Time: The Origins and Mechanisms of IDO, indolamine 2, 3-dioxygenase

Posted in Advanced Drug Manufacturing Technology, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Chemical Genetics, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Drug Delivery Platform Technology, Human Immune System in Health and in Disease, Infectious Disease & New Antibiotic Targets, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, Reproductive Biology & Bio Instrumentation, Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine, Uncategorized, tagged 5-Hydroxytryptophan, Ames Iowa, Animal, Biology, breast cancer, Cancer - General, cancer stem cells, Cell therapy, Dee Sag, Demet Sag, Developmental biology, enzymology, Epidemiology, Eukaryotic, Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, gene, gene expression, Gene Regulation, gene therapy, genetics, genomics, health, IDO, immune system, Indoleamine 2 3-dioxygenase, medicine, Microbiology, molecular genetics, Niacin, oncology, Personalized medicine, Rate-determining step, required amino acids, research, Stem cell, stem cell therapy, stem cells, T cell, transcriptioin on August 4, 2013| 2 Comments »

(reference: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1465324912706783?via=sd)

Abstract:

The immune response mechanism is the holy grail of the human defense system for health. IDO, indolamine 2, 3-dioxygenase, is a key gene for homeostasis of immune responses and producing an enzyme catabolizing the first rate-limiting step in tryptophan degradation metabolism. The hemostasis of immune system is complicated. In this review, the properties of IDO such as basic molecular genetics, biochemistry and genesis will be discussed.

IDO belongs to globin gene family to carry oxygen and heme. The main function and genesis of IDO comes from the immune responses during host-microbial invasion and choice between tolerance and immunegenity. In human there are three kinds of IDOs, which are IDO1, IDO2, and TDO, with distinguished mechanisms and expression profiles. , IDO mechanism includes three distinguished pathways: enzymatic acts through IFNgamma, non-enzymatic acts through TGFbeta-IFNalpha/IFNbeta and moonlighting acts through AhR/Kyn.

The well understood functional genomics and mechanisms is important to translate basic science for clinical interventions of human health needs. In conclusion, overall purpose is to find a method to manipulate IDO to correct/fix/modulate immune responses for clinical applications.

The first part of the review concerns the basic science information gained overall several years that lay the foundation where translational research scientist should familiar to develop a new technology for clinic. The first connection of IDO and human health came from a very natural event that is protection of pregnancy in human. The focus of the translational medicine is treatment of cancer or prevention/delay cancer by stem cell based Dendritic Cell Vaccine (DCvax) development.

Table of Contents:

Abstract

1 Introduction: IDO gene encodes a heme enzyme

2 Location, location, location

3 Molecular genetics

4 Types of IDO:

4.1 IDO1,

4.2 IDO2,

4.3 IDO-like proteins

5 Working mechanisms of IDO

6 Infection Diseases and IDO

7. Conclusion

1. Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) gene encodes a heme enzyme

IDO is a key homeostatic regulator and confined in immune system mechanism for the balance between tolerance and immunity. This gene encodes indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) – a heme enzyme (EC=1.13.11.52) that catalyzes the first rate-limiting step in tryptophan catabolism to N-formyl-kynurenine and acts on multiple tryptophan substrates including D-tryptophan, L-tryptophan, 5-hydroxy-tryptophan, tryptamine, and serotonin.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X05019649

The basic genetic information describes indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1, IDO, INDO) as an enzyme located at Chromosome 8p12-p11 (5; 6) that active at the first step of the Tryptophan catabolism. The cloned gene structure showed that IDO contains 10 exons ad 9 introns (7; 8) producing 9 transcripts.

After alternative splicing only five of the transcripts encode a protein but the other four does not make protein products, three of transcripts retain intron and one of them create a nonsense code (7). Based on IDO related studies 15 phenotypes of IDO is identified, of which, twelve in cancer tumor models of lung, kidney, endometrium, intestine, two in nervous system, and one HGMD- deletion.

2. Location, Location and Location

The specific cellular location of IDO is in cytosol, smooth muscle contractile fibers and stereocilium bundle. The expression specificity shows that IDO is present very widely in all cell types but there is an elevation of expression in placenta, pancreas, pancreas islets, including dendritic cells (DCs) according to gene atlas of transcriptome (9). Expression of IDO is common in antigen presenting cells (APCs), monocytes (MO), macrophages (MQs), DCs, T-cells, and some B-cells. IDO present in APCs (10; 11), due to magnitude of role play hierarchy and level of expression DCs are the better choice but including MOs during establishment of three DC cell subset, CD14+CD25+, CD14++CD25+ and CD14+CD25++ may increase the longevity and efficacy of the interventions.

IDO is strictly regulated and confined to immune system with diverse functions based on either positive or negative stimulations. The positive stimulations are T cell tolerance induction, apoptotic process, and chronic inflammatory response, type 2 immune response, interleukin-12 production (12). The negative stimulations are interleukin-10 production, activated T cell proliferation, T cell apoptotic process. Furthermore, there are more functions allocating fetus during female pregnancy; changing behavior, responding to lipopolysaccharide or multicellular organismal response to stress possible due to degradation of tryptophan, kynurenic acid biosynthetic process, cellular nitrogen compound metabolic process, small molecule metabolic process, producing kynurenine process (13; 14; 15).

IDO plays a role in a variety of pathophysiological processes such as antimicrobial and antitumor defense, neuropathology, immunoregulation, and antioxidant activity (16; 17; 18; 19).

3. Molecular Genetics of IDO:

A: Structure of human IDO2 gene and transcripts. Complete coding region is 1260 bps encoding a 420 aa polypeptide. Alternate splice isoforms lacking the exons indicated are noted. Hatch boxes represent a frameshift in the coding region to an alternate reading frame leading to termination. Black boxes represent 3′ untranslated regions. Nucleotide numbers, intron sizes, and positioning are based on IDO sequence files NW_923907.1 and GI:89028628 in the Genbank database.
(reference: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/Genes/IDO2ID44387ch8p11.html)

Molecular genetics data from earlier findings based on reporter assay results showed that IDO promoter is regulated by ISRE-like elements and GAS-sequence at -1126 and -1083 region (20). Two cis-acting elements are ISRE1 (interferon sequence response element 1) and interferon sequence response element 2 (ISRE2).

Analyses of site directed and deletion mutation with transfected cells demonstrated that introduction of point mutations at these elements decreases the IDO expression. Removing ISRE1 decreases the effects of IFNgamma induction 50 fold and deleting ISRE1 at -1126 reduced by 25 fold (3). Introducing point mutations in conserved t residues at -1124 and -1122 (from T to C or G) in ISRE consensus sequence NAGtttCA/tntttNCC of IFNa/b inducible gene ISG4 eliminates the promoter activity by 24 fold (21).

ISRE2 have two boxes, X box (-114/1104) and Y Box 9-144/-135), which are essential part of the IFNgamma response region of major histocompatibility complex class II promoters (22; 23). When these were removed from ISRE2 or introducing point mutations at two A residues of ISRE2 at -111 showed a sharp decrease after IFNgamma treatment by 4 fold (3).

The lack of responses related to truncated or deleted IRF-1 interactions whereas IRF-2, Jak2 and STAT91 levels were similar in the cells, HEPg2 and ME180 (3). Furthermore, 748 bp deleted between these elements did not affect the IDO expression, thus the distance between ISRE1 and ISRE2 elements have no function or influence on IDO (3; 24)

B: Amino acid alignment of IDO and IDO2. Amino acids determined by mutagenesis and the crystal structure of IDO that are critical for catalytic activity are positioned below the human IDO sequence. Two commonly occurring SNPs identified in the coding region of human IDO2 are shown above the sequence which alter a critical amino acid (R248W) or introduce a premature termination codon (Y359stop).

4. There are three types of IDO in human genome:

IDO was originally discovered in 1967 in rabbit intestine (25). Later, in 1990 the human IDO gene is cloned and sequenced (7). However, its importance and relevance in immunology was not created until prevention of allocation of fetal rejection and founding expression in wide range of human cancers (26; 27).

There are three types of IDO, pro-IDO like, IDO1, and IDO2. In addition, another enzyme called TDO, tryptophan 2, 3, dehydrogenase solely degrade L-Trp at first-rate limiting mechanism in liver and brain.

4.1. IDO1:

IDO1 mechanism is the target for immunotherapy applications. The initial discovery of IDO in human physiology is protection of pregnancy (1) since lack of IDO results in premature recurrent abortion (28; 26; 29). The initial rate-limiting step of tryptophan metabolism is catalyzed by either IDO or tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase (TDO).

Structural studies of IDO versus TDO presenting active site environments, conserved Arg 117 and Tyr113, found both in TDO and IDO for the Tyr-Glu motif, but His55 in TDO replaced by Ser167b in IDO (30; 2). As a result, they are regulated with different mechanisms (1; 2) (30). The short-lived TDO, about 2h, responds to level of tryptophan and its expression regulated by glucorticoids (31; 32). Thus, it is a useful target for regulation and induced by tryptophan so that increasing tryptophan induces NAD biosynthesis. Whereas, IDO is not activated by the level of Trp presence but inflammatory agents with its interferon stimulated response elements (ISRE1 and ISRE2) in its (33; 34; 35; 36; 3; 10) promoter.

TDO promoter contains glucorticoid response elements (37; 38) and regulated by glucocorticoids and other available amino acids for gluconeogenesis. This is how IDO binds to only immune response cells and TDO relates to NAD biosynthesis mechanisms. Furthermore, TDO is express solely in liver and brain (36). NAD synthesis (39) showed increased IDO ubiquitous and TDO in liver and causing NAD level increase in rat with neuronal degeneration (40; 41). NAM has protective function in beta-cells could be used to cure Type1 diabetes (40; 42; 43). In addition, knowledge on NADH/NAD, Kyn/Trp or Trp/Kyn ratios as well as Th1/Th2, CD4/CD8 or Th17/Threg are equally important (44; 40).

Active site of IDO–PI complex. (A) Stereoview of the residues around the heme of IDO viewed from the side of heme plane. The proximal ligand H346 is H-bonded to wa1. The 6-propionate of the heme contacts with wa2 and R343 Nε. The wa2 is H-bonded to wa1, L388 O, and 6-propionate. Mutations of F226, F227, and R231 do not lose the substrate affinity but produce the inactive enzyme. Two CHES molecules are bound in the distal pocket. The cyclohexan ring of CHES-1 (green) contacts with F226 and R231. The 7-propionate of the heme interacts with the amino group of CHES-1 and side chain of Ser-263. The mutational analyses for these distal residues are shown in Table 1. (B) Top view of A by a rotation of 90°. The proximal residues are omitted. (http://www.pnas.org/content/103/8/2611/F3.expansion.html)

4.2. IDO2:

The third type of IDO, called IDO2 exists in lower vertebrates like chicken, fish and frogs (45) and in human with differential expression properties. The expression of IDO2 is only in DCs, unlike IDO1 expresses on both tumors and DCs in human tissues. Yet, in lower invertebrates IDO2 is not inhibited by general inhibitor of IDO, D-1-methyl-tryptophan (1MT) (46). Recently, two structurally unusual natural inhibitors of IDO molecules, EXIGUAMINES A and B, are synthesized (47). LIP mechanism cannot be switch back to activation after its induction in IDO2 (46).

