A male infant with COVID‐19 in the context of ARPC1B deficiency Castano‐Jaramillo, Lina Maria; Yamazaki‐Nakashimada, Marco Antonio; Scheffler Mendoza, Selma Cecilia ...
Pediatric allergy and immunology,
January 2021, Letnik:
32, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Article Note: Corrections added on January 21, 2021, after first online publication: The forenames and surnames are corrected for all the authors in the author byline. Conflict of interest: None. ...Funding source: None. Byline: Juan Carlos Bustamante-Ogando, Selma Scheffler-Mendoza, Marco Antonio Yamazaki-Nakashimada, Marimar Saez-de-Ocariz
Purpose
We aimed to describe the clinical, immunological, and genetic features of patients with DOCK8 deficiency (DOCK8‐Def) in a tertiary care center for children.
Methods
Retrospective chart review ...of patients' clinical, immunological, and genetic characteristics with DOCK8‐Def. Genetic analysis was performed with targeted‐ or whole‐exome sequencing; we also assessed DOCK8 protein expression and a lymphoproliferation assay and analyzed survival by the Kaplan–Meier method.
Results
We described 11 patients from 8 unrelated kindreds. The median age at symptoms' onset was 10 months (range 1–54 months). The median follow‐up time was 53.4 months (4.8–118.8). All patients presented eczema and recurrent sinopulmonary and cutaneous infections. Besides those symptoms, the most frequent manifestations were bronchiectases (8/11), food allergies (6/11), and severe infections (6/11). Infrequent characteristics were detection of CMV in bronchial lavage, C. parvum‐driven sclerosing cholangitis, Takayasu vasculitis, neurological syndromes, pulmonary tuberculosis, and lymphomatoid granulomatosis.
Conclusion
DOCK8‐Def has a broad spectrum of manifestations, including allergy, autoimmunity, inflammation, infection, and cancer. The hallmark of this inborn error of immunity is IEI‐associated eczema with eosinophilia and increased IgE. Here, we report six new mutations causing human DOCK8 deficiency and symptoms previously unrecognized to occur in DOCK8‐Def. Therefore, an early diagnosis of DOCK8‐Def is essential to facilitate an adequate treatment such as HSCT.
Mutations in the perforin 1 (PRF1) gene account for up to 58% of familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis syndromes. The resulting defects in effector cell cytotoxicity lead to hypercytokinemia ...and hyperactivation with inflammation in various organs.
We sought to determine whether autologous gene-corrected T cells can restore cytotoxic function, reduce disease activity, and prevent hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) symptoms in in vivo models.
We developed a gammaretroviral vector to transduce murine CD8 T cells in the Prf−/− mouse model. To verify functional correction of Prf−/− CD8 T cells in vivo, we used a lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) epitope–transfected murine lung carcinoma cell tumor model. Furthermore, we challenged gene-corrected and uncorrected mice with LCMV. One patient sample was transduced with a PRF1-encoding lentiviral vector to study restoration of cytotoxicity in human cells.
We demonstrated efficient engraftment and functional reconstitution of cytotoxicity after intravenous administration of gene-corrected Prf−/− CD8 T cells into Prf−/− mice. In the tumor model infusion of Prf−/− gene–corrected CD8 T cells eliminated the tumor as efficiently as transplantation of wild-type CD8 T cells. Similarly, mice reconstituted with gene-corrected Prf−/− CD8 T cells displayed complete protection from the HLH phenotype after infection with LCMV. Patients' cells showed correction of cytotoxicity in human CD8 T cells after transduction.
These data demonstrate the potential application of T-cell gene therapy in reconstituting cytotoxic function and protection against HLH in the setting of perforin deficiency.
Leukemias are the most common type of pediatric cancer around the world. Prognosis has improved during the last decades, and many patients are cured with conventional treatment as chemotherapy; ...however, many patients still present with a refractory disease requiring additional treatments, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies or cellular therapy is a promising strategy for treating refractory or relapsed hematological malignancies. Particularly, CAR-T cells have shown clinical efficacy in clinical trials, and different products are now commercially approved by regulatory agencies in the USA and Europe. Many challenges still need to be solved to improve and optimize the potential of these therapies worldwide. Global access to cell therapy is a significant concern, and different strategies are being explored in the middle- and low-income countries. In Mexico, leukemias represent around 50% of total cancer diagnosed in pediatric patients, and the rate of relapsed or refractory disease is higher than reported in other countries, a multi-factorial problem. Although significant progress has been made during the last decades in leukemia diagnosis and treatment, making new therapies available to Mexican patients is a priority, and cell and gene therapies are on the horizon. Efforts are ongoing to make CAR-T cell therapy accessible for patients in Mexico. This article summarizes a general landscape of childhood leukemias in Mexico, and we give a perspective about the current strategies, advances, and challenges ahead to make gene and cell therapies for leukemia clinically available.