scholarly journals Epigenetic Quantification of Circulating Immune Cells in Peripheral Blood of Triple-negative Breast Cancer Patients

Author(s):  
Mehdi Manoochehri ◽  
Thomas Hielscher ◽  
Nasim Borhani ◽  
Clarissa Gerhäuser ◽  
Olivia Fletcher ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: A shift in the proportions of blood immune cells is a hallmark of cancer development. Here, we investigated whether methylation-derived immune cell type ratios and methylation-derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (mdNLRs) are associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods: Leukocyte subtype-specific un/methylated CpG sites were selected and methylation levels at these sites used as proxies for immune cell type proportions and mdNLR estimation in 231 TNBC cases and 231 age-matched controls. Data were validated using the Houseman deconvolution method. Additionally, the natural killer (NK) cell ratio was measured in a prospective sample set of 146 TNBC cases and 146 age-matched controls. Results: The mdNLRs were higher in TNBC cases compared with controls and associated with TNBC (odds ratio (OR) range (2.66-4.29), all Padj.<1e-04). A higher neutrophil ratio and lower ratios of NK cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, monocytes, and B cells were associated with TNBC. The strongest association was observed with decreased NK cell ratio (OR range (1.28-1.42), all Padj.<1e-04). The NK cell ratio was also significantly lower in pre-diagnostic samples of TNBC cases compared with controls (P=0.019).Conclusion: This immunomethylomic study shows that a shift in the ratios/proportions of leukocyte subtypes is associated with TNBC, with decreased NK cell showing the strongest association. These findings improve our knowledge of the role of the immune system in TNBC and point to the possibility of using NK cell level as a non-invasive molecular marker for TNBC risk assessment, early detection, and prevention.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Manoochehri ◽  
Thomas Hielscher ◽  
Nasim Borhani ◽  
Clarissa Gerhäuser ◽  
Olivia Fletcher ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: A shift in the proportions of blood immune cells is a hallmark of cancer development. Here, we investigated whether methylation-derived immune cell type ratios and methylation-derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (mdNLRs) are associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods: Leukocyte subtype-specific un/methylated CpG sites were selected and methylation levels at these sites used as proxies for immune cell type proportions and mdNLR estimation in 231 TNBC cases and 231 age-matched controls. Data were validated using the Houseman deconvolution method. Additionally, the natural killer (NK) cell ratio was measured in a prospective sample set of 146 TNBC cases and 146 age-matched controls. Results: The mdNLRs were higher in TNBC cases compared with controls and associated with TNBC (odds ratio (OR) range (2.66-4.29), all Padj.<1e-04). A higher neutrophil ratio and lower ratios of NK cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, monocytes, and B cells were associated with TNBC. The strongest association was observed with decreased NK cell ratio (OR range (1.28-1.42), all Padj.<1e-04). The NK cell ratio was also significantly lower in pre-diagnostic samples of TNBC cases compared with controls (P=0.019).Conclusion: This immunomethylomic study shows that a shift in the ratios/proportions of leukocyte subtypes is associated with TNBC, with decreased NK cell showing the strongest association. These findings improve our knowledge of the role of the immune system in TNBC and point to the possibility of using NK cell level as a non-invasive molecular marker for TNBC risk assessment, early detection, and prevention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Manoochehri ◽  
Thomas Hielscher ◽  
Nasim Borhani ◽  
Clarissa Gerhäuser ◽  
Olivia Fletcher ◽  
...  

