RRx-001 is a phase III aerospace-derived small molecule that immunonormalizes the tumor microenvironment.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (8_suppl) ◽  
pp. 156-156
Author(s):  
Pedro Cabrales
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Activity ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Vascular Normalization ◽  
Tumor Associated Macrophages ◽  
Macrophage Phagocytosis

156 Background: Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) with M2-like phenotypes produce angiogenic factors and cytokines which lead to vascular immaturity. M2 cytokines also impair immune cell activity. CD47 and SIRP⍺ are innate immune checkpoints which inhibit macrophage phagocytosis and enhance M2 polarization. Disruption of the CD47/SIRP⍺ axis polarize TAMs away from an M2-like phenotype to normalize tumor vessels and stimulate antitumor immunity. Normalized vessels facilitate delivery of drugs and immune cells and also sensitizes tumors to therapy and promotes M1-like TAM phenotype. RRx-001 modulates TAM infiltration and phenotype via CD47/SIRP⍺ downregulation, which normalizes both the tumor vasculature, and the immune cell milieu. Methods: The effect of RRx-001 on intratumoral blood flow was evaluated both preclinically and clinically with dynamic contrast MRI. An in vitro phagocytotic assay was used to determine whether RRx-001 promoted engulfment of A549 tumor cells by macrophages. Transcriptional mRNA profiling in murine tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) was performed to analyze the cytokine profile of TAMs in the presence or absence of RRx-001. Athymic mice with intracranial GBM43 were administered RRx-001 (10 mg/kg) followed 4 hours later by 0.4 mg of irinotecan by tail vein on days 12, 18, 24 and 30 after implantation of tumor cells. Mice were euthanized 24 hours after last irinotecan administration, with brains immediately resected and tumor tissue dissected prior to snap-freezing by immersion in liquid nitrogen. Results: RRx-001 was shown to induce: vascular normalization with increased intratumoral perfusion, dual downregulation of CD47 and SIRP⍺, increased phagocytosis, improved delivery of chemotherapy and increased T cell infiltration. Conclusions: RRx-001 leads to vascular normalization and enhanced delivery of chemotherapy and immune cell infiltration. The increase in tumor perfusion diminishes hypoxia and also serves to polarize TAMs away from an M2-like state. These results also suggest and are borne out by clinical biopsies that the effect of RRx-001 depends on the number of TAMs present in the tumor microenvironment with higher numbers leading to better activity.

scholarly journals LncRNAs Target Ferroptosis-Related Genes and Impair Activation of CD4+ T Cell in Gastric Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuwen Yao ◽  
Yongqiang Zhan ◽  
Zuhui Pu ◽  
Ying Lu ◽  
Jiao Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gastric Cancer ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
T Cell Activation ◽  
Cell Activation ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Activity ◽  
Cell Receptor ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Poor Overall Survival

Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant disease of the digestive tract and a life-threatening disease worldwide. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent cell death caused by lipid peroxidation, is reported to be highly correlated with gastric tumorigenesis and immune cell activity. However, the underlying relationship between ferroptosis and the tumor microenvironment in GC and potential intervention strategies have not been unveiled. In this study, we profiled the transcriptome and prognosis data of ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) in GC samples of the TCGA-STAD dataset. The infiltrating immune cells in GC were estimated using the CIBERSORT and XCELL algorithms. We found that the high expression of the hub FRGs (MYB, PSAT1, TP53, and LONP1) was positively correlated with poor overall survival in GC patients. The results were validated in an external GC cohort (GSE62254). Further immune cell infiltration analysis revealed that CD4+ T cells were the major infiltrated cells in the tumor microenvironment of GC. Moreover, the hub FRGs were significantly positively correlated with activated CD4+ T cell infiltration, especially Th cells. The gene features in the high-FRG score group were enriched in cell division, DNA repair, protein folding, T cell receptor, Wnt and NIK/NF-kappaB signaling pathways, indicating that the hub FRGs may mediate CD4+ T cell activation by these pathways. In addition, an upstream transcriptional regulation network of the hub FRGs by lncRNAs was also developed. Three lncRNAs (A2M-AS1, C2orf27A, and ZNF667-AS1) were identified to be related to the expression of the hub FRGs. Collectively, these results showed that lncRNA A2M-AS1, C2orf27A, and ZNF667-AS1 may target the hub FRGs and impair CD4+ T cell activation, which finally leads to poor prognosis of GC. Effective interventions for the above lncRNAs and the hub FRGs can help promote CD4+ T cell activation in GC patients and improve the efficacy of immunotherapy. These findings provide a novel idea of GC immunotherapy and hold promise for future clinical application.

