scholarly journals BCL9 regulates CD226 and CD96 checkpoints in CD8+ T cells to improve PD-1 response in cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Feng ◽  
Zhongen Wu ◽  
Yan Zhou ◽  
Zhuang Wei ◽  
Enming Tian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
B Cell Lymphoma ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Cell Interaction ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Apc Mutation

AbstractTo date, the overall response rate of PD-1 blockade remains unsatisfactory, partially due to limited understanding of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). B-cell lymphoma 9 (BCL9), a key transcription co-activator of the Wnt pathway, is highly expressed in cancers. By genetic depletion and pharmacological inhibition of BCL9 in tumors, we found that BCL9 suppression reduced tumor growth, promoted CD8+ T cell tumor infiltration, and enhanced response to anti-PD-1 treatment in mouse colon cancer models. To determine the underlying mechanism of BCL9’s role in TIME regulation, single-cell RNA-seq was applied to reveal cellular landscape and transcription differences in the tumor immune microenvironment upon BCL9 inhibition. CD155-CD226 and CD155-CD96 checkpoints play key roles in cancer cell/CD8+ T cell interaction. BCL9 suppression induces phosphorylation of VAV1 in CD8+ T cells and increases GLI1 and PATCH expression to promote CD155 expression in cancer cells. In The Cancer Genome Atlas database analysis, we found that BCL9 expression is positively associated with CD155 and negatively associated with CD226 expression. BCL9 is also linked to adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutation involved in patient survival following anti-PD-1 treatment. This study points to cellular diversity within the tumor immune microenvironment affected by BCL9 inhibition and provides new insights into the role of BCL9 in regulating CD226 and CD96 checkpoints

scholarly journals Exhausted CD8+T Cells in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment: New Pathways to Therapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqin Jiang ◽  
Yinjun He ◽  
Wenguang He ◽  
Guosheng Wu ◽  
Xile Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Tumor Burden ◽  
Effector Function ◽  
T Cell Exhaustion ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Cell Exhaustion ◽  
Combination Strategies ◽  
Cell Pool ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment

Tumor-specific CD8+T cells are exposed to persistent antigenic stimulation which induces a dysfunctional state called “exhaustion.” Though functioning to limit damage caused by immune response, T cell exhaustion leads to attenuated effector function whereby cytotoxic CD8+T cells fail to control tumor progression in the late stage. This pathway is a dynamic process from activation to “progenitor exhaustion” through to “terminally exhaustion” with distinct properties. With the rapid development of immunotherapy via enhancing T cell function, new studies are dissecting the mechanisms and identifying specific biomarkers of dynamic differentiation during the process of exhaustion. Further, although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have achieved great success in clinical practice, most patients still show limited efficacy to ICIs. The expansion and differentiation of progenitor exhausted T cells explained the success of ICIs while the depletion of the progenitor T cell pool and the transient effector function of terminally exhausted T cells accounted for the failure of immune monotherapy in the context of exorbitant tumor burden. Thus, combination strategies are urgent to be utilized based on the reduction of tumor burden or the expansion of the progenitor T cell pool. In this review, we aim to introduce the concept of homeostasis of the activated and exhausted status of CD8+T cells in the tumor immune microenvironment, and present recent findings on dynamic differentiation process during T cell exhaustion and the implications for combination strategies in immune therapy.

scholarly journals 250 Spatial-transcriptomic analysis of tumor-immune microenvironment in AML patients receiving pembrolizumab and decitabine

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A270-A270
Author(s):  
Chen Zhao ◽  
Abigail Wong-Rolle ◽  
Prajan Divakar ◽  
Katherine Calvo ◽  
Christopher Hourigan
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Transcriptomic Analysis ◽  
Inadequate Response ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Clinical Center ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia

BackgroundRelapsed or refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia (R-AML) is a deadly disease with an inadequate response rate to current treatments. Recent advances in immunotherapy shed light on R-AML, and several clinical trials have shown promising potential for combining immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) with hypomethylating agents. A deeper understanding of the tumor-immune microenvironment in R-AML during combination ICI treatment is urgently needed for developing better therapeutics and stratifying treatment strategies.MethodsTo dissect the tumor-immune interactions in the bone marrow microenvironment, we employed nanoString GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) and performed a spatial-transcriptomic analysis of patients with R-AML who received pembrolizumab and decitabine. We compared the transcriptomic profiles and TCR clonalities of tumor-interacting T cells, bystander T cells, and other cells at baseline, post-pembrolizumab treatment, and post-decitabine, which enable us to identify R-AML’s suppressive immune microenvironment and immune cells’ responses to ICI and hypomethylating agent.ResultsWe obtained the spatial-transcriptomic profiles of T cells, stromal cells, and leukemia cells in patients with R-AML at different treatment points. Our TCR-specific probes were able to track T cell clonal changes during treatments.ConclusionsR-AML harbored a complex tumor immune microenvironment and diverse T cell clonality.AcknowledgementsThis research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NCI (the Center for Cancer Research), NHLBI, and NIH Clinical Center.Ethics ApprovalThis study is approved by NHLBI IRB.

Association of Th2 high tumors with aggressive features of breast cancer.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12584-e12584
Author(s):  
Yoshihisa Tokumaru ◽  
Lan Le ◽  
Masanori Oshi ◽  
Eriko Katsuta ◽  
Nobuhisa Matsuhashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Th2 Cells ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Adaptive Immune Cells ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment

e12584 Background: Recent studies have shown that infiltrating T-lymphocytes have been implicated in the promotion of breast cancer progression. Upon activation, these antigen-presenting cells then recruit adaptive immune cells. It has been proposed that polarization of CD4+ effector T-cells towards the immunosuppressive Th2 cells induce cytokine release and T-cell anergy, which lead to polarization of M2 tumor-associated macrophages (TAM’s), providing a protumorigenic microenvironment. We hypothesized that there is a correlation between high levels of Th2 cells and aggressive features of breast cancer and unfavorable tumor immune environment. Methods: Clinicopathological data and overall survival information was obtained on 1069 breast cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We defined Th2 high and low levels with the median cutoff. Results: Analysis of cell composition of the immune cells within tumor immune microenvironment demonstrated that Th2 high tumors did not consistently associated with unfavorable tumor immune microenvironment. Pro-cancer immune cells, such as macrophage M2 cells were increased with Th2 high tumors whereas, regulatory T cells were decreased with Th2 high tumors (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001 respectively). On the contrary, infiltration of anti-cancer cells, such as macrophage M1 was increased whereas CD8 T cells were decreased with Th2 high tumors (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001 respectively). Th2 was not shown to have correlation with IL-4, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-13, all of which has been reported to associate with Th2 cells. Th2 levels were associated with advanced grades. Also, correlation analysis demonstrated that there was a strong correlation between Th2 levels and Ki-67. These results were further validated with gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). GSEA revealed that in Th2 high tumors enriched the gene sets associated with cell proliferation and cell cycle. Conclusions: High expression of immunosuppressive Th2 cells was associated with highly proliferative features of breast cancer, but not with unfavorable tumor immune microenvironment.

scholarly journals Distinct immune signatures in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Richter syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yucai Wang ◽  
Sutapa Sinha ◽  
Linda E. Wellik ◽  
Charla R. Secreto ◽  
Karen L. Rech ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia ◽  
Peripheral Blood ◽  
B Cell Lymphoma ◽  
Genetic Alterations ◽  
Lymphocytic Leukemia ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Richter Syndrome ◽  
Immune Signatures

AbstractRichter syndrome (RS) refers to transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to an aggressive lymphoma, most commonly diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. RS is known to be associated with a number of genetic alterations such as TP53 and NOTCH1 mutations. However, it is unclear what immune microenvironment changes are associated with RS. In this study, we analyzed expression of immune checkpoint molecules and infiltration of immune cells in nodal samples, and peripheral blood T-cell diversity in 33 CLL and 37 RS patients. Compared to CLL, RS nodal tissue had higher PD-L1 expression in histiocytes and dendritic cells (median 16.6% vs. 2.8%, P < 0.01) and PD1 expression in neoplastic B cells (median 26.0% vs. 6.2%, P < 0.01), and higher infiltration of FOXP3-positive T cells (median 1.7% vs. 0.4%, P < 0.01) and CD163-positive macrophages (median 23.4% vs. 9.1%, P < 0.01). In addition, peripheral blood T-cell receptor clonality was significantly lower in RS vs. CLL patients (median [25th–75th], 0.107 [0.070–0.209] vs. 0.233 [0.111–0.406], P = 0.046), suggesting that T cells in RS patients were significantly more diverse than in CLL patients. Collectively these data suggest that CLL and RS have distinct immune signatures. Better understanding of the immune microenvironment is essential to improve immunotherapy efficacy in CLL and RS.