Abstract Background A shift in the proportions of blood immune cells is a hallmark of cancer development. Here, we investigated whether methylation-derived immune cell type ratios and methylation-derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (mdNLRs) are associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods Leukocyte subtype-specific unmethylated/methylated CpG sites were selected, and methylation levels at these sites were used as proxies for immune cell type proportions and mdNLR estimation in 231 TNBC cases and 231 age-matched controls. Data were validated using the Houseman deconvolution method. Additionally, the natural killer (NK) cell ratio was measured in a prospective sample set of 146 TNBC cases and 146 age-matched controls. Results The mdNLRs were higher in TNBC cases compared with controls and associated with TNBC (odds ratio (OR) range (2.66–4.29), all Padj. < 1e−04). A higher neutrophil ratio and lower ratios of NK cells, CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, monocytes, and B cells were associated with TNBC. The strongest association was observed with decreased NK cell ratio (OR range (1.28–1.42), all Padj. < 1e−04). The NK cell ratio was also significantly lower in pre-diagnostic samples of TNBC cases compared with controls (P = 0.019). Conclusion This immunomethylomic study shows that a shift in the ratios/proportions of leukocyte subtypes is associated with TNBC, with decreased NK cell showing the strongest association. These findings improve our knowledge of the role of the immune system in TNBC and point to the possibility of using NK cell level as a non-invasive molecular marker for TNBC risk assessment, early detection, and prevention.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesal Yaghoobi ◽  
Myrto Moutafi ◽  
Thazin Nwe Aung ◽  
Vasiliki Pelekanou ◽  
Sanam Yaghoubi ◽  
...  

Abstract PURPOSETriple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is more common in African American (AA) than Non-AA (NAA) population. We hypothesize that Tumor Microenvironment (TME) contributes to this disparity. Here we use multiplex quantitative immunofluorescence (QIF) to characterize the expression of immunologic biomarkers in the TME in both populations.PATIENTS AND METHODSTNBC tumor resection specimen tissues from a 100-patient case: control cohort including 49 AA and 51 NAA were collected. TME markers including CD45, CD14, CD68, CD206, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD3, Ki67, GzB, Thy1, FAP, aSMA, CD34, Col4, VWF and PD-L1 we quantitatively assessed in every field of view. Mean expression levels were compared between cases and controlsRESULTSAlthough no significant differences were detected in individual lymphoid and myeloid markers, we found that infiltration with CD45+ immune cells (p=0.0102) was higher in TNBC in AA population. AA TNBC tumors also had significantly higher level of lymphocytic infiltration defined as CD45+CD14- cells (p=0.0081). CD3+T-cells in AA tumors expressed significantly higher levels of Ki67 (0.0066) compared to NAAs, indicating that a higher percentage of AA tumors contained activated T-cells. All other biomarkers showed no significant differences between the AA and NAA group.CONCLUSIONSWhile the TME in TNBC is rich in immune cells in both racial groups, there is a numerical increase in lymphoid infiltration in AA compared to NAA TNBC. Significantly higher activated T cells seen in AA patients raises the possibility that there may be a subset of AA patients with improved response to immunotherapy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana C. Wortman ◽  
Ting-Fang He ◽  
Shawn Solomon ◽  
Robert Z. Zhang ◽  
Anthony Rosario ◽  
...  

AbstractWhile the density of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is now well known to correlate with clinical outcome, the clinical significance of spatial distribution of TILs is not well characterized. We have developed novel statistical techniques (including fractal dimension differences, a hotspot analysis, a box counting method that we call ‘occupancy’ and a way to normalize cell density that we call ‘thinning’) to analyze the spatial distribution (at different length scales) of various types of TILs in triple negative breast tumors. Consistent with prior reports, the density of CD20+ B cells within tumors is not correlated with clinical outcome. However, we found that their spatial distribution differs significantly between good clinical outcome (no recurrence within at least 5 years of diagnosis) and poor clinical outcome (recurrence with 3 years of diagnosis). Furthermore, CD20+ B cells are more spatially dispersed in good outcome tumors and are more likely to infiltrate into cancer cell islands. Lastly, we found significant correlation between the spatial distributions of CD20+ B cells and CD8+ (cytotoxic) T cells (as well as CD3+ T cells), regardless of outcome. These results highlight the significance of the spatial distribution of TILs, especially B cells, within tumors.Significance StatementImmune cells can fight cancer. For example, a patient has a good prognosis when a high density of killer T cells, a type of immune cell that can kill cancer cells, infiltrates into a tumor. However, there is no clear association between prognosis and the density of B cells, another type of immune cell, in a tumor. We developed several statistical techniques to go beyond cell density and look at the spatial distribution, i.e., the pattern or arrangement of immune cells, in tumors that have been removed from patients with triple negative breast cancer. We find that B cells and killer T cells tend to be more spread out in the tumors of patients whose cancer did not recur.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 11553-11553
Author(s):  
Jhajaira Araujo ◽  
Andrea C. Gomez ◽  
Roberto Salgado ◽  
Justin M. Balko ◽  
Alfredo Aguilar ◽  
...  