Crucial cancer progression can continue with production of IL6, IL10 and TGF-beta1 to help invasion and metastasis. Inclusion of two common SNPs affects the function of IDO2 in certain populations. SNP1 reduces 90% of IDO2 catalytic activity in 50% of European and Asian descent and SNP2 produce premature protein through inclusion of stop-codon in 25% of African descent lack functional IDO2 (Uniport).

4.3. IDO-like proteins: The Origin of IDO:

Knowing the evolutionary steps will helps us to identify how we can manage the regulator function to protect human health in cancer, immune disorders, diabetes, and infectious diseases.

Bacterial IDO has two types of IDOs that are group I and group II IDO (48). These are the earliest version of the IDO, pro-IDO like, proteins with a quite complicated function. Each microorganism recognized by a specific set of receptors, called Toll-Like Receptors (TLR), to activate the IDO-like protein expression based on the origin of the bacteria or virus (49; 35). Thus, the genesis of human IDO originates from gene duplication of these early bacterial versions of IDO-like proteins after their invasion interactions with human host. IDO1 only exists in mammals and fungi.

Fungi also has three types of IDO; IDOa, IDO beta, and IDO gamma (50) with different properties than human IDOs, perhaps multiple IDO is necessary for the world’s decomposers.

All globins, haemoglobins and myoglobins are destined to evolve from a common ancestor, which is only 14-16kDa (51) length. Binding of a heme and being oxygen carrier are central to the enzyme mechanism of this family. Globins are classified under three distinct origins; a universal globin, a compact globin, and IDO-like globin (52). IDO like globin widely distributed among gastropodic mollusks (53; 51). The indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1–like “myoglobin” (Myb) was discovered in 1989 in the buccal mass of the abalone Sulculus diversicolor (54).

The conserved region between Myb and IDO-like Myb existed for at least 600 million years (53). Even though the splice junction of seven introns was kept intact, the overall homolog region between Myb and IDO is only about 35%.

No significant evolutionary relationship is found between them after their amino acid sequence of each exon is compared to usual globin sequences. This led the hint that molluscan IDO-like protein must have other functions besides carrying oxygen, like myoglobin. Alignment of S. cerevisiae cDNA, mollusk and vertebrate IDO–like globins show the key regions for controlling IDO or myoglobin function (55). These data suggest that there is an alternative pathways of myoglobin evolution. In addition, understanding the diversity of globin may help to design better protocols for interventions of diseases.

Mechanisms of IDO:

The dichotomy of IDO mechanism lead the discovery that IDO is more than an enzyme as a versatile regulator of innate and adaptive immune responses in DCs (66; 67; 68). Meantime IDO also involve with Th2 response and B cell mediated autoimmunity showing that it has three paths, short term (acute) based on enzymatic actions, long term (chronic) based on non-enzymatic role, and moonlighting relies of downstream metabolites of tryptophan metabolism (69; 70).

IFNgamma produced by DC, MQ, NK, NKT, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, after stimulation with IL12 and IL8. Inflammatory cytokine(s) expressed by DCs produce IFNgamma to stimulate IDO’s enzymatic reactions in acute response. Then, TDO in liver and tryptophan catabolites act through Aryl hydrocarbon receptor induction for prevention of T cell proliferation. This mechanism is common among IDO, IDO2 (expresses in brain and liver) and TDO expresses in liver) provide an acute response for an innate immunity (30). When the pDCs are stimulated with IFNgamma, activation of IDO is go through Jak, STAT signaling pathway to degrade Trp to Kyn causing Trp depletion. The starvation of tryptophan in microenvironment inhibits generation of T cells by un-read t-RNAs and induce apoptosis through myc pathway. In sum, lack of tryptophan halts T cell proliferation and put the T cells in apoptosis at S1 phase of cell division (71; 62).

The intermediary enzymes, functioning during Tryptophan degradation in Kynurenine (Kyn) pathway like kynurenine 3-hydroxylase and kynureninase, are also induced after stimulation with liposaccaride and proinflammatory cytokines (72). They exhibit their function in homeostasis through aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) induction by kynurenine as an endogenous signal (73; 74). The endogenous tumor-promoting ligand of AhR are usually activated by environmental stress or xenobiotic toxic chemicals in several cellular processes like tumorigenesis, inflammation, transformation, and embryogenesis (Opitz ET. Al, 2011).

Human tumor cells constitutively produce TDO also contributes to production of Kyn as an endogenous ligand of the AhR (75; 27). Degradation of tryptophan by IDO1/2 in tumors and tumor-draining lymph nodes occur. As a result, there are animal studies and Phase I/II clinical trials to inhibit the IDO1/2 to prevent cancer and poor prognosis (NewLink Genetics Corp. NCT00739609, 2007).

Systemic inflammation (like in sepsis, cerebral malaria and brain tumor) creates hypotension and IDO expression has the central role on vascular tone control (63). Moreover, inflammation activates the endothelial coagulation activation system causing coagulopathies on patients. This reaction is namely endothelial cell activation of IDO by IFNgamma inducing Trp to Kyn conversion. After infection with malaria the blood vessel tone has decreases, inflammation induce IDO expression in endothelial cells producing Kyn causing decreased trp, lower arterial relaxation, and develop hypotension (Wang, Y. et. al 2010). Furthermore, existing hypotension in knock out Ido mice point out a secondary mechanism driven by Kyn as an endogenous ligand to activate non-canonical NfKB pathway (63).

Another study also hints this “back –up” mechanism by a significant outcome with a differential response in pDCs against IMT treatment. Unlike IFN gamma conditioned pDC blocks T cell proliferation and apoptosis, methyl tryptophan fails to inhibit IDO activity for activating naïve T cells to make Tregs at TGF-b1 conditioned pDCs (77; 78).

The second role of the IDO relies on non-enzymatic action as being a signal molecule. Yet, IDO2 and TDO are devoid of this function. This role mainly for maintenance of microenvironment condition. DCs response to TGFbeta-1 exposure starts the kinase Fyn induce phosphorylation of IDO-associated immunoreceptor tyrosine–based inhibitory motifs (ITIMs) for propagation of the downstream signals involving non-canonical (anti-inflammatory) NF-kB pathway for a long term response. When the pDCs are conditioned with TGF-beta1 the signaling (68; 77; 78) Phospho Inositol Kinase3 (PIK-3)-dependent and Smad independent pathways (79; 80; 81; 82; 83) induce Fyn-dependent phosphorylation of IDO ITIMs. A prototypic ITIM has the I/V/L/SxYxxL/V/F sequence (84), where x in place of an amino acid and Y is phosphorylation sites of tyrosines (85; 86).

Smad independent pathway stimulates SHP and PIK3 induce both SHP and IDO phosphorylation. Then, formed SHP-IDO complex can induce non-canonical (non-inflammatory) NF-kB pathway (64; 79; 80; 82) by phosphorylation of kinase IKKa to induce nuclear translocation of p52-Relb towards their targets. Furthermore, the SHP-IDO complex also may inhibit IRAK1 (68). SHP-IDO complex activates genes through Nf-KB for production of Ido1 and Tgfb1 genes and secretion of IFNalpha/IFNbeta. IFNa/IFNb establishes a second short positive feedback loop towards p52-RelB for continuous gene expression of IDO, TGFb1, IFNa and IFNb (87; 68). However, SHP-IDO inhibited IRAK1 also activates p52-RelB. Nf-KB induction at three path, one main and two positive feedback loops, is also critical. Finally, based on TGF-beta1 induction (76) cellular differentiation occurs to stimulate naïve CD4+ T cell differentiation to regulatory T cells (Tregs). In sum, TGF-b1 and IFNalpha/IFNbeta stimulate pDCs to keep inducing naïve T cells for generation of Treg cells at various stages, initiate, maintain, differentiate, infect, amplify, during long-term immune responses (67; 66).

http://www.nature.com/ni/journal/v12/n9/full/ni.2088.html

Moonlighting function of Kyn/AhR is an adaptation mechanism after the catalytic (enzymatic) role of IDO depletes tryptophan and produce high concentration of Kyn induce Treg and Tr1 cell expansion leading Tregs to use TGFbeta for maintaining this environment (67; 76). In this role, Kyn pathway has positive-feedback-loop function to induce IDO expression.

In T cells, tryptophan starvation induces Gcn2-dependent stress signaling pathway, which initiates uncharged Trp-tRNA binding onto ribosomes. Elevated GCN2 expression stimulates elF2alfa phosphorylation to stop translation initiation (88). Therefore, most genes downregulated and LIP, an alternatively initiated isoform of the b/ZIP transcription factor NF-IL6/CEBP-beta (89).

This mechanism happens in tumor cells based on Prendergast group observations. As a result, not only IDO1 propagates itself while producing IFNalpha/IFNbeta, but also demonstrates homeostasis choosing between immunegenity by production of TH17or tolerance by Tregs. This mechanism acts like a see-saw. Yet, tolerance also can be broken by IL6 induction so reversal mechanism by SOC-3 dependent proteosomal degradation of the enzyme (90). All proper responses require functional peripheral DCs to generate mature DCs for T cells to avoid autoimmunity (91).

Niacin (vitamin B3) is the final product of tryptophan catabolism and first molecule at Nicotinomic acid (NDA) Biosynthesis. The function of IDO in tryptophan and NDA metabolism has a great importance to develop new clinical applications (40; 42; 41). NAD^+, biosynthesis and tryptophan metabolisms regulate several steps that can be utilize pharmacologically for reformation of healthy physiology (40).

IDO for protection in Microbial Infection with Toll-like Receptors

The mechanism of microbial response and infectious tolerance are complex and the origination of IDO based on duplication of microbial IDO (49). During microbial responses, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a role to differentiate and determine the microbial structures as a ligand to initiate production of cytokines and pro-inflammatory agents to activate specific T helper cells (92; 93; 94; 95). Uniqueness of TLR comes from four major characteristics of each individual TLR by ligand specificity, signal transduction pathways, expression profiles and cellular localization (96). Thus, TLRs are important part of the immune response signaling mechanism to initiate and design adoptive responses from innate (naïve) immune system to defend the host.

TLRs are expressed cell type specific patterns and present themselves on APCs (DCs, MQs, monocytes) with a rich expression levels (96; 97; 98; 99; 93; 100; 101; 102; 87). Induction signals originate from microbial stimuli for the genesis of mature immune response cells. Co-stimulation mechanisms stimulate immature DCs to travel from lymphoid organs to blood stream for proliferation of specific T cells (96). After the induction of iDCs by microbial stimuli, they produce proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF and IL-12, which can activate differentiation of T cells into T helper cell, type one (Th1) cells. (103).

Utilizing specific TLR stimulation to link between innate and acquired responses can be possible through simple recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or co-stimulation of PAMPs with other TLR or non-TLR receptors, or even better with proinflammatory cytokines. Some examples of ligand- TLR specificity shown in Table1, which are bacterial lipopeptides, Pam3Cys through TLR2 (92; 104; 105). Double stranded (ds) RNAs through TLR3 (106; 107), Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) through TLR4, bacterial flagellin through TLR5 (108; 109), single stranded RNAs through TLR7/8 (97; 98), synthetic anti-viral compounds imiquinod through TLR 7 and resiquimod through TLR8, unmethylated CpG DNA motifs through TLR9 (Krieg, 2000).