scholarly journals Tumor-Associated Macrophages in Tumor Immunity

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yueyun Pan ◽  
Yinda Yu ◽  
Xiaojian Wang ◽  
Ting Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
M2 Macrophages ◽  
Tumor Associated Macrophages ◽  
Mediate Cytotoxicity

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) represent one of the main tumor-infiltrating immune cell types and are generally categorized into either of two functionally contrasting subtypes, namely classical activated M1 macrophages and alternatively activated M2 macrophages. The former typically exerts anti-tumor functions, including directly mediate cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) to kill tumor cells; the latter can promote the occurrence and metastasis of tumor cells, inhibit T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune response, promote tumor angiogenesis, and lead to tumor progression. Both M1 and M2 macrophages have high degree of plasticity and thus can be converted into each other upon tumor microenvironment changes or therapeutic interventions. As the relationship between TAMs and malignant tumors becoming clearer, TAMs have become a promising target for developing new cancer treatment. In this review, we summarize the origin and types of TAMs, TAMs interaction with tumors and tumor microenvironment, and up-to-date treatment strategies targeting TAMs.

scholarly journals Novel Molecular Subtypes and Related Score Based on Histone Acetylation Modification in Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shichao Wang ◽  
Ting Xiang ◽  
Ling Yu ◽  
Junmao Wen ◽  
Fang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Histone Acetylation ◽  
Signaling Pathways ◽  
Renal Carcinoma ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Clear Cell ◽  
Molecular Subtypes ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration

Background: Histone acetylation modification has been found to be correlated the development of renal carcinoma; however, its role in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) remains to be investigated. Thus, this study aimed to identify the molecular subtypes and establish a relevant score based on histone acetylation modification in ccRCC.Methods: Gene expression and mutation data were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Molecular subtypes were identified by unsupervised clustering based on histone acetylation regulators expression, and the molecular and clinical characteristics including survival, tumor microenvironment, gene set variation, immune cell infiltration, and immune checkpoints in each subtype were investigated. Next, we employed univariate Cox analysis to analyze these genes and established acetylation-related score by lasso regression analysis. Furthermore, we investigated the differences including survival, signaling pathways, mutational landscape, and tumor mutation burden (TMB) between high-risk and low-risk groups. The established score was validated by receiver operating curve and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. We also established a nomogram including acetylation score, age, gender, grade, and stage and verified it by decision curve analysis and calibration plot. The E-MTAB-1980 cohort from the ArrayExpress database was employed as a reference to validate the established score.Results: Thirty-three types of histone acetylation regulators were employed in this study, and two clusters were identified. The two clusters presented significant differences in survival, tumor microenvironment, immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoints, and signaling pathways. Furthermore, an acetylation-related score, composed of six genes (BRD9, HDAC10, KAT2A, KAT5, BRDT, SIRT1, KAT6A, HDAC5), was verified to be significantly associated with prognosis and TMB. Thus, the established scores were successfully verified by the validated cohort, and the nomogram was constructed and successfully validated.Conclusion: The identification of the histone acetylation-related subtypes and score in our study may help reveal the potential relation between histone acetylation and immunity and provide novel insights for the development of individualized therapy for ccRCC.

scholarly journals Spatial clustering of CD68+ tumor associated macrophages with tumor cells is associated with worse overall survival in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0245415
Author(s):  
Nicholas H. Chakiryan ◽  
Gregory J. Kimmel ◽  
Youngchul Kim ◽  
Ali Hajiran ◽  
Ahmet M. Aydin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Overall Survival ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Stromal Cells ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Tumor Associated Macrophages ◽  
Immune Infiltrate ◽  
Cellular Density

Immune infiltration is typically quantified using cellular density, not accounting for cellular clustering. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) activate oncogenic signaling through paracrine interactions with tumor cells, which may be better reflected by local cellular clustering than global density metrics. Using multiplex immunohistochemistry and digital pathologic analysis we quantified cellular density and cellular clustering for myeloid cell markers in 129 regions of interest from 55 samples from 35 patients with metastatic ccRCC. CD68+ cells were found to be clustered with tumor cells and dispersed from stromal cells, while CD163+ and CD206+ cells were found to be clustered with stromal cells and dispersed from tumor cells. CD68+ density was not associated with OS, while high tumor/CD68+ cell clustering was associated with significantly worse OS. These novel findings would not have been identified if immune infiltrate was assessed using cellular density alone, highlighting the importance of including spatial analysis in studies of immune cell infiltration of tumors. Significance: Increased clustering of CD68+ TAMs and tumor cells was associated with worse overall survival for patients with metastatic ccRCC. This effect would not have been identified if immune infiltrate was assessed using cell density alone, highlighting the importance of including spatial analysis in studies of immune cell infiltration of tumors.

