ABSTRACT: The low immunogenicity of many cancer cells and the immunosuppression by various cancers and anti-cancer therapies have been an obstacle in the development of efficacious immunotherapies. Our goal was to test if TLR agonists and anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agents synergize in rendering tumor cells more immunogenic.
Project description:Colorectal cancer is one of the most common and widespread disease in the world and the third type of cancer causing a high mortality rate. There is increasing evidence that some polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are involved in the reduction of cancer risk and progression. Recent studies showed that sn-2 monoacylglycerols (MAG) exercise specific inhibitory actions on cancer cells through different mechanisms. However, the anticancer effect of PUFA-based MAGs on colorectal cancer has yet to be assessed. In this work we investigated the actions of two PUFAs, docosahexaenoic (DHA, 22: 6n3) and arachidonic acids (ARA, 20:4n6), both as MAG, on colon cancer human (HT-29) cell line. We performed the MTT test, LDH, and caspase-3 assays, while global proteome changes were assessed by SWATH-MS quantitative proteomics followed by pathway analysis in order to find out which molecular mechanisms were being affected. It has been proven that ARA- and DHA-MAG exercises dose- and time-dependent antiproliferative actions. In all cases, DHA-MAG acts on cancer cells more efficiently than ARA-MAG. Results clearly demonstrate the ability of MAGs to induce cell death in colon cancer cells and suggest a direct relationship between their chemical structure and their potency. Therefore, sn-2 MAG are suitable candidate for the production of new functional ingredients.
Project description:Immunotherapies targeting cancer-specific neoantigens have revolutionized the treatment of cancer patients. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic therapies synergize with immunotherapies, mediated bythe de-repression of endogenous retroviral element (ERV)-encoded promoters, and the initiation of transcription. Here, we use deep RNA sequencing from cancer cell lines treated with DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi) and/or Histone deacetylase transferase inhibitors (HDACi), to assemble a de novo transcriptome and identified 3,023 ERV-derived, treatment-induced novel polyadenylated transcripts (TINPATs), encoding for 61,426 open reading frames. Using Immunopeptidomics, we further demonstrate the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) presentation of treatment-induced neoepitopes (t-neoepitopes) derived from TINPATs. We illustrate the potential of the identified t-neoepitopes to elicit a T-cell response and cancer cell killing. The presence of t-neoepitopes was further verified in AML patient samples 48/96 h after in vivo treatment with the DNMT inhibitor Decitabine. Our findings highlight a novel mechanism of ERV-derived neoantigens in epigenetic and immune therapies.
Project description:Immunotherapies targeting cancer-specific immunogenic neoantigens have revolutionized the treatment of cancer patients. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic therapies could synergize with immunotherapies, mediating the de-repression of endogenous retroviral element (ERV)-encoded promoters, and the initiation of transcription. Here we use RNA sequencing from cancer cells treated with DNMT and/or HDAC inhibitors, to assemble a de novo transcriptome and identified 3,023 ERV-derived, treatment-induced novel polA+ transcripts (TINPATs), encoding for 61,426 novel open reading frames. We further demonstrate, using human leukocyte antigen immunopeptidomics, the existence of treatment-induced neoepitopes (t-neoepitopes) derived from TINPATs. We demonstrated the potential of the identified t-neoepitopes to elicit an immunogenic T-cell response and cancer cell killing. The presence of t-neoepitopes was further verified in AML patient samples 48 h and /96 h after in vivo treatment with the DNMT inhibitor Decitabine. Our findings highlight a novel mechanism of ERV-derived neoantigens in epigenetic and immune therapies.
Project description:Two PUFA, docosahexaenoic (DHA, 22: 6n3) and arachidonic acids (ARA, 20: 4n6), as well as their derivatives such as eicosanoids, regulate different activities, which include changes in receptor signaling, the composition of rafts, cell metabolism, and membrane structures. These also modify the function of transcription factors and their target genes, a key step essential for the function of FA-activated signaling. This work is focused to determine the antitumor actions of these compounds linked to the regulation of gene transcription on HT-29 colorectal cancer. For this, we performed antiproliferative antitumour assay, LDH breakage test, caspase-3 production, and proteome changes were assessed by SWATH-MS quantitative proteomics followed by pathway analysis in order to find out which molecular mechanisms were being affected. In all cases tested, DHA exercised antitumor actions to a higher extent than ARA, acting mainly by means of down-regulating most of the proteasome system particles, while ARA presented a heavy effect on all the six DNA replication helicase particles but did not affect proteasome. The results indicated that both DHA and ARA stopped colorectal cancer growth and proliferation, thus they represent the ideal candidates as chemopreventive agents.
