0000000000115533

AUTHOR

Luis Sendra

Impact of NADPH oxidase functional polymorphisms in acute myeloid leukemia induction chemotherapy.

Efficacy and toxicity of anthracycline treatment in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS). NADPH oxidase is the major endogenous source of ROS and a key mediator of oxidative cardiac damage. The impact of NADPH oxidase polymorphisms (CYBA:rs4673, NCF4:rs1883112, RAC2:rs13058338) was evaluated in 225 adult de novo AML patients. Variant alleles of NCF4 and RAC2 were related to higher complete remission (P=0.035, P=0.016), and CYBA homozygous variant showed lower overall survival with recessive model (P=0.045). Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity was associated to NCF4 homozygous variant (P=0.012) and CYBA heterozygous genotype (P=0.027). Novel associations…

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Comparative Antitumor Effect of Preventive versus Therapeutic Vaccines Employing B16 Melanoma Cells Genetically Modified to Express GM-CSF and B7.2 in a Murine Model

Cancer vaccines have always been a subject of gene therapy research. One of the most successful approaches has been working with genetically modified tumor cells. In this study, we describe our approach to achieving an immune response against a murine melanoma model, employing B16 tumor cells expressing GM-CSF and B7.2. Wild B16 cells were injected in C57BL6 mice to cause the tumor. Irradiated B16 cells transfected with GM-CSF, B7.2, or both, were processed as a preventive and therapeutic vaccination. Tumor volumes were measured and survival curves were obtained. Blood samples were taken from mice, and IgGs of each treatment group were also measured. The regulatory T cells (Treg) o…

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Influence of cytarabine metabolic pathway polymorphisms in acute myeloid leukemia induction treatment

Cytarabine is considered the most effective chemotherapeutic option in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The impact of 10 polymorphisms in cytarabine metabolic pathway genes were evaluated in 225 adult de novo AML patients. Variant alleles of DCK rs2306744 and CDA rs602950 showed higher complete remission (p = .024, p = .045), with lower survival rates for variant alleles of CDA rs2072671 (p = .015, p = .045, p = .032), rs3215400 (p = .033) and wild-type genotype of rs602950 (p = .039, .014). Induction death (p = .033) and lower survival rates (p = .021, p = .047) were correlated to RRM1 rs9937 variant allele. In addition, variant alleles of CDA rs532545 and rs602950 were related to skin toxici…

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Comparative antitumor effect among GM-CSF, IL-12 and GM-CSF+IL-12 genetically modified tumor cell vaccines.

Genetically modified cells have been shown to be one of the most effective cancer vaccine strategies. An evaluation is made of the efficacy of both preventive and therapeutic antitumor vaccines against murine melanoma, using C57BL/6 mice and irradiated B16 tumor cells expressing granulocyte and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-12 (IL-12) or both. Tumor was transplanted by the injection of wild-type B16 cells. Tumor growth and survival were measured to evaluate the efficacy of vaccination. Specific humoral response and immunoglobulin G (IgG) switch were evaluated measuring total IgG and IgG1 and IgG2a subtypes against tumor membrane proteins of B16 cells. In prevent…

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Mitochondrial DNA Replacement Techniques to Prevent Human Mitochondrial Diseases.

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases are a group of maternally inherited genetic disorders caused by a lack of energy production. Currently, mtDNA diseases have a poor prognosis and no known cure. The chance to have unaffected offspring with a genetic link is important for the affected families, and mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs) allow them to do so. MRTs consist of transferring the nuclear DNA from an oocyte with pathogenic mtDNA to an enucleated donor oocyte without pathogenic mtDNA. This paper aims to determine the efficacy, associated risks, and main ethical and legal issues related to MRTs. Methods: A bibliographic review was performed on the MEDLINE and Web of S…

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A surgical model for isolating the pig liver in vivo for gene therapy.

Several studies report results that suggest the need of vascularization blocking for efficient gene transfer to the liver, especially in nonviral gene therapy. In this study, we describe a surgical strategy for in vivo isolation of the pig liver, resulting in a vascular watertight organ that allows the evaluation of several gene injection conditions. The hepatic artery and portal, suprahepatic and infrahepatic cava veins were dissected. Then, liver vascularization was excluded for 5-7 min. In that time, we first injected 200 ml saline solution containing the p3c-eGFP plasmid (20 µg/ml) simultaneously through two different catheters placed in the portal and cava veins, respectively. Vital co…

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Association of SNPs with the efficacy and safety of immunosuppressant therapy after heart transplantation.

