Earlier this summer, UKPS member Ms Kimberly Schell attended the European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Meeting 2023. This years event took place from June 8-11th in the Messe Frankfurt Exhibition & Congress Center, Frankfurt, Germany.
Ms Schell has written the following meeting report from her time at the EHA congress:
‘I would like to thank Newcastle University’s Doctoral Conference and Travel fund for the opportunity to attend the European Hematology Association’s (EHA) annual scientific meeting in Frankfurt, Germany.
It was my first time going to a conference of this scale, and it was great to meet and learn from scientists in the field. I was grateful to also be given the chance to present a poster on my work:
“Serum Extracellular Vesicle miRNA Profiling as an Indicator of Extracorporeal Photopheresis Therapy Response for Graft versus Host Disease Patients”.
Within the miRNAs, I found 8 that are differentially expressed between complete and partial response, with the potential for these to be prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers. Aside from characterising the miRNA content of the patients’ vesicles, I also looked at a set panel of their surface markers to delve into the cells of origin. Overall, the complete responders had fewer immune cell markers on their EVs and expressed fewer proteins to facilitate cell adhesion and migration.
One of the highlights was another poster on ECP therapy which demonstrated that early/immediate combination therapy with immunosuppression for aGvHD post allo-HSCT had an improved overall survival compared to immunosuppression alone:
“(E. Papchianou). LONG-TERM SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF EXTRACORPOREAL PHOTOPHERESIS AS EARLY SECOND-LINE TREATMENT FOR PATIENTS WITH STEROID-DEPENDENT OR REFRACTORY ACUTE GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE.”
Another was a small study describing 2 miRNAs found in plasma-derived vesicles in patients with late acute GvHD. Their downstream targets were related to inflammation, T cell activation, immune system development, and nucleotide binding:
“(S. Yoshizawa) DISTINCT EXOSOMAL MIRNA EXPRESSION OF LATE ONSET GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE IN ALLOGENEIC HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION.”
Lastly, an observational study was presented, where patients undergoing HSCT were given Clostridium butyricum MIYAIRI 588 (CBM588) as a probiotic during the first 5 weeks post-transplant. Due to the sample size (n=38), the difference in 1 year survival was not significant, however, the probiotic group had a survival rate of 84.6% as opposed to 71.4% for the control group. By supplementing and reducing the microbiota dominance of Bacteroides, a known risk factor for aGvHD, that risk is ameliorated in the transplant patients receiving CBM588:
“(K. Fukushima) CLOSTRIDIUM BUTYRICUM MIYAIRI 588 CONTRIBUTES TO THE MAINTENANCE OF INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA DIVERSITY EARLY AFTER HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION.”
The UK Photopheresis Society 