Project description:Small molecules that target the MENIN-KMT2A protein-protein interaction (Menin inhibitors) have recently entered clinical trials in lysine methyltransferase 2A (KMT2A, MLL1) rearranged (KMT2A-r) and nucleophosmin mutant (NPM1c) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are demonstrating encouraging results. However, rationally chosen combination therapy is needed to improve responses and prevent resistance. We have previously identified IKZF1/IKAROS as a target in KMT2A-r AML and shown in preclinical models that IKAROS protein degradation with Lenalidomide or Iberdomide has modest single-agent activity yet can synergize with Menin inhibitors. Recently, the novel IKAROS degrader Mezigdomide was developed and has greatly enhanced IKAROS protein degradation. In this study we show that Mezigdomide has increased preclinical activity in vitro as a single-agent in KMT2A-r and NPM1c AML cell lines, including sensitivity in cell lines resistant to Lenalidomide and Iberdomide. Further, we demonstrate that Mezigdomide has the greatest capacity to synergize with and induce apoptosis in combination with Menin inhibitors. We show that the superior activity of Mezigdomide compared to Lenalidomide or Iberdomide is due to its increased depth, rate, and duration of IKAROS protein degradation. Single-agent Mezigdomide was efficacious in five patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of KMT2A-r and one NPM1c AML. The combination of Mezigdomide with a Menin inhibitor increased survival and prevented the development of recently described MEN1 mutations. These results support prioritization of Mezigdomide for early phase clinical trials in KMT2A-r and NPM1c AML, either as a single-agent or in combination with Menin inhibitors.
Project description:Small molecules that target the MENIN-KMT2A protein-protein interaction (Menin inhibitors) have recently entered clinical trials in lysine methyltransferase 2A (KMT2A, MLL1) rearranged (KMT2A-r) and nucleophosmin mutant (NPM1c) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are demonstrating encouraging results. However, rationally chosen combination therapy is needed to improve responses and prevent resistance. We have previously identified IKZF1/IKAROS as a target in KMT2A-r AML and shown in preclinical models that IKAROS protein degradation with Lenalidomide or Iberdomide has modest single-agent activity yet can synergize with Menin inhibitors. Recently, the novel IKAROS degrader Mezigdomide was developed and has greatly enhanced IKAROS protein degradation. In this study we show that Mezigdomide has increased preclinical activity in vitro as a single-agent in KMT2A-r and NPM1c AML cell lines, including sensitivity in cell lines resistant to Lenalidomide and Iberdomide. Further, we demonstrate that Mezigdomide has the greatest capacity to synergize with and induce apoptosis in combination with Menin inhibitors. We show that the superior activity of Mezigdomide compared to Lenalidomide or Iberdomide is due to its increased depth, rate, and duration of IKAROS protein degradation. Single-agent Mezigdomide was efficacious in five patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of KMT2A-r and one NPM1c AML. The combination of Mezigdomide with a Menin inhibitor increased survival and prevented the development of recently described MEN1 mutations. These results support prioritization of Mezigdomide for early phase clinical trials in KMT2A-r and NPM1c AML, either as a single-agent or in combination with Menin inhibitors.
