Cellular Senescence Is Immunogenic and Promotes Antitumor Immunity

Senescencia celular; Inmunidad antitumoralSenescència cel·lular; Immunitat antitumoralCellular senescence; Antitumor immunityCellular senescence is a stress response that activates innate immune cells, but little is known about its interplay with the adaptive immune system. Here, we show that senescent cells combine several features that render them highly efficient in activating dendritic cells (DC) and antigen-specific CD8 T cells. This includes the release of alarmins, activation of IFN signaling, enhanced MHC class I machinery, and presentation of senescence-associated self-peptides that can activate CD8 T cells. In the context of cancer, immunization with senescent cancer cells elicits strong antitumor protection mediated by DCs and CD8 T cells. Interestingly, this protection is superior to immunization with cancer cells undergoing immunogenic cell death. Finally, the induction of senescence in human primary cancer cells also augments their ability to activate autologous antigen-specific tumor-infiltrating CD8 lymphocytes. Our study indicates that senescent cancer cells can be exploited to develop efficient and protective CD8-dependent antitumor immune responses. Significance: Our study shows that senescent cells are endowed with a high immunogenic potential—superior to the gold standard of immunogenic cell death. We harness these properties of senescent cells to trigger efficient and protective CD8-dependent antitumor immune responses.We are grateful to Maria Isabel Muñoz for assistance with the animal protocols; to Kevin Kovalchik for help with data sharing; to Francesca Castoldi for help in total RNA extraction for B16F10 and IMR-90 cells; to Fredrik Fagerstrom-Billai, Susann Fält, Anastasios Damdimopoulos, and David Brodin at Bioinformatics and Expression Analysis Core Facility, Karolinska Institute (KI), for assistance in RNA-seq and analysis; to the IRB core facilities (Functional Genomics, Biostatistics/Bioinformatics and Histopathology); and to the PCB (Animal House) for general research support. I. Marin was the recipient of an FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science (PRE2018-083381). O. Boix was the recipient of an FPI-AGAUR fellowship from the Generalitat de Catalunya. A. Garcia-Garijo was supported by a PERIS grant (SLT017/20/000131) from the Generalitat de Catalunya. J.A. López-Domínguez and M. Kovatcheva were supported by a fellowship from the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC). Work in the laboratory of E. Caron was funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), the Cole Foundation, CHU Sainte-Justine, the Charles-Bruneau Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (#RGPIN-2020-05232), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#174924). E. Garralda received funding from the Comprehensive Program of Cancer Immunotherapy and Immunology II (CAIMI-II) supported by the BBVA Foundation (grant 53/2021). The M. Abad lab received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-102046-B-I00A and RTC-2017-6123-1) and the AECC (PRYCO211023SERR). M. Abad was the recipient of a Ramón y Cajal contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2013-14747). A. Gros received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF; RTC-2017-6123-1), from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (MS15/00058), and from CAIMI-II (grant 53/2021) supported by the BBVA Foundation. The work in the laboratory of F. Pietrocola is supported by a KI Starting Grant, a Starting Grant from the Swedish Research Council (2019_02050_3), and grants from the Harald Jeanssons Foundation, the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation, and Cancerfonden (21 1637 Pj). Work in the laboratory of M. Serrano was funded by the IRB and La Caixa Foundation, and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (SAF-2017-82613-R, RTC-2017-6123-1), the European Research Council (ERC-2014-AdG/669622), Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement of Catalonia (Grup de Recerca consolidat 2017 SGR 282), and the AECC (PRYCO211023SERR). The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of publication fees. Therefore, and solely to indicate this fact, this article is hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 USC section 1734

Enhanced detection of neoantigen-reactive T cells targeting unique and shared oncogenes for personalized cancer immunotherapy.

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) targeting neoantigens can mediate tumor regression in selected patients with metastatic epithelial cancer. However, effectively identifying and harnessing neoantigen-reactive T cells for patient treatment remains a challenge and it is unknown whether current methods to detect neoantigen-reactive T cells are missing potentially clinically relevant neoantigen reactivities. We thus investigated whether the detection of neoantigen-reactive TILs could be enhanced by enriching T cells that express PD-1 and/or T cell activation markers followed by microwell culturing to avoid overgrowth of nonreactive T cells. In 6 patients with metastatic epithelial cancer, this method led to the detection of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells targeting 18 and 1 neoantigens, respectively, compared with 6 and 2 neoantigens recognized by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, respectively, when using our standard TIL fragment screening approach. In 2 patients, no recognition of mutated peptides was observed using our conventional screen, while our high-throughput approach led to the identification of 5 neoantigen-reactive T cell receptors (TCRs) against 5 different mutations from one patient and a highly potent MHC class II-restricted KRASG12V-reactive TCR from a second patient. In addition, in a metastatic tumor sample from a patient with serous ovarian cancer, we isolated 3 MHC class II-restricted TCRs targeting the TP53G245S hot-spot mutation. In conclusion, this approach provides a highly sensitive platform to isolate clinically relevant neoantigen-reactive T cells or their TCRs for cancer treatment