Then, the specificity is established by correct pairing of a TLR with its proinflammatory cytokines, so that these permutations influence creation and maintenance of cell differentiation. For example, leading the T cell response toward a preferred Th1 or Th2 response possible if the cytokines TLR-2 mediated signals induce a Th2 profile when combined with IL-2 but TLR4 mediated signals lean towards Th1 if it is combined with IL-10 or Il-12, (110; 111) (112).

TLR ligand	TLR	Reference
Lipopolysaccharide, LPS	TLR4	(96). (112).
Lipopeptides, Pam3Cys	TLR2	(92; 104; 105)
Double stranded (ds) RNAs	TLR3	(106; 107)
Bacterial flagellin	TLR5	(108; 109)
Single stranded RNAs	TLR7/8	(97; 98)
Unmethylated CpG DNA motifs	TLR9	(Krieg, 2000)
Synthetic anti-viral compounds imiquinod and resiquimod	TLR7 and TLR8	(Lee J, 2003)

Furthermore, if the DCs are stimulated with IL-6, DCs relieve the suppression of effector T cells by regulatory T cells (113).

The modification of IDO+ monocytes manage towards specific subset of T cell activation with specific TLRs are significantly important (94).

The type of cell with correct TLR and stimuli improves or decreases the effectiveness of stimuli. Induction of IDO in monocytes by synthetic viral RNAs (isRNA) and CMV was possible, but not in monocyte derived DCs or TLR2 ligand lipopeptide Pam3Cys since single- stranded RNA ligands target TLR7/8 in monocytes derive DCs only (Lee J, 2003). These data show that TLRs has ligand specificity, signal transduction pathways, expression profiles and cellular localization so design of experiments should follow these rules.

Conclusion:

Overall our purpose of this information is to find a method to manipulate IDO to correct/fix/modulate immune responses for clinical applications. This first part of the review concerns the basic science information gained overall several years that lay the foundation that translational research scientist should familiar to develop a new technology for clinic. The first connection of IDO and human health came from a very natural event that is protection of pregnancy in human. The focus of the translational medicine is treatment of cancer or prevention/delay cancer by stem cell based Dendritic Cell Vaccine (DCvax) development.

References

1. Biochemistry of tryptophan in health and disease. BenderDA. 1983, Mol Aspects Med , pp. 6:101–197.

2. Molecular insights into substrate recognition and catalysis by indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Forouhar, F., Anderson, R., Mowat, C.F, et al. 2006, PNAS, pp. vol. 104, no:2, 473-478.

3. Importance of the Two Interferon-stimulated Response Element. Konan KV, Taylor, MW. 1996, J. Biol. Chem.-, pp. 19140-5.

4. induction of indolamine 2,3 dioxygenase: A mechanism of the anti-tumor activity of interferon gamma. Ozaki, Y., Edelstein, M.P., Duch, D.S. 1998, PNAS USA., pp. vol:85, 1242-1246.

5. Localization of the human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) gene to the pericentromeric region of human chromosome 8. . Burkin, D. J., Kimbro, K. S., Barr, B. L., Jones, C., Taylor, M. W., Gupta, S. L. 1993, Genomics , pp. 17: 262-263.

6. Localization of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase gene (INDO) to chromosome 8p12-p11 by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Najfeld, V., Menninger, J., Muhleman, D., Comings, D. E., Gupta, S. L. 1993, Cytogenet. Cell Genet. , pp. 64: 231-232.

7. Molecular cloning, sequencing and expression of human interferon-gamma-inducible indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase cDNA. . Dai, W., Gupta, S. L. 1990, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. , pp. 168: 1-8.

8. Gene structure of human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Kadoya, A., Tone, S., Maeda, H., Minatogawa, Y., Kido, R. 1992, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. , pp. 189: 530-536.

9. A gene atlas of th emouse and human protein-encoding transcriptomes. Andrew I. Su, Tim Wiltshire, Serge Batalov , Hilmar Lapp , Keith A. Ching , David Block, Jie Zhang , Richard Soden , Mimi Hayakawa , Gabriel Kreiman , Michael P. Cooke , John R. Walker , and John B. Hogenesch. 2004, PNAS, pp. vol. 101, no. 166062-6067 (10.1073/pnas.0400782101).

10. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase production by human dendritic cells results in the inhibition of T cell proliferation. Hwu P, Du MX, Lapointe R, Do M, Taylor MW, Young HA. 2000, J. Immunol, pp. 164:3596–3599.

11. Inhibition of T cell proliferation by acrophage tryptophan catabolism. Munn, D.H. et al. 1999, J. Exp. Med., p. 189:1363.

12. HeLa cells cocultured with peripheral blood lymphocytes acquire an immuno-inhibitory phenotype through up-regulation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity. Logan, G. J., Smyth, C. M. F., Earl, J. W., Zaikina, I., Rowe, P. B., Smythe, J. A., Alexander, I. E. 2002, Immunology, pp. 105:478-487.

13. Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase – Is It an Immun Suppressor? Soliman H, Mediaville-Varela M, Antonia S. 2010, Cancer J. , pp. 16:354-359.

14. Targeting the immunoregulatory indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase pathway in immunotherapy. Johnson BA, III, Baban B, Mellor AL. 2009, Immunotherapy. , pp. 645–661.

15. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and regulation of T cell immunity. AL., Mellor. 2005, Biochem Biophys Res Commun. , pp. 338(1):20–24.

16. Fallarino, F., Grohmann, U., Hwang, K. W., Orabona, C., Vacca, C., Bianchi, R., Belladonna, M. L., Fioretti, M. C.Modulation of tryptophan catabolism by regulatory T cells. Fallarino, F., Grohmann, U., Hwang, K. W., Orabona, C., Vacca, C., Bianchi, R., Belladonna, M. L., Fioretti, M. C., Alegre, M.-L., Puccetti, P. 2003, Nature Immun., pp. 4: 1206-1212.

17. CTLA-4-Ig regulates tryptophan catabolism in vivo. Grohmann, U., Orabona, C., Fallarino, F., Vacca, C., Calcinaro, F., Falorni, A., Candeloro, P., Belladonna, M. L., Bianchi, R., Fioretti, M. C., Puccetti, P. 2002, Nature Immun. , pp. 3: 1097-1101.

18. Reverse signaling through GITR ligand enables dexamethasone to activate IDO in allergy. Grohmann, U., Volpi, C., Fallarino, F., Bozza, S., Bianchi, R., Vacca, C., Orabona, C., Belladonna, M. L., Ayroldi, E., Nocentini, G., Boon, L., Bistoni, F., Fioretti, M. C., Romani, L., Riccardi, C., Puccetti, P. 2007, Nature Med., pp. 13:579-586.

19. Cells expressing indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase inhibit T cell responses. Mellor, A. L., Keskin, D. B., Johnson, T., Chandler, P., Munn, D. H. 2002, J. Immun. , pp. 168: 3771-3776.

20. Chon, SY, Hassanain, HH, Piine, R., and Gupta, SL. 1995, J. Interferon Cytokine Res. , pp. 15, 517-526.

21. Levy, ED, KEsler, DS, Pine, R., Reich, N, and Darnell, JE.Jr et al. 1988, Genes Dev, pp. 2,383-393.

22. Benoist, C. and Manthis, D. 1990, Annu. Rev of Immunol., pp. 8, 681-715.

23. Dorn, A, Durand, B., Marling, C., Meur, M.L., Beoist, C., and Mathis, D. 1987, PNAS USA, pp. 34, 6249-6253.

24. Konan, K.V. Ph.D. Thesis. Transcriptional Regulation of the Indolamine 2,3-oxygenase Gene. s.l. : Indiana University, Bloominigton, 1995.

25. Tryptophan pyrrolase of rabbit intestine: D- and L–tryptophan cleaving enzyme or enzymes. Yamamoto, S., and Hayashi, O. 1967, J Biol Chem, pp. 242: 5260-5266.

26. Prevention of allogeneic fetal rejection by tryptophan catabolism. Munn, DH, Zhou M, Attwood JT, Bondarev I, Conway SJ, Marshall B, Brown C, Mellor AL. 1998, Science, pp. 281:1191–3.

27. Evidence for a tumoral immune resistance mechanismbased on tryptophan degradation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Uyttenhove, C. et al. 2003, Nature Med. 9,, pp. 1269–1274 .

28. Pregnancy: success and failure within the Th1/Th2/Th3 paradigm. Raghupathy, R. 2001., Seminars in Immunology, pp. Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 219–227.

29. Why is the fetal allograft not rejected? Davies, C. J. March 2007 , J ANIM SCI , pp. vol. 85 no. 13 suppl E32-E35 .

30. Exploring the mechanism of tryptoophan 2,3-dioxygenase. Thackray, S., Mowat, C.G., Chapman, K. 2008, Biochem. Society Transaction., pp. 36, 1120-1123.

31. The new life of a centenarian: signalling functions of NAD(P). Berger F, Ramírez-Hernández MH, Ziegler M. 2004, Trends Biochem Sci , pp. 29:111–118 .

32. Biochemistry of tryptophan in health and disease. DA, Bender. 1983, Mol Aspects Med, pp. 6:101–197.

33. Poliovirus induces indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase and quinolinic acid synthesis in macaque brain. Heyes MP, Saito K, Jacobowitz D, Markey SP, Takikawa O, Vickers JH. 1992, FASEB J., pp. 6:2977–2989.

34. Sanni LA, Thomas SR, Tattam BN, Moore DE, Chaudhri G, Stocker R, Hunt NH 1998Dramatic changes in oxidative tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway in experimental cerebral and noncerebral malaria. . Sanni LA, Thomas SR, Tattam BN, Moore DE, Chaudhri G, Stocker R, Hunt NH. 1998, Am J Pathol, pp. 152:611–619.

35. Induction of pulmonary indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. . Yoshida R, Hayaishi O. 1978, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA , pp. 75:3998–4000.

36. Induction of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in mouse lung during virus infection. . Yoshida R, Urade Y, Tokuda M, Hayaishi O. 1979, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA , pp. 76:4084–4086.

37. Induction of pulmonary indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Yoshida R, Hayaishi. 1978, PNAS USA, pp. 3998-4000.

38. Sequence of human 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO2): presence of a glucorticoid response-like element composed of a GTT repeat and intronic CCCCT repeat. Comings DE, Muhleman D, Dietz G, Sherman M, Forest. 1995, Genomics, pp. 29:390-396165.

39. Studies on the biosynthesis of Nicotinamide adenine inucleotide. II.Arole of picolinic carboxylase in the Biosynthesisofnicotinamideadeninedinucleotidefromtryptophan in mammals. Ikeda M, Tsuji H, Nakamura S, Ichiyama A, Nishizuka Y, HayaishiO. 1965, J. Biol. Chem. , pp. 240: 1395-1401.

40. The Secret Life of NAD+: An Old Metabolite Controlling New Metabolic Signaling Pathways. Houtkooper R.H., Carles Cantó C. , Wanders, R.J. and Auwerx, J. 2010, Endocrine Reviews , pp. vol. 31 no. 2 194-223, doi: 10.1210/er.2009-0026.