scholarly journals CXCL11 Correlates with Anti-tumor Immune Microenvironment and Improved Prognosis in Colon Cancer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingying Cao ◽  
Youwei Zhang ◽  
Nanlin Jiao ◽  
Tiantian Sun ◽  
Yanru Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colon Cancer ◽  
Tumor Development ◽  
Specific Effect ◽  
Gene Expression Omnibus ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Antibody Treatment ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Immunological Regulation

Abstract Background: CXCL11 has been considered to be responsible for tumor development, but the specific effect of CXCL11 in colon cancer was still obscure. Therefore, the prognostic value and immunological regulation effect of CXCL11 in colon cancer were evaluated in this study.Methods: Three independent datasets were used for mRNA-related analysis: one dataset from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, n=451) and two single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO): GSE146771 and GSE132465. In addition, the patient cohort (the Yijishan Hospital cohort, YJSHC, n=108) was utilized for cell infiltration-related analysis, accordingly. Both CXCL11 mRNA expression and CXCL11+ (CXCL11-producing) cells were assessed in colon cancer, whose effect on prognosis and immunological regulation was also studied. Results: High CXCL11 expression were associated with better prognosis in colon cancer, which was still significant even if clinicopathological factors were adjusted. Furthermore, CXCL11 positively correlated with anti-tumor cells infiltration, such as CD8+ T cells and natural killer cells. Meanwhile, CXCL11 correlated positively with several genes associated with DC, NK and T recruitment，and a gene set of cytotoxic genes. Notably, CXCL11 correlated positively with several immune checkpoint related genes including of PD-L1. Conclusions: CXCL11 contributed to anti-tumor immune microenvironment and could improve prognosis in patients with colon cancer. Especially, it’s a potential approach that inducible expression of CXCL11 by genetic and pharmacological interventions is able to improve prognosis and response to anti-PD-1 (programmed cell death protein-1) antibody treatment in colon cancer. However, it requires to be verified by further prospective investigations.

scholarly journals NRAS Expression is Associated With Prognosis and Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Lung Adenocarcinoma

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yueren Yan ◽  
Zhendong Gao ◽  
Han Han ◽  
Yue Zhao ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Lung Adenocarcinoma ◽  
Enrichment Analysis ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Expression Level ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Kaplan Meier ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Cox Analysis

Abstract Purpose: NRAS plays a pivotal role in progression of various kinds of somatic malignancies; however, the correlation between NRAS and lung adenocarcinoma is less known. We aim to analyze the prognostic value of NRAS expression in lung adenocarcinoma, and explore the relationship between NRAS and tumor immune microenvironment. Methods: We obtained the transcriptome pofiles and clinical data of LUAD from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and three Genome Expression Omnibus datasets. Specimens from 325 patients with completely resected lung adenocarcinoma were collected for immunohistochemical assays of NRAS, PD-L1, PD-1 and TIM-3. Then we performed gene set enrichment analysis to investigate cancer-related and immune-related signaling pathways. TIMER algorithms were performed to evaluate tumor immune infiltrating cells and immune-related biomarkers.Results: Compared with adjacent non-tumor tissue, NRAS expression was significantly upregulated in LUAD tissue. NRAS expression was significantly correlated with more advanced stage and positive lymph nodes. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox analysis suggested that high NRAS expression led to a poor prognosis, and could be an independent prognostic factor in LUAD patients. Besides, NRAS expression was positively correlated with CD8+ T cells, macrophages, and neutrophils, and negatively correlated with B cells and CD4+ T cells. The expression level of NRAS was positively correlated with PD-L1, PD-1, and TIM-3 both at RNA and protein level. Conclusions: To conclude, we found NRAS a novel prognostic biomarker in LUAD. Besides, the expression level of NRAS may influence the prognosis of LUAD via various kinds of cancer-related pathways and remodeling TIM.

scholarly journals Tumor Immune Microenvironment Landscape in Glioma Identifies a Prognostic and Immunotherapeutic Signature

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu Zhang ◽  
Lirui Guo ◽  
Zhongzhou Su ◽  
Na Luo ◽  
Yinqiu Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Mutation Burden ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Patient Prognosis ◽  
Selection Operator ◽  
Cox Analysis ◽  
Genome Atlas