11553 Background: CCL5 is a chemo-attractant of regulatory T cells, promoting tumor immune avoidance and related to a poor outcome in several malignancies; however, in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), it is related to a better outcome. Our aim was to evaluate the correlation between CCL5 and tumor infiltrating immune cells and their prognosis value. Methods: We evaluated 72 TNBC patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy with matched data of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) count and CCL5 expression (profiled with NanoString). CCL5 expression levels were log2 transformed and median centered. Correlation between TILs (log2 transformed) and CCL5 was evaluated with the Spearman’s rank test. Cox PH model was used to investigate the effect of CCL5 (median as cutoff) and TILs ( < 20% and ≥20%) in distant-recurrence free survival. We used the CIBERSORT platform to evaluate the immune cells composition according to the expression of CCL5 (higher vs. lower or equal than median) in 3 independent TNBC datasets (GSE25066, GSE58812 and GSE76124). Results: There was a significant correlation between TILs and residual tumor size (P = 0.017) and CCL5 (ρ = 0.347, P = 0.003). In univariate analysis, TILs (HR = 0.276, 95%IC: 0.128-0.593; P = 0.001) and CCL5 (HR = 0.401; 95%CI: 0.206-0.781; P = 0.007) were both associated with outcome. In a multivariate analysis with CCL5 expression and TILs count, TILs was the only significant marker with a P = 0.008 (HR = 0.336; 95%CI: 0.150-0.753), in contrast to CCL5 (HR = 0.573; 95%CI: 0.285-1.154; P = 0.124). CIBERSORT analysis suggested that high CCL5 expression is associated with recruitment of CD8 cells (13% v 6%, P < 0.001; 6% v 1%, P < 0.001 and 12% v 8%, P = 0.003), activated CD4 memory T cells (4% vs. 2%, P < 0.001; 5% vs. 0%, P < 0.001; 3% vs. 0%, P < 0.001) and Macrophages M1 (9% vs. 7%, P = 0.022; 13% vs. 8%, P = 0.005; 11% vs. 5%, P < 0.001) in GSE25066, GSE58812 and GSE76124 datasets, respectively. Conclusions: TILs was the stronger and more significant prognostic immunological marker, even than CCL5 expression. High CCL5 expression was associated with enrichment of CD8 cells, activated CD4 memory T cells and Macrophages M1. Role of these cells in TNBC should be explored more deeply.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 588-588
Author(s):  
Barbara Seliger ◽  
Thomas Karn ◽  
Carsten Denkert ◽  
Andreas Schneeweiss ◽  
Claus Hanusch ◽  
...  