41. Stimulation of Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthetic pathways delays axonal degeneration after axotomy. Sasaki Y, Araki T, Milbrandt J. 2006, J Neurosci , pp. 26: 8484–8491.

42. European Nicotinamide Diabetes Intervention Trial (ENDIT): a randomised controlled trial of intervention before the onset of type 1 diabetes. Gale EA, Bingley PJ, Emmett CL, CollierT. 2004, Lancet., pp. 363:925–931.

43. Safety of high-dose nicotinamide: a review. Knip M, Douek IF, Moore WP, Gillmor HA, McLean AE, Bingley PJ, Gale EA. 2000, Diabetologia, pp. 43:1337–1345.

44. Large supplements of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide increase tissue NAD and poly(ADP-ribose) levels but do not affect diethylnitrosamine-induced altered hepatic foci in Fischer-344 rats. JacksonTM, Rawling JM, Roebuck BD, Kirkland JB. 1995, J Nutr , p. 125:1455.

45. Characterization and evolution of vertebrate indelamine 2,3-dihydrogenases IDOs from monotremes and marsupials. Yuasa, HJ, Ball, HJ, Ho, YF, Austin, CJ, et al. 2009, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B. Biochem.. Mol. Biol., pp. 153 (2): 137-144.

46. Novel tryptophan catabolic enzyme IDO2 is the preferred biochemical target of the antitumor indolamine 2,3-dihydrogenase inhibitor compound D-1 methyl-tryptophan. Metz, R., Duhadaway, JB, Kamasani, U, Laury-Kleintop, L., Muller, AJ, Prendergast, GC. 2007, Cancer Res., pp. 67 (15): 7082-7087.

47. Total synthesis of exiguamines A and B inspired by catechollamine chemistry. Sofiyev, V, Lumb, JP, Volgraf, M., Trauner, D. 2012, Chemistry., pp. 18 (16): 4999-5005.

48. Molecular evolution of bacterial indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Yuasa, H J, Ushigoe, A, Ball, HJ. 2011, Gene., pp. 484 (1) : 22-31.

49. Infectious tolerance and the long-term acceptance of transplant tissue. Waldman, H., Adams, E., Fairchild, P., and Cobbold, S. 2006, J. Immunol., pp. 212:301-313.

50. Molecular evolution and characterizationof fungal indolamine 2,3-dioxygenases. Yuasa, HJ and Ball, HJ. 2012, J. Mol. Eval., pp. 72 (2): 160-168.

51. convergent evolution. The gene structure of Sulculus 41 kDa myoglobin is homologous with tht of human indolamine dioxygenase. Suzuki, T, Imai, K. 1996, Biochim. Biophys. Acta., pp. 1308(1):41-48.

52. Evolutionof myoglobin. Suzuki, T., Imai, K. 1998, Cell Mol Life Sci, pp. 54(9):979-1004.

53. A myoglobin evolved from indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase, trtptophan-degrading enzyme. Suzuki, T., Kawamichi, H., Imai, K. 1998, Comp Biochem Phisiol. Mol. Biol., pp. 121(2):117-128.

54. Do molluscs possess indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase? Yuasa, HJ and Suzuki, T. 2005, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B. Biochem. Mol. Biol. , pp. (3) 445-454.

55. Comparison studies of the indolamine dioxygenase-like myoglobin from the abalone Sulculus diversicolor. Suzuki, T., Imai, K. 1997, Comp. Biohem. Phsiol B Biochem Mol Biol, pp. 117 (4)599-604.

56. Orchestration of the immune response by dendritic cells. Buckwalter MR, Albert ML. 2009, Curr Biol., pp. 19(9):355–361.

57. Dendritic cells and the control of immunity. Banchereau J, Steinman RM. 1998, Nature., pp. 245–52.

58. IDO expression by dendritic cells: tolerance and tryptophan catabolism. . Munn DH, Mellor AL. 2004, Nat Rev Immunol. , pp. 762–74.

59. Monocyte and Macrophage. Gordon, S. and Taylor, P.R. 2005, NATURE REVIEWS | IMMUNOLOGY , pp. vol:5, 953-964.

60. Blood monocytes consist of two principal subsets with distinct migratory properties. Geissmann F, Jung S, Littman DR. 2003, Immunity. , pp. 19:71–82.

61. Identification of a novel cell type in peripheral lymphoid organs of mice. I Morphology, quantitation, tissue distribution. . Steinman RM, Cohn ZA. 1973, J Exp Med., pp. 137(5):1142–1162.

62. T cell apoptosis by tryptophan catabolism. Fallarino F, Grohmann U, Vacca C, Bianchi R, Orabona C, Spreca A, Fioretti MC, Puccetti P. 2002, Cell Death Differ , pp. 9:1069–1077.

63. Kynurenine is a novel endothelium derived relaxing factor produced during inflammation. Wang, et al. 2010, Nat. Med., pp. 16(3): 279-285.

64. Activation of the noncanonical NF-kB pathway by HIV controls a Dendritic cell immunoregulatory phenotype. Manches, O. Fernandez, V.M.,, Plumas, J., Chaperot, L., and Bhardwaj, N. 2012, PNAS, pp. vol: 109, 14122-14127.

65. B cells inhibit induction of T cell-dependent tumor immunity. Qin, Z., Richter, G., Schuler, T., Ibe, S., Cao, X, Blakenstein, T. 1998, Nat. Med, p. 4:627.

66. Different partners, Opposite Outcmes: A new perspective of immunobiology of Indolamine 2,3 dioxygenase. Orabona, C., Pallotta, M.T., Grohman, U. 2012, Molecular Medicine., pp. 18:834-842.

67. Indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase: From catalyst to signaling function. Fallarino, F., Grohman, U., and Puccetti, P. 2012, Eurepean J. of Immunol. , pp. 42:1932-1937.

68. IDO: more than an enzyme. Chen, W. 2011, Nature Immonology, pp. 809-811.

69. Indolamine2,3-dehydrogenase in lung dendritic cells promotes Th2 responses and allergic inflammation. Xu, H., Oriss, T.B., Fei, M., Henry, A.C., Melgert, B.N., Chen, L., Mellor, A.L. 2008, PNAS USA, pp. 105: 6690-6695.

70. The immunoregulatory enzyme IDO paradoxically drives B-cellmediated autoimmunity. Scott, G.N., DuHadaway, J., Pigott, E., Ridge, N., Prendergast, G.C., Muller, A.J., Mandik-Nayak, L. 2009, J. Immunol., pp. 182:7509-7517.

71. Tryptophan deprivation sensitizes activated T cells to apoptosis prior to cell division. Lee GK, Park HJ, Macleod M, Chandler P, Munn DH, Mellor AL. 2002, Immunology , pp. 107:452–460.

72. Enzymology of NAD+ homeostasis in man. . Magni G, Amici A, Emanuelli M, Orsomando G, Raffaelli N, Ruggieri S. 2004, Cell Mol Life Sci , pp. 61:19–34.

73. Kynurenine pathway enzymes in dendritic cells initiate tolerogenesis in the absence of functional IDO. . Belladonna ML, Grohmann U, Guidetti P, Volpi C, Bianchi R, Fioretti MC, Schwarcz R, Fallarino F, Puccetti P. 2006, J Immunol. , pp. ;177:130–7.

74. An indogenous tumour promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Opitz, et. al. 2011, pp. doi: 10.1038/nature10491,.

75. Inhibition of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, animmunoregulatorytarget of the cancer suppression gene Bin1, potentiates cancer chemotherapy. Muller, A. J. et al. 2005, Nature Med. , pp. 11, 312–319 .

76. TGF-b; a master of all T cell trades. Li, M.O., Fravell, R.A. 2008, Cell. , pp. 134: 392-404.

77. Palotta, M.T. et al. 2011, Nat. Immunol., pp. 12:870-878.

78. Chen, W. et al. 2003, J. Exp. Immunol., p. 198: 1875.

79. Smads: transcriptional activators of TGF-beta responses. . Derynck R, Zhang Y, Feng XH. 1998, Cell , pp. 95 (6): 737–40. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81696-7.PMID 9865691. .

80. Smad transcription factors. Massagué J, Seoane J, Wotton D. 2005, Genes Dev, pp. 19 (23): 2783–810. doi:10.1101/gad.1350705. PMID .

81. A structural basis for mutational inactivation of the tumour suppressor Smad4. Shi Y, Hata A, Lo RS, Massagué J, Pavletich NP. 1997, Nature., pp. 388 (6637): 87–93.doi:10.1038/40431. PMID 9214508.

82. Promoting bone morphogenetic protein signaling through negative regulation of inhibitory Smads. Itoh F, Asao H, Sugamura K, Heldin CH, ten Dijke P, Itoh S. 2001, EMBO J., pp. 20 (15): 4132– doi:10.1093/emboj/20.15.4132. PMC 149146. PMID 11483516.

83. SMAD_Signaling_Network. http://www.sabiosciences.com. [Online] 2013. http://www.sabiosciences.com/pathway.php?sn=SMAD_Signaling_Network.

84. Immune inhibitory receptors. Revetch, J.V., and Lanier, L.L. 2000, Science., pp. 290:84-89.

85. Soc3 drives proteasomal degradation of indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and antagonizes IDO-dependent tolerogenesis. Orabona, C., Pallotta, M., Volpi, C., et al. 2008, PNAS USA, pp. 105: 20828-20833.

86. Cutting edge; silencing supressor of cytokine signaling3 expression in dendritic cells turns CD28-Ig from immune adjuvant to supressant. Orabona, C.,, Belladonna, M.L., et all. 2005, J. Immunol., pp. 174: 6582-6586.

87. Molecular signatures of T-cell inhibition in HIV-1 infection. Larsson, M., Shankar. E.M, Che, K.F., Ellegard, R., Barathan, M., Velu, V., and Kamarulzaman, A. 2013, Retrovirology, p. 10:31.

88. TGF-beta and CD4+CD25+ regulatory cells. Huber, S. and Schramn, C. 2006, Front. Bioscie., pp. 11:1014-1023.

89. Immune Escape as a fundemental trait of cancer; focus on IDO. Prendergast, G.C. 2008, Oncogene., pp. 27, 3889-3900.

90. Il-6 inhibits the tolerogenic functionof CD8+ dendritic cells expressing indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Grohman, U., Fallarino, F., et al. 2001, J. Immunol., pp. 167:708-714.

91. Avoiding horror autotoxicus: Th eimportance of dentritic cells in peripheral T cell tolerance. Steinman, R.M., and Nussenzweig, M.C. 2002, PNAS, pp. no:1, 351-358.

92. Dendritic-cell function in Toll-like receptor- and MyD88-knockout mice . Kaisho, T., Akira, S. 2001, Trends Immunol , pp. 22,78-83.

93. Innate sensing of self and non-self RNAs by Toll-like receptors. Sioud, M. 2006., Trends Mol Med., pp. 12:67–76.

94. Impaired expression of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase in monocyte-derived dendritic cells in response to Toll-like receptor-7/8 ligands. Furset, G., Fløisand, Y. and Sioud, M. 2008, Immunology., pp. 123(2): 263–271, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2007.02695.x.