The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) has been recognized to be associated with sensitivity to immunotherapy and patient prognosis. Recent research demonstrates that assessing the TIME patterns on large-scale samples will expand insights into TIME and will provide guidance to formulate immunotherapy strategies for tumors. However, until now, thorough research has not yet been reported on the immune infiltration landscape of glioma. Herein, the CIBERSORT algorithm was used to unveil the TIME landscape of 1,975 glioma observations. Three TIME subtypes were established, and the TIMEscore was calculated by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)–Cox analysis. The high TIMEscore was distinguished by an elevated tumor mutation burden (TMB) and activation of immune-related biological process, such as IL6-JAK-STAT3 signaling and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) response, which may demonstrate that the patients with high TIMEscore were more sensitive to immunotherapy. Multivariate analysis revealed that the TIMEscore could strongly and independently predict the prognosis of gliomas [Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) cohort: hazard ratio (HR): 2.134, p &lt; 0.001; Gravendeel cohort: HR: 1.872, p &lt; 0.001; Kamoun cohort: HR: 1.705, p &lt; 0.001; The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort: HR: 2.033, p &lt; 0.001; the combined cohort: HR: 1.626, p &lt; 0.001], and survival advantage was evident among those who received chemotherapy. Finally, we validated the performance of the signature in human tissues from Wuhan University (WHU) dataset (HR: 15.090, p = 0.008). Our research suggested that the TIMEscore could be applied as an effective predictor for adjuvant therapy and prognosis assessment.

scholarly journals Tumor Immune Microenvironment Components and Checkpoint Molecules in Anaplastic Variant of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianqi Xu ◽  
Jia Chai ◽  
Kaijing Wang ◽  
Qingge Jia ◽  
Yixiong Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
B Cell ◽  
Cell Lymphoma ◽  
B Cell Lymphoma ◽  
Genetic Alterations ◽  
Clinicopathological Features ◽  
Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Large B Cell Lymphoma ◽  
Tumor Immune Microenvironment ◽  
Large B Cell

BackgroundAnaplastic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma(A-DLBCL) is a rare morphological subtype characterized by the presence of polygonal, bizarre-shaped tumor cells. Our previous research found that A-DLBCL displays many genetic alterations and biological features that differ greatly from those of ordinary DLBCL. However, the status of tumor immune microenvironment components and checkpoint molecules in A-DLBCL remains unclear.MethodsThirty A-DLBCL patients were enrolled to study tumor immune microenvironment components and checkpoint molecules and their associations with clinicopathological features and prognosis.ResultsPatients with A-DLBCL presented higher expression of PD-L1 (40% vs 10%, P=0.004) than patients with ordinary DLBCL. FISH analysis showed that extra copies of PD-L1 were more frequent in A-DLBCL cases than in ordinary DLBCL cases (23.3% vs 4.0%, P=0.001). The numbers of PD-1+ TILs (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) and CD8+T cells were significantly lower in A-DLBCL versus ordinary DLBCL. In contrast, the numbers of GATA3+ Th2 cells, FOXP3+ Tregs and CD33+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) were significantly higher in A-DLBCL than in ordinary DLBCL. The associations between clinicopathological features and tumor immune microenvironment cell frequency were analyzed in A-DLBCL patients. Briefly, the number of PD-1+ TILs was lower and the number of CD33+ MDSCs was higher in patients with mutated TP53 compared to those with wild-type TP53. The number of FOXP3+ Tregs was much lower in patients with a noncomplete response (CR) to chemotherapy than in those with a complete response. The number of CD8+ T cells showed a decreasing trend in patients with high International Prognostic Index (IPI) scores and in those with concurrent MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 abnormalities. Univariate survival analysis showed that patients with PD-L1+, mPD-L1+(PD-L1+ nonmalignant stromal cells) or mPD-L1+ status had a significantly poorer overall survival (OS) than those with PD-L1- status. An increase in the number of CD3+ T cells, FOXP3+ Treg cells and T-bet+ Th1 cells was significantly associated with prolonged OS in patients with A-DLBCL.ConclusionOur study suggests that A-DLBCL displays a distinct pattern of tumor immune microenvironment components and checkpoint molecules that distinguish it from ordinary DLBCL. The analysis of tumor immune microenvironment components and checkpoint molecules could help in predicting the prognosis of A-DLBCL patients and determining therapeutic strategies targeting the tumor immune microenvironment.

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