TREATING ONCO-PEDS WITH NOVEL THERAPY

A new type of cancer therapy recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for children with leukemia who run out of options is changing medical practice and has triggered excitement in the normally reserved world of cancer science. The therapy, called Kymriah, comes from Novartis. It is the first in a novel class of treatments known as

CAR-Ts, chimeric antigen receptor T cells in which a patient’s own immune cells are withdrawn, engineered to target cancer cells, and then infused back into the body.

As a Novel drug, some patients experience side effects for the Kymriah. One in ten people died last month which have risen regarding how much researchers understand about CAR-Ts and how far the therapy still has to improve to become widely used. Kymriah is one of the most expensive drugs, so far priced about $475,000 for onetime treatment and that price could climb still higher to treat other cancers, industry leaders said last week. The Food and Drug Administration of U.S. is expected to approve Kymriah for use in some non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients. Researchers are also wondering whether some patients require boosters to keep the cancer cells under control after initial treatment.

The other major issue is, of course, safety. Although side effects with CAR-T are often less when compared with chemotherapy, the most surprising thing is that the cytokine release syndrome (CRS) an activation of the immune system which leads to death in rare cases. Doctors hope the cytokine response will be reduced if CAR-Ts are delivered earlier, before patients have been heavily treated with chemotherapy and when their immune systems are still relatively healthy. Drug companies’ hopes that CAR-Ts will eventually work as well on solid tumours as they do on liquid ones but that remains as a dream for the moment.

 Solid tumours by definition are much harder; these tumours are more intense and have defence mechanism than blood cancers, making it tougher for CAR-Ts to get through. And they lack a distinctive marker that would allow only cancer cells and not crucial healthy ones to be targeted and killed. Companies and researchers are now trying CAR-Ts in combination with other treatments such as the other major type of immune therapy, called checkpoint blockades.

RECENT TRENDS IN PEDIATRIC CARDIOMYOPATHY- A COMPREHENSIVE CARE

Today in this growing population, more children with heart disease have a future which previously would have been unimaginable. Survival for children with congenital or acquired heart disease is improving with advances in surgical and medical treatments. The duration of survival has increased for almost all forms of Pediatric heart disease, such that approximately 90% of children born with congenital heart disease are now likely to reach adulthood. As survival rates increase for children with complex heart conditions, the number of children living with a range of complexities is also increasing. This brings forth a new set of considerations and challenges in medical management.

Experiences in the cardiac intensive care unit can be especially stressful for parents of neonates with complex heart disease who may need more than one operation during their first few months of life, with the time between surgeries as particularly risky. Preparation for hospital discharge after cardiac surgery is critical, and recent times have seen a growth in the number of home monitoring programs being implemented for babies at higher risk. As these children grow up, their needs are invariably complex and may extend beyond the heart. In order to optimize their outcomes a comprehensive approach to medical management is recommended, involving a multi-disciplinary care team and continuous quality improvement methods to ensure standardized care.

As new treatment options continue to push boundaries, children and families are being confronted with the consequences of those options. In most cases, the future for children with heart disease is adulthood, but with some additional challenges that are beyond the normal transition from adolescence to adulthood. Ensuring that adult patients take responsibility for their health and attend their clinic appointments is crucial, as well as coping with the possibility of a shortened life expectancy and the prospect of deteriorating health, albeit many years in the future. Inevitably there are those for whom palliative care will be a consideration, and the family left behind becomes the focus of the professionals who had previously cared for the patient. An increasing number of Pediatric heart patients are now surviving, but in order to ensure that outcomes are optimised it is essential that those delivering medical and health services continue to improve the care that they provide, learn from successes and failures, and use innovative methods and tools to continually improve the quality of care for children with cardiac disease.

IMMUNE CELLS WITH SWAT TEAM IS FOUND IN MOTHER'S MILK

A Recent study suggests that immune cells like which acts directly on bacteria is found in Mother’s Breast Milk. It's known that mother's milk contains millions of cells, including a lot of immune cell types. But this appears to be the first time (INNATE LYMPHOIDAL CELLS) ILCs have been reported to be among the cell types. For the newly published study, the researchers did extensive cell analysis on fresh milk from four lactating women.

They found that Mothers milk is known to contain three known classes of ILCs of which   type 1 is the most prevalent. Now they want to learn about what happens to ILCs once they get into baby’s gut and how it helps in tailoring the microbiome, which ails in digestion, infection protection and similar activities particularly with Breast Feeding. Some immune cells like leukocytes, another white blood cell that fights infection, increase the response of infection in milk of the mother to the baby.

ILC’S are known to locate in tissues throughout the baby’s body, where they appear stationary and inactive during the development, waiting for the developed immune cells to communicate. Until then, these cells acts like cells without soldiers simply like central command in each tissue. ILCs indeed always ready to fight, don’t do attacking by themselves rather they act by sending the cytokines to tell the macrophages what to do. Bhatia, who has chaired the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, formulas entering the market mostly mimic the mother’s milk, including containing nutrients like Omega-3-fatty acid, DHA, which is associated with brain development and lactoferrin, a protein which helps in iron transport and with anti-infective properties.

INFECTIONS IN MOTHERS AND NEWBORNS AFFECTS BRAIN CIRCUITS

A new study suggests that maternal immune activation due to infections can impact brain development in children. Neuroscientists have found that immune system activation during pregnancy and right at birth can cause alterations in the brain’s neural circuits during young adulthood that are consistent with behavioural symptoms common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental conditions.

Immune system activation due to infections during prenatal and early postnatal development may contribute to the development of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It was confirmed by combining optogenetic approaches and behavioural assays that reflect core features of ASD (anxiety, decreased social interactions. The scientists induced either maternal or postnatal immune activation, or gave both treatments, in groups of pregnant mice and their offspring to discover the impact of immune activation on the fetal brain. Pregnant mothers were treated with polycytidylic acid, which simulates a viral infection. The offspring were treated with a lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which simulates a bacterial infection was given at a time point that approximates the stage of brain development at the time of birth.

Researchers found the desperate connection between immune activation and symptoms like anxiety and decreased social interactions, after treating the mice with corresponding chemicals. Substantially, they found the damage in neural circuits which controls anxiety and social interactions in chemical treated i.e., immune activated mice. While the group received maternal and postnatal treatments showed drastic effect especially behavioral effects, which was easily diagnosed by electrophysiology tests.

Pediatric immunology plays a prominent role in interpreting the cell and molecular mechanisms underlying the immune system and it has seriously intruded within the development of new diagnosis and treatment. A study of Immunological innovations has revealed that, respiratory panel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing shows negativity in case of presence of infection. This shows that immunological techniques of current trends are not widely available.. Immunogenic techniques are being advanced and updated due to the rise of resistant pathogens infecting children. A study suggests that Human Boca virus (HBoV) is the most recent respiratory virus which is difficult to diagnose. The journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society states that staphylococcus aureus strains are methicillin-resistant.