Aim: Studying the possible influence of SNPs on efficacy and safety of calcineurin inhibitors upon heart transplantation. Materials & methods: In 60 heart transplant patients treated with tacrolimus or cyclosporine, we studied a panel of 36 SNPs correlated with a series of clinical parameters during the first post-transplantation year. Results: The presence of serious infections was correlated to ABCB1 rs1128503 (p = 0.012), CC genotype reduced the probability of infections being also associated with lower blood cyclosporine concentrations. Lower renal function levels were found in patients with rs9282564 AG (p = 0.003), related to higher blood cyclosporine blood levels. A tendency tow…

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Physical Methods of Gene Delivery

Gene therapy can be defined as the use of nucleic acids (NAs) as medicines with the aim of correcting a deficient gene expression, introducing new functions in the cell, repairing mutations and modulating the gene expression. Two main classes of vectors, viral and nonviral, have been used for gene delivery in order to avoid the NAs hydrolysis by tissue nucleases and improve their cellular uptake. The ideal gene delivery vector should offer high transfection efficacy, cell specificity and low toxicity. However, the immunogenic and mutagenic side effects of viral vector as well as toxicity and low efficacy of nonviral carriers are limiting their application. In this respect, naked NAs deliver…

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Hydrodynamic IL10 Gene Transfer in Human Colon: Results from an "EX VIVO" Study with Potential Clinical Application in Crohn's Disease.

Background: The aim of this work is to evaluate the efficacy of hydrodynamic venous IL10 gene delivery to "ex vivo" human colon segments and to determine its potential interest in Crohn's disease treatment. Methods: Twenty human colon segments were obtained from surgical resections. Hydrodynamic transfection through the main vein of the pedicle with 50 mL of hIL10 plasmid (20 mu g/mL) solution was performed on 13 of them. Tissue sections were cultured and DNA, RNA, and protein copies were determined after 1, 2, and 4 days. Data obtained were compared with 6 nontransfected specimens. Finally, 1 specimen was injected with gold nanoparticles, and their distribution was examined under electron …

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Multicompartmental Lipopolyplex as Vehicle for Antigens and Genes Delivery in Vaccine Formulations

Vector design and its characterization is an area of great interest in current vaccine research. In this article, we have formulated and characterized a multicompartmental lipopolyplex, which associates multiple liposomes and polyplexes in the same complex. These particles allow the simultaneous delivery of lipid or water-soluble antigens associated with genes to the same cell, in much higher amounts than conventional lipopolyplexes. The vector characterization and optimization were carried out using liposomes with entrapped carboxyfluorescein and adapted electrophoretic assays. Two types of lipopolyplexes (containing hydrophilic or lipophilic antigens) were employed to evaluate their inter…

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Colorectal cancer: pharmacogenetics support for the correct drug prescription

Pharmacogenetics (PGx) in clinical practice is a tool that the clinician can use to guide, in a personalized way, the most suitable treatment that will be administered to the patient. The objective of this review is to summarize in a practical and accessible rational way, the advances that currently exist for the application of PGx in colorectal cancer chemotherapy management through the study of the patients’ germline polymorphisms. To define the polymorphisms that can be applied, we rely on three fundamental cornerstones: the recommendations of drug regulatory agencies; the implementation guidelines prepared by expert consortia in PGx and information from clinical annotations (the drug/p…

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Pharmacogenetics in Neuroblastoma: What Can Already Be Clinically Implemented and What Is Coming Next?

Pharmacogenetics is one of the cornerstones of Personalized Precision Medicine that needs to be implemented in the routine of our patients’ clinical management in order to tailor their therapies as much as possible, with the aim of maximizing efficacy and minimizing toxicity. This is of great importance, especially in pediatric cancer and even more in complex malignancies such as neuroblastoma, where the rates of therapeutic success are still below those of many other types of tumors. The studies are mainly focused on germline genetic variants and in the present review, state of the art is presented: which are the variants that have a level of evidence high enough to be implemented in the c…

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Efficacy of interleukin 10 gene hydrofection in pig liver vascular isolated ‘in vivo’ by surgical procedure with interest in liver transplantation

AIM Liver transplantation is the only curative strategy for final stage liver diseases. Despite the great advances achieved during the last 20 years, the recipient immune response after transplantation is not entirely controlled. This results in high rates of acute cell rejection and, approximately, 10% of early mortality. Therapeutic treatment could be improved by efficiently transfecting genes that encode natural immunosuppressant proteins, employing safe procedures that could be transferred to clinical setting. In this sense, interleukin 10 plays a central role in immune tolerance response by acting at different levels. METHODS hIL10 gene was hydrofected by retrograde hydrodynamic inject…

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Gold Nanoparticle-Assisted Virus Formation by Means of the Delivery of an Oncolytic Adenovirus Genome

[EN] Oncolytic adenoviruses are a therapeutic alternative to treat cancer based on their ability to replicate selectively in tumor cells. However, their use is limited mainly by the neutralizing antibody (Nab) immune response that prevents repeated dosing. An alternative to facilitate the DNA access to the tumor even in the presence of anti-viral Nabs could be gold nanoparticles able to transfer DNA molecules. However, the ability of these nanoparticles to carry large DNA molecules, such as an oncolytic adenovirus genome, has not been studied. In this work, gold nanoparticles were functionalized with different amounts of polyethylenimine to transfer in a safe and efficient manner a large on…

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Foxp3 Silencing with Antisense Oligonucleotide Improves Immunogenicity of an Adjuvanted Recombinant Vaccine against Sporothrix schenckii