Exploring the Immunogenicity of Noncanonical HLA-I Tumor Ligands Identified through Proteogenomics

Immunogenicity; ProteogenomicsInmunogenicidad; ProteogenómicaImmunogenicitat; ProteogenòmicaPurpose: Tumor antigens are central to antitumor immunity. Recent evidence suggests that peptides from noncanonical (nonC) aberrantly translated proteins can be presented on HLA-I by tumor cells. Here, we investigated the immunogenicity of nonC tumor HLA-I ligands (nonC-TL) to better understand their contribution to cancer immunosurveillance and their therapeutic applicability. Experimental Design: Peptides presented on HLA-I were identified in 9 patient-derived tumor cell lines from melanoma, gynecologic, and head and neck cancer through proteogenomics. A total of 507 candidate tumor antigens, including nonC-TL, neoantigens, cancer-germline, or melanocyte differentiation antigens, were tested for T-cell recognition of preexisting responses in patients with cancer. Donor peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were in vitro sensitized against 170 selected nonC-TL to isolate antigen-specific T-cell receptors (TCR) and evaluate their therapeutic potential. Results: We found no recognition of the 507 nonC-TL tested by autologous ex vivo expanded tumor-reactive T-cell cultures while the same cultures demonstrated reactivity to mutated, cancer-germline, or melanocyte differentiation antigens. However, in vitro sensitization of donor PBL against 170 selected nonC-TL, led to the identification of TCRs specific to three nonC-TL, two of which mapped to the 5′ UTR regions of HOXC13 and ZKSCAN1, and one mapping to a noncoding spliced variant of C5orf22C. T cells targeting these nonC-TL recognized cancer cell lines naturally presenting their corresponding antigens. Expression of the three immunogenic nonC-TL was shared across tumor types and barely or not detected in normal cells. Conclusions: Our findings predict a limited contribution of nonC-TL to cancer immunosurveillance but demonstrate they may be attractive novel targets for widely applicable immunotherapies.We thank the patients for their participation in this study, Steven A. Rosenberg for providing valuable reagents and support for NGS studies, R. Pujol for helpful scientific discussion, J. Gonzalez for bioinformatics support, CRG/UPF Flow Cytometry Unit for assistance with cell sorting, and CRG/UPF and IRB Proteomics Units for technical support. A. Gros and this work were funded by the Comprehensive Program of Cancer Immunotherapy & Immunology II (CAIMI-II) supported by the BBVA Foundation (53/2021), Institute Carlos III (MS15/00058 and PI17/01085), AECC (IDEAS197PORT), and La Fundació La Marató de TV3 (201919–30). We thank CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. M. Lozano-Rabella was supported by the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2018FI_B 00946). A. Garcia-Garijo was supported by Generalitat PERIS award (SLT017/20/000131). A. Yuste-Estevanez was supported by the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2021 FI_B 00365). J. Palomero was supported by the Beatriu de Pinós programme (BP 2018), cofounded by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) and European Union's Horizon 2020

Driver mutations in <i>GNAQ</i> and <i>GNA11</i> genes as potential targets for precision immunotherapy in uveal melanoma patients

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common ocular malignancy in adults. Nearly 95% of UM patients carry the mutually exclusive mutations in the homologous genes GNAQ (amino acid change Q209L/Q209P) and GNA11 (aminoacid change Q209L). UM is located in an immunosuppressed organ and does not suffer immunoediting. Therefore, we hypothesize that driver mutations in GNAQ/11 genes could be recognized by the immune system. Genomic and transcriptomic data from primary uveal tumors were collected from the TCGA-UM dataset (n = 80) and used to assess the immunogenic potential for GNAQ/GNA11 Q209L/Q209P mutations using a variety of tools and HLA type information. All prediction tools showed stronger GNAQ/11 Q209L binding to HLA than GNAQ/11 Q209P. The immunogenicity analysis revealed that Q209L is likely to be presented by more than 73% of individuals in 1000 G databases whereas Q209P is only predicted to be presented in 24% of individuals. GNAQ/11 Q209L showed a higher likelihood to be presented by HLA-I molecules than almost all driver mutations analyzed. Finally, samples carrying Q209L had a higher immune-reactive phenotype. Regarding cancer risk, seven HLA genotypes with low Q209L affinity show higher frequency in uveal melanoma patients than in the general population. However, no clear association was found between any HLA genotype and survival. Results suggest a high potential immunogenicity of the GNAQ/11 Q209L variant that could allow the generation of novel therapeutic tools to treat UM like neoantigen vaccinations

