Developing a pro-regenerative biomaterial scaffold microenvironment requires T helper 2 cells

Great progress has been made in the field of tumor immunology in the past decade, but optimism about the clinical application of currently available cancer vaccine approaches is based more on surrogate endpoints than on clinical tumor regression. In our cancer vaccine trials of 440 patients, the objective response rate was low (2.6%), and comparable to the results obtained by others. We consider here results in cancer vaccine trials and highlight alternate strategies that mediate cancer regression in preclinical and clinical models.

Newborn mice homozygous for a targeted disruption of insulin-like growth factor gene (Igf-1) exhibit a growth deficiency similar in severity to that previously observed in viable Igf-2 null mutants (60% of normal birthweight). Depending on genetic background, some of the Igf-1(-/-) dwarfs die shortly after birth, while others survive and reach adulthood. In contrast, null mutants for the Igf1r gene die invariably at birth of respiratory failure and exhibit a more severe growth deficiency (45% normal size). In addition to generalized organ hypoplasia in Igf1r(-/-) embryos, including the muscles, and developmental delays in ossification, deviations from normalcy were observed in the central nervous system and epidermis. Igf-1(-/-)/Igf1r(-/-) double mutants did not differ in phenotype from Igf1r(-/-) single mutants, while in Igf-2(-)/Igf1r(-/-) and Igf-1(-/-)/Igf-2(-) double mutants, which are phenotypically identical, the dwarfism was further exacerbated (30% normal size). The roles of the IGFs in mouse embryonic development, as revealed from the phenotypic differences between these mutants, are discussed.

MicroRNA (miRNA) transfer via exosomes may mediate cell-to-cell communication. Interestingly, specific miRNAs are enriched in exosomes in a cell-type-dependent fashion. However, the mechanisms whereby miRNAs are sorted to exosomes and the significance of miRNA transfer to acceptor cells are unclear. We used macrophages and endothelial cells (ECs) as a model of heterotypic cell communication in order to investigate both processes. RNA profiling of macrophages and their exosomes shows that miRNA sorting to exosomes is modulated by cell-activation-dependent changes of miRNA target levels in the producer cells. Genetically perturbing the expression of individual miRNAs or their targeted transcripts promotes bidirectional miRNA relocation from the cell cytoplasm/P bodies (sites of miRNA activity) to multivesicular bodies (sites of exosome biogenesis) and controls miRNA sorting to exosomes. Furthermore, the use of Dicer-deficient cells and reporter lentiviral vectors (LVs) for miRNA activity shows that exosomal miRNAs are transferred from macrophages to ECs to detectably repress targeted sequences. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.