95. Toll-;ike receptor 9 mediated induction of the immunorepressor pathway of tryptophan metabolism. Fallarino, F., and Puccetti, P. 2006, Eur. J. of Imm., pp. 36:8-11.

96. Toll-like receptors and host defense against microbial pathogens: bringing specificity to the innate immune system. . Netea MG, der Graaf C, Van der Meer JWM, Kullberg BJ. 2004, J Leukoc Biol. , pp. 75:749–55.

97. Species-specific recognition of single-stranded RNA via toll-like receptor 7 and 8. . Heil F, Hemmi H, Hochrein H, et al. 2004, Science. , pp. 303:1526–9.

98. Innate antiviral responses by means of TLR7-mediated recognition of single-stranded RNA. . Diebold SS, Kaisho T, Hemmi H, Akira S, Reis e Sousa C. 2004., Science. , pp. 303:1529–31. .

99. The role of CpG motifs in innate immunity. Krieg, A.M. 2000., Curr Opin Immunol., pp. 12:35–43.

100. Anendogenous tumour-promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Opitz, C.A., Litzenburger, U.M., Sahm, F., Ott,M., Tritschler, I., Trump, S. 2011, Nature, pp. vol 478; 197-203.

101. Impaired impression of Indolamine 2,3-deoxygenase in monocyte derived DCs in response to TLR-7/8. Furset, G., Floisand, Y., Sioud, M. 2007, Immunology, pp. 263-271.

102. Activationof the noncanonical NF-kB pathway by HIV controls a Dendritic cell immunoregulatory phenotype. Manches, O. Fernandez, V.M.,, Plumas, J., Chaperot, L., and Bhardwaj, N. 2012, PNAS, pp. vol: 109, 14122-14127.

103. Regulation of dendritic cell numbers and maturation by lipopolysaccharide in vivo . de Smedt, T., Pajak, B., Muraille, E., Lespagnard, L., Heinen, E., De Baetselier, P., Urbain, J., Leo, O., Moser, M. 1996, J. Exp. Med., pp. 184,1413-1424.

104. Subsets of dendritic cell precursors express different Toll-like receptors and respond to different microbial antigens . Kadowaki, N., Ho, S., Antonenko, S., de Waal Malefyt, R., Kastelein, R. A., Bazan, F., Liu, Y-J. 2001, J. Exp. Med., pp. 194,863-869 .

105. TRAF6 is a critical factor for dendritic cell maturation and development . Kobayashi, T., Walsh, P. T., Walsh, M. C., Speirs, K. M., Chiffoleau, E., King, C. G., Hancock, W. W., Caamano, J. H., Hunter, C. A., Scott, P., Turka, L. A., Choi, Y. 2003, Immunity , pp. 19,353-363 .

106. Activation of interferon regulatory factor-3 via toll-like receptor 3 and immunomodulatory functions detected in A549 lung epithelial cells exposed to misplaced U1-snRNA. Sadik CD, Bachmann M, Pfeilschifter J, Mühl H. 2009, Nucleic Acids Res. , pp. 37(15):5041-56. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkp525. Epub 2009 Jun 18.

107. Triggering of the dsRNA sensors TLR3, MDA5, and RIG-I induces CD55 expression in synovial fibroblasts. Karpus ON, Heutinck KM, Wijnker PJ, Tak PP, Hamann J. 2012, PLoS One., p. 7(5):e35606. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035606. Epub 2012 May 10.

108. The structure of the TLR5-flagellin complex: a new mode of pathogen detection, conserved receptor dimerization for signaling. Lu J, Sun PD. 2012, Sci Signal., p. 5(216):pe11. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.2002963. .

109. Flagellin/Toll-like receptor 5 response was specifically attenuated by keratan sulfate disaccharide via decreased EGFR phosphorylation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Shirato K, Gao C, Ota F, Angata T, Shogomori H, Ohtsubo K, Yoshida K, Lepenies B, Taniguchi N. 2013, Biochem Biophys Res Commun., pp. doi:pii: S0006-291X(13)00779-1. 10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.05.009. [Epub ahead of print].

110. Differential induction of interleukin-10 and interleukin-12 in dendritic cells by microbial Toll-like receptor activators and skewing of T-cell cytokine profiles Infect. Qi, H., Denning, T. L., Soong, L. 2003, Immun. , pp. 71,3337-3342 .

111. Thoma-Uszynski, S., Kiertscher, S. M., Ochoa, M. T., Bouis, D. A., Norgard, M. V., Miyake, K., Godowski, P. J., Roth, M. D.Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 on human dendritic cells triggers induction of IL-12, but not IL-10 . Thoma-Uszynski, S., Kiertscher, S. M., Ochoa, M. T., Bouis, D. A., Norgard, M. V., Miyake, K., Godowski, P. J., Roth, M. D., Modlin, R. L. 2000, J. Immunol. , pp. 165,3804-3810.

112. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4 differentially activate human dendritic cells . Re, F., Strominger, J. L. 2001, J. Biol. Chem. , pp. 276,37692-37699.

113. Pasare, C., Medzhitov, R. (2003) Toll pathway-dependent blockade of CD4+CD25+ T cell-mediated suppression by dendritic cells. Pasare, C., Medzhitov, R. 2003, Science , pp. 299,1033-1036 .

Read Full Post »

Treatment for Endocrine Tumors and Side Effects

Posted in CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Prevention: Research & Programs, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Genomic Testing: Methodology for Diagnosis, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Metabolomics, Molecular Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Nutrigenomics, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, Pharmacogenomics, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Population Health Management, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, Reproductive Andrology, Embryology, Genomic Endocrinology, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Reproductive Genomics, tagged Cancer - General, Chemotherapy, endocrine tumor, hormone, Immunotherapy, metastasis, oncology, Radiation, Radiation therapy, surgery, Therapy on June 24, 2013| 4 Comments »

Treatment for Endocrine Tumors and Side Effects

Reporter and Curator: Dr. Sudipta Saha, Ph.D.

Surgery

The purpose of surgery is typically to remove the entire tumor, along with some of the healthy tissue around it, called the margin. If the tumor cannot be removed entirely, “debulking” surgery may be performed. Debulking surgery is a procedure in which the goal is to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Side effects of surgery include weakness, fatigue, and pain for the first few days following the procedure.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill tumor cells, usually by stopping the cells’ ability to grow and divide. Systemic chemotherapy is delivered through the bloodstream to reach tumor cells throughout the body. A chemotherapy regimen (schedule) usually consists of a specific number of cycles given over a set period of time. A patient may receive one drug at a time or combinations of different drugs at the same time. The side effects of chemotherapy depend on the individual and the dose used, but they can include fatigue, risk of infection, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. These side effects usually go away once treatment is finished.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy x-rays or other particles to kill tumor cells. The most common type of radiation treatment is called external-beam radiation therapy, which is radiation given from a machine outside the body. When radiation treatment is given using implants, it is called internal radiation therapy or brachytherapy. A radiation therapy regimen usually consists of a specific number of treatments given over a set period of time. Side effects from radiation therapy may include fatigue, mild skin reactions, upset stomach, and loose bowel movements. Most side effects go away soon after treatment is finished.

Hormone therapy

The goal of hormone therapy is often to lower the levels of hormones in the body. Hormone therapy may be given to help stop the tumor from growing or to relieve symptoms caused by the tumor. In addition, for thyroid cancer, hormone therapy will be given if the thyroid gland has been removed, to replace the hormone that is needed by the body to function properly.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy (also called biologic therapy) is designed to boost the body’s natural defenses to fight the tumor. It uses materials made either by the body or in a laboratory to bolster, target, or restore immune system function. Examples of immunotherapy include cancer vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and interferons. Alpha interferon is a form of biologic therapy given as an injection under the skin. This is sometimes used to help relieve symptoms caused by the tumor, but it can have severe side effects including fatigue, depression, and flu-like symptoms.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy is a treatment that targets the tumor’s specific genes, proteins, or the tissue environment that contributes to cancer growth and survival. This type of treatment blocks the growth and spread of tumor cells while limiting damage to normal cells, usually leading to fewer side effects than other cancer medications.

Recent studies show that not all tumors have the same targets. To find the most effective treatment, the doctor may run tests to identify the genes, proteins, and other factors in the tumor. As a result, doctors can better match each patient with the most effective treatment whenever possible.

Depending on the type of endocrine tumor, targeted therapy may be a possible treatment option. For instance, targeted therapies, such as sunitinib (Sutent) and everolimus (Afinitor), have been approved for treating advanced islet cell tumors. Early results of clinical trials (research studies) with targeted therapy drugs for other types of endocrine tumors are promising, but more research is needed to prove they are effective.

Recurrent endocrine tumor

Once the treatment is complete and there is a remission (absence of symptoms; also called “no evidence of disease” or NED). Many survivors feel worried or anxious that the tumor will come back. If the tumor does return after the original treatment, it is called a recurrent tumor. It may come back in the same place (called a local recurrence), nearby (regional recurrence), or in another place (distant recurrence). When this occurs, a cycle of testing will begin again to learn as much as possible about the recurrence. Often the treatment plan will include the therapies described above (such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy) but may be used in a different combination or given at a different pace. People with a recurrent tumor often experience emotions such as disbelief or fear. Patients are encouraged to talk with their health care team about these feelings and ask about support services to help them cope.

Metastatic endocrine tumor

If a cancerous tumor has spread to another location in the body, it is called metastatic cancer. A treatment plan that includes a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, or targeted therapy may be recommended if required.

In addition to treatment to slow, stop, or eliminate the cancer (also called disease-directed treatment), an important part of cancer care is relieving a person’s symptoms and side effects. It includes supporting the patient with his or her physical, emotional, and social needs, an approach called palliative or supportive care. People often receive disease-directed therapy and treatment to ease symptoms at the same time.

Source References:

http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/endocrine-tumor/treatment

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Endocrine/Endocrinetumours.aspx

http://cancer.osu.edu/patientsandvisitors/cancerinfo/cancertypes/endocrine/Pages/index.aspx

http://cancer.northwestern.edu/cancertypes/cancer_type.cfm?category=8

http://www.cancervic.org.au/about-cancer/cancer_types/endocrine_cancer

http://www.oncolink.org/types/types1.cfm?c=4

Read Full Post »

State of the art in oncologic imaging of breast.

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Ecosystems & Industrial Concentration in the Medical Device Sector, FDA Regulatory Affairs, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, HealthCare IT, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Medical Devices R&D and Inventions, Medical Devices R&D Investment, Nanotechnology for Drug Delivery, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Regulated Clinical Trials: Design, Methods, Components and IRB related issues, Reproductive Biology & Bio Instrumentation, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, tagged American Society of Clinical Oncology, Biology, breast cancer, Cancer - General, Clinical trial, Conditions and Diseases, FDA, FDG PET, Food and Drug Administration, health, medicine, MRI, National Institutes of Health, oncologic imaging, oncology, PEM, Personalized medicine, PET/MRI, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, research, United States on January 21, 2013| 2 Comments »

State of the art in oncologic imaging of breast.

