ISSUE
EDITOR'S PICKS
ARTICLES IN THREE SENTENCES
Article
Oral HDAC inhibitor tucidinostat in patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma: phase IIb results
Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a rare, heterogeneous disease entity that encompasses nearly 30 distinct subtypes, most with an aggressive behavior. Several novel agents have been approved for relapsed/refractory (R/R) PTCL, although responses to these agents are generally not durable. Rai and colleagues present results from a multicenter, phase IIb study aimed at investigating the efficacy and safety of tucidinostat, an orally available, novel benzamide class of histone deacetylase, in patients with R/R PTCL. They show that tucidinostat is a promising new therapeutic option in patients with R/R PTCL.
Letter
Dysfunctional subsets of CD39+ T cells, distinct from PD-1+, driven by leukemic extracellular vesicles in myeloid leukemias
Exhausted or dysfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, with impaired effector function and immune killing of cancer cells, are present in the immune tumor microenvironment. Therefore, the identification of novel subsets of exhausted T cells, characterized by the expression of targetable markers, could facilitate the development of new therapies. With their study Swatler and colleagues demonstrate the emergence of dysfunctional CD39+ T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic and acute myeloid leukemias, due to the influence of leukemic extracellular vesicles.
Article
Enhancing regulatory T-cell function via inhibition of high mobility group box 1 protein signaling in immune thrombocytopenia
Many studies have shown that Treg, as immunosuppressive T cells, are defective in patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein, a non-histone nuclear protein, is associated with an imbalance of Treg/Th17 cells and is involved in the pathogenesis of ITP. Wang and colleagues demonstrated that 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid, a natural inhibitor of HMGB1, has the potential to restore immune balance in ITP via inhibition of HMGB1 signaling.
Letter
Unique pathologic features and gene expression signatures distinguish blastoid high-grade B-cell lymphoma from B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma
A small subset of cases of high-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBL) shows a blastoid morphology and the distinction of this blastoid HGBL from CD34 negative B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma can be very challenging. Qiu and colleagues developed a three-point immunohistochemically focused scoring system to aid in the differential diagnosis. They also performed RNA-sequencing-based whole transcriptome profiling in order to validate their scoring system and understand the underlying gene expression signatures associated with blastoid HGBL.
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