Disclosed are compositions and methods for measuring the likelihood of recovery of a recently thawed immune cell. Methods include assaying the level of an ADAM-17-cleaved surface receptor expressed on the immune cells, wherein the level of the surface receptor directly correlates with the likelihood of immune cell recovery (i.e., the greater the increase of the expression level an ADAM-17-cleaved surface receptor relative to a control, the greater the likelihood of recovery). The method can be used to determine if immune cells have sufficient viability to be used in immunotherapy before use.

The present invention provides a method of detecting platelet activation in a patient, the method comprising the steps of a) obtaining a blood sample from a patient suspected of having heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT); b) incubating an effective amount of platelet factor 4 (PF4) with a sample of platelets to yield a sample of PF4-treated platelets; c) contacting the patient blood sample with the PF4-treated platelets; and d) measuring the extent of platelet activation, wherein an increase in platelet activation compared with results obtained using a normal blood sample is indicative of the patient having HIT.

Means that enables monitoring of an anticancer effect of an anti-CD4 antibody or an anticancer drug targeting an immune checkpoint is disclosed. The method for testing a therapeutic effect of a cancer therapy of the present invention is a method for testing a therapeutic effect of an anticancer drug comprising as an effective ingredient an anti-CD4 antibody or an anticancer drug targeting an immune checkpoint, which method comprises investigation of expression of (1) at least one immune checkpoint receptor, (2) CD8, and (3) at least one cell surface molecule selected from the group consisting of CD44 and CD45RO, on T cells using a sample derived from a patient who received the anticancer drug. Induction of a T cell population which is positive for the immune checkpoint molecule (1) and positive for CD8, and which shows high expression of CD44 and/or high expression of CD45RO, indicates that said anticancer drug is producing a therapeutic effect in said patient.

The present description relates to a method for determining the risk of a pregnant woman with chronic hypertension developing early or late onset pre-eclampsia. The present description provides methods useful for determining risk that a pregnant individual with chronic hypertension will develop an early pre-eclampsia or late pre-eclampsia. Useful combination of biochemical markers including PlGF and sP-Selectin and related clinical population studies are described herein.

Cancer patients that express high levels of the E-selectin ligand (sialyl Le.sup.a/x) on their tumors have a poorer outcome. Interestingly, relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients expressing high levels of sialyl Le.sup.x on their blasts show the greatest therapeutic response when treated with the E-selection inhibitor compound of Formula I. Transcriptome profiling of E-selectin ligand-forming glycosylation genes showed that ST3GAL4 and FUT7 were consistently expressed in the majority of cancers evaluated. Poor survival outcomes of FLT3-mutated AML patients that express high levels of ST3GAL4 and FUT7 implicated E-selectin in this disease state. These genes may be predictive biomarkers in AML patients. Methods of treatment of cancer comprising screening AML patients for expression of genes that contribute to the synthesis of the E-selectin ligand sialyl Le.sup.x, then treating those patients with an E-selection inhibitor, are disclosed.

The invention discloses a recombinant protein (P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 and Neural Retina-specific Leucine Zipper) PSGL-1-NRL chimeric protein comprising a Selectin Binding domain and a non-covalent dimerization domain, which is a leucine zipper and is more preferably the leucine zipper domain of the human or mouse Neural Retina-specific Leucine Zipper. The chimeric protein further comprises a covalent dimerization domain with at least one cysteine suitable to form a disulfide bridge with another chimeric protein to form a homodimer. In the chimeric protein, the PSGL-1 domain corresponds to the extracellular region of Human PSGL-1 and is more preferably the selectin binding region of the mature protein. The chimeric protein is correctly post-translationally modified and is efficiently expressed in a mammalian system. It is sulfated, O-linked glycosylated and sialylated and binds P, E and L selectin, allowing in vivo and in vitro targeting for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.

The present invention relates to biomarkers and diagnostic and prognostic methods for vascular diseases. In particular, proteins of platelet-derived exosomes have been identified as biomarkers that can be used to detect platelet activation associated with pathogenesis of vascular diseases, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The invention also provides compositions for detecting biomarkers as well as compositions and methods useful for treating vascular diseases.

The present invention is a novel blood or plasma panel with utility in assessing chronic liver disease severity in a point-of-care setting. The scoring system exhibits 97.2% correlation to previously assigned Child Pugh scores and does not require clinical assessment beyond laboratory testing.

Provided is a multi-layered filter for separating blood components and a disease diagnosis kit using the same. The multi-layered filter for separating blood components may include a first filter unit configured to separate blood cells from a whole blood sample, a second filter unit configured to separate cell fragments having blood platelet or exosome, and a third filter unit configured to separate protein, wherein the whole blood sample is separated into blood components by passing through the filter units provided to have different pore sizes, thereby effectively separating individual components of the blood without a separate machine. In addition, after filtering, the multi-layered filter may be disassembled to diagnose each component remaining in the filter so as to be utilized for diagnosis.

The invention discloses a recombinant protein (P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 and Neural Retina-specific Leucine Zipper) PSGL-1-NRL chimeric protein comprising a Selectin Binding domain and a non-covalent dimerization domain, which is a leucine zipper and is more preferably the leucine zipper domain of the human or mouse Neural Retina-specific Leucine Zipper. The chimeric protein further comprises a covalent dimerization domain with at least one cysteine suitable to form a disulfide bridge with another chimeric protein to form a homodimer.

In the chimeric protein, the PSGL-1 domain corresponds to the extracellular region of Human PSGL-1 and is more preferably the selectin binding region of the mature protein.

The chimeric protein is correctly post-translationally modified and is efficiently expressed in a mammalian system. It is sulfated, O-linked glycosylated and sialylated and binds P, E and L selectin, allowing in vivo and in vitro targeting for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.