Publications by authors named "Brandon D Ng"

Latent viral infections rely on a precise coordination of the immune response to control sporadic viral reactivation. CD8+ T cells play a crucial role in controlling viral latency by generating diverse memory responses in an epitope-specific manner. Among these distinct responses, conventional and inflationary memory responses have been described during herpesvirus infections.

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Resistance to chimaeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy develops through multiple mechanisms, most notably antigen loss and tumour-induced immune suppression. It has been suggested that T cells expressing multiple CARs may overcome the resistance of tumours and that T cells expressing receptors that switch inhibitory immune-checkpoint signals into costimulatory signals may enhance the activity of the T cells in the tumour microenvironment. However, engineering multiple features into a single T cell product is difficult because of the transgene-packaging constraints of current gene-delivery vectors.

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Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell malignancy that is currently incurable with conventional therapies. Following the success of CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in leukemia and lymphoma, CAR T cells targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) more recently demonstrated impressive activity in relapsed and refractory myeloma patients. However, BCMA-directed therapy can fail due to weak expression of BCMA on myeloma cells, suggesting that novel approaches to better address this antigen-low disease may improve patient outcomes.

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Article Synopsis
  • Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable cancer affecting plasma cells in the bone marrow, making treatment challenging despite new drugs.
  • Researchers developed targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNPs) coated with an anti-CD38 antibody to deliver RNA therapies directly to MM cells, significantly reducing cell viability in vitro.
  • The study also introduced a new mouse model that mimics human MM, demonstrating effective delivery of tLNPs to MM cells and improved treatment outcomes in these mice, highlighting the potential of RNA-based therapies in managing MM.
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Immunotherapy has a great potential in advancing cancer treatment, especially in light of recent discoveries and therapeutic interventions that lead to complete response in specific subgroups of melanoma patients. By using the body's own immune system, it is possible not only to specifically target and eliminate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed but also to elicit long-term protective response. Despite the promise, current immunotherapy is limited and fails in addressing all tumor types.

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Hematological malignancies are a group of diseases characterized by clonal proliferation of blood-forming cells. Malignant blood cells are classified as myeloid or lymphoid cells depending on their stem cell origin. Lymphoid malignancies are characterized by lymphocyte accumulation in the blood stream, in the bone marrow, or in lymphatic nodes and organs.

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We synthesized "mesoscale" nanoparticles, approximately 400 nm in diameter, which unexpectedly localized selectively in renal proximal tubules and up to 7 times more efficiently in the kidney than other organs. Although nanoparticles typically localize in the liver and spleen, modulating their size and opsonization potential allowed for stable targeting of the kidneys through a new proposed uptake mechanism. Applying this kidney targeting strategy, we anticipate use in the treatment of renal disease and the study of renal physiology.

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