Project description:We performed a phase I clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and re-induction of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in patients with anti-PD-1-refractory metastatic melanoma. FMT donors were two metastatic melanoma patients who achieved a durable complete response. FMT recipient patients were metastatic melanoma patients who failed at least one anti-PD-1 line of treatment. Each recipient patient received FMT implants from only one of the two donors. FMT was conducted by both colonoscopy and oral ingestion of stool capsules, followed by anti-PD-1 re-treatment (Nivolumab, BMS). Recipient patients underwent pre- and post-treatment stool sampling, tissue biopsy of both gut and tumor, and total body imaging. Clinical responses were observed in three patients, including two partial responses and one complete response. Notably, treatment with FMT was associated with favorable changes in immune cell infiltrates and gene expression profiles in both the gut lamina propria and the tumor microenvironment.
Project description:Longitudinal analysis of Salmonella typhimurium mRNA from superspeader mouse cecal content and stool compared to in vitro Salmonella typhimurium mRNA.
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of CD4 T cells from treated and untreated patients with multiple sclerosis. The Illumina InfiniumEPIC methylation Beadchip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 850,000 CpGs of CD4 T cells from patients with multiple sclerosis.
Project description:The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from MS patients that were responders or non-responders to the neuroantigen myelin basic protein. Using microarray we measured mRNA-expression levels in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 17 untreated patients with multiple sclerosis. Based on studies, measuring the responses of blood derived T-cells to myelin basic protein ex vivo, these 17 untreated MS-patients can be divided into two groups: 4 of the untreated multiple sclerosis patients had T-cells that responded to myelin basic protein ex vivo whereas 13 untreated MS patients had T-cells that did not respond to myelin basic protein ex vivo.
Project description:<p>We investigate the hypothesis that consistent changes in the human gut microbiome are associated with Crohn's disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and that altered microbiota contributes to pathogenesis. Analysis of this problem is greatly complicated by the fact that multiple factors influence the composition of the gut microbiota, including diet, host genotype, and disease state. For example, data from us and others document a drastic impact of diet on the composition of the gut microbiome. No amount of sequencing will yield a useful picture of the role of the microbiota in disease if samples are confounded with uncontrolled variables.</p> <p>We aim to characterize the composition of the gut microbiome while controlling for diet, host genotype, and disease state. Diet is controlled by analyzing children treated for Crohn's disease by placing them on a standardized elemental diet, and by testing effects of different diets on the gut microbiome composition in adult volunteers. Genotype is analyzed by large scale SNP genotyping, which is already underway and separately funded--team member Hakon Hakonarson is currently genotyping 50 children a week at ~half a million loci each and investigating connections with inflammatory bowel disease. Clinical status is ascertained in the very large IBD practice in the UPenn/CHOP hospital system. Effects of diet, host genotype, and disease state on the gut microbiome are summarized in a multivariate model, allowing connections between microbiome and disease to be assessed free of confounding factors.</p> <p>This project is divided into four sub-studies. In the Fecal Storage Methods (FSM) study, methods of stool storage and DNA extraction are compared to examine their impact on DNA sequence analysis results. The Controlled Feeding Experiment (CaFE) addresses the effects of controlled diets on the gut microbiome. In the Cross-sectional Study of Diet and Stool Microbiome Composition (COMBO), the effects of diet analyzed using surveys and deep sequencing of stool specimens. The fourth study, Pediatric Longitudinal Study of Elemental Diet and Stool Microbiome Composition (PLEASE), examines the effects of an elemental diet treatment on pediatric patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly Crohn's disease.</p> <p> <ul> <li>Fecal Storage Methods (FSM): Cross-sectional study</li> <li>Controlled Feeding Experiment (CaFE): Controlled trial</li> <li>Cross-sectional Study of Diet and Stool Microbiome Composition (COMBO): Cross-sectional study</li> <li>Pediatric Longitudinal Study of Elemental Diet and Stool Microbiome Composition (PLEASE): Longitudinal cohort study</li> </ul> </p>