Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer最新文献

Background: Mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) colorectal cancer (CRC) is characterized by abundant tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs). However, while B cells are pivotal for TLS formation, their function and the signaling pathways driving their activation in dMMR CRCs remain undefined.

Methods: Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database analyzed by XCELL method and multiplex immunofluorescence (MIF) staining tissue slides were used to compare the abundance and distribution of TLSs and B cell populations between dMMR and proficient MMR cohorts. Then MLH1 knockdown models both in vitro and in vivo were used to mimic dMMR/high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) tumors and explore the influence of tumor cells on B cell behavior.

Results: TCGA analysis and MIF staining revealed a significant association between memory B cell abundance, TLS formation, and improved prognosis in dMMR CRCs. In vivo MLH1 knockdown models showed that B cell depletion enhanced tumor growth and reduced the efficacy of anti-PD-1 treatment in dMMR CRCs. Furthermore, in vitro experiments demonstrated a dsDNA/STING/type I interferon (IFN)/STAT1/ccl19 signaling pathway mediating the dMMR-induced increase in memory B cells.

Conclusions: In conclusion, these findings show that CCL19 generated by STING/type I IFN/STAT1 pathway in dMMR/MSI-H CRC cells can promote the expansion of memory B cells, which suppresses tumor growth and enhances the efficacy of PD-1 blockade.

Tumor-infiltrating microbes are emerging as a novel dimension of cancer biology, with growing evidence suggesting their potential as prognostic and predictive biomarkers. In this issue, Chen et al demonstrate associations between microbial signatures and treatment response in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). They join a growing list of examples whereby tumor-infiltrating microbes influence therapeutic efficacy, with mechanisms ranging from drug metabolism to immune modulation. Here, we explore the known mechanisms, as well as the methodological and conceptual challenges facing microbial biomarker research, including contamination risk, detection sensitivity, and the functional validation of microbial activity. As the field advances, integrating microbial profiling with genomic and immunological data, alongside foundational microbiological techniques, will be essential to clarify the role of microbes in cancer progression and treatment response. Ultimately, a deeper understanding of these microbial ecosystems may open new avenues for precision oncology in TNBC and beyond.

Patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) have limited opportunities for a cure, as they develop resistance to therapies and continually form new metastases. Clinical overt metastases emerge from metastasis-initiating cancer cells (MICs) that disseminate during breast cancer (BC) progression. Currently, there are no available therapies that inhibit MIC dissemination to prevent overt metastasis. We provide preclinical evidence that intratumoral (IT) delivery of type I polarized dendritic cells (DC1) limited the MIC dissemination mechanisms in tumor lesions of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)+ mammary carcinoma. Interferon gamma, a prominent cytokine secreted by T helper 1 and innate-like immune effector cells, inhibited dissemination of MICs from the tumor lesions via the modulation of HER2/progesterone receptor/Wnt family member 4/receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa beta ligand signaling. Importantly, we provide clinical evidence that in patients with stage I-III HER2+ BC, there was significant regression of the primary tumor treated with IT DC1, as well as inhibition of disseminating MIC phenotypes. We observed a reduced burden of MICs in the bone marrow (BM) of patients with stage I-III HER2+BC treated with IT DC1, compared with untreated patients and those treated with standard neoadjuvant HER2 therapies paclitaxel, with or without carboplatin, trastuzumab and pertuzumab (Taxol, Carboplatin, Herceptin and Perjeta or THP). We also treated a single patient with de novo stage IV HER2+ MBC with trastuzumab, pertuzumab and tamoxifen in combination with IT DC1. Remarkably, this treatment resulted in near-complete regression of primary tumor and metastatic disease, along with inhibition of MIC seeding in the BM. These findings suggest an intriguing strategy to inhibit the dissemination of MICs and prevent further overt metastasis in all patients with BC.

Background: The immunonutritional background has been deeply implicated in cancer behavior and clinical outcomes. In this study, we explored the prognostic impact of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score through its correlation with blood immunophenotypes and cytokines to provide an easily available non-invasive tool to predict the survival benefit from first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors±chemotherapy (ICI±CHT) in patients affected by advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC).

Material and methods: From a prospective cohort of patients with aNSCLC treated with first-line ICI±CHT, clinicopathological data and baseline blood samples for the assessment of CONUT score (albumin, lymphocytes, total cholesterol), relevant immunophenotypes (flow cytometry) and cytokines (multiplex array) were collected. Correlations of CONUT score with survival outcomes (progression-free/overall survival [PFS/OS]) and circulating immune-inflammatory benchmarks were analyzed.

Results: Among 178 patients enrolled in the AIRC (Italian Association for Cancer Research) project, 153 received ICI±CHT as first-line. Nutritional status tested by CONUT score was available in 137 cases and was <3, meaning good nutritional status, in 77 (56.2%), whereas scored ≥3 in 60 (43.8%), meaning an impaired nutritional status. At a median follow-up of 27.4 months (95% CI 22.9 to 32.0), patients with a CONUT score <3, compared to those with CONUT score ≥3, experienced significantly longer PFS (median PFS 8.03 vs 3.88 months, HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.84, p=0.004) and OS (median OS 22.24 vs 8.75 months, HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.94, p=0.03). The multivariable analysis, adjusting for age, histology, metastatic sites, sex, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status and treatment type, confirmed the prognostic impact of CONUT score in terms of PFS (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.93, p=0.02) and OS (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.96 p=0.03). Patients with CONUT score ≥3 displayed significantly higher blood levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-12, IL-10, interferon-γ, IL-6, and soluble PD-L1 compared with those with CONUT score <3. A higher fraction of CD14+ cells (p=0.01) and CD8+Ki67+ (p<0.001) lymphocytes also characterized the blood of patients with CONUT score ≥3 compared with those with CONUT score <3.

Conclusion: A baseline good nutritional status (CONUT score <3) is associated with a distinct circulating immune-inflammatory profile and correlates with improved clinical outcomes in patients with aNSCLC treated with first-line ICI±CHT.

Background: Colorectal cancer often develops from adenomas over years, necessitating early intervention. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are major immune suppressive cell types in colon cancer development from adenomas through early inflammation-induced emergency myelopoiesis. Cannabidiol (CBD) is reported to function in psychosis, coronavirus infection and some cancers through immune regulation. However, its target and underlying mechanisms in colorectal adenomas are unknown.

Methods: The antitumor effect of CBD was validated in two classical colorectal adenomas models including azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sulfate sodium salt (DSS) induced mice model and high-fat fed Apc^min/+ mice model. Single-cell RNA sequencing was used to identified the immune environment change after CBD treatment in mice colorectal adenomas. Target responsive accessibility profiling was used to find the target of CBD in MDSCs. Subsequently, multiple immunology assays and molecular biology experiment were employed to explore the adenomas prevention mechanisms of CBD.

Results: Here, we found that CBD prevented the incidence of colorectal adenomas in AOM/DSS model and high-fat diet fed Apc^min/+ mice model. Our single-cell RNA sequencing data and the results of immunofluorescence revealed that CBD treatment significantly decreased the number of MDSCs in both two colon adenomas models. Mechanistically, CBD bound to the guanine nucleotide exchange factor domain of EEF1B2, inhibiting its function in translational elongation and subsequent C/EBPβ synthesis. This disruption suppressed the differentiation and generation of MDSCs, leading to enhanced T-cell activation and prevention of colorectal adenoma progression.

Conclusion: Our findings reveal EEF1B2-mediated C/EBPβ protein synthesis as a crucial pathway in MDSC generation and highlight the potential of CBD as an early intervention strategy for colorectal adenomas.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have significantly improved survival outcomes in patients with advanced malignancies. However, their association with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) poses a critical risk of severe hemorrhage and necessitates treatment discontinuation. The precise molecular mechanisms underlying ICI-associated ITP remain largely unclear, critically impeding the development of predictive biomarkers and targeted therapeutic strategies. Here, we present a case report of an elderly patient with stage IV gastric adenocarcinoma who developed recurrent ITP following programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitor serplulimab, trastuzumab and chemotherapy. Notably, longitudinal peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples were collected and subjected to transcriptomic profiling before and after two distinct ITP episodes: the initial occurrence and a recurrence triggered by PD-1 inhibitor rechallenge, providing matched time-resolved data for mechanistic analysis. Our findings demonstrate that ICIs-induced ITP involves a dual pathogenic mechanism combining immune-mediated platelet destruction and intrinsic megakaryopoietic impairment providing a novel conceptual framework for understanding this immunotherapy complication. And this represents the first prospective longitudinal investigation combining serial biospecimen collection with transcriptomic profiling (RNA sequencing) to elucidate mechanisms underlying ICIs-induced ITP.

Background: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has been successful for the treatment of hematological cancers but less effective against solid tumors, a phenomenon that results from the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment. As a strategy to improve the treatment of solid tumors, we applied CAR therapy to dendritic cells (DCs) to generate CAR-DCs. The CAR targeted the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) which is overexpressed in breast cancer to defeat the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment.

Methods: CAR-DCs were generated by lentiviral vector transduction of SAMHD1 knock-out murine bone marrow-derived DCs. The vectors coexpressed CD40L and a soluble form of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), a checkpoint inhibitor. To increase the durability of CAR-DCs, a gene encoding the cytokine GM-CSF was introduced into the CAR vector. The CAR-DCs were injected into mice bearing B16.HER2 melanoma tumors. Tumor growth was measured, and T cell functionality was determined by IFNγ expression and in vitro cytolytic assay.

Results: CAR-DCs suppressed the growth of B16.HER2 tumors and induced the proliferation and activation of tumor-infiltrating cytolytic CD8+T cells. The PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor further augmented the antitumor response and prevented T cell exhaustion. Vectored expression of GM-CSF increased the durability of the antitumor response.

Conclusions: CAR-DCs could be an effective strategy for therapies against solid tumors that should be further explored. The approach relies on the antigen-presenting ability of DCs and their role in T cell activation and can be coupled with checkpoint inhibition in place of monoclonal antibody treatment.

Background: Tumor neoantigen vaccines typically require multiple prime-boost immunizations over several weeks or even months to elicit sufficient neoantigen-specific T-cell responses, which greatly limits their effectiveness against rapidly progressing cancers, such as hepatocellular carcinoma.

Methods: Here, we developed a functionalized alginate scaffold for T-cell activation as an artificial lymph node (FAST-LN) to rapidly and efficiently generate tumor neoantigen-specific T cells in vivo. The FAST-LN consists of an alginate scaffold crosslinked with calcium ions and hyaluronic acids conjugated with anti-TIM-3 (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein-3) antibodies, then incorporates tumor neoantigen-encoding adenoviral vaccines, dendritic cells (DCs), and various cytokines (C-C motif chemokine ligand 21 (CCL21), interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, and Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF)) that maintain DC maturation and recruit T cells for antigen presentation.

Results: This design facilitates efficient DC-T cell interactions within FAST-LN, enabling rapid generation of neoantigen-specific T cells for antitumor responses. In vivo antitumor studies demonstrated superior therapeutic efficacy of FAST-LN over traditional vaccines in mouse tumor models. Mechanistically, FAST-LN significantly enhanced tumor infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells, Th1 cells and macrophages, orchestrating robust antitumor responses.

Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that implantable FAST-LN rapidly induces tumor neoantigen-specific T cells in vivo, offering a promising strategy for neoantigen-based cancer immunotherapy.

Background: KRAS is one of the most frequently mutated genes in colorectal cancer (CRC) and plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis, progression, immune evasion, and treatment resistance. The pronounced heterogeneity within KRAS-mutant CRC highlights the urgent need for more precise and personalized therapeutic approaches.

Methods: To investigate this heterogeneity, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to comprehensively characterize the tumor microenvironment of KRAS-mutant CRC. Data preprocessing and clustering were performed using Scanpy. Spatial cell-type deconvolution was conducted via Cell2location, whereas intercellular communication and spatial dependencies were analyzed using CellChat, MISTy, and stLearn.

Results: Our analyses revealed that KRAS-mutant tumor epithelial cells recruit Mono_S100A8 monocytes via the MDK_SDC4 signaling axis. Concurrently, surrounding Fib_CTHRC1 fibroblasts secrete collagen, which interacts with integrin receptors on KRAS-mutant epithelial cells and contributes to the exclusion of lymphocyte infiltration.

Conclusion: These cellular components collaboratively established an immunosuppressive spatial niche. These findings offer novel theoretical insights and potential targets for the development of immunoregulatory strategies tailored to KRAS-mutant CRC.

Background: Immunotherapy is considered a promising treatment approach for advanced biliary tract cancers (BTCs), but only a small number of patients can respond to immunotherapy. This study aimed to develop and validate a clinical-radiomics nomogram integrating radiomic features from lymph nodes (LNs) for predicting immunotherapy efficacy in advanced BTCs.

Methods: A total of 258 patients with advanced BTCs were enrolled, comprising 206 patients in the retrospective cohort and 52 patients in the prospective cohort. Radiomic features were extracted from the LNs. The maximum relevance and minimum redundancy and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were used to develop the radiomics signature (Rad-score). Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression (LR) were used to construct the clinical model. A clinical-radiomics nomogram was constructed using LR. The performance of all the models was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic curves.

Results: Nine radiomic features were combined to construct the Rad-score. The nomogram incorporated the six clinical parameters and the Rad-score, and achieved the best discriminative ability with the areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.899, 0.843 and 0.874 in the training, validation and testing cohorts. The clinical model showed better predictive performance than the Rad-score with the AUCs of 0.834, 0.878 and 0.740 in the training, validation and testing cohorts. The calibration curve and Brier score indicated the goodness-of-fit of the nomogram. Patients with higher nomogram scores had better overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in comparison to those with low scores.

Conclusion: The clinical-radiomics nomogram showed promising performance for predicting the response to immunotherapy in patients with advanced BTCs.