Project description:GDF8 (myostatin) is a unique cytokine strongly affecting the skeletal muscle phenotype in human and animals. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism of myostatin influence on the differentiation of mouse C2C12 myoblasts, using the global-transcriptome analysis with the DNA microarray technique. Treatment with exogenous GDF8 strongly affected the growth and development of C2C12 mouse myoblasts. This was manifested by the inhibition of proliferation and differentiation as well as the impairment of cell fusion. DNA microarray analysis revealed 778 genes regulated by GDF8 in differentiating myoblasts (543 down-regulated and 235 up-regulated). Ontological analysis revealed their involvement in 17 types of biological processes, 10 types of molecular functions and 68 different signaling pathways. The effect of GDF8 was mainly mediated by the disruption of the cell cycle, calcium and insulin signaling pathways and expression of cytoskeletal and muscle specific proteins. The identified key-genes that could play a role as GDF8 targets in differentiating myoblasts are: Mef2, Hgf, Ilb1, Itgb1, Edn1, Ppargc1a. After scanning of hybridized microarrays, quantitation of slide images was performed using Feature Extraction Software (Agilent) using default parameters. The raw data were normalized by Loess normalization method, and then the normalized raw data was exported to GeneSpring GX 11.0.5 (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA). For identification of genes significantly altered in cell compared with the control normal gene set, total detected entities were filtered by flags (present, marginal) to remove very low signal entities and to select reproducible signal values of entities among the replicated experiments, respectively. In statistical analysis, separated for experiment with myoblasts treated with GDF8 ([C2C12]-[GDF8]1-4) was used t-test unpaired (p < 0.05) and fold change over 1.6. Analysis of GO and signaling pathway was carried out using GeneSpring GX 12 (Agilent), KEGG and PANTHER Classification System (http://www.pantherdb.org/). In the analysis of signaling pathways using Panther, a total of 68 cellular pathways were identified.
Project description:Analysis of whole mouse muscle and inguinal lymph node gene expression signature induced after 6h by in-vivo intramuscularly administration of MF59, alum, CpG, resiquimod (R848), Pam3CSK4 and DMSO and PBS controls. Analysis of splenocyte gene expression signature induced by the same treatments after 6h of incubation. MF59 and alum are licensed human vaccine adjuvants; CpG is a TLR9-agonist adjuvant; resiquimod (R848) is a TLR7/8-agonist adjuvant and Pam3CSK4 is a TLR2-agonist adjuvant.
Project description:Terminally exhausted CD8+ T-cells, which hold certain level of anti-tumour cytotoxicity but largely reduced proliferation capacity, contribute directly to tumour growth control. However, this subpopulation do not respond to immune checkpoint blockades or most existing immunotherapies and are difficult to be reactivated. Here, we show that a half-life extended interleukin (IL)-10/Fc fusion protein directly expands the terminally exhausted CD8+ TILs and sustains their effector functions through in vivo metabolic reprogramming, leading to eradication of established solid tumours and durable cures in a majority of treated mice when combined with adoptive T-cell transfer immunotherapy. Our results provide preclinical evidence that IL-10/Fc is a safe and highly effective therapy that acts on a specific subset of CD8+ TILs distinct from those responding to immune checkpoint blockades. Thus, IL-10/Fc could complement and synergize with existing cancer immunotherapies for enhanced efficacy and response rates. We find that IL-10/Fc reprograms T-cell metabolism by promoting oxidative phosphorylation through the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, suggesting that metabolic reprogramming is sufficient to revitalize terminally exhausted CD8+ TILs.
Project description:Immunotherapy efficacy is limited in melanoma, and combinations of immunotherapies with other modalities have yielded limited improvements but also adverse events requiring cessation of treatment. In addition to ineffective patient stratification, efficacy is impaired by paucity of intratumoral immune cells (itICs)—thus, effective strategies to safely increase itICs are needed. We report that dietary administration of L-fucose induces fucosylation and cell surface enrichment of the MHC-II protein HLA-DRB1 in melanoma cells, triggering CD4+T cell-mediated increases in ItICs and anti-tumor immunity, enhancing immune checkpoint blockade responses. Melanoma fucosylation and fucosylated HLA-DRB1 associate with intratumoral T cell abundance and anti-PD1 responder status in patient melanoma specimens, suggesting the potential use of melanoma fucosylation as a strategy for stratifying patients for immunotherapies. Our findings demonstrate that fucosylation is a key mediator of anti-tumor immunity, and importantly, suggest that L-fucose is a powerful agent for safely increasing ItICs and immunotherapy efficacy in melanoma.