Author-Writer: Dror Nir, PhD

Screen Shot 2021-07-19 at 7.28.07 PM

Word Cloud By Danielle Smolyar

In the coming posts I will address the state of the art in oncologic imaging based on a review paper; Advances in oncologic imaging^†^‡ that provides updates on the latest approaches to imaging of 5 common cancers: breast, lung, prostate, colorectal cancers, and lymphoma. This paper is published at CA Cancer J Clin 2012. © 2012 American Cancer Society.

The paper gives a fair description of the use of imaging in interventional oncology based on literature review of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.

In this post I summaries the chapter on breast cancer imaging.

Breast Cancer Imaging

As a start the authors describes the evolution in the ACS imaging guidelines for breast cancer screening. Most interesting to learn is how age limits are changing. The most recent: “In 2010, the Society of Breast Imaging and the Breast Imaging Commission of the ACS issued recommendations for breast cancer screening to provide guidance in light of the controversies and emerging technologies.5 These recommendations were based on multiple prospective randomized trials as well as population-based experience.

Recommendations for screening with non-mammographic imaging are based not on evidence showing mortality reduction but largely on surrogate indicators, i.e., tumor size and nodal status, suggesting improved survival compared with women who are not screened.” I have referred to these guidelines in my recent post: Not applying evidence-based medicine drives up the costs of screening for breast-cancer in the USA.

As long as imaging interpretation is based mainly on observations related to lesion morphology:

“The imaging characteristics of malignant lesions are nonspecific and usually do not allow a definitive diagnosis. When a biopsy is recommended based on mammography, it has a 25% to 45% likelihood of resulting in a diagnosis of carcinoma.11 Similar positive predictive values are reported for biopsies recommended based on MRI.”

It is worthwhile noting that these results do not reflect purely the specificity of the imaging device but rather the specificity of the whole workflow; i.e imaging, biopsy and histopathology. All imaging techniques have false negatives: Mammography screening of general population misses approximately 20% of the cancers. This rate increases as breast density increases. MRI is not applied to general population. When applied to highly suspicious cases MRI misses ~10% of the invasive cancers. Although ultrasound has proven to be useful in detecting cancer especially in women with dense breasts: Automated Breast Ultrasound System (‘ABUS’) for full breast scanning: The beginning of structuring a solution for an acute need! Based on the literature reviewed by the authors of this paper they do not recommend routine sonography for these women.

For women with locally advanced breast cancer (Fig. 2) who undergo neoadjuvant therapy before breast surgery, the authors recommends post-treatment staging using MRI, which has been found to predict complete response with sensitivity above 60% and specificity as high as 90%.26

A 27-year-old female with locally advanced poorly differentiated invasive ductal carcinoma underwent evaluation of extent of disease before starting neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Sagittal fat-suppressed T1-weighted postcontrast MR images demonstrate an almost 6-cm heterogeneously enhancing mass (A) involving the skin of the lower breast (arrow) with (B) right axillary (arrow) and (C) right internal mammary adenopathy (arrow).

Same is recommended for women who have undergone lumpectomy if the surgical margins are positive. As post therapy follow-up, a new baseline mammogram of the treated breast is recommended followed by annual mammography.

In regards to emerging technology the following are discussed: Mammographic tomosynthesis – see also Improving Mammography-based imaging for better treatment planning

Contrast-enhanced digital mammography – “involves the injection of iodinated contrast material, as is done for computed tomography (CT); this enables hypervascular lesions to be seen with modified mammography technology, potentially providing the same information obtained through MRI. Little has been published on the clinical application of this technology, but diagnostic accuracy better than that of mammography and approaching that of MRI has been reported.31, 32”

MR choline spectroscopy – has been shown to improve the positive predictive value of breast MRI and may be useful in reducing the number of lesions that require biopsy (Fig. 4).33 Studies of spectroscopy have reported sensitivities of 70% to 100% and specificities of 67% to 100% in the detection of breast cancer. Decreasing choline concentrations may also be a useful indication of tumor response to treatment before any change in tumor volume can be detected.34, 35 Technical factors have limited the use of spectroscopy to lesions 1 cm in size or larger.”

Sagittal fat-suppressed T1-weighted postcontrast MR image is shown (A) of the right breast of a 48-year-old female who was status post–contralateral mastectomy for DCIS with the spectroscopy voxel placed over an enhancing mass (arrow). The magnified spectrum (B) demonstrated no choline peak. Biopsy yielded fibroadenoma.

Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) – “adding DW-MRI data to other imaging characteristics of lesions on breast MRI may increase the positive predictive value of the examination, in turn decreasing the number of benign lesions requiring biopsy for diagnosis.” See also Imaging: seeing or imagining? (Part 2).

Axial T1-weighted fat-suppressed postcontrast MR image is shown (A) of the left breast of a 42-year-old female with biopsy-proven contralateral cancer undergoing evaluation of disease extent. An enhancing mass (arrow) was seen in the left breast. This mass (arrow) was also demonstrated on the axial diffusion-weighted MR image (B). Biopsy yielded fibroadenoma with atypical ductal hyperplasia and lobular carcinoma in situ.

Ultrasound-elastography – “Ultrasound elastography has been reported to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions with sensitivities of 78% to 100% and specificities of 21% to 98%.39 When added to other US techniques, it may improve radiologists’ performance in distinguishing malignant breast lesions.”

Positron emission tomography (PET) – “alone or combined with CT, allows noninvasive, quantitative assessment of biochemical and functional processes at the molecular level in the body. It is most often performed with the radiolabeled glucose analogue [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) to detect the elevated glucose metabolism that is a hallmark of cancer. In breast cancer, its utility depends on the pretest probability for advanced disease, and thus the clinical stage.” The authors found that the use of [18F] FDG PET to patients with stage I and II disease is “limited”. Specifically, they claim that it is not sufficiently accurate for axillary nodal staging in this subset of patients.40 The did find enough evidence to recommend the use of FDG PET in patients with advanced disease: “where it accurately defines disease extent,41 and frequently eliminates the need for other imaging tests, and provides an early readout of treatment response as well as prognostic information.”

Combined PET/MRI is mentioned as a promising technology for predicting response to therapy “but this remains to be proven”.

Positron emission mammography (PEM) – “adapts full-body PET imaging to the breast. In a multicenter study, the interpretation of PEM in conjunction with mammographic and clinical findings yielded a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 93% for breast cancer.47 “. However, the authors mention that its use for screening (applying to healthy women) has been criticized because of the need to administer a radioactive tracer.

Lung Cancer Imaging

To be followed…

Other research papers related to the management of breast cancer were published on this Scientific Web site:

The unfortunate ending of the Tower of Babel construction project and its effect on modern imaging-based cancer patients’ management

Automated Breast Ultrasound System (‘ABUS’) for full breast scanning: The beginning of structuring a solution for an acute need!

Introducing smart-imaging into radiologists’ daily practice.

Will Bio-Tech make Medical Imaging redundant?

Improving Mammography-based imaging for better treatment planning

Not applying evidence-based medicine drives up the costs of screening for breast-cancer in the USA.

New Imaging device bears a promise for better quality control of breast-cancer lumpectomies – considering the cost impact

Harnessing Personalized Medicine for Cancer Management, Prospects of Prevention and Cure: Opinions of Cancer Scientific Leaders @ http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

Predicting Tumor Response, Progression, and Time to Recurrence

“The Molecular pathology of Breast Cancer Progression”

Personalized medicine gearing up to tackle cancer

Whole-body imaging as cancer screening tool; answering an unmet clinical need?

What could transform an underdog into a winner?

Mechanism involved in Breast Cancer Cell Growth: Function in Early Detection & Treatment

Nanotech Therapy for Breast Cancer

A Strategy to Handle the Most Aggressive Breast Cancer: Triple-negative Tumors

Optical Coherent Tomography – emerging technology in cancer patient management

Breakthrough Technique Images Breast Tumors in 3-D With Great Clarity, Reduced Radiation

Closing the Mammography gap

Imaging: seeing or imagining? (Part 1)

Imaging: seeing or imagining? (Part 2)

Read Full Post »

CRO: A Collaborative Effort to Win-Win

Posted in Pharmaceutical R&D Investment, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Uncategorized, tagged Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Business, Clinical trial, Contract research organization, CRO, Novella, Novella Clinical, oncology, Pharmaceuticals, Therapy on July 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A collaborative effort in reaching the set targets in a stipulated time frame is inevitable in every walk of life and the pharmaceutical industry seems to be in no exception. New products identification and their evaluation in terms of their safety and efficacy towards the targeted disease condition and finally bringing them to the needy as quickly as possible is a continuous and tedious process.

In order to minimize the time lines across the drug development process thru the market one may (have to) seek for external collaboration while safely and strategically harnessing the in-house resources to break new grounds in the field.

External collaboration will bring-in new talent into the existing system of Science and Business of the firm, whether small, mid-sized, or big company, that could lead to great innovations and investments on a win-win basis.

It is anticipated that Oncology therapeutic area will reach approximately $75 billion in global spending by 2015. OncoProducts continue to dominate the global therapeutics market and it is the leading research therapeutic, with 672 oncology drugs in development.

Conducting clincal trails is very challenging because:

clinical trials can vary in size from a single center in one country to multicenter trials in multiple countries.
Cost incur in a full series of clinical trials is enormous.
of the burden of paying for all the necessary people and services is usually borne by the sponsor.

Clinical trails can take place only after satisfactory information has been gathered on the quality of the nonclinical safety, and health authority/ethics committee approval is granted in the country where the trial is taking place.

Depending on the type of product and the stage of its development, investigators enroll healthy volunteers and/or patients into small pilot studies initially, followed by larger scale studies as and when positive safety and efficacy data are gathered.

Such a rigorous evaluation in clinical trials that assess effcacy and safety in appropriate patient populations are critical to the continued development of the highly sensitive targeted therapies. The challenges to such studies, especially in phase I, are particularly great in oncology and cannot be met solely by most small- to mid-size oncology companies’.

Thus, though many companies have a range of talent and tools to apply to trials, often a clinical trial is managed by an outsourced partner, such as a Contract Research Organization or a Clinical Trials Unit. Moreover partnering with external organizations can bolster expertise and experience to ensure successful trial outcomes in terms of quality, data and time.

One such organization to partner with to successfully conduct and complete especially optimizing early phase, which is most challenging, oncology clinical trails is “NOVELLA Clinical”.

Novella is a specialty clinical research organization (CRO), that offers a range of services ranging from protocol development thru data analysis, that can be tailored to and mesh seamlessly with a sponsor’s specific needs.

When selecting a sponsor one must consider the following:

Expert scientific staff availability
Synergistic clinical trail models (e.g., PM/CTM clubbing or effective coordination where possible)
Clinical site selection expertise
Clinical trail efficiency through Operation Excellence that uses eClinical technologies (e.g., EDC, CTM)
Effective Cohort Management
Quality Data Documentation, and last but not least
‘Trust’.

Therefore selecting a specialty oncology CRO especially for early stage oncology trials is important and moreover partners bring sponsors ‘results that lay the foundation’ for advanced efficacy trials in the most appropriate oncology patients, particularly when acquired in a time- and cost-effective manner.

Sponsors interested, especially the small- to mid-size pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies who may be planning early stage oncology clinical trials, in taking advantages offered by “NOVELLA Clinical” can visit the source for further details.

