Inhibition of the VIP signaling pathway using VIP antagonists is contemplated. Methods of treating or preventing a viral infection comprising administering a VIP antagonist to a subject in need thereof are also contemplated.

The present invention relates to compositions and methods that provide novel therapies in cancer. The invention includes a phagocytic cell modified with a repressor of signal regulatory protein-alpha (SIRP) and bound to a targeting antibody to enhance phagocytic activity of the phagocytic cell toward tumor tissue. Methods of enhancing phagocytic activity and treating a tumor are also included.

The present invention relates to a composition comprising a supernatant of a peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) cell culture for use in the treatment or prevention of vasculitis, wherein the PCBMC cell culture comprises 110.sup.5 to 110.sup.8 PBMCs/ml and is subjected to radiation before or during cultivation and cultivated for at least 4 h.

Disclosed herein are methods of detecting a target viral nucleic acid sequence, determining the localization of the target viral nucleic acid sequence, and/or quantifying the number of target viral nucleic acid sequences in a cell. This method may be used on small target nucleic acid sequences, and may be referred to as Nano-FISH or viral Nano-FISH.

In one aspect, a method of treating a subject having or at risk of having graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) generally includes administering to the subject a plurality of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) effective to ameliorate at least one symptom or clinical sign of graft-versus-host disease compared to a suitable control subject. In another aspect, a method of treating a tumor in a subject generally includes administering to the subject an anti-tumor therapy and co-administering to the subject an inflammasome inciting agent in an amount effective to increase inflammasome activation of MDSCs sufficiently to reduce suppressor function of the MDSCs.

The present disclosure relates to the use of cells having discernible surface protein with engineered or naturally occurring mutation(s) but functional surface protein for use in therapy. The present invention also relates to the use of cells having discernible CD117 surface protein variants but functional surface protein for use in therapy, in particular adoptive cell therapy.

Described herein are compositions and methods relating to cargoes for improved intracellular delivery. The compositions generally comprise a steroid acid-peptide conjugate covalently linked to and/or admixed with a cargo to be delivered intracellularly to target cells, resulting in increased intracellular and/or cytosolic/nuclear delivery of the cargo, increased presentation of the cargo by target cells, increased intracellular reactive oxygen species production in target cells, and/or the transformation of immunosuppressive cells into immunostimulatory and/or proinflammatory cells. Methods of improving cargo stability via covalent conjugation with steroid acid-peptide moieties are also described herein, as well as the use of steroid acid-peptide conjugates for enhanced genome editing and in the production of cell-based vaccines.

Compositions of matter and treatment protocols for reducing or completely avoiding the need for immune suppression in the context of allograft or xenograft transplantation. Use of mesenchymal stem cells, manipulated mesenchymal stem cells, iPSC derived mesenchymal stem cells, and products of said mesenchymal stem cells for promoting the process of immunological tolerance. In one embodiment the invention provides the use of third party universal donor iPSC gene edited mesenchymal stem cells to promote tolerance in context of a solid organ transplant such as renal, cardiac, hepatic or small intestine. In other embodiments endogenous mesenchymal stem cells in composite tissue allografts are activated and/expanded in order to promote tolerogenesis and reduced need for immune suppression.

The present invention relates generally to a method of generating cells exhibiting multilineage potential and to cells generated thereby. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an in vitro method of generating mammalian stem cells from CD4* mononuclear cells, CD8* mononuclear cells, CD25* mononuclear cells, CD19* mononuclear cells or CD20* mononuclear cells and to cells generated thereby. This finding has now facilitated the design of means for reliably and efficiently generating populations of multilineage potential cells, such as stem cells, for use in a wide variety of clinical and research settings. These uses include, inter alia, the directed differentiation, either in vitro or in vivo, of the subject multilineage potential cells and the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of a range of conditions either via the administration of the multilineage potential cells of the invention or the more fully differentiated cellular populations derived therefrom. Also facilitated is the design of in vitro based screening systems for testing the therapeutic impact and/or toxicity of potential treatment or culture regimes to which these cells may be exposed.

Human progenitor T cells that are able to successfully engraft a murine thymus and differentiate into mature human T and NK cells are described. The human progenitor T cells have the phenotype CD34+CD7+CD 1aCD5 or CD34+CD7+CD1aCD5+ and are derived from human hematopoietic stem cells, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells by coculture with cells expressing a Notch receptor ligand (OP9-DL1 or OP9-DL4). Such cells are useful in a variety of applications including immune reconstitution, the treatment of immunodeficiencies and as carriers for genes used in gene therapy.