In a landmark study Dr. Julia Dahlhoff published in the journal Leukemia  a groundbreaking approach to combat multiple myeloma (MM). The paper from our team, titled “Transient Regulatory T-Cell Targeting Triggers Immune Control of Multiple Myeloma and Prevents Disease Progression,” uncovers the potential of briefly depleting regulatory T-cells (Tregs) to unleash the body’s own immune system to eradicate this challenging blood cancer.

Multiple myeloma, characterized by the proliferation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow, often relapses due to the protective niche created by bone marrow-resident Tregs. The study reveals that Tregs not only cluster around malignant plasma cells but also support their survival and dissemination.

Using two syngeneic immunocompetent murine models, the team under the leadership of Prof. Andreas Beilhack demonstrated that temporary depletion of Tregs in mice with established MM led to a robust immune response, mediated by CD8 T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, resulting in complete and sustained remission of the disease.

“Targeting Tregs disrupts their suppressive grip on the immune system, allowing CD8 T cells and NK cells to attack and eliminate myeloma cells,” said Dr. Dahlhoff. “This short-term intervention effectively prevented MM progression and offers a new therapeutic strategy that minimizes the risk of autoimmunity.”

The study paves the way for developing Treg-targeted therapies, providing a novel avenue for treatment-resistant multiple myeloma.

Reference: 

Dahlhoff J, Manz H, Steinfatt T, Delgado-Tascon J, Seebacher E, Schneider T, Wilnit A, Mokhtari Z, Tabares P, Böckle D, Rasche L, Martin Kortüm K, Lutz MB, Einsele H, Brandl A, Beilhack A. (2022). Transient regulatory T cell targeting triggers immune control of multiple myeloma and prevents disease progression. Leukemia 36(3):790-800.

Former postdoctoral fellow and now young principal investigator at Bari University Dr. Antonio Solimando receives the IMS Young Investigator Award in Vienna, Austria.

Clinician-Scientist Dr. Antonio Solimando will present our award winning research project on cell adhesion-regulated epithelial-mesenchymal-transition resulting in extramedullary multiple myeloma disease manifestation at the 18^th International Myeloma Workshop in Vienna, Austria, on September 10^th, 2021. This is a wonderful reward for our continuing fruitful scientific collaboration on the mechanisms and new therapeutic targets in adhesion mediated cancer progression. In the past years the basic science of this research project has been generously supported by the DFG µbone consortium and the therapeutic research aspects by the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung.

Image courtesy: International Myeloma Society

 

The European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation awarded our research on the protective function of host intestinal macrophages in acute graft-versus-host disease with this year’s Basic Science Award.

At the EBMT presidential symposium on March 15, 2021, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Duc-Dung Le presented our work and received this prestigious award together with his co-first author Dr. Ana-Laura Jordán Garrote on behalf of our entire team at University Hospital Würzburg and our national and international collaboration partners. Many thanks go to all the enthusiastic team members and especially to our partners within the DFG Transregio 221 consortium on GvH and GvL for the excellent support!

Read more about this award here.

Watch the interview with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Duc Dung Le here or on Youtube here.

Clinical studies suggested that endothelial dysfunction and damage can be involved in the development and severity of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD), a complication in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. In a new paper under the lead of Olaf Penack from the Charité Berlin we show extensive damage, structural changes, and dysfunction of the vasculature during aGvHD. Subsequently, therapeutic intervention with an already clinical approved endothelium-protecting agent improved outcome in a mouse model of steroid-refractory aGvHD.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem transplantation (allo-HCT) is the only curative treatment option for many patients suffering from blood cancers. However, there are still risks for patients undergoing allo-HCT. One major complication is acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) occuring in more than two thirds of patients. This inflammatory condition primarily affecting the skin, liver, and intestines. Although treatment with steroids is successful in most patients, about the 20%-25% of patients fail initial steroid treatment resulting in a very high mortality rate. Currently, no standard treatment for this steroid-refractory aGVHD is available and its pathobiology remains poorly understood, thereby hindering the development of novel therapeutic approaches.

The endothelium is the first contact for immunological effector cells in the blood and a key regulator in various inflammatory processes. The endothelium was shown to be relevant for early complications after allo-HCT such as transplantation-associated-microangiopathy, veno-occlusive disease, capillary leak syndrome and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. Recent studies also suggested a critical role of the endothelium in aGvHD. Accordingly, we found increased percentage of apoptotic Casp3⁺ blood vessels in duodenal and colonic mucosa biopsies of patients with severe aGvHD. 

