Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

About: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a healthcare organization based out in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 44277 authors who have published 79222 publications receiving 4788882 citations.

PD-1 blockade in tumors with mismatch repair deficiency.

Abstract: LBA100 Background: Somatic mutations have the potential to be recognized as “non-self” immunogenic antigens. Tumors with genetic defects in mismatch repair (MMR) harbor many more mutations than tumors of the same type without such repair defects. We hypothesized that tumors with mismatch repair defects would therefore be particularly susceptible to immune checkpoint blockade. Methods: We conducted a phase II study to evaluate the clinical activity of anti-PD-1, pembrolizumab, in 41 patients with previously-treated, progressive metastatic disease with and without MMR-deficiency. Pembrolizumab was administered at 10 mg/kg intravenously every 14 days to three cohorts of patients: those with MMR-deficient colorectal cancers (CRCs) (N = 11); those with MMR-proficient CRCs (N = 21), and those with MMR-deficient cancers of types other than colorectal (N = 9). The co-primary endpoints were immune-related objective response rate (irORR) and immune-related progression-free survival (irPFS) at 20 weeks. Results: The...

Double muscling in cattle due to mutations in the myostatin gene

Abstract: Myostatin (GDF-8) is a member of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily of secreted growth and differentiation factors that is essential for proper regulation of skeletal muscle mass in mice. Here we report the myostatin sequences of nine other vertebrate species and the identification of mutations in the coding sequence of bovine myostatin in two breeds of double-muscled cattle, Belgian Blue and Piedmontese, which are known to have an increase in muscle mass relative to conventional cattle. The Belgian Blue myostatin sequence contains an 11-nucleotide deletion in the third exon which causes a frameshift that eliminates virtually all of the mature, active region of the molecule. The Piedmontese myostatin sequence contains a missense mutation in exon 3, resulting in a substitution of tyrosine for an invariant cysteine in the mature region of the protein. The similarity in phenotypes of double-muscled cattle and myostatin null mice suggests that myostatin performs the same biological function in these two species and is a potentially useful target for genetic manipulation in other farm animals.

A draft map of the human proteome

Abstract: The availability of human genome sequence has transformed biomedical research over the past decade. However, an equivalent map for the human proteome with direct measurements of proteins and peptides does not exist yet. Here we present a draft map of the human proteome using high-resolution Fourier-transform mass spectrometry. In-depth proteomic profiling of 30 histologically normal human samples, including 17 adult tissues, 7 fetal tissues and 6 purified primary haematopoietic cells, resulted in identification of proteins encoded by 17,294 genes accounting for approximately 84% of the total annotated protein-coding genes in humans. A unique and comprehensive strategy for proteogenomic analysis enabled us to discover a number of novel protein-coding regions, which includes translated pseudogenes, non-coding RNAs and upstream open reading frames. This large human proteome catalogue (available as an interactive web-based resource at http://www.humanproteomemap.org) will complement available human genome and transcriptome data to accelerate biomedical research in health and disease.