scholarly journals Signatures Based On Tumor Microenvironment Genes Can Reliably Predict The Prognosis of Laryngeal Cancer Patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitang Ren ◽  
Zheng Luo ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Bo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Laryngeal Cancer ◽  
Prognostic Model ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Purpose: To develop a tumor microenvironment (TME) related genes based prognostic model for laryngeal cancer patients risk prediction. Methods: A innovative prognosic model was generated based on TME related genes (760 genes). Based on the model, laryngeal cancer patients were categoried into high and low-risk group. The immune status including immune cell infiltration ratio as well as checkpoints have been exploreds.Results: It can be shown here 15 genes demonstrate significant differences, which can better predict laryngeal cancer patient prognosis. The accuracy of the model prediction is evaluated and approved by the AUC value. From the immune cell infiltration ratio analysis, there is a significant difference in the infiltration degree of several types of immune cells and 6 immune checkpoints between high and low-risk laryngeal cancer patients. At the same time, the close related genes as well as TME pathways have been also investigated.Conclusion: This study has explored a potential prognostic biomarker and developed a novel TME-associated prognostic model for laryngeal cancer, which provides a valuable reference for future clinical research.

scholarly journals Spatial Clustering of CD68+ Tumor Associated Macrophages with Tumor Cells is Associated with Worse Overall Survival in Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas H Chakiryan ◽  
Gregory J Kimmel ◽  
Youngchul Kim ◽  
Ali Hajiran ◽  
Ahmet M Aydin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Overall Survival ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Stromal Cells ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Tumor Associated Macrophages ◽  
Immune Infiltrate ◽  
Cellular Density

ABSTRACTImmune infiltration is typically quantified using cellular density, not accounting for cellular clustering. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) activate oncogenic signaling through paracrine interactions with tumor cells, which may be better reflected by local cellular clustering than global density metrics. Using multiplex immunohistochemistry and digital pathologic analysis we quantified cellular density and cellular clustering for myeloid cell markers in 129 regions of interest from 55 samples from 35 patients with metastatic ccRCC. CD68+ cells were found to be clustered with tumor cells and dispersed from stromal cells, while CD163+ and CD206+ cells were found to be clustered with stromal cells and dispersed from tumor cells. CD68+ density was not associated with OS, while high tumor/CD68+ cell clustering was associated with significantly worse OS. These novel findings would not have been identified if immune infiltrate was assessed using cellular density alone, highlighting the importance of including spatial analysis in studies of immune cell infiltration of tumors.SIGNIFICANCEIncreased clustering of CD68+ TAMs and tumor cells was associated with worse overall survival for patients with metastatic ccRCC. This effect would not have been identified if immune infiltrate was assessed using cell density alone, highlighting the importance of including spatial analysis in studies of immune cell infiltration of tumors.

scholarly journals Signatures based on tumor microenvironment genes can reliably predict the prognosis of laryngeal cancer patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitang Ren ◽  
Zheng Luo ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Bo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Laryngeal Cancer ◽  
Prognostic Model ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Purpose: To develop a tumor microenvironment (TME) related genes based prognostic model for laryngeal cancer patients risk prediction. Methods: A innovative prognosic model was generated based on TME related genes (760 genes). Based on the model, laryngeal cancer patients were categoried into high and low-risk group. The immune status including immune cell infiltration ratio as well as checkpoints have been exploreds. Results: It can be shown here 15 genes demonstrate significant differences, which can better predict laryngeal cancer patient prognosis. The accuracy of the model prediction is evaluated and approved by the AUC value. From the immune cell infiltration ratio analysis, there is a significant difference in the infiltration degree of several types of immune cells and 6 immune checkpoints between high and low-risk laryngeal cancer patients. At the same time, the close related genes as well as TME pathways have been also investigated. Conclusion: This study has explored a potential prognostic biomarker and developed a novel TME-associated prognostic model for laryngeal cancer, which provides a valuable reference for future clinical research.

Immunotherapy for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer

2017 ◽  
pp. 292-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Gastric Cancer ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Single Agent ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Barr Virus ◽  
Mutation Burden ◽  
Heavily Pretreated ◽  
Epstein Barr

