Review Series
Abstract
In spite of the recent approval of new promising targeted therapies, the clinical outcome of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains suboptimal, prompting the search for additional and synergistic therapeutic rationales. It is increasingly evident that the bone marrow immune environment of AML patients is profoundly altered, contributing to the severity of the disease but also providing several windows of opportunity to prompt or rewire a proficient antitumor immune surveillance. In this Review, we present current evidence on immune defects in AML, discuss the challenges with selective targeting of AML cells, and summarize the clinical results and immunologic insights from studies that are testing the latest immunotherapy approaches to specifically target AML cells (antibodies, cellular therapies) or more broadly reactivate antileukemia immunity (vaccines, checkpoint blockade). Given the complex interactions between AML cells and the many components of their environment, it is reasonable to surmise that the future of immunotherapy in AML lies in the rational combination of complementary immunotherapeutic strategies with chemotherapeutics or other oncogenic pathway inhibitors. Identifying reliable biomarkers of response to improve patient selection and avoid toxicities will be critical in this process.
Authors
Luca Vago, Ivana Gojo
Abstract
Cellular therapy for hematologic malignancies is a rapidly evolving field, with new iterations of novel constructs being developed at a rapid pace. Since the initial reports of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T cell)success in CD19+ B cell malignancies, multiple clinical trials of CAR T cell therapy directed to CD19 have led to the approval of this therapy by the FDA and the European Medicines Agency for specific indications. Despite strikingly similar efficacy, investigators at multiple centers participating in these studies have observed the nuances of each CAR T cell product, including variability in manufacturing, availability, and toxicity profiles. Here we review state-of-the-art clinical data on CD19-directed CAR T cell therapies in B cell hematologic malignancies, advances made in understanding and modeling associated toxicities, and several exciting advances and creative solutions for overcoming challenges with this therapeutic modality.
Authors
Matthew J. Frigault, Marcela V. Maus
Abstract
Multiple myeloma (MM), a bone marrow–resident hematological malignancy of plasma cells, has remained largely incurable despite dramatic improvements in patient outcomes in the era of myeloma-targeted and immunomodulatory agents. It has recently become clear that T cells from MM patients are able to recognize and eliminate myeloma, although this is subverted in the majority of patients who eventually succumb to progressive disease. T cell exhaustion and a suppressive bone marrow microenvironment have been implicated in disease progression, and once these are established, immunotherapy appears largely ineffective. Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is a standard of care in eligible patients and results in immune effects beyond cytoreduction, including lymphodepletion, T cell priming via immunogenic cell death, and inflammation; all occur within the context of a disrupted bone marrow microenvironment. Recent studies suggest that ASCT reestablishes immune equilibrium and thus represents a logical platform in which to intervene to prevent immune escape. New immunotherapies based on checkpoint inhibition targeting the immune receptor TIGIT and the deletion of suppressive myeloid populations appear attractive, particularly after ASCT. Finally, the immunologically favorable environment created after ASCT may also represent an opportunity for approaches utilizing bispecific antibodies or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.
Authors
Simone A. Minnie, Geoffrey R. Hill
Abstract
Lymphoid malignancies typically promote an infiltrate of immune cells at sites involved by the disease. While some of the immune cells present in lymphoma have effector function, the immune system is unable to eradicate the malignant clone. Therapies that optimize immune function therefore have the potential to improve the outcome of lymphoma patients. In this Review, we discuss immunologic approaches that directly target the malignant cell as well as approaches to optimize both the innate and adaptive immune response to the tumor. While many of these therapies have shown single-agent activity, the future will clearly require thoughtful combinations of these approaches.
Authors
Stephen M. Ansell, Yi Lin
Abstract
Real-world data (RWD) continue to emerge as a new source of clinical evidence. Although the best-known use case of RWD has been in drug regulation, RWD are being generated and used by many other parties, including biopharmaceutical companies, payors, clinical researchers, providers, and patients. In this Review, we describe 21 potential uses for RWD across the spectrum of health care. We also discuss important challenges and limitations relevant to the translation of these data into evidence.
Authors
Vivek A. Rudrapatna, Atul J. Butte
Abstract
Hematological malignancies have long been at the forefront of the development of novel immune-based treatment strategies. The earliest successful efforts originated from the extensive body of work in the field of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. These efforts laid the foundation for the recent exciting era of cancer immunotherapy, which includes immune checkpoint blockade, personal neoantigen vaccines, and adoptive T cell transfer. At the heart of the specificity of these novel strategies is the recognition of target antigens presented by malignant cells to T cells. Here, we review the advances in systematic identification of minor histocompatibility antigens and neoantigens arising from personal somatic alterations or recurrent driver mutations. These exciting efforts pave the path for the implementation of personalized combinatorial cancer therapy.