For further reading:

Website: “NOVELLA Clinical”

Reference:

Optimizing-Early-Phase-Oncology-Clinical-Trials-Novella-Clinical

Read Full Post »

enough is enough: Treat ‘Each Patient as an Individual’

Posted in Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Chemical Genetics, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Genome Biology, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, Pharmaceutical R&D Investment, Proteomics, tagged American Society of Clinical Oncology, Cancer - General, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Georgetown University Hospital, health, Indiana University School of Medicine, oncology, ovarian cancer on June 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

Reported by: Dr. Venkat S. Karra, Ph.D

An interesting Interview by Dr. Miller with renowned OncoMeds on ASCO 2012 annual meeting:

Kathy D. Miller, MD: Hello. I am Kathy Miller, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. I would like to welcome you to Medscape Oncology Insights, our annual wrap-up of the 2012 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO®). I am joined today by several of my colleagues: Dr. David Kerr, Professor of Cancer Medicine from the University of Oxford and former President of the European Society of Medical Oncology; Dr. Bruce Cheson, Deputy Chief of Hematology and Oncology, and Head of Hematology at the Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC; and last but not least, Dr. Maurie Markman, Vice President, Patient Oncology Services, and National Director for Medical Oncology, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, based in Philadelphia. Thank you all for joining us today.

Maurie, let’s start with you. When you think about highlights of this year’s ASCO® meeting for genitourinary (GU) and ovarian cancers, what are you taking home?

Ovarian Cancer: Clear Benefit With Bevacizumab

Maurie Markman, MD: There was a very interesting session, because of what was seen and what was not seen. The surprise for me was the randomized phase 3 trial^[1] that looked at the question of bevacizumab plus chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Everyone would have predicted, on the basis of 30-plus years of research in this area, that it would be a negative trial, as all past trials have been. In fact, I was convinced it would be a negative trial because there were no press releases ahead of time. That usually tells you the story.

It turns out that the combination of bevacizumab and chemotherapy substantially improved progression-free survival in this setting — the first time this has ever been seen. I would suspect, however, that what most people take away from it is the fact that there was a tripling of the objective response rate, and clear evidence of patient benefit. This was very much a surprise; I don’t think anyone expected this.

The next question is going to be, what happens next? Is this drug going to receive regulatory approval on this basis? This is clearly an unmet need. That was a real positive.

On the other hand, one could argue that in contrast to other things that we will hear about, there is still no target of therapy in any of the gynecologic cancers. We haven’t found anything that would suggest an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, or anything to suggest a KRAS mutation or anything that could point to where we need to go in this area. On the one hand, that is a very interesting finding, from the perspective of biology. But it is quite discouraging from the perspective of drug development.

Dr. Miller: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data had to be discouraging. Essentially, every ovarian tumor is a different ovarian tumor.

Dr. Markman: Absolutely.

Dr. Miller: You have 10,000 rare diseases.

Dr. Markman: Other than p53, and we have known of that mutation for decades. It is universal, certainly in the high-grade cancers. But we don’t know how to deal with it. Other than that, the number of mutations found per tumor is enormous, and there are no patterns. So we have to do a lot of thinking. That is, the smart biologists have to do a lot of thinking.

Lymphoma: Chemotherapy? Enough Is Enough

Dr. Miller: Bruce, you spend a lot of your time focusing on the hematology side of malignancies. With the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and a whole separate meeting, sometimes it seems as though hematology doesn’t get as much attention at ASCO®. Was there any big news in the hematologic malignancies that people need to know about?

Bruce D. Cheson, MD: There were not. However, this has the potential to be an historic meeting, because we are going to finally learn that “enough is enough” with chemotherapy, and we are at that point.

We saw some very historic presentations. We saw rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP), vs rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CVP), vs rituximab, fludarabine, and mitoxantrone (RFM) — where basically the only difference is in toxicity.^[2]

Dr. Miller: “Pick your poison” — toxicity, but you will get to the same place.

Dr. Cheson: Yes. We also saw that R-bendamustine was better than R-CHOP,^[3] but there are questions about the R-CHOP arm looking kind of lame. We were thinking, where are we going in follicular lymphoma?

Where we are going is what John Leonard and colleagues^[4] presented in the relapse setting, and that’s biological agents. We have lots of those. We have lots of targeted agents. I predict that in the next year, instead of hearing more about R-CHOP and R-bendamustine, we are going to be hearing more about the GS-1101s; the PI3-kinase inhibitors; ibrutinib, the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor; and those drugs which we in the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CLGB) (now Alliance) have been planning on combining with biological strategies. We are going to be trying to get rid of chemotherapy. This may be, hopefully, the last meeting we hear about regimen A vs regimen B. It’s kind of sickening.

We have the same situation in Hodgkin lymphoma — where we cure, depending on the stage, up to 90% of people, and at this meeting we see adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) vs bleomycin, etoposide, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (BEACOPP) again for about the fourth iteration. Lo and behold, there is no survival difference.

We saw lots of that, but now we have other drugs. We have brentuximab vedotin, which is an antibody/drug conjugate. It is anti-CD30, linked to auristatin, a tubulin poison, which in transplant-refractory patients had a 75% response rate. There weren’t any data at this meeting. The data on that drug were presented at ASH. But there are now trials incorporating brentuximab/vedotin, not only in second-line treatment, but we are now moving it up into front-line.

So, we have the tools; it’s just a question of being smart enough, and figuring out how to put them together in a coherent fashion, on the basis of scientific rationale. The most important thing I took away from this meeting is, enough is enough. You can pick your poison, as you put it. But don’t hold on to it for dear life, because there are new, very exciting drugs coming along that are being combined in a biological fashion.

Breast Cancer: Targeted Therapies Are Clear Winners

Dr. Miller: You might have snuck into a breast cancer session, because that is how I would summarize the breast cancer world this year as well. We saw adjuvant trials, metastatic trials, comparing one chemotherapy regimen with another. To summarize a lot of data, pick your third-generation adjuvant chemotherapy regimen and the toxicity will differ, depending on the drugs, but the efficacy doesn’t differ at all. In the metastatic setting, newer wasn’t better. It brought more toxicity, which then led to more dose reductions, which hampered efficacy.

So when we thought we were getting newer and better drugs, they didn’t actually do better for our patients. It sounded a little bit like ABVD vs BEACOPP in Hodgkin disease.

Dr. Cheson: We have to get rid of chemotherapy.

Dr. Miller: Targeted therapies, either with direct molecular targets or antibody/ drug conjugates, were the clear winners, with major improvements in efficacy and substantially less toxicity. I would be quite happy if I didn’t have to look at another basic chemotherapy study in breast cancer again. Was that the case in the gastrointestinal (GI) studies as well, David?

GI Phenotypes and 5 Daughters of Eve

David J. Kerr, MD: It was. We are seeing mildly disappointing and moderately good results. The big, well-designed study, REAL 3,^[5] looking at the role of panitumumab with combination chemotherapy, had negative findings. Panitumumab seemed to do a bit worse, which was somewhat disappointing.

Some positives are coming out in colorectal cancer. The antiangiogenic therapies look as if they are here to stay. A nice randomized trial^[6] looking at discontinuation or continuation of bevacizumab following progression in first-line chemotherapy shows that the bevacizumab follow-through has significant advantages, in terms of progression-free survival.

An interesting, clever, genetically designed drug, aflibercept, which is a vascular endothelial growth factor (VGEF) trap, showed very promising activity in second- line therapy.^[7] So something is holding true there. We have a new drug, regorafenib, which is one of these oral multitargeted kinase inhibitors, that seems to have an important clinically useful role to play in third-line chemotherapy.

For me, the take-home message, in contradistinction to Maurie, is that we are starting to get a feel for the different molecular phenotypes for colorectal cancer. It looks as though there may be 5 daughters of Eve, and it needs to be confirmed. We need to internationalize what we are doing. It looks as though some patterns are starting to emerge that will allow us to make prognostic inferences, possibly treatment-wise, and so on. Things are starting to stack up for us, in terms of driver mutations, therapeutics, and providing the patient with better information, so this is somewhat luckier than the situation with ovarian just now.

How Do We Eliminate Chemotherapy?

Dr. Miller: When we look ahead, we would all love to get rid of chemotherapy. How do we do that? By understanding the biology, which is the easy answer. Bruce, you mentioned that we do tend to cling to our chemotherapy regimens. We have been having discussions about how to do this in breast cancer, and there is a great reluctance to give up the regimens that have gotten us to where we are.

Dr. Cheson: Reluctance from the doctor, but not from the patient.

Dr. Miller: So how do we move forward?

Dr. Cheson: There are a couple of ways. First is a better understanding of tumor biology. We have been sitting around doing what we do for so long. Now we have some tools, but we need to know how to apply them. At every clinical trial in CLGB (now Alliance), we have correlative science. We are doing natural killer (NK) cell numbers and functions. We are doing microarrays so that we can understand which regimen works in which patient. It may not be like your field (gynecologic cancer), where every patient has their own disease, which is what I get accused of saying in lymphoma all the time. I am glad someone else has that problem.

We have the drugs. We need to know how to put them together, but which patients should we target? Then, we need to figure out how to move them up front — such drugs as brentuximab, the Hodgkin drug, and anti-CD30, which in anaplastic large cell lymphoma has an 86% response rate in relapsed patients. In a good clinical trial, we need to take a risk and just do it. If a drug is 86% effective in the refractory setting, it is not going to be worse up front.

There are those who will say, “Well, the response may not last as long.” But there are several ways you can introduce these drugs in an up-front setting, such as window-of-opportunity studies, Or, you can first tack them on to some chemotherapy and then try and wean off the chemotherapy.

There are a number of ways to do it. You just have to do it. You have to take a risk and view it as a challenge. You have to say, “We have had enough of this; let’s move on.” We have the tools; let’s do it.

I-SPY: New Paradigm for Clinical Trials?

Dr. Miller: Maurie, you know I can’t resist, because this issue of clinical trials came up last year when we were talking about melanoma data, with striking activity reported by the BRAF investigators. Are you going to do those trials? Are you willing to take that risk?

Dr. Markman: Obviously, you have to look at the individual cancers. Consider the report that said breast cancer had 10 different cancers, maybe more. It is going to be harder and harder to do randomized trials in 10 subsets, even in a disease that is as common as breast cancer.

Dr. Miller: We are actually closer to your problem, where each patient is an individual disease, than to Bruce’s situation.

Dr. Markman: We do have to come up with a different clinical trial paradigm as we get to smaller subsets. Of course, the tsunami that many have predicted is here. It wasn’t part of the meeting directly, but a half-dozen or dozen companies are now offering whole-genome sequencing. We have to figure out how to use all these things. It may not be as simple as a particular molecular abnormality, but it may be, as many people are saying, particular systems.

For example, in the ovarian cancer area, there are BRCA1 and BRCA2, and there are some drugs that affect those mutations. But a very important study from last year looked at maintenance therapy in the second-line setting with olaparib^[8] in tumors that were said to have a BRCA-ness profile. In other words, there is a molecular profile that is similar to that of BRCA1 and BRCA2, and in fact, it was a very positive trial, at least from the perspective of progression-free survival. You may not be able to find a particular molecular abnormality, but there may be patterns. And that may be (in our area, where you can’t find an abnormality) much more complicated than just finding a mutation. That may be the way forward in such diseases as ovarian cancer.