PD-L1 upregulation occurs in approximately 40% of gastroesophageal cancers. However, unlike other solid tumors, there is minimal PD-L1 expressed on the cancer cells; rather, expression occurs predominantly on infiltrating myeloid cells. Preliminary clinical data involving single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in metastatic gastroesophageal cancer have reported response rates of 22%–27% for patients with PD-L1+ tumors and 10%–17% for unselected patients. The phase III ONO-4538-12 (ATTRACTION 2) trial has demonstrated an improved overall survival for nivolumab compared with placebo for patients with heavily pretreated gastric cancer. In the future, we will need better biomarkers to select those most likely to respond and/or identify patients who may need combination immunotherapeutics or alternate strategies. A number of subsets of gastric cancer with different immune signatures, most notably tumors positive for Epstein-Barr virus and microsatellite instability, have been identified, with approximately 50% and 94% PD-L1+ staining seen on tumor cells and immune cells in the EBV subtype and approximately 33% and 45% PD-L1+ staining seen on tumor cells and immune cells in MSI high tumors. Both subtypes demonstrate PD-L1+ immune cells with tumor-infiltrating patterns, unlike the more commonly seen PD-L1+ immune cells at the invasive margin. PD-L2 expression has been reported in 52% of esophageal adenocarcinomas but little is known about the expression of other immune checkpoints. Additional factors that suggest gastroesophageal cancers may respond to checkpoint inhibition include the high somatic mutation burden and the link with chronic inflammation. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the checkpoint inhibitor data published to date in advanced esophagogastric cancers and rationalize how the immune microenvironment in these diverse tumors can explain response or resistance to immunotherapeutics.

scholarly journals Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase is a Prognostic Biomarker and Correlated with Immune Infiltrates in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Bu ◽  
Kejun Liu ◽  
Yiming Niu ◽  
Ji Hao ◽  
Lei Cui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Liver Cancer ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Functional Enrichment ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Potential Biomarker ◽  
Glucose 6 Phosphate Dehydrogenase

Abstract Background: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) plays an important role in the metabolic and immunological aspects of tumors. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the alteration of tumor microenvironment influences recurrence and metastasis. We extracted G6PD-related data from public databases of HCC tissues and used a bioinformatics approach to explore the correlation between G6PD expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis of immune cell infiltration in HCC.Methods: We extract G6PD expression information from TCGA and GEO databases in liver cancer tissues and normal tissues, validated by immunohistochemistry, and the correlation between G6PD expression and clinical features is analyzed, and the clinical significance of G6PD in liver cancer is assessed by Kaplan-Meier, Cox regression and prognostic line graph models. Functional enrichment analysis is performed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, GO/KEGG, GSEA and G6PD-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). TIMER and ssGSEA packages are used to assess the correlation between expression and the level of immune cell infiltration.Results: Our results show that G6PD expression is significantly upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues (P < 0.001). G6PD expression is associated with histological grade, pathological stage, T-stage, vascular infiltration and AFP level (P < 0.05); HCC patients in the low G6PD expression group had longer overall survival and better prognosis compared with the high G6PD expression group (P < 0.05). The level of G6PD expression also affects the levels of macrophages, unactivated dendritic cells, B cells, and follicular helper T cells in the tumor microenvironment.Conclusion: High expression of G6PD is a potential biomarker for poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, and G6PD may be a target for immunotherapy of HCC.

scholarly journals Hypoxic Characteristic in the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuomao Mo ◽  
Daiyuan Liu ◽  
Dade Rong ◽  
Shijun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Cancer Genome ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
The Cancer Genome Atlas ◽  
Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Immune Cell Infiltration ◽  
Immunosuppressive Microenvironment

Background: Generally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exists in an immunosuppressive microenvironment that promotes tumor evasion. Hypoxia can impact intercellular crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment. This study aimed to explore and elucidate the underlying relationship between hypoxia and immunotherapy in patients with HCC.Methods: HCC genomic and clinicopathological datasets were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-LIHC), Gene Expression Omnibus databases (GSE14520) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC-LIRI). The TCGA-LIHC cases were divided into clusters based on single sample gene set enrichment analysis and hierarchical clustering. After identifying patients with immunosuppressive microenvironment with different hypoxic conditions, correlations between immunological characteristics and hypoxia clusters were investigated. Subsequently, a hypoxia-associated score was established by differential expression, univariable Cox regression, and lasso regression analyses. The score was verified by survival and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. The GSE14520 cohort was used to validate the findings of immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoints expression, while the ICGC-LIRI cohort was employed to verify the hypoxia-associated score.Results: We identified hypoxic patients with immunosuppressive HCC. This cluster exhibited higher immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint expression in the TCGA cohort, while similar significant differences were observed in the GEO cohort. The hypoxia-associated score was composed of five genes (ephrin A3, dihydropyrimidinase like 4, solute carrier family 2 member 5, stanniocalcin 2, and lysyl oxidase). In both two cohorts, survival analysis revealed significant differences between the high-risk and low-risk groups. In addition, compared to other clinical parameters, the established score had the highest predictive performance at both 3 and 5 years in two cohorts.Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of the link between hypoxic signals in patients and immunosuppression in HCC. Defining hypoxia-associated HCC subtypes may help reveal potential regulatory mechanisms between hypoxia and the immunosuppressive microenvironment, and our hypoxia-associated score could exhibit potential implications for future predictive models.

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