Project description:Purpose: To evaluate the presence of a gene expression signature present before treatment as predictive of response to treatment with MAGEâA3 immunotherapeutic in metastatic melanoma patients and to validate its predictivity in adjuvant therapy of early-stage lung cancer. Patients were participants in two Phase II studies of the recombinant MAGEâA3 antigen combined with immunological adjuvants. mRNA from tumor samples (biopsies) collected before MAGE-A3 immunotherapy was analyzed by microarray hybridization and by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The melanoma microarray dataset was used to discover and crossvalidate a gene expression signature and classifier discriminative of Responders (R) versus Non-Responders (NR) patients; the gene signature and classifier were then applied to an adjuvant lung cancer study. Patients that were not included for analysis are denoted as NE (Non-evaluable). GSK Biologicals
Project description:Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet most patients do not respond. Here, we investigated mechanisms of response by deeply profiling the proteome of clinical samples from advanced stage melanoma patients undergoing either tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL)-based or anti-PD1 immunotherapy. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry, we quantified over 10,300 proteins with high accuracy. Statistical analyses revealed higher oxidative phosphorylation and lipid metabolism in responders in both treatments, and identified proteomic signatures for response. Aiming to elucidate the effects of the metabolic state on the immune response, we examined melanoma cells upon metabolic perturbations or Crisp-Cas9 knockouts. These experiments indicated lipid metabolism as a regulatory mechanism that increases melanoma immunogenicity by elevating antigen presentation, thereby affecting the sensitivity to T-cell mediated killing both in-vitro and in-vivo. Altogether, our proteomic analyses revealed novel association between the melanoma metabolic state and the response to immunotherapy, which can be the basis for future improvement of therapeutic response.
Project description:IL23R signaling dependent genes are significantly upregulated in Crohn’s disease non-responders compared to responders during ongoing anti-TNF therapy
Project description:MS-based proteomics based on data-dependent acquisition / shotgun MS was used to study the response of melanoma patients to anti-PD1 therapy. Human serum samples were collected from patients at the start of their therapy and later categorized into responders and non-responders based on clinical outcome. Samples were subjected to immunodepletion and proteins were identified by bottom-up proteomics.
Project description:The therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines can be optimized from 3 aspects: adjuvants, vaccine formulation, and processing of tumor antigens. Herein, various different adjuvants, such as toll like receptors and STING agonists etc., and their combinations were compared in cancer nanovaccines loaded with whole tumor antigens were illustrated. By comparing different sized nanovaccines and micronvaccines, 200nm-400nm and 2.5μm were discovered to be optimal sizes of nanovaccines and micronvaccines. Rapid freezing, fixation, heating, salting-out, ethanol precipitate can affect the immunogenicity of tumor antigens and efficacy of cancer vaccines. The optimal cancer vaccine can cure all or most tumor-bearing body in melanoma mouse model, lung cancer mouse model, subcutaneous pancreatic cancer model, orthotopic pancreatic cancer model, melanoma lung metastasis model. In addition, the immune cell profiles were systematically investigated using single-cell sequencing, in blood, splenocytes and draining lymph nodes of healthy mice, PBS treated tumor-bearing mice, vaccine-treated non-cured mice and cured mice after different time. By comparing 21 samples, some featured clusters and markers, such as S100A4, KLRG1, SIPR5, CXCR3, IL2Ra, IKZF2, CX3CR1, S100A8, and S100A9 etc., were identified to distinguish responders and non-responders to immunotherapy. These biomarkers were verified and confirmed the feasibility of predicting therapeutic efficacy in mouse cancer model and cancer patients. In summary, this study presented a method to optimize cancer nanovacines from different aspects, systematically investigated immune cell profiles in non-responders and responders to immunotherapy, and discovered some featured biomarkers for predicting or distinguishing responders and non-responders to immunotherapy.
Project description:MS-based proteomics based on data-independent acquisition / SWATH MS was used to study the response of melanoma patients to anti-PD1 therapy. Human serum samples were collected from patients at the start of their therapy and later categorized into responders and non-responders based on clinical outcome. Samples were subjected to glycocapture and glycopeptides were quantified by SWATH MS followed by analysis using mapDIA to protein levels.