In mouse models of experimental aGvHD, we detected severe microstructural endothelial damage and reduced endothelial pericyte coverage accompanied by reduced expression of endothelial tight junction proteins leading to increased endothelial leakage in aGvHD target organs. Employing light-sheet fluorescence microscopy revealed structural changes in the colonic vasculature including increased vessel branching and vessel diameter. Human biopsies and murine tissues from steroid refractory aGvHD revealed extensive tissue damage but low levels of alloreactive T cell infiltration in target organs, providing the rationale for T-cell independent steroid refractory aGvHD treatment strategies. Consequently, we tested the endothelium-protective PDE5 inhibitor sildenafil, which reduced apoptosis and improved metabolic activity of endothelial cells in vitro. Accordingly, sildenafil treatment improved survival and reduced target organ damage during experimental steroid refractory aGvHD. The study by Steffen Cordes et al. demonstrates extensive damage, structural changes, and dysfunction of the vasculature during aGvHD. Consequently, therapeutic intervention by endothelium-protecting agents, such as sildenafil, appear attractive to treat steroid refractory aGvHD complementing current anti-inflammatory treatment options. 

 

This work resulted from a strong collaborative effort between clinicians and scientists from different European medical centers: The Charité Berlin and the University Hospitals of Barcelona (Spain), Hannover, Heidelberg and Würzburg. Our lab was supported for this study be the DFG collaborative research center TRR221 GvH-GvL (project B11).

 

Reference:

Cordes S, Mokhtari Z, Bartosova M, Mertlitz S, Riesner K, Shi Y, Mengwasser J, Kalupa M, McGeary A, Schleifenbaum J, Schrezenmeier J, Bullinger L, Diaz-Ricart M, Palomo M, Carrreras E, Beutel G, Schmitt CP, Beilhack A, Penack O. (2021). Endothelial damage and dysfunction in acute graft-versus-host disease. Haematologica 106(8):2147-2160.

Multiple myeloma is a malignant disease of antibody producing plasma cells. As this devastating type of cancer locates to the bones it seems that multiple myeloma highly depends on close interactions with the bone marrow microenvironment. In our new paper by clinician-scientist Dr. Antonio Solimando et al. we describe our new discovery that multiple myeloma cells use an adhesion molecule called JAM-A (Junctional-adhesion-molecule A) to interact with blood vessel lining endothelial cells. It appears as these endothelial-multiple myeloma interactions feed into a vicious cycle propagating disease progression.

Our projected started with our initial observation that the expression level of JAM-A by malignant plasma cells can predict disease outcome. Subsequently, we discovered that elevated membrane expression of JAM-A also on bone marrow endothelial cells of patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed-refractory multiple myeloma cells predicted poor clinical outcome.

Based on this finding we investigated how elevated JAM-A levels would contribute to more aggressive disease. We discovered that direct contact of endothelial cells with multiple myeloma cells would enhance JAM-A levels. Then it got even more interesting, as the cell adhesion molecule JAM-A has remarkable features: it can interact with itself if expressed on two opposing cell types. Furthermore, if JAM-A is shed by a cell, the soluble form of the JAM-A molecule can bind to cell-bound JAM-A, which in turn even enhances its binding capacity. What ensues is a vicious cycle of malignant plasma cells expressing and shedding JAM-A, increasing JAM-A expression on endothelial cells and stimulating blood vessel formation. In turn, increasing numbers of JAM-A-overexpressing endothelial cells can now better bind malignant plasma cells, which now find more interaction partners and by increasing the multiple myeloma niche space can produce more JAM-A. Consequently, using different experimental models we found that blocking the adhesion molecule JAM-A would inhibit blood vessel formation, reduce JAM-A interactions and impair multiple myeloma disease progression. These therapeutic effects of blocking JAM-A were observed in preclinical models not in patients and, therefore, must be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, our new findings may point towards a potential Achilles’ heel of multiple myeloma that might be exploited therapeutically in the future.

This work was generally supported by the Bavarian Research Foundation within the research consortium FORTiTher and the German Research Council (DFG) consortium µbone.

Reference:

Solimando AG, Da Vià MC, Leone P, Borrelli P, Croci GA, Tabares P, Brandl A, Di Lernia G, Bianchi FP, Tafuri S, Steinbrunn T, Balduini A, Melaccio A, De Summa S, Argentiero A, Rauert-Wunderlich H, Frassanito MA, Ditonno P, Henke E, Klapper W, Ria R, Terragna C, Rasche L, Rosenwald A, Kortüm KM, Cavo M, Ribatti D, Racanelli V, Einsele H, Vacca A, Beilhack A. (2021). Halting the vicious cycle within the multiple myeloma ecosystem: blocking JAM-A on bone marrow endothelial cells restores the angiogenic homeostasis and suppresses tumor progression. Haematologica 106(7):1943-1956.