Dr. Cheson: Maybe I did wander into the breast meeting, but we need to reconsider how many phase 3 trials we want to do. The I-SPY concept is where we need to be going. You take a regimen that should work in a subset of patients, and you test that and see if it does. Then you can figure out who responded and who didn’t, doing various molecular techniques, and then you take the patients who responded and put them in one pile, and enrich that pile. You take the patients who didn’t respond, figure out why they didn’t respond, and retarget them. After a while, you have high response rates in this one, and you start to improve the outcome in the other one. We need to do this. There is no way around it. It’s coming.

I hate to say this, but I think maintenance is for losers, because if you are going to do right, you have to do it up front. Progression-free survival doesn’t necessarily correlate with overall survival. It is nice. You don’t see the doctor as often. But we need to do this right the first time. I thoroughly agree with you, Maurie — it is going to be a conglomerate of things, and that is why we have new, exciting drugs coming down the pipeline, such as these PI3-kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) hybrid inhibitors. We need to block multiple pathways, because the tumors are damn smart. If you block one, it has all these other ways of getting around you.

More Fun With Something vs Nothing Trials

Dr. Kerr: Indeed, and that comes back to Maurie’s point about thinking in systems and programmatically. The answer to Kathy’s question — can we get rid of chemotherapy? — is no. But can we do better? Think about the huge focus that we have in trying to map biomarkers to the new drugs, often mechanistic. We are not doing enough with the conventional cytotoxic drugs that we have.

We could do a lot more. Genome-wide association studies, looking at patterns of toxicity, so that we can use polymorphisms to say “you get full dose of the drug, you get the reduced dose.” We could be using the tools of trade that we have much better. With the new platform technologies, we should be able select patients who do better with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), with taxane, and so on.

Dr. Cheson: So, how do you study that in randomized trials?

Dr. Kerr: We are lucky in that we have been collecting material from the old days. Makes us something like Dickensian characters. We have hoarded a lot of material from something vs nothing-type trials, and that gives us the opportunity, in that large randomized setting, to develop some of these predictive markers for “yes or no 5-FU, yes or no taxane.” So, it is going back to our youths, when we did all that stuff.

Dr. Miller: That is how we made advances in breast cancer. The predecessors in my field collected tumors long before the technology that we now use to interrogate them was even a glint in someone’s eye. That may actually have a bigger global impact.

Dr. Kerr: I think so.

Dr. Miller: Although this is the American Society of Clinical Oncology, one third of our members are from outside the United States, one half of the attendees are from outside the United States, and most of the fabulous molecular things we have been talking about are not within reach of most patients globally. But some of our old things are cheap. Perhaps using them in a more intelligent way may actually have more benefit on a global scale.

A Question of Value

Dr. Kerr: Exactly. So you have segued into the concept of value. I was delighted to see the brief stance that ASCO® has taken toward value, and saying that there are some things that we do that don’t add value to the care of the patients that we look after. I am a huge fan of US medicine at its the very best, but there’s a lot of waste in what we do. The fact that ASCO® is trying to identify this — 17.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is being spent in health now — I thought that was fantastic. Yes, there is value out there, and we should seek it. We should mine old databases, fiddle with new drugs and old drugs, teach old drugs new tricks, and so on.

Dr. Cheson: Five years from now, you are going to look at this video, and you had a whole list of “mabs and mibs” that you are going to figure out and put together, and all of a sudden, FOLFOX, FOLFIRI will be “pffft.” You are going to be combining those biologic agents intelligently, and you are going to get rid of those chemotherapy drugs, I predict.

Dr. Miller: We are out of time for this year, but I am going to book you both for 5 years from now to see whose prediction of the future comes true, where the value lies, and where we can make improvements, because I’m not so sure that they are mutually exclusive. But that’s all from this year’s Medscape Oncology wrap-up of the Annual Oncology Society Meeting. Thank you again for joining me.

References

Pujade-Lauraine E, Hilpert F, Weber B, et al. AURELIA: a randomized phase III trial evaluating bevacizumab (BEV) plus chemotherapy (CT) for platinum (PT)-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer (OC). Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract LBA5002.
Federico M, Luminari S, Dondi A, et al. R-CVP versus R-CHOP versus R-FM as first-line therapy for advanced-stage follicular lymphoma: Final results of FOLL05 trial from the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi (FIL). Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract 8006.
Rummel MJ, Niederle N, Maschmeyer G, et al. Bendamustine plus rituximab (B-R) versus CHOP plus rituximab (CHOP-R) as first-line treatment in patients with indolent and mantle cell lymphomas (MCL): updated results from the StiL NHL1 study. Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract 3.
Leonard J, Jung SH, Johnson JL, et al. CALGB 50401: a randomized trial of lenalidomide alone versus lenalidomide plus rituximab in patients with recurrent follicular lymphoma. Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract 8000.
Waddell TS, Chau I, Barbachano Y, et al. A randomized, multicenter trial of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine (EOC) plus panitumumab in advanced esophagogastric cancer (REAL3). Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract LBA4000.
Arnold D, Andre T, Bennouna J, et al. Bevacizumab (BEV) plus chemotherapy (CT) continued beyond first progression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) previously treated with BEV plus CT: results of a randomized phase III intergroup study (TML study). Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract CRA3503.
Allegra CJ, Lakomy R, Tabernero J, et al. Effects of prior bevacizumab (B) use on outcomes from the VELOUR study: a phase III study of aflibercept (Afl) and FOLFIRI in patients (pts) with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) after failure of an oxaliplatin regimen. Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and Exposition; June 1-5, 2012; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract 3505.
Ledermann JA, Harter P, Gourley C, et al. Phase II randomized placebo-controlled study of olaparib (AZD2281) in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer (PSR SOC). Program and abstracts of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; June 3-7, 2011; Chicago, Illinois. Abstract 5003.

Source

Article(s) of Relevance:

I-SPY 2 Clinical Trial Design Promises to Accelerate FDA Approvals

Reported by: Dr. Venkat S. Karra, Ph.D

Read Full Post »

Foundation Medicine, Novartis Ink New Deal for Clinical Oncology Programs

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged clinical trail, Foundation Medicine, molecular information, novartis, oncology on June 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Foundation Medicine and Novartis have reached a 3 year agreement to use Foundation’s clinical grade, next-generation sequencing to support the drug firm’s clinical oncology programs. The agreement builds on a 2011 deal between the firms and calls for the use of Foundation Medicine’s molecular information platform across many of Novartis’ Phase 1 and Phase 2 oncology clinical programs. The initial collaboration generated “very interesting” data, and this type of tumor genomic profiling has become an important part of Novartis’ clinical trials, Foundation Medicine said.

Foundation Medicine added that it may develop additional diagnostic products from the partnership.

“The comprehensive molecular assessment of Novartis’ Oncology clinical trial samples is expected to help to bring potentially lifesaving therapies to the right patients more quickly, and we expect that the wealth of molecular information will help fundamentally improve the way cancer is understood and treated,” Michael Pellini, president and CEO of Foundation Medicine, said in a statement.

Source:

http://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/foundation-medicine-novartis-ink-new-deal-clinical-oncology-programs

Reported by: Dr. V.S.Karra, Ph.D.

Read Full Post »

What is Cancer?

Posted in Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Bone Disease and Musculoskeletal Disease, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Chemical Genetics, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Genome Biology, Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research, tagged adenoma, Cancer - General, carcinoma, environment, gene, genetics, habits, hereditary, infection, inflammation, leukemia, life style, Lymphoma, Obesity, oncology, sarcoma on May 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

Curator: Venkat Karra, Ph.D.

Cancer is a broad group of various diseases involving unregulated cell growth. It is medically known as a malignant neoplasm. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the body through the lymphatic system or bloodstream, it is called metastasis. However, not all tumors are cancerous. Some tumors do not grow uncontrollably, do not invade neighboring tissues, and do not spread throughout the body which are called Benign tumors.

There are more than 100 types of Cancers. Follow the link to know more:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/alphalist

Classification of Cancers:

There are five broad groups that are used to classify cancer.

Carcinomas: These are characterized by cells that cover internal and external parts of the body such as lung, breast, and colon cancer.
Sarcomas:These are characterized by cells that are located in bone, cartilage, fat, connective tissue, muscle, and other supportive tissues.
Lymphomas:These are cancers that begin in the lymph nodes and immune system tissues.
Leukemias:These are cancers that begin in the bone marrow and often accumulate in the bloodstream.
Adenomas:These are cancers that arise in the thyroid, the pituitary gland, the adrenal gland, and other glandular tissues.

Causes

Hereditary (about 5-10%)
Environmental (90-95% of cases) factors e.g.,
Tobacco (25-30%) – about 70% of the lung cancers are due to tobacco habit
Infections (15-20%)
Radiation (both ionizing and non-ionizing, up to 10%)
Obesity (30-35%) and
Pollutants,Sedentary life, poor diet etc. are likely to cause cancer.

These can directly damage genes or combine with existing genetic faults within cells to cause the disease.

Detection

Presence of certain signs and symptoms, screening tests including medical imaging etc. can be used.

Diagnosis

Cancer can be diagnosed by microscopic examination of a tissue sample called biopsy.

Visit Link for details: http://cancer.stanford.edu/information/cancerDiagnosis/

Treatment

Cancer is usually treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery.

Survival

Survival depends greatly by the type and location of the cancer and the extent of disease at the start of treatment. The risk of developing cancer generally increases with age.

Young People with Cancer, visit the following link for details:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/youngpeople/page6

For Types of Childhood Cancer, visit the following link:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/youngpeople/page13

For common medical procedures, visit the following link:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/youngpeople/page6

Signs and Symptoms

Initially there will be no signs and symptoms but only appearing as the mass that continues to grow or ulcerates. The findings that result depends on the type and location of the cancer. For example,

Mass effects from Lung Cancer – can cause blockage of the bronchus resulting in cough (coughing up blood if there is ulceration) or pneumonia.

Oesophageal Cancer – can cause narrowing of the esophagus making it difficult or painful to swallow.

Colorectal Cancer – may lead to changes in bowel habits and bleeding leading to anemia.

General symptoms may include:

Unintentional weight loss,
Fever,
Being excessively tired,
Changes to the skin,
Hodgkin disease,
Leukemias, and
Persistent fever due to Cancers of the liver or kidney.

Symptoms of metastasis include:

Enlarged lynph nodes which can be felt or sometimes seen under the skin and are typically hard),
Enlarged liver or spleen which can be felt in the abdomen,
Pain or fracture of affected bones, and
Neurological symptoms.

It is nearly impossible to prove what caused a cancer in any individual, because most cancers have multiple possible causes. For example, lung cancer could be due to tobacco habbit or could be a result of air pollution or radiation.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts

Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence Group, LLC, Doing Business As LPBI Group, Newton, MA

Posts Tagged ‘oncology’

IDO for Commitment of a Life Time: The Origins and Mechanisms of IDO, indolamine 2, 3-dioxygenase

References

Like this:

Treatment for Endocrine Tumors and Side Effects

Treatment for Endocrine Tumors and Side Effects

Like this:

CRO: A Collaborative Effort to Win-Win

Like this: