Project description:<p>PD-1 is an important immune checkpoint inhibitor that shows great promise in the clinic, particularly for melanoma and lung cancers. Since PD-1 is also expressed on infiltrating CD4+ Treg and Teffector cells in glioblastoma, we sought to better understand the role of PD-1 on these infiltrating CD4+ Treg and Teffector cells. To this end, we performed functional and transcriptional profiling using CD4+ Treg and Teffector cells isolated from healthy donors and glioblastoma patients (from both tumors and blood).</p>
Project description:KRAS mutation is present in about 30% of human lung adenocarcinomas. While recent advances in targeted therapy have shown great promise, KRAS remains undruggable and concurrent alterations in tumor suppressors render KRAS mutant tumors even more resistant to existing therapies. Contributing to the refractoriness of KRAS mutant tumors harboring these co-mutations are immunosuppressive mechanisms such as increased presence of suppressive Tregs in tumors and elevated expression of the inhibitory receptor PD-1 on tumor-infiltrating T cells. BET bromodomain inhibitors demonstrate clinical benefit in hematologic malignancies, and prior reports demonstrate their Treg-disruptive effects in a NSCLC model. Targeting PD-1 inhibitory signals through anti-PD-1 antibody blockade has also shown substantial therapeutic impact in lung cancer although these outcomes are still limited to a minor pool of patients. We therefore hypothesized that the BET bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 would synergize with PD-1 blockade to promote robust anti-tumor response in lung cancer. In the present study, using Kras+/LSL-G12D; Trp53L/L (KP) mouse models of non-small cell lung cancer, we identified cooperative effects between JQ1 and anti-PD-1 antibody that included reduced numbers of tumor-infiltrating Tregs and enhanced activation of tumor-infiltrating T cells, which exhibited a Th1 cytokine profile that favored their demonstrated improved effector function. Furthermore, lung-tumor-bearing mice under this combinatorial treatment regimen showed robust and long-lasting anti-tumor responses compared to either agent alone, culminating in substantial improvement in the survival of treated mice. Thus, combining BET bromodomain inhibition with immune checkpoint blockade offers a promising therapeutic approach for solid malignancies such as lung adenocarcinoma.
Project description:Immune checkpoint blockade is able to achieve durable responses in a subset of patients, however we lack a satisfying comprehension of the underlying mechanisms of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 induced tumor rejection. To address these issues we utilized mass cytometry to comprehensively profile the effects of checkpoint blockade on tumor immune infiltrates in human melanoma and murine tumor models. These analyses reveal a spectrum of tumor infiltrating T cell populations that are highly similar between tumor models and indicate that checkpoint blockade targets only specific subsets of tumor infiltrating T cell populations. Anti-PD-1 predominantly induces the expansion of specific tumor infiltrating exhausted-like CD8 T cell subsets. In contrast, anti-CTLA-4 induces the expansion of an ICOS+ Th1-like CD4 effector population in addition to engaging specific subsets of exhausted-like CD8 T cells. Thus, our findings indicate that anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade induced immune responses are driven by distinct cellular mechanisms.
Project description:Immune checkpoint blockade is able to achieve durable responses in a subset of patients, however we lack a satisfying comprehension of the underlying mechanisms of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 induced tumor rejection. To address these issues we utilized mass cytometry to comprehensively profile the effects of checkpoint blockade on tumor immune infiltrates in human melanoma and murine tumor models. These analyses reveal a spectrum of tumor infiltrating T cell populations that are highly similar between tumor models and indicate that checkpoint blockade targets only specific subsets of tumor infiltrating T cell populations. Anti-PD-1 predominantly induces the expansion of specific tumor infiltrating exhausted-like CD8 T cell subsets. In contrast, anti-CTLA-4 induces the expansion of an ICOS+ Th1-like CD4 effector population in addition to engaging specific subsets of exhausted-like CD8 T cells. Thus, our findings indicate that anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade induced immune responses are driven by distinct cellular mechanisms.
Project description:To comprehensively characterize the changes within the TME during TREM1 deficiency and anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade therapy, we performed scRNA-seq analysis of the CD45+ TICs in melanoma-bearing C57BL/6 mice receiving the various treatments. We analyzed approximately 8,249 CD45+ cells from the treatment groups with t-SNE analysis, identifying 10 distinct clusters of tumor-infiltrating immune cells
Project description:Regulatory T cells (Treg) are conventionally viewed to suppress endogenous and therapy-induced anti-tumor immunity; however, their role in modulating responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is unclear. In this study, we integrated single-cell RNAseq/TCRseq of >73,000 tumor-infiltrating Treg (TIL-Treg) from anti-PD-1-treated and treatment naive non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) with single cell analysis of tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-specific Treg derived from a murine tumor model. We identified 10 subsets of human TIL-Treg, most of which have high concordance with murine TIL-Treg subsets. Notably, only one subset selectively expresses high levels of OX40 and GITR, whose engangement by cognate ligand mediated proliferative programs and NF-kB activation, as well as multiple genes involved in Treg suppression, including LAG3. Functionally, the OX40hiGITRhi subset is the most highly suppressive ex vivo and its higher representation among total TIL-Treg correlated with resistance to PD-1 blockade. Surprisingly, in the murine tumor model, we found that virtually all TIL-Treg expressing T cell receptors that are specific for TAA fully develop a distinct Th1-like signature over a two-week period after entry into the tumor, down-regulating FoxP3 and up-regulating expression of TBX21 (Tbet), IFN and certain pro-inflammatory granzymes. Transfer learning of a gene score from the murine TAA-specific Th1-like Treg subset to the human single-cell dataset revealed a highly analogous subcluster that was enriched in anti-PD-1 responding tumors. These findings demonstrate that TIL-Treg partition into multiple distinct transcriptionally-defined subsets with potentially opposing effects on ICB-induced anti-tumor immunity and suggest that TAA-specific TIL-Treg may positively contribute to anti-tumor responses.
Project description:Regulatory T cells (Treg) are conventionally viewed to suppress endogenous and therapy-induced anti-tumor immunity; however, their role in modulating responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is unclear. In this study, we integrated single-cell RNAseq/TCRseq of >73,000 tumor-infiltrating Treg (TIL-Treg) from anti-PD-1-treated and treatment naive non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) with single cell analysis of tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-specific Treg derived from a murine tumor model. We identified 10 subsets of human TIL-Treg, most of which have high concordance with murine TIL-Treg subsets. Notably, only one subset selectively expresses high levels of OX40 and GITR, whose engangement by cognate ligand mediated proliferative programs and NF-kB activation, as well as multiple genes involved in Treg suppression, including LAG3. Functionally, the OX40hiGITRhi subset is the most highly suppressive ex vivo and its higher representation among total TIL-Treg correlated with resistance to PD-1 blockade. Surprisingly, in the murine tumor model, we found that virtually all TIL-Treg expressing T cell receptors that are specific for TAA fully develop a distinct Th1-like signature over a two-week period after entry into the tumor, down-regulating FoxP3 and up-regulating expression of TBX21 (Tbet), IFN and certain pro-inflammatory granzymes. Transfer learning of a gene score from the murine TAA-specific Th1-like Treg subset to the human single-cell dataset revealed a highly analogous subcluster that was enriched in anti-PD-1 responding tumors. These findings demonstrate that TIL-Treg partition into multiple distinct transcriptionally-defined subsets with potentially opposing effects on ICB-induced anti-tumor immunity and suggest that TAA-specific TIL-Treg may positively contribute to anti-tumor responses.