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T10:56:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-04-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Background: In recent years, there has been great interest in developing molecular adjuvants based on antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) targeting immunosuppressor pathways with inhibitory effects on regulatory T cells (Tregs) to improve immunogenicity and vaccine efficacy. We aim to evaluate the immunostimulating effect of 2′OMe phosphorothioated Foxp3-targeted ASO in an antifungal adjuvanted recombinant vaccine. Methods: The uptake kinetics of Foxp3 ASO, its cyto-toxicity and its ability to deplete Tregs were evaluated in…

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Silencing of Foxp3 enhances the antitumor efficacy of GM-CSF genetically modified tumor cell vaccine against B16 melanoma

Antonio Miguel,1 Luis Sendra,1 Verónica Noé,2 Carles J Ciudad,2 Francisco Dasí,3,4 David Hervas,5 María José Herrero,1,6 Salvador F Aliño17 1Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia, 2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, 3Research University Hospital of Valencia, INCLIVA Health Research Institute, 4Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia Foundation, 5Biostatistics Unit, 6Pharmacogenetics Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe (IIS La Fe), 7Clinical Pharmacology Unit, ACM Hospital Univers…

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Pharmacogenetics implementation in the clinics: information and guidelines for germline variants.

The aim of this work was to supply an overview of the germline Pharmacogenetics that can be already implemented in the oncology clinical practice. An explanation of the three pillars considered necessary for determining which genetic polymorphisms should be used has been provided. These are PharmGKB single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-Drug Clinical Annotations with levels of evidence 1 or 2; the genetic information provided in the drug labels by the drug regulatory main agencies (Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency, mainly); and the guidelines elaborated by international expert consortia (mainly Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium and Dutch Pharmacoge…

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Antitumor Cell-Complex Vaccines Employing Genetically Modified Tumor Cells and Fibroblasts

The present study evaluates the immune response mediated by vaccination with cell complexes composed of irradiated B16 tumor cells and mouse fibroblasts genetically modified to produce GM-CSF. The animals were vaccinated with free B16 cells or cell complexes. We employed two gene plasmid constructions: one high producer (pMok) and a low producer (p2F). Tumor transplant was performed by injection of B16 tumor cells. Plasma levels of total IgG and its subtypes were measured by ELISA. Tumor volumes were measured and survival curves were obtained. The study resulted in a cell complex vaccine able to stimulate the immune system to produce specific anti-tumor membrane proteins (TMP) IgG. In the g…

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Studying Closed Hydrodynamic Models of "In Vivo" DNA Perfusion in Pig Liver for Gene Therapy Translation to Humans.

17 páginas, 6 figuras. En la versión online contiene 3 figuras y 1 tabla en información suplemetaria

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MTHFR and VDR Polymorphisms Improve the Prognostic Value of MYCN Status on Overall Survival in Neuroblastoma Patients

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Pharmacogenetics can play an important role in the outcomes of the chemotherapy treatment in Neuroblastoma, helping doctors maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity. Employing AgenaBioscience MassArray, 96 SNPs were genotyped in 95 patients looking for associations of SNP with response to induction therapy (RIT) and grade 3&ndash

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DNA delivery to 'ex vivo' human liver segments.

Hydrodynamic injection is an efficient procedure for liver gene therapy in rodents but with limited efficacy in large animals, using an 'in vivo' adapted regional hydrodynamic gene delivery system. We study the ability of this procedure to mediate gene delivery in human liver segments obtained by surgical resection. Watertight liver segments were retrogradely injected from hepatic vein with a saline solution containing a plasmid bearing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene, under different conditions of flow rate (1, 10 and 20 ml s(-1)) and final perfused volume. Samples were cultured for 1 to 2 days and used for microscopy and molecular analysis of gene expression. The fluore…

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Impact ofABCsingle nucleotide polymorphisms upon the efficacy and toxicity of induction chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia

Anthracycline uptake could be affected by efflux pumps of the ABC family. The influence of 7 SNPs of ABC genes was evaluated in 225 adult de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. After multivariate logistic regression there were no significant differences in complete remission, though induction death was associated to ABCB1 triple variant haplotype (p = .020). The ABCB1 triple variant haplotype was related to higher nephrotoxicity (p = .016), as well as this haplotype and the variant allele of ABCB1 rs1128503, rs2032582 to hepatotoxicity (p = .001; p = .049; p  .001). Furthermore, the variant allele of ABCC1 rs4148350 was related to severe hepatotoxicity (p = .044), and the variant al…

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Low RNA translation activity limits the efficacy of hydrodynamic gene transfer to pig liver “in vivo”

Background Hydrodynamic gene delivery has proved an efficient strategy for nonviral gene therapy in the murine liver but it has been less efficient in pigs. The reason for such inefficiency remains unclear. The present study used a surgical strategy to seal the whole pig liver in vivo. Methods A solution of enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) DNA was injected under two different venous injection conditions (anterograde and retrograde), employing flow rates of 10 and 20 ml/s in each case, with the aim of identifying the best gene transfer conditions. The gene delivery and information decoding steps were evaluated by measuring the eGFP DNA, mRNA and protein copy number 24 h after transf…

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