Dysfunction in type I interferon (IFN) signaling occurs in patients with stage II or more advanced cancer. After screening the effects of a panel of 12 melanoma cell lines on PBMCs of healthy volunteers of IFNalpha signal pathway, two groups of melanoma cell lines could be identified one with stronger suppression (low pSTAT-1 group) than the other (high pSTAT-1 group). Comparative global gene expression between two groups identified 6771 differential expression genes. This gene list indicated down regulation of IFNalpha signal in immune suppressive melanoma cells. To evaluate this gene list for predictive power on IFNalpha signal modulatory function, we analyzed gene expression 41 independent melanoma cell lines and heat map clusters these cell lines into two groups, one with strong immune suppressive function and other with less effect.
Melanoma NOS1 expression promotes dysfunctional IFN signaling.
Disease, Disease stage, Cell line
View SamplesWe describe here a male infant with a 100 kb de novo Xq28 deletion encompassing parts of the TMEM187 and MECP2 protein-coding genes and the IRAK1 protein-coding gene, as well as the MIR3202-1, MIR3202-2, and MIR718 RNA-coding genes. We analyzed the impact of human IRAK-1 deficiency on a genome-wide gene expression in human fibroblasts in response to TLR2/6, TLR4 agonists as well as to IL-1 and TNF-, using primary fibroblasts from healthy controls and IRAK-4-, MyD88- and MECP2-deficient patients for comparison.
Inherited human IRAK-1 deficiency selectively impairs TLR signaling in fibroblasts.
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View SamplesMelanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer. Clinical efforts to combat melanoma include immune therapies whose benefit depends on antitumor T-cells, to target and to clear melanoma. However, most tumors lack significant immune infiltration prior to therapy, and some immune therapies are hindered by a persistent lack of immune-cell infiltration. Chemokines can promote T-cell migration into tumors; therefore, agents that induce T-cell attracting chemokines in the tumor microenvironment could potentially improve the clinical activity of current immune therapies for melanoma. CXCL10 has been implicated as a critical chemokine supporting T-cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment. Here we report that combination treatment of human melanoma cell lines with Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2/6 agonists MALP-2 or FSL-1 +IFNlambda synergize to induce production of immune-cell attracting chemokines CCL3 and CXCL10 by melanoma cells. We find that TLR2 and TLR6 are widely expressed on human melanoma cells, and that stimulation of fresh patient melanoma specimens with TLR2/6 agonists+IFNlambda induces CXCL10 production from melanoma cells, endothelial and immune-cells. Furthermore, ex vivo migration assays demonstrate that stimulation of melanoma cells with TLR2/6 agonists+IFNlambda increases CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell migration toward melanoma. Collectively, these data identify a novel synergy of TLR2/6 agonists+IFNlambda for inducing CXCL10 production by melanoma cells and suggest that intralesional administration of TLR2/6 agonists+IFNlambda may improve immune signatures in melanoma metastases and have value in combination with other immune therapies, by supporting better T-cell migration to melanoma.
No associated publication
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Cell line
View SamplesPhenotypic and immunogenetic characteristics of NK cells have been recently associated with treatment outcome of HCV infected patients. However, thus far, no global NK patterns predictive of response to antiviral therapy in HCV infection have been identified. We here analyzed phenotypic and transcriptional characteristics of NK cells derived from prospectively followed patients with chronic HCV infection prior to treatment with PEG-IFN/RBV. The results report that the pre-treatment transcriptional patterns of purified NK cells from patients subsequently undergoing a sustained virologic response (SVR) clearly segregated from those of non-responder (NR) patients and surprisingly overlapped with the genomic profile of NK cells from healthy donors and from patients who spontaneously cleared the virus (SR). The treatment outcome was associated with differential surface expression of NKp30 and NKG2D and with the transcriptional expression of molecules involved in post-transcriptional modifications of RNA/protein trafficking and HLA class II signaling. With the development of a highly stringent prediction model (LOOCV p value < 0.00001) we identified a 33 gene signature whose expression predicted with 100% accuracy the outcome of IFN based treatment. None of the genes found to differentiate patients with SVR from NR were related to the IL28B polymorphism. Neither an IL28B CC homozygosis was significantly and clearly associated with SVR in our series of patients. Thus, NK cells are associated to different HCV disease courses and response to treatment and the NK cell evaluation in HCV patients might provide a comprehensive explanation of useful determinants of clinical response in HCV-infected patients subjected to treatment regimens that have IFN as their backbone.
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Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesWhipple's disease (WD) affects only a very small minority of individuals infected by Tropheryma whipplei (Tw). Asymptomatic and chronic carriage of the causative organism is less rare and therefore, the pathogenesis of WD is poorly understood.
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Age, Treatment, Time
View SamplesSome unicellular organisms exhibit collective decision-making through intercellular communication once a quorum of members sense an environmental stress. Whether T cells at different states of differentiation may also synchronize their behavior on a population basis through direct interactions remains unclear. We report that memory CD8+ T cells (TMem) directly interact with naive T cells (TN) during priming, affecting the phenotypic, functional, transcriptional and metabolic differentiation of TN-derived progeny. This previously unrecognized, contact and concentration-dependent interaction between naive (TN) and memory CD8+ T cells (TMem) directly enhanced TN effector differentiation through non-apoptotic Fas signaling resulting in downstream Akt pathway activation. TN primed with TMem exhibited significantly impaired persistence and antitumor activity compared with TN primed alone. Disruption of FasL-Fas signaling in TN cells limited differentiation and enhanced anti-tumor immunity while provision of exogenous FasL in the absence of TMem impaired anti-tumor immunity by augmenting TN differentiation. These findings reveal that the full therapeutic potential of TN-derived cells for adoptive immunotherapy requires physical separation from TMem prior to priming or antagonism of Fas-signaling.
