Treatment of central nervous system leukemia with CD19-chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy: two cases report and literature review / 中华血液学杂志

Objective: To explore the efficacy and safety of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells in the treatment of central nervous system leukemia (CNSL). Methods: Two leukemia patients with CNSL were treated with CD19-CAR-T cells. The process and results of the entire treatment is reported and related literature review is conducted. Results: The patients were diagnosed as acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-M(2) with B lymphoid antigen expression and B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia(B-ALL) by morphology and immunophenotype assay. The immunophenotype was consistent with the abnormal manifestations of AML-M(2) and B-ALL. Their clinical manifestations and laboratory tests met the diagnostic criteria of CNSL. The diagnosis was clear and the two patients were treated with CD19-CAR-T cell immunotherapy. Central nervous system symptoms were relieved. The imaging abnormalities of patient one has disappeared but cytokines release syndrome (CRS) occurred during the treatment. Cerebrospinal fluid of patient two was negative and no obvious CRS reaction was found. Conclusions: CAR-T cell immunotherapy is likely to induce the remission of CNSL and improve the prognosis.

Correlation of the level of Reg3α protein in plasma with gastrointestinal acute graft-versus-host disease / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was purposed to explore the correlation of regenerating Islet-derived 3-alpha(Reg3α) protein level in plasma with the diagnosis and prognosis of the gastrointestinal acute graft-versus-host disease (GI-aGVHD) after all-HSCT, 103 patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) were observed in our hospital from December 2011 to December 2012. Peripheral blood samples were routinely collected at 9 d before allo-HSCT, 0 d, 14 d, 28 d after allo-HSCT as well as in aGVHD and at the 1 and 4 weeks after aGVHD therapy. The plasma concentrations of Reg3α were measured by using ELISA kit. The results indicated that among the 103 patients, 17 cases never developed aGVHD symptoms (no-aGVHD), 27 cases presented with non-aGVHD associated diarrhea, 10 cases presented with isolated skin aGVHD, 17 cases developed grades I-II GI-aGVHD, 32 cases with grades III-IV GI-aGVHD. The plasma concentrations of Reg3α in group of patients with GI-aGVHD and group of non-aGVHD diarrhea were 111.5 (54.7-180.2) and 23.9 (14.5-89.5) ng/ml respectively with significant difference (P < 0.001). The plasma concentrations of Reg3α in 17 patients of grades III-IV GI-aGVHD who experienced a complete or partial response and 7 patients who had no response to therapy at 4 weeks were 137.2(51.7-205.4) and 679.4(122.3-896.8) ng/ml respectively with the significant difference (P = 0.028). All of the patients who had no response to therapy died of aGVHD associated multiple organ failure. The area under the ROC curve was 0.902 when plasma concentration of Reg3α was set at 87.73 ng/ml. The sensitivity was 81.48% and the specificity was 82.86% when the critical value was used in diagnosis of grades III-IV GI-aGVHD. The probability of grades III-IV GI-aGVHD had statistical difference above and below 87.73 ng/ml after allo-HSCT (P < 0.001). It is concluded that the increase of plasma Reg3α level after transplantation suggests the incidence of grades III-IV GI-aGVHD. The high level of plasma Reg3α protein in patients with grades III-IV GI-aGVHD after the immunosuppressive treatment for four weeks indicates a poor prognosis. The plasma concentrations of Reg3α can be used as a specific biomarker of GI-aGVHD.