Leukemia
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We analyzed reports on safety and efficacy of JAK-inhibitors in patients with coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) published between January 1st and March 6th 2021 using the Newcastle-Ottawa and Jadad scales for quality assessment. We used disease severity as a proxy for time when JAK-inhibitor therapy was started. We identified 6 cohort studies and 5 clinical trials involving 2367 subjects treated with ruxolitinib (N = 3) or baricitinib 45 (N = 8). ⋯ Relative risks of death for both drugs were 0.42 [0.30, 0.59] (P < 0.001), for ruxolitinib, RR = 0.33 (0.13, 0.88; P = 0.03) and for baricitinib RR = 0.44 (0.31, 0.63; P < 0.001). Timing of JAK-inhibitor treatment during the course of COVID-19 treatment may be important in determining impact on outcome. However, these data are not consistently reported.
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Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy remains limited to select centers that can carefully monitor adverse events. To broaden use of CAR T cells in community clinics and in a frontline setting, we developed a novel CD8+ CAR T-cell product, Descartes-08, with predictable pharmacokinetics for treatment of multiple myeloma. Descartes-08 is engineered by mRNA transfection to express anti-BCMA CAR for a defined length of time. ⋯ The magnitude of cytolysis correlates with anti-BCMA CAR expression duration, indicating a temporal limit in activity. In the mouse model of aggressive disseminated human myeloma, Descartes-08 induces BCMA CAR-specific myeloma growth inhibition and significantly prolongs host survival (p < 0.0001). These preclinical data, coupled with an ongoing clinical trial of Descartes-08 in relapsed/refractory myeloma (NCT03448978) showing preliminary durable responses and a favorable therapeutic index, have provided the framework for a recently initiated trial of an optimized/humanized version of Descartes-08 (i.e., Descartes-11) in newly diagnosed myeloma patients with residual disease after induction therapy.