588 Background: The GeparNuevo trial is a randomized, double-blind, multi-center phase II trial of neoadjuvant therapy in patients with early-stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) investigating the role of durvalumab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, which blocks PD-L1 binding to PD1 and CD80, in addition to standard chemotherapy with nab-Paclitaxel (nab-Pac) followed by Epirubicin plus Cyclophosphamid (EC; Loibl S et al. ASCO 2018). Since the tumor mutational burden (TMB) has been suggested to be associated with a better outcome of patients undergoing immunotherapy and an increased T cell response, we determined whether there exists a link between TMB and immune cell composition, frequency and function in patients of the GeparNuevo trial. Methods: In order to determine possible predictive and / or prognostic biomarkers, tumor biopsies taken at recruitment from 149 patients out of the 174 enrolled patients underwent deep sequencing in order to determine the TMB. In addition, for 120 patients blood samples were taken at recruitment and during different time points of treatment (after durvalumab pre-treatment, after Nab-Pac and at surgery after EC) and evaluated using multicolor flow cytometry by monitoring the absolute cell counts of T cells, B cells and NK cells as well as the frequency, composition and functionality of different immune cell populations. Results: The TMB of the GeparNuevo cohort was in line with published data with a mean of 1.8 mutations/MB (range 0.02 – 7.65), respectively. Preliminary evaluation demonstrated a significant correlation of TMB with blood parameters, in particular with subsets of CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, the data suggest a negative correlation of TMB with the frequency of effector cells while a positive correlation exists with the effector memory cells at recruitment. In depth analyses of a correlation with treatment arm and clinical responses are currently performed. Conclusions: Using this approach we hope to identify biomarkers, which will allow a better selection of TNBC patients undergoing specific immunotherapies. Clinical trial information: NCT02685059.


Author(s):  
He Zhang ◽  
Guohui Qin ◽  
Hui Yu ◽  
Xu Han ◽  
Sha Zhu

AbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the gene expression module of tumor-infiltrating CD4+T cells and its potential roles in modulating immune cell functions in triple-negative breast cancer. Differentially expressed genes were identified by comparison of the expression profile in CD4+T cells isolated from tumor tissues and peripheral blood of TNBC patients respectively. The differential expression analysis was conducted using R, and then the functional and pathway enrichment of the DEGs were analyzed using GSEA, followed by integrated regulatory network construction and genetic analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells based on a scientific deconvolution algorithm. As a result, abundant Treg and exhausted lymphocytes were detected, accompanied by largely decreased of effector/memory and cytotoxic T cells. Immune-related gene correlation analysis showed that the extent of follicular helper T cells gene expression signatures were inversely associated with those of CD4+ naive T cells and CD4+ memory resting T cells, but positively correlated with that of CD4+ memory activated T cells. In addition, we found five core genes including IFNG, CTLA4, FAS, CXCR6, and JUN were significantly over expressed in CD4+ TILs which may contribute to exhaustion of lymphocytes and participate in biological processes associated with regulation of chemotaxis. Study provides a comprehensive understanding of the roles of DEGs associated with the chemotactic and exhausted immunophenotypes of CD4+ TILs that are a valuable resource from which future investigation may be carried out to better understand the mechanisms that promote TNBC progression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesal Yaghoobi ◽  
Myrto Moutafi ◽  
Thazin Nwe Aung ◽  
Vasiliki Pelekanou ◽  
Sanam Yaghoubi ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is more common in African American (AA) than Non-AA (NAA) population. We hypothesize that tumor microenvironment (TME) contributes to this disparity. Here, we use multiplex quantitative immunofluorescence to characterize the expression of immunologic biomarkers in the TME in both populations. Patients and methods TNBC tumor resection specimen tissues from a 100-patient case: control cohort including 49 AA and 51 NAA were collected. TME markers including CD45, CD14, CD68, CD206, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD3, Ki67, GzB, Thy1, FAP, aSMA, CD34, Col4, VWF and PD-L1 we quantitatively assessed in every field of view. Mean expression levels were compared between cases and controls. Results Although no significant differences were detected in individual lymphoid and myeloid markers, we found that infiltration with CD45+ immune cells (p = 0.0102) was higher in TNBC in AA population. AA TNBC tumors also had significantly higher level of lymphocytic infiltration defined as CD45+ CD14− cells (p = 0.0081). CD3+ T-cells in AA tumors expressed significantly higher levels of Ki67 (0.0066) compared to NAAs, indicating that a higher percentage of AA tumors contained activated T-cells. All other biomarkers showed no significant differences between the AA and NAA group. Conclusions While the TME in TNBC is rich in immune cells in both racial groups, there is a numerical increase in lymphoid infiltration in AA compared to NAA TNBC. Significantly, higher activated T cells seen in AA patients raises the possibility that there may be a subset of AA patients with improved response to immunotherapy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenji Shi ◽  
Dan Wang ◽  
Luz Angela Torres-de la Roche ◽  
Rui Zhuo ◽  
Rudy Leon De Wilde