Authors
Livius Penter, Catherine J. Wu
Abstract
Technological advances in rapid data acquisition have transformed medical biology into a data mining field, where new data sets are routinely dissected and analyzed by statistical models of ever-increasing complexity. Many hypotheses can be generated and tested within a single large data set, and even small effects can be statistically discriminated from a sea of noise. On the other hand, the development of therapeutic interventions moves at a much slower pace. They are determined from carefully randomized and well-controlled experiments with explicitly stated outcomes as the principal mechanism by which a single hypothesis is tested. In this paradigm, only a small fraction of interventions can be tested, and an even smaller fraction are ultimately deemed therapeutically successful. In this Review, we propose strategies to leverage large-cohort data to inform the selection of targets and the design of randomized trials of novel therapeutics. Ultimately, the incorporation of big data and experimental medicine approaches should aim to reduce the failure rate of clinical trials as well as expedite and lower the cost of drug development.
Authors
Eugene Melamud, D. Leland Taylor, Anurag Sethi, Madeleine Cule, Anastasia Baryshnikova, Danish Saleheen, Nick van Bruggen, Garret A. FitzGerald
Abstract
High-throughput technologies for genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, and integrative analysis of these data, enable new, systems-level insights into disease pathogenesis. Mitochondrial diseases are an excellent target for hypothesis-generating omics approaches, as the disease group is mechanistically exceptionally complex. Although the genetic background in mitochondrial diseases is in either the nuclear or the mitochondrial genome, the typical downstream effect is dysfunction of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. However, the clinical manifestations show unprecedented variability, including either systemic or tissue-specific effects across multiple organ systems, with mild to severe symptoms, and occurring at any age. So far, the omics approaches have provided mechanistic understanding of tissue-specificity and potential treatment options for mitochondrial diseases, such as metabolome remodeling. However, no curative treatments exist, suggesting that novel approaches are needed. In this Review, we discuss omics approaches and discoveries with the potential to elucidate mechanisms of and therapies for mitochondrial diseases.
Authors
Sofia Khan, Gulayse Ince-Dunn, Anu Suomalainen, Laura L. Elo
Abstract
Advanced phenotyping of cardiovascular diseases has evolved with the application of high-resolution omics screening to populations enrolled in large-scale observational and clinical trials. This strategy has revealed that considerable heterogeneity exists at the genotype, endophenotype, and clinical phenotype levels in cardiovascular diseases, a feature of the most common diseases that has not been elucidated by conventional reductionism. In this discussion, we address genomic context and (endo)phenotypic heterogeneity, and examine commonly encountered cardiovascular diseases to illustrate the genotypic underpinnings of (endo)phenotypic diversity. We highlight the existing challenges in cardiovascular disease genotyping and phenotyping that can be addressed by the integration of big data and interpreted using novel analytical methodologies (network analysis). Precision cardiovascular medicine will only be broadly applied to cardiovascular patients once this comprehensive data set is subjected to unique, integrative analytical strategies that accommodate molecular and clinical heterogeneity rather than ignore or reduce it.
Authors
Jane A. Leopold, Bradley A. Maron, Joseph Loscalzo
Abstract
Over the past decade, great progress has been made in understanding the complexity of adipose tissue biology and its role in metabolism. This includes new insights into the multiple layers of adipose tissue heterogeneity, not only differences between white and brown adipocytes, but also differences in white adipose tissue at the depot level and even heterogeneity of white adipocytes within a single depot. These inter- and intra-depot differences in adipocytes are developmentally programmed and contribute to the wide range of effects observed in disorders with fat excess (overweight/obesity) or fat loss (lipodystrophy). Recent studies also highlight the underappreciated dynamic nature of adipose tissue, including potential to undergo rapid turnover and dedifferentiation and as a source of stem cells. Finally, we explore the rapidly expanding field of adipose tissue as an endocrine organ, and how adipose tissue communicates with other tissues to regulate systemic metabolism both centrally and peripherally through secretion of adipocyte-derived peptide hormones, inflammatory mediators, signaling lipids, and miRNAs packaged in exosomes. Together these attributes and complexities create a robust, multidimensional signaling network that is central to metabolic homeostasis.
Authors
C. Ronald Kahn, Guoxiao Wang, Kevin Y. Lee
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Copyright © 2020 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)