Project description:As part of the Taiwanese Consortium of Childhood Asthma Study (TCCAS), a new prospective sub-study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) treatment. Patients were categorized as either responders (R) or non-responders (NR), based on the improvement of their pulmonary function after ICS treatment. We analyzed the transcriptomes of asthma with ICS non-responsers and responders.
Project description:Immune checkpoint blockade has revolutionized cancer therapy. In particular, inhibition of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) is effective for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other cancers. Despite a dramatic increase in progression-free survival, a large proportion of patients do not show durable response. Therefore, predictive biomarkers of clinical response are urgently needed. Here, we employed high-dimensional single cell mass cytometry and a bioinformatics pipeline for the in-depth characterization of the immune cell subsets in the peripheral blood of metastatic melanoma patients before and after anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. During therapy, we observed a clear treatment response to immunotherapy in the T cell compartment. However, prior to commending therapy a strong predictor of progression free and overall survival in response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy was the frequency of CD14+CD16-HLA-DRhi monocytes. We could confirm this by conventional flow cytometry in an independent validation cohort and propose this as a novel predictive biomarker for therapy decisions in the clinic. In order to determine whether there are cell intrinsic changes in the monocyte signature, we performed RNA sequencing on sorted CD14+CD16-HLA-DRhi cells from HD, NR and R at baseline. Representative samples (n=4, each) of responders/non responders/ and healthy donors were selected from archival samples stored in the dermatology biobank according to the same clinical criteria used in the discovery and validation cohorts for CyTOF and FACS analysis. CD14+CD16-HLA-DRhiLin- (CD3, CD4, CD19, CD45RO) monocytes were sorted from frozen PBMC form blood samples from HD, R and NR at baseline.
Project description:There is a strong correlation between myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), but the detailed underlying this correlation are largely unknown. Using single-cell RNA-seq analysis in a bilateral tumor model, we found that immunosuppressive myeloid cells with characteristics of fatty acid oxidative metabolism dominate the immune-cell landscape in ICB-resistant subjects. In addition, we uncovered a previously underappreciated role of a serine/threonine kinase, PIM1, in regulating lipid oxidative metabolism via PPARγ-mediated activities. Enforced PPARγ expression sufficiently rescued metabolic and functional defects of Pim1-/- MDSCs. Consistent with this, pharmacological inhibition of PIM kinase by AZD1208 treatment significantly disrupted myeloid cell–mediated immunosuppression microenvironment and unleashed CD8+ T cell–mediated antitumor immunity, which enhanced PD-L1 blockade in preclinical cancer models. PIM kinase inhibition also sensitized non-responders to PD-L1 blockade by selectively targeting suppressive myeloid cells. Overall, we have identified PIM1 as a metabolic modulator in MDSCs that is associated with ICB resistance and can be therapeutically targeted to overcome ICB resistance.
Project description:Immunotherapy, such as anti-PD1, has improved the survival of patients with metastatic melanoma; However, predicting which patients will respond to immunotherapy is still unknown. In this study we analyzed pre-immunotherapy treated tumors from 52 patients with metastatic melanoma and monitored their response based on RECIST 1.1 criteria. The responders group contained 21 patients that had a complete or partial response, while the 31 non-responders had stable or progressive disease. Whole exome sequencing (WES) was used to identify biomarkers of anti-PD1 response from somatic mutations between the two groups. Variants in codons G34 and G41 in NFKBIE, a negative regulator of NF-kB, were found exclusively in the responders. NKBIE-related genes within the responder group were also enriched compared to the non-responders. Patients that harbored NFKBIE-related gene mutations also had a higher mutational burden, decreased tumor volume with treatment, and increased progression-free survival. RNA sequencing on a subsection of tumor samples identified differential expression of the TNFA signaling via NFKB pathway, which includes CD83. By overexpressing NFKBIEG34E we were able to demonstrate this mutation is related to increased NF-kB activity, including increased CD83 protein expression when compared with the wildtype. These results suggest that increased NF-kB signaling as a consequence of an NFKBIE mutation may contribute to a favorable anti-PD1 treatment response, including a possible novel role of CD83 in solid tumors.