In its current issue, the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology reports about our recent mBio research article advancing light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) to study host-pathogen interactions within the 3D environment of the lung. In the news section Under the Lens, Manish S. Kushwah and Stephen Thorpe from Oxford University highlight our research article by former postdoctoral fellow Dr. Jorge Amich, postdoctoral fellow Zeinab Mokhtari et al. in their report A clearer picture of microbial biogeography.

Amich J*, Mokhtari Z*, Strobel M, Vialetto E, Sheta D, Yu Y, Hartweg J, Kalleda N, Jarick KJ, Brede C, Jordán-Garrote AL, Thusek S, Schmiedgen K, Arslan B, Pinnecker J, Thornton CR, Gunzer M, Krappmann S, Einsele H, Heinze KG, Beilhack A. (2020). 3D light sheet fluorescence microscopy of lungs to dissect local host immune – Aspergillus fumigatusinteractions. mBio 11(1): e02752-19

A new paper in Nature Communications by Brenner et al. demonstrates in mice and in human patients that cancer control strictly requires the activation of tumour-intrinsic, senescence-inducing cell cycle regulators by the immune system to stably arrest those cancer cells that escape from eradication.

In an outstanding gala event, our joint research endeavor with the team of Prof. Harald Wajant was awarded to advance cancer immunotherapy.

On November 16, 2019, the foundation Forschung Hilft! invited to the new Hotel Melchior Park in Würzburg for a fabulous fund-raising gala evening “Art & Music & Magic.” At the same event, our research effort towards developing new concepts for cancer therapy was honored: The foundation “Forschung Hilft” selected our research project for its annual Großen Förderpreis worth 20.000 Euros. Receiving this award was a wonderful and highly motivating experience knowing that Ms. Gabriele Nelkenstock and her dedicated team of the foundation raised the funds for this cancer research award from patients and committed private donors.

The award will directly support one of our cutting-edge projects to reactivate the body’s immune response against cancer. We want to achieve this by newly designed antibody fusion proteins. The effect of these antibody fusion proteins only unfolds in the immediate vicinity of cancer cells, so that the body’s immune response is only activated there. The advantage of our therapy concept is that no immune cells need to be manipulated from the outside. Furthermore, disadvantages of previously clinically tested immune-activating antibodies can be minimized, such as side effect profiles or systemic effects.

The research groups of Prof. Andreas Beilhack and Prof. Harald Wajant have collaborated on the immune regulation of inflammatory diseases and cancer for more than 10 years. In this collaborations, they particularly focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of action of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. The molecular biological and biochemical expertise of Prof. Wajant’s group and the experience of Prof. Beilhack’s group in immunotherapy and cancer complement each other in an excellent way. The interdisciplinary team consists of experienced biologists, molecular biologists, biochemists, bioinformaticians, technical assistants and clinicians.

The Große Förderpreis of the Foundation “Forschung Hilft!” sets the first foundation stone to develop a new type of cancer therapy. Thank you!

From June 26^th-27^th, 2018, the DFG Transregio 124 FungiNet Consortium convened in Würzburg to present and discuss the very latest research advances on the interactions of pathogenic fungi and the host immune system.

This meeting provided the opportunity especially for young pre- and post-docs of the FungiNet Consortium to share their very latest research data in own sessions prior to the 12th International Meeting for Invasive Mycoses in Haematologic Malignancies (IMIHM XII) organized by Prof. Jürgen Löffler. The topics covered aspects of immunology, microbiology, clinical mycology as well as basic science. Postdoctoral fellow Zeinab Mokhtari from the Beilhack lab presented the progress of two key research projects in the FungiNet consortium. The vivid discussions continued with internationally renowned experts in the field of fungal infections at the IMIHM XII, when they presented the most recent developments in fungal research covering topics from fungal recognition receptors and inflammasome signaling to clinical challenges based on the emergence of fungal multi-drug resistance.

The FungiNet Research Consortium under the leadership of Prof. Axel Brakhage is a joint interdisciplinary endeavor of researchers from the Universities of Jena and Würzburg and funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). In 2017 the DFG extended its support for this research network for the next 4 years.

Program and pictures of the 5^th Joint Meeting of the DFG TRR 124 FungiNet consortium and IMIHM XII.