Project description:Murine syngeneic tumor models are the cornerstone of novel immuno-oncology (IO)-based therapy development but the molecular and immunological features of these models are still not clearly defined. The translational relevance of differences between the models is not fully understood, impeding appropriate preclinical model selection for target validation, and ultimately hindering drug development. Within a panel of commonly-used murine syngeneic tumor models, we showed variable responsiveness to IO-therapies. We employed aCGH, whole-exome sequencing, exon microarray analysis and flow cytometry to extensively characterise these models and revealed striking differences that may underlie these contrasting response profiles. We identified strong differential gene expression in immune-related pathways and changes in immune cell-specific genes that suggested differences in tumor immune infiltrates between models. We further investigated this using flow cytometry, which showed differences in both the composition and magnitude of the tumor immune infiltrates, identifying models that harbor ‘inflamed’ and ‘non-inflamed’ tumor immune infiltrate phenotypes. Moreover, we found that immunosuppressive cell types predominated in syngeneic mouse tumor models that did not respond to immune-checkpoint blockade, whereas cytotoxic effector immune cells were enriched in responsive models. A cytotoxic cell-rich tumor immune infiltrate has been correlated with increased efficacy of IO-therapy in the clinic and these differences could underlie the varying response profiles to IO-therapy between the syngeneic models. This characterisation highlighted the importance of extensive profiling and will enable investigators to select appropriate models to interrogate the activity of IO-therapies as well as combinations with targeted therapies in vivo.
Project description:We examined the effects of an oral small molecule DPP inhibitor (BXCL701) on PDAC tumor growth and tumor immune landscape using mT3-2D and Pan02 subcutaneous syngeneic murine models in C57BL/6 mice
Project description:Murine syngeneic tumor models are the cornerstone of novel immuno-oncology (IO)-based therapy development but the molecular and immunological features of these models are still not clearly defined. The translational relevance of differences between the models is not fully understood, impeding appropriate preclinical model selection for target validation, and ultimately hindering drug development. Within a panel of commonly-used murine syngeneic tumor models, we showed variable responsiveness to IO-therapies. We employed aCGH, whole-exome sequencing, exon microarray analysis and flow cytometry to extensively characterise these models and revealed striking differences that may underlie these contrasting response profiles. We identified strong differential gene expression in immune-related pathways and changes in immune cell-specific genes that suggested differences in tumor immune infiltrates between models. We further investigated this using flow cytometry, which showed differences in both the composition and magnitude of the tumor immune infiltrates, identifying models that harbor ‘inflamed’ and ‘non-inflamed’ tumor immune infiltrate phenotypes. Moreover, we found that immunosuppressive cell types predominated in syngeneic mouse tumor models that did not respond to immune-checkpoint blockade, whereas cytotoxic effector immune cells were enriched in responsive models. A cytotoxic cell-rich tumor immune infiltrate has been correlated with increased efficacy of IO-therapy in the clinic and these differences could underlie the varying response profiles to IO-therapy between the syngeneic models. This characterisation highlighted the importance of extensive profiling and will enable investigators to select appropriate models to interrogate the activity of IO-therapies as well as combinations with targeted therapies in vivo.
Project description:The ability to modulate immune-inhibitory pathways using checkpoint blockade antibodies such as PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 represents a significant breakthrough in cancer therapy in recent years. This has driven interest in identifying small-molecule-immunotherapy combinations to increase the proportion of responses. Murine syngeneic models, which have a functional immune system, represent an essential tool for pre-clinical evaluation of new immunotherapies. However, immune response varies widely between models and the translational relevance of each model is not fully understood, making selection of an appropriate pre-clinical model for drug target validation challenging. Utilizing RNAseq transcriptomic profiling, we have characterised the changes in gene regulatory pathways and immune populations in CT26 mice after treatment with the combination of anti-PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies. At day 7 post tumor implant, the pathways analysis of differentially expressed genes indicated an enrichment for migration of leukocytes in response to inflammation and communication between innate and adaptive immune cells. Similarly, analysis of upstream regulators suggested that lipopolysaccharide, IL-1B, TNF, IFNG, and NFKB1A pathways associated with inflammation were activated. At day 14, pathways related T-helper cell signalling pathways were upregulated. In addition, upstream regulators of the lipopolysaccharide and IFNG pathway, as well STAT1 and IL21 pathway were enriched, indicative of innate and adaptive immune response to inflammation.
Project description:The cell line-derived xenografts and patient derived xenografts have limited use in cancer immunotherapy evaluation because an immune compromised host is required for xenotransplantation. Syngeneic mouse models are derived by transplanting established mouse cell lines or tumor tissues to strain matched mouse hosts, which are better suited to study the interplay between immune and tumor cells. We investigated the differences as well as similarities of a panel of ten mouse syngeneic models to features of human tumors by proteomics, which will provide valuable information to assist experimental biologists in model selection.