Project description:Treatment of cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs often fails to achieve complete remission. Yet, such drug treatments may induce alteration in the tumorâs gene expression patterns, including those of Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTA). The degradation products of such antigens can be presented as HLA peptides on the surface of the tumor cells and be developed into anti-cancer immunotherapeutics. For example, the DNA methyl transferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Decitabine) has limited anti-tumor efficacy, yet it induces the expression of many genes, including CTAs that are normally silenced in the healthy adult tissues. In this study, the presentation of many new HLA peptides derived from CTAs and induced by Decitabine was demonstrated in three human Glioblastoma cell lines. Such presentation of CTA-derived HLA peptides can be exploited for development of new treatment modalities, combining drug treatment with anti-CTA targeted immunotherapy. The Decitabine-induced HLA peptidomes include many CTAs that are not normally detected in healthy tissues or in cancer cells, unless treated with the drug. In addition, the study included large-scale analyses of the simultaneous effects of Decitabine on the transcriptomes, proteomes and HLA peptidomes of the human Glioblastoma cells. It demonstrates the poor correlations between these three levels of gene expression, both in their total levels and in their response to the drug. The transcriptomes, proteomes and HLA peptidomes of the U-87, T98G and LNT-229 GBM human cell lines were analyzed before and after treatment with Decitabine. Overall, the RNA-Seq transcriptome analyses resulted in the identification of above 26000 transcripts, the proteome analyses identified about 7500 proteins and the HLA class I peptidome analyses resulted in above 25000 identified HLA peptides. Two biological repetitions of the transcriptome, three of the proteome and three of the HLA peptidome were performed with each of the cell lines and treatment, resulting in highly reproducible datasets.
Project description:Treatment of cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs often fails to achieve complete remission. Yet, such drug treatments may induce alteration in the tumor’s gene expression patterns, including those of Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTA). The degradation products of such antigens can be presented as HLA peptides on the surface of the tumor cells and be developed into anti-cancer immunotherapeutics. For example, the DNA methyl transferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Decitabine) has limited anti-tumor efficacy, yet it induces the expression of many genes, including CTAs that are normally silenced in the healthy adult tissues. In this study, the presentation of many new HLA peptides derived from CTAs and induced by Decitabine was demonstrated in three human Glioblastoma cell lines. Such presentation of CTA-derived HLA peptides can be exploited for development of new treatment modalities, combining drug treatment with anti-CTA targeted immunotherapy. The Decitabine-induced HLA peptidomes include many CTAs that are not normally detected in healthy tissues or in cancer cells, unless treated with the drug. In addition, the study included large-scale analyses of the simultaneous effects of Decitabine on the transcriptomes, proteomes and HLA peptidomes of the human Glioblastoma cells. It demonstrates the poor correlations between these three levels of gene expression, both in their total levels and in their response to the drug.
Project description:In recent years, several approaches have been taken in the peptide-based immunotherapy of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), although little is known about HLA presentation on metastases compared to primary tumor and normal tissue of RCC. In this study we compared primary tumor, normal tissue and metastases with the aim of identifying similarities and differences between these tissues. We performed this comparison for two RCC patients on the level of the HLA ligandome using mass spectrometry and for three patients on the level of the transcriptome using oligonucleotide microarrays. The quantitative results show that primary tumor is more similar to metastasis than to normal tissue, both on the level of HLA ligand presentation and mRNA. We were able to characterize a total of 142 peptides in the qualitative analysis of HLA-presented peptides. Six of them were significantly overpresented on metastasis, among them a peptide derived from CD151; fourteen were overpresented on both primary tumor and metastasis compared to normal tissue, among them an HLA ligand derived from tumor protein p53. Thus, we could demonstrate that peptide-based immunotherapy might affect tumor as well as metastasis of RCC, but not healthy kidney tissue. Furthermore we were able to identify several peptides derived from tumor-associated antigens that are suitable for vaccination of metastatic RCC. Three clear cell renal cell carcinomas including autologous normal tissue and autologous metastasis were analyzed. This dataset is part of the TransQST collection.
