A study published in Nature was able to shed light on the changes to the immune system in response to COVID 19 infection. Researchers in Australia were able to get serial blood samples from a patient that was hospitalized with COVID 19 and eventually recovered from the disease. This is the first study of its kind that has looked at immune-related changes in patients with COVID 19, which provides important insights into the progression of the disease and vaccine development strategies. The researchers analyzed a number of immune cell subsets over time: Antibody-secreting cells (ASCs), T cell su ..read more

Kite turns out to be a concerning investment for Gilead When Gilead acquired Kite for $12 billion (!), it was the talk of the industry for many months. It was a sign that Gilead was investing big in CAR-T cell therapy. Things have soured since, with Gilead cutting forecasts for drugs in the Kite pipeline. This was discussed in an earlier post. This week, Gilead further cut the accounting value for research assets by $800 million, thus signaling that it is placing lower expectations on Kite’s pipeline. So far, only Yescarta from Kite has been able to generate Revenue for Gilead, but its reven ..read more

Zolgensma sales grows Novartis’ gene therapy for spinal muscular dystrophy, Zolgensma has a $2.1 Million price tag. That has not stopped it from having an impressive growth interns of revenue. With more regulatory approvals in the pipeline, this trend only appears to continue upward. I know I only choose to write about Immunology and Oncology on this blog, but I made an exception for this bit of news because of the wider implications it has. Approval and subsequent success of one gene therapy opens the doors for the approval of several others, including CAR-T cell immunotherapy for cancers. I ..read more

Photo by CDC on Unsplash A recent study in the journal PNAS has demonstrated that influence vaccination in cancer patients makes them more susceptible to immune checkpoint inhibitors like Keytruda. In addition, vaccination was able to change the tumor microenvironment from an immune-suppressive state to an inflammatory state. What the authors have described here is a dual-advantage approach. While they demonstrate that influenza vaccination is able to bolster anti-tumor immunity and sensitize the cancer to immunotherapy, they also argue that vaccinating cancer patients may prevent them from ..read more

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat. While precision has helped make significant strides in improved overall survival in other cancers, pancreatic cancer has been left behind. This week, Astra Zeneca and Merck’s Lynparza, a drug that targets the BRCA mutation, was cleared by the FDA. The BRCA mutation is found in breast and ovarian cancers. A small subset of pancreatic cancers carry this mutation too – it is this subset of patients that Lynparza will benefit from. A study found that patients that were treated with Lynparza had almost 2-fold increase in disease-free progression compared wit ..read more

Gliomas are the most common type of brain tumors. Based on aggressiveness, they are classified as grades I- IV, with Grade IV being the most aggressive. Grade IV gliomas, also called Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive cancers with a median survival of 12-16 months after surgery, chemotherapy and Radiation therapy. Understandably, GBM receives the most attention from researchers, clinicians, and advocates in terms of the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Low-grade gliomas (LGGs, Grades I- III) differ from GBMs in their ability to lay dormant for several yea ..read more

As the year winds down and the next decade is on the horizon, I thought it would be nice to take a trip down memory lane and re-visit some of the major news in the Immunology/ Oncology biotech space in 2019. 1) Celgene releases promising CAR-T data Celgene released promising data for its CAR-T cell therapy targeting large B cell lymphoma. The therapy (liso-cel), which aims to compete with Gilead’s Yescarta and Novartis’ Kymriah, is targeted towards CD19, which is a receptor present on B cells. The drug is expected to receive FDA approval next year. 2) Roche study boosts Merck drug’s prospects ..read more

Contribution of dendritic cells to the autoimmune pathology of systemic lupus erythematosus ..read more

Saints Cosmas and Damian miraculously transplant the (black) leg of a Moor onto the (white) body of Justinian. Ditzingen, 16th century Courtesy: wikipedia.org I just got back from a conference on regenerative medicine. The meeting featured scientists and members of the military and majority of the discussion was about the the efforts of scientists in helping wounded warriors restore their normal lives by improving organ regeneration and transplant techniques. I knew the government was invested in R&D, but this meeting made me realize how involved the military was, in researching and in f ..read more

Considering that I have been writing a research grant for the past couple weeks, its been hard for me to read about ( and even think about) anything other than organ transplants. I sincerely hope to be able to talk about the tremendous progress made in the field of organ transplants and organ regeneration. I certainly will. But today, I would like to talk about the foundation for all this research – shortage of available organs. Every year, thousands of people die waiting for an organ that never comes. In addition, every year, thousands of people are added to the ever-growing wait-list for don ..read more