Cellular senescence is immunogenic and promotes anti-tumor immunity

Cellular senescence is a stress response that activates innate immune cells, but little is known about its interplay with the adaptive immune system. Here, we show that senescent cells combine several features that render them highly efficient in activating dendritic cells (DCs) and antigen-specific CD8 T cells. This includes the release of alarmins, activation of interferon signaling, enhanced MHC class I machinery, and presentation of senescence-specific self-peptides that can activate CD8 T cells. In the context of cancer, immunization with senescent cancer cells elicits strong anti-tumor protection mediated by DCs and CD8 T cells. Interestingly, this protection is superior to immunization with cancer cells undergoing immunogenic cell death. Finally, the induction of senescence in human primary cancer cells also augments their ability to activate autologous antigen-specific tumor-infiltrating CD8 lymphocytes. Our study indicates that senescent cancer cells can be exploited to develop efficient and protective CD8-dependent anti-tumor immune responses

Biomarkers of tumor-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ TILs associate with improved prognosis in endometrial cancer

Background: Despite the growing interest in immunotherapeutic interventions for endometrial cancer (EC), the prevalence, phenotype, specificity and prognostic value of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in this tumor type remains unclear. Methods: To better understand the role of TILs in EC, we analyzed the phenotypic traits of CD8+ and CD4+ EC-resident T cells from 47 primary tumors by high-dimensional flow cytometry. In addition, CD8+ and CD4+ TIL subpopulations were isolated based on the differential expression of programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) (negative, dim and high) and CD39 (positive or negative) by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), expanded in vitro, and screened for autologous tumor recognition. We further investigated whether phenotypic markers preferentially expressed on CD8+ and CD4+ tumor-reactive TIL subsets were associated with the four distinct molecular subtypes of EC, tumor mutational burden and patient survival. Results: We found that CD8+TILs expressing high levels of PD-1 (PD-1hi) co-expressed CD39, TIM-3, HLA-DR and CXCL13, as compared with TILs lacking or displaying intermediate levels of PD-1 expression (PD-1- and PD-1dim, respectively). Autologous tumor reactivity of sorted and in vitro expanded CD8+ TILs demonstrated that the CD8+PD-1dimCD39+ and PD-1hiCD39+ T cell subsets both contained tumor-reactive TILs and that a higher level of PD-1 expression was associated with increased CD39 and a superior frequency of tumor reactivity. With respect to CD4+ T conventional (Tconv) TILs, co-expression of inhibitory and activation markers was more apparent on PD-1hi compared with PD-1- or PD-1dim T cells, and in fact, it was the CD4+PD-1hi subpopulation that accumulated the antitumor T cells irrespective of CD39 expression. Most importantly, detection of CD8+PD-1hiCD39+ and CD4+PD-1hi tumor-reactive T-cell subsets, but also markers specifically expressed by these subpopulations of TILs, that is, PD-1hi, CD39, CXCL13 and CD103 by CD8+ TILs and PD-1hi and CXCL13 by CD4+ Tconv TILs, correlated with prolonged survival of patients with EC. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that EC are frequently infiltrated by tumor-reactive TILs, and that expression of PD-1hi and CD39 or PD-1hi can be used to select and expand CD8+ and CD4+ tumor-reactive TILs, respectively. In addition, biomarkers preferentially expressed on tumor-reactive TILs, rather than the frequency of CD3+, CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes, hold prognostic value suggesting their protective role in antitumor immunity

Exploring the Immunogenicity of Noncanonical HLA-I Tumor Ligands Identified through Proteogenomics

Purpose: Tumor antigens are central to antitumor immunity. Recent evidence suggests that peptides from noncanonical (nonC) aberrantly translated proteins can be presented on HLA-I by tumor cells. Here, we investigated the immunogenicity of nonC tumor HLA-I ligands (nonC-TL) to better understand their contribution to cancer immunosurveillance and their therapeutic applicability. Experimental Design: Peptides presented on HLA-I were iden-tified in 9 patient-derived tumor cell lines from melanoma, gyneco-logic, and head and neck cancer through proteogenomics. A total of 507 candidate tumor antigens, including nonC-TL, neoantigens, cancer-germline, or melanocyte differentiation antigens, were tested for T-cell recognition of preexisting responses in patients with cancer. Donor peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were in vitro sensitized against 170 selected nonC-TL to isolate antigen-specific T-cell recep-tors (TCR) and evaluate their therapeutic potential.Rudolf Virchow Center, Center for Integrative and Transla- tional Bioimaging, Julius-Maximilians-University Wueurorzburg, Wueurorzburg, German

The Brexit and its impact on the UKs service sector : a general equilibrium analysis with PPML

by Gros, Alena TeresaUniversity of Innsbruck, Masterarbeit, 2019(VLID)349754