Project description:Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) represent translational control elements within eukaryotic transcript leader sequences. Recent data showed that uORFs can encode for biologically active proteins and human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-presented peptides and suggest their potential role in cancer cell development and survival. However, it is so far unclear if uORF-encoded peptides could serve as tumor-associated antigen targets and thus also play a role in cancer immune surveillance. Combining mass spectrometry-based immunopeptidome analysis in primary tumor and healthy tissues and evaluation of proto-oncogene-associated uORF-mediated translational control we here identified a panel of HLA-presented tumor-associated uORF-derived antigens. These uORF-derived tumor antigens were further shown to induce multifunctional antigen-specific T cells, validating their suitability as antigen targets for T cell-based cancer immunotherapy. Our data further unravel the role of uORF-encoded peptides in malignant disease, suggesting uORF-derived tumor-associated antigens as targets for anti-cancer immune surveillance and immunotherapy development.
Project description:In recent years, several approaches have been taken in the peptide-based immunotherapy of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), although little is known about HLA presentation on metastases compared to primary tumor and normal tissue of RCC. In this study we compared primary tumor, normal tissue and metastases with the aim of identifying similarities and differences between these tissues. We performed this comparison for two RCC patients on the level of the HLA ligandome using mass spectrometry and for three patients on the level of the transcriptome using oligonucleotide microarrays. The quantitative results show that primary tumor is more similar to metastasis than to normal tissue, both on the level of HLA ligand presentation and mRNA. We were able to characterize a total of 142 peptides in the qualitative analysis of HLA-presented peptides. Six of them were significantly overpresented on metastasis, among them a peptide derived from CD151; fourteen were overpresented on both primary tumor and metastasis compared to normal tissue, among them an HLA ligand derived from tumor protein p53. Thus, we could demonstrate that peptide-based immunotherapy might affect tumor as well as metastasis of RCC, but not healthy kidney tissue. Furthermore we were able to identify several peptides derived from tumor-associated antigens that are suitable for vaccination of metastatic RCC.
Project description:Treatment of cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs often fails to achieve complete remission. Yet, such drug treatments may induce alteration in the tumor’s gene expression patterns, including those of Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTA). The degradation products of such antigens can be presented as HLA peptides on the surface of the tumor cells and be developed into anti-cancer immunotherapeutics. For example, the DNA methyl transferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Decitabine) has limited anti-tumor efficacy, yet it induces the expression of many genes, including CTAs that are normally silenced in the healthy adult tissues. In this study, the presentation of many new HLA peptides derived from CTAs and induced by Decitabine was demonstrated in three human Glioblastoma cell lines. Such presentation of CTA-derived HLA peptides can be exploited for development of new treatment modalities, combining drug treatment with anti-CTA targeted immunotherapy. The Decitabine-induced HLA peptidomes include many CTAs that are not normally detected in healthy tissues or in cancer cells, unless treated with the drug. In addition, the study included large-scale analyses of the simultaneous effects of Decitabine on the transcriptomes, proteomes and HLA peptidomes of the human Glioblastoma cells. It demonstrates the poor correlations between these three levels of gene expression, both in their total levels and in their response to the drug.
Project description:Objective: Antigen-specific immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and (HBV-related) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To facilitate killing of malignant and/or infected hepatocytes, it is vital to know which T cell targets are presented by HLA-I complexes on patient-derived hepatocytes. Here, we aimed to reveal the hepatocyte-specific HLA-I peptidome with emphasis on peptides derived from HBV proteins and tumor associated antigens (TAAs) to guide development of antigen-specific immunotherapy. Design: Primary human hepatocytes were isolated with high purity from (HBV infected) non-tumor and HCC tissues using a newly designed perfusion-free procedure. Subsequently, hepatocyte-derived HLA-bound peptides were identified by mass spectrometry after which source proteins were subjected to gene ontology and pathway analysis. Finally, all HBV-antigen and TAA-derived HLA-peptides were extracted and a selection was tested for immunogenicity. Results: We acquired a high quality HLA-I peptidome of 2x105 peptides, of which source proteins were associated with hepatocyte function. Importantly, we demonstrated HLA-I presentation of HBV-derived and TAA-derived peptides for the first time in immune cell-depleted primary liver cell isolates. The peptidome included 8 HBV-derived peptides and 14 peptides from 8 known HCC-associated TAAs that were exclusively identified in tumor eluates. Of these, immunogenicity was demonstrated for 5 HBV-derived and 3 TAA-derived peptides. Conclusion: We present a first HLA-I immunopeptidome of isolated primary human hepatocytes, devoid of immune cells. Our results directly aid development of antigen-specific immunotherapy for HBV infection and HCC. Described methodology can also be applied to personalize immunotherapeutic treatment of liver diseases in the future.