Abstract Background Although the classification system of triple-negative breast cancer(TNBC) has become more and more perfect, there is no report on the immune subtype of triple-negative breast cancer based on immune cell infiltration. Results According to immune infiltrating cells, data from 360 patients were divided into cluster A (subtype 1 and subtype 3) and cluster B (subtype 2; with poorly immune phenotype). Expression of memory B cells, naïve B cells, M0 macrophages, M1 macrophages, CD4 memory activated T cells, and CD4 naïve T cells were significantly higher in cluster A (P < 0.05). In contrast, the expression of M2 macrophages and resting mast cells were higher in cluster B (P < 0.05). GSVA results show that B cell receptor pathway and JAK-STAT pathway are activated and more frequently altered in cluster A (P < 0.05). mTOR pathway alterations usually appear in cluster B (P < 0.05). Compared with cluster A, the risk of recurrence in cluster B patients is significantly increased (P < 0.05). Conclusions This analysis of tumor microenvironment revealed the multifaceted nature of TNBC and its impact on patient prognosis, being recurrence more often in those with poorly immune phenotype. These results provide a reference for further exploration of the heterogeneity of TNBC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor C. Kok ◽  
Charles C.N. Wang ◽  
Szu-Han Liao ◽  
De-Lun Chen

Abstract Background: Only a proportion of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is immunotherapy-responsive. We hypothesized that the tumor microenvironment (TME) might influence the outcomes of TNBC and investigated the relevant signaling pathways. Methods: RNA-seq data of 115 TNBC samples and 112 normal adjacent tissues were retrieved for ESTIMATE, CIBERSORTx, X2K, KEGG, and GSVA analyses. The immune score (IS) and stromal score (SS) were calculated and correlated with the overall survival (OS) in TNBC. Finally, we validated the altered transcription factor (TF) genes in the cBioPortal. Results: The SS is a good predictor of the OS (better survival in SS-low patients; P = 0.0081). In line with these results, when compared with IS-low/SS-high patients, IS-high/SS-low patients showed a better OS (P = 0.045). Moreover, macrophages were polarized toward the M2 phenotypes in IS-low/SS-high patients (P < 0.001). Compared with IS-low/SS-high patients, CIBERSORTx also showed that IS-high/SS-low patients had an increased number of memory B cells, CD8+ T cells (14.8% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.0286), activated CD4+ memory T cells, follicular helper T cells, and activated NK cells in the TME; additionally, fewer resting NK cells were detected in the TME (P = 0.0108). Additionally, there were 284 upregulated and 367 downregulated DEGs (Differentially Expressed Genes) in IS-high/SS-low, and 187 upregulated and 183 downregulated DEGs in IS-low/SS-high patients. KEGG analysis further revealed that the DEGs were enriched in the IL-17 and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathways. Of note, as per the cBioPortal platform, we discovered that 13% of ER-negative, HER2-unamplified BC patients harbored IL17RA deep deletions and 25% harbored TRAF3IP2 amplifications; interestingly, the nine altered TF genes were associated with significantly worse relapse-free survival and OS, in the context of 2,377 and 4,819 BC patients, respectively.Conclusions: The TME with different immune cell components influences the survival of TNBC patients. IS-high/SS-low patients show a better overall survival. Further studies are required to examine whether an immune/stromal state also predicts the response to immunotherapy.


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