The efficacy and safety of Nivolumab combined with Ipilimumab in the immunotherapy of cancer: a meta-analysis.

Background and Objective: Nivolumab and Ipilimumab are immune checkpoint inhibitors. The combination of Nivolumab and Ipilimumab has been reported to have complementary effects in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. The combination therapy of Nivolumab and Ipilimumab (N+I) has shown synergistic effects in cancer immunotherapy but this is still controversial due to the higher incidence of toxicity. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of Nivolumab combined with Ipilimumab and compared the different dosing schedules of the N+I combination.Methods: By searching in PubMed, PMC, Cochrane library and major conference abstracts, eligible sixteen studies including N+I therapy and Nivolumab monotherapy were selected to analyze overall response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and high-grade (3-4) adverse effects (AEs). Results: Compared with monotherapy of Nivolumab, N+I significantly improved ORR (RR=1.40 [95% CI 1.27, 1.54], P<0.00001) and PFS (Hazard Ratio (HR)=0.83 [95% CI 0.77, 0.90], P<0.00001), but not OS (HR=0.93 [95% CI 0.84, 1.03], P=0.16). In a sub-analysis, the combination of Nivolumab 1mg/kg plus Ipilimumab 3mg/kg (N1I3) and Nivolumab 3mg/kg plus Ipilimumab 1mg/kg (N3I1) achieved better ORR and PFS than Nivolumab 3mg/kg (N3) alone. Remarkably, OS was also prolonged with the N1I3 combination compared with the N3I1 combination or N3. Furthermore, a higher incidence of high-grade AEs also occurred with the combination therapy of N1I3.Conclusions: N+I combination therapy showed greater ORR and PFS compared with Nivolumab monotherapy. N1I3 combination provided the benefit of ORR, PFS and OS but was associated with a higher incidence of toxicity.

Recent advances in therapeutic applications of neutralizing antibodies for virus infections: an overview.

Antibodies are considered as an excellent foundation to neutralize pathogens and as highly specific therapeutic agents. Antibodies are generated in response to a vaccine but little use as immunotherapy to combat virus infections. A new generation of broadly cross-reactive and highly potent antibodies has led to a unique chance for them to be used as a medical intervention. Neutralizing antibodies (monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies) are desirable for pharmaceutical products because of their ability to target specific epitopes with their variable domains by precise neutralization mechanisms. The isolation of neutralizing antiviral antibodies has been achieved by Phage displayed antibody libraries, transgenic mice, B cell approaches, and hybridoma technology. Antibody engineering technologies have led to efficacy improvements, to further boost antibody in vivo activities. "Although neutralizing antiviral antibodies have some limitations that hinder their full development as therapeutic agents, the potential for prevention and treatment of infections, including a range of viruses (HIV, Ebola, MERS-COV, CHIKV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV2), are being actively pursued in human clinical trials."

Advances in local and systemic drug delivery systems for post-surgical cancer treatment.

Surgery is considered to be the favored approach for the treatment of most solid tumor malignancies. The quality of life among cancer patients has significantly improved due to advancements in instrumentation and surgical techniques; however, the recurrence of tumors and metastasis after operation remains challenging and results in a decreased quality of life and an increase in the mortality rate. Therefore, there is a need to explore applicable approaches to eradicate the circulating tumor cells and any residual tumor at the surgical site to inhibit the recurrence of the tumor and reduce the threat of distant metastasis. Recently drug delivery systems have been used to deliver immunotherapy or chemotherapy agents, which could augment the efficacy of surgical resection. In this review, we have summarized the efficacy and the recent progress of controlled drug delivery systems based approaches for post-surgical cancer treatment. Clinical translation challenges and opportunities have also been discussed.

Phenotypic and Genotypic Analysis of Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates from Sudanese Patients.

Background. Currently, mutations in rpoB, KatG, and rrs genes and inhA promoter were considered to be involved in conferring resistance to rifampicin, isoniazid, and streptomycin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Objective. The aims of this study were to detect the prevalence of first-line tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance among a group of previously treated and newly detected TB patients, to determine the association between prevalence of multidrug resistance (MDR) and demographic information (age and sex), to explain genes correlated with MDR Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and to characterize MTB via 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) analysis. Methods. A hundred MTB isolates from Sudanese pulmonary TB patients were included in the study. The proportional method of drug susceptibility test was carried out on Löwenstein-Jensen media. Multiplex PCR of rpoB and KatG genes and inhA promoter was conducted; then rrs genes were amplified by conventional PCR and were sequenced. The sequences of the PCR product were compared with known rrs gene sequences in the GenBank database by multiple sequence alignment tools. Result. The prevalence of MDR was 14.7% among old cases and 5.3% among newly diagnosed cases. Conclusion. Mutations in rrs could be considered as a diagnostic marker.