Project description:Personalized cancer immunotherapy targeting patient-specific cancer/testis (CTA) antigens and neoantigens may benefit from large-scale tumor HLA peptidome (immunopeptidome) analysis, which aims to accurately identify antigens presented by tumor cells. While significant efforts have been invested in analyzing the HLA peptidomes of fresh tumors, it is often impossible to obtain sufficient volumes of tumor tissues for comprehensive HLA peptidome characterization. This work attempted to overcome some of these obstacles by using patient-derived xenograft tumors (PDX) in mice as the tissue sources for HLA peptidome analysis. PDX tumor provide a proxy for expansion of the patient tumor by re-grafting them through several passages to immune compromised mice. The HLA peptidomes of human biopsies were compared to those derived from PDX tumors. Larger HLA peptidomes were obtained from the significantly larger PDX tumors as compared to the patient biopsies. The HLA peptidomes of different PDX tumors derived from the same source tumor biopsy were very reproducible, even following subsequent passages to new naïve mice. A large number of CTA-derived HLA peptides were discovered, as well as several neoantigens. Taken together, use of PDX tumors for HLA peptidome analysis serves as a highly expandable and stable source of reproducible and authentic peptidomes, opening up new opportunities for defining large HLA peptidomes when only small tumor biopsies are available. This approach provides a large source for tumor antigens identification potentially useful for personalized immunotherapy.
Project description:Treatment of cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs often fails to achieve complete remission. Yet, such drug treatments may induce alteration in the tumor’s gene expression patterns, including those of Cancer/Testis Antigens (CTA). The degradation products of such antigens can be presented as HLA peptides on the surface of the tumor cells and be developed into anti-cancer immunotherapeutics. For example, the DNA methyl transferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Decitabine) has limited anti-tumor efficacy, yet it induces the expression of many genes, including CTAs that are normally silenced in the healthy adult tissues. In this study, the presentation of many new HLA peptides derived from CTAs and induced by Decitabine was demonstrated in three human Glioblastoma cell lines. Such presentation of CTA-derived HLA peptides can be exploited for development of new treatment modalities, combining drug treatment with anti-CTA targeted immunotherapy. The Decitabine-induced HLA peptidomes include many CTAs that are not normally detected in healthy tissues or in cancer cells, unless treated with the drug. In addition, the study included large-scale analyses of the simultaneous effects of Decitabine on the transcriptomes, proteomes and HLA peptidomes of the human Glioblastoma cells. It demonstrates the poor correlations between these three levels of gene expression, both in their total levels and in their response to the drug.
Project description:Immunotherapy has shown great therapeutic potential for cancers with high tumor mutational burden (TMB), but much less promise for cancers with low TMB. One primary approach for adoptive lymphocyte transfer-based immunotherapy is to target the somatic mutated peptide neoantigens and cancer testis (CT) antigens recognized by cytotoxic T cells. Here, we employed mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteogenomic large-scale profiling to identify potential immunogenic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) Class ǀ- associated peptides in both melanoma, a “hot tumor”, and EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinoma, a “cold tumor”. We uncovered 19 common driver oncogene-derived peptides and more than 1000 post-translationally modified peptides (PTM) representing 58 different PTMs. We constructed a CT antigen database with 286 antigens by compiling reputed CT antigen resources and “in-house” genomic data and used this to identify 45 CT antigen-derived peptides from the identified HLA peptidome. Using integrated next generation sequencing data, we discovered 12 neopeptides in EGFR mutant lung cancer cell lines. Finally, we report a novel approach for non-canonical peptide discovery, whereby we leveraged a deep learning-based de novo search and a high confidence annotated long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) database to identify 44 lncRNA-derived peptides. Findings of this study, for the first time, provide evidence for a large pool of actionable cancer antigen-derived peptides for use in mutant EGFR lung cancer immunotherapy.