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Sex, Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesClinical approaches to treat advanced melanoma include immune therapies, whose benefits depend on tumor-reactive T-cells to infiltrate metastases. However, most tumors lack significant immune infiltration prior to therapy, and some immune therapies are hindered by a persistent lack of immune cell infiltration. CXCL10 has been implicated as a critical chemokine supporting T-cell migration into tumors; thus agents that induce CXCL10 in tumors may improve patient responses to systemic immune therapy. We find that melanoma cells treated with TLR2/6 agonists (MALP-2 or FSL-1) and interferon-gamma (IFNgamma) upregulate CXCL10 production, when compared to IFNgamma treatment alone or no treatment. Gene profiling of melanoma cells lines treated with TLR2/6 agonists and IFNgamma demonstrate that a selective profile of genes are induced which may be favorable for promoting immune cell infiltration of tumors. TLR2 and TLR6 are widely expressed on human melanoma cells, and treatment of melanoma cells with TLR2/6 agonists and IFNgamma does not hinder melanoma cell apoptosis or promote proliferation. Furthermore, melanoma cells from surgically resected patient tumors upregulate CXCL10 production after treatment with TLR2/6 agonists and IFNgamma when compared to treatment with either agent alone. Collectively, these data identify TLR2/6 agonists and IFNgamma as a novel target for promoting CXCL10 production directly from melanoma cells.
No associated publication
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Cell line
View SamplesIntroduction: Optimal approaches to induce T-cell infiltration of tumors are not known. Chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 support effector T-cell recruitment, and may be induced by IFNgamma. This study tests the hypothesis that intratumoral administration of IFNgamma will induce CXCL9-11, and will induce T-cell recruitment and anti-tumor immune signatures in melanoma metastases. Patients and Methods: Nine eligible patients were immunized with a vaccine comprised of 12 class I MHC-restricted melanoma peptides (12MP) and received IFNgamma intratumorally. Effects on the tumor microenvironment (TME) were evaluated in sequential tumor biopsies. Adverse events (AE; CTCAE v4) were recorded. T-cell responses to vaccination were assessed in peripheral blood (PBMC) by IFNgamma ELIspot assay. Tumor biopsies were evaluated for immune cell infiltration, chemokine protein expression and gene expression. Results: Vaccination and intratumoral administration of IFNgamma were well tolerated. Circulating T-cell responses to vaccine were detected in 6 of 9 patients. IFNgamma increased production of chemokines CXCL10, CXCL11, and CCL5 in patient tumors. Neither vaccination alone nor the addition of IFNgamma promoted immune cell infiltration or induced anti-tumor immune gene signatures. Conclusion: The cancer vaccine did not significantly increase T-cell infiltration of tumors. This study provides intriguing findings highlighting some of the limitations of intratumoral IFNgamma treatment. Although IFNgamma is pivotal in anti-tumor immunity, single intratumoral injection may induce secondary immune regulation that paradoxically limits immune infiltration and effector functions. Therefore, alternate dosing strategies or additional combinatorial treatments may be needed to optimally promote trafficking and retention of T-cells in tumor, which merit further study.
No associated publication
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesAdoptive cell immunotherapy (ACT) using autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) can result in complete regression of advanced melanoma in some patients, but the efficacy of this potentially curative therapy is limited by poor persistence of TIL after adoptive-transfer. Pharmacologic inhibition of the serine/threonine kinase Akt has recently been shown to promote immunologic memory in viral-specific murine models, but whether this approach may enhance features of memory (e.g. long-term persistence) in TIL which are characteristically exhausted and senescent is not established. Here we show that pharmacologic inhibition of Akt enables expansion of TIL with the transcriptional, metabolic and functional properties characteristic of memory T cells. Consequently, Akt inhibition results in enhanced persistence of TIL after adoptive transfer into an immunodeficient animal model and augments antitumor immunity of CD8 T cells in a mouse model of cell-based immunotherapy for melanoma. Pharmacologic inhibition of Akt represents a novel immunometabolomic approach to enhance the persistence of anti-tumor T cells and improve the efficacy of cellbased immunotherapy for metastatic cancer.
Akt inhibition enhances expansion of potent tumor-specific lymphocytes with memory cell characteristics.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Subject
View SamplesMyeloid-derived cells comprising the tumor stroma represent a heterogeneous population of cells critical to the structure, function and growth of established cancers. We have recently found that engineering tumor-specific CD8+ T cells to secrete IL-12 (IL-12TD) can lead to striking improvements in T-cell activity against established melanomas in murine models. Surprisingly, IL-12-dependent enhancement of CD8+ T-cell anti-tumor function did not occur through direct ligation of receptors on lymphocytes or NK cells. Instead, IL-12 sensitized host bone marrow-derived tumor-stromal cells, partly through interferon-gamma, to indirectly enhance the effects of adoptively-transferred T cells. Direct presentation of antigen by tumor was not necessary, but MHC class I expression on endogenous cells was essential for IL-12 mediated anti-tumor enhancements. Upon successful treatment with IL-12TD cells, we observed the selective elimination of tumor-infiltrating CD11b+ F4/80+ macrophages, CD11b+/ClassII+/CD11c+ dendritic cells and CD11b+/Ly6C+/Ly6G- but not CD11b+/Ly6C+/Ly6G+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells within regressing lesions. These results are consistent with a model whereby IL-12 triggers the maturation of myeloid-derived cells into competent antigen cross-presenting cells. Licensed recognition of these antigens by effector T cells may in turn trigger the collapse of the tumor stroma and aid in the regression of large vascularized lesions.
IL-12 triggers a programmatic change in dysfunctional myeloid-derived cells within mouse tumors.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
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