Peripheral Innate Lymphoid Cells Are Increased in First Line Metastatic Colorectal Carcinoma Patients: A Negative Correlation With Th1 Immune Responses

Several distinct innate lymphoid cell (ILC) populations have been recently identified and shown to play a critical role in the immediate immune defense. In the context of tumors, there is evidence to support a dual role for ILCs with pro-or antitumor effects, depending on the ILC subset and the type of cancer. This ambivalent role has been particularly well-described in colorectal cancer models (CRC), but the presence and the evolution of ILCs in the peripheral blood of metastatic CRC (mCRC) patients have not yet been explored. Here, we investigated the distribution of ILC subsets in 96 mCRC patients who were prospectively included in the "Epitopes-CRCO2" trial. Peripheral bloodmononuclear cells (PBMCs) were analyzed by flow cytometry at metastatic diagnosis and after 3-months of treatment. The treatments consisted of Oxaliplatin-based chemotherapies for 76% of the patients or Folfiri (5FU, Irinotecan) chemotherapies for 14% of patients. Compared to healthy donors, the frequency of total ILCs was dramatically increased at metastatic diagnosis. CD56(+) ILC1-like cells were expanded, whereas ILC2, NCR- ILCP and NCR+ ILCP subsets were decreased. Combined analysis with the systemic anti-telomerase hTERT Th1 CD4 response revealed that patients with low anti-TERT Th1 CD4 responses had the highest frequencies of total ILCs at diagnosis. Of those, 91% had synchronous metastases, and their median progression-free survival was 7.43 months (vs. 9.17 months for the other patients). In these patients, ILC1 and ILC2 were significantly decreased, whereas CD56(+) ILC1-like cells were significantly increased compared to patients with low frequency of total ILCs and high anti-TERT responses. After treatment, the NCR+ ILCP were further decreased irrespective of the chemotherapy regimen, whereas the balance between ILC1 and CD56(+) ILC1-like cells was modulated mainly by the Folfiri regimen in favor of ILC1. Altogether our results describe the effects of different chemotherapies on ILCs in mCRC patients. We also establish for the first time a link between frequency of ILCs and anti-tumor CD4 T cell responses in cancer patients. Thus, our study supports an interest in monitoring ILCs during cancer therapy to possibly identify predictive biomarkers in mCRC

Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Fluvastatin on IL-8 Production Induced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus fumigatus Antigens in Cystic Fibrosis

International audienceBACKGROUND: Early in life, patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are infected with microorganisms including bacteria and fungi, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus fumigatus. Since recent research has identified the anti-inflammatory properties of statins (besides their lipid-lowering effects), we investigated the effect of fluvastatin on the production of the potent neutrophil chemoattractant chemokine, IL-8, in whole blood from CF patients, stimulated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (LPS) and Aspergillus fumigatus (AFA) antigens. RESULTS: Whole blood from adult patients with CF and from healthy volunteers was collected at the Rennes University Hospital (France). Blood was pretreated for 1 h with fluvastatin (0-300 µM) and incubated for 24 h with LPS (10 µg/mL) and/or AFA (diluted 1/200). IL-8 protein levels, quantified by ELISA, were increased in a concentration-dependent manner when cells were stimulated by LPS or AFA. Fluvastatin strongly decreased the levels of IL-8, in a concentration-dependent manner, in whole blood from CF patients. However, its inhibitory effect was decreased or absent in whole blood from healthy subjects. Furthermore, the inhibition induced by fluvastatin in CF whole blood was reversed in the presence of intermediates within the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway, mevalonate, farnesyl pyprophosphate or geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate that activate small GTPases by isoprenylation. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time, the inhibitory effects of fluvastatin on CF systemic inflammation may reveal the important therapeutic potential of statins in pathological conditions associated with the over-production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines as observed during the manifestation of CF. The anti-inflammatory effect could be related to the modulation of the prenylation of signalling proteins

Study of antitumor CD4 T cell responses : from identification of targets to their use for immunomonitoring

Les cellules du système immunitaire sont capables de reconnaître et d'éliminer les cellules cancéreuses prévenant ainsi l'apparition de cancers. Parmi celles-ci, l'activité antitumorale est principalement attribuée aux lymphocytes T CD4 helper de type 1 (Thl). Les lymphocytes CD4 sont activés lors de la reconnaissance d'un antigène (Ag) de tumeur présenté par le complexe majeur d'histocompatibilité de classe II (CMH-II). Ils possèdent des propriétés cytotoxiques propres et activent les autres cellules immunitaires. Dans un premier temps, nous nous somme intéressés au mécanisme de présentation sur le CMH-II de la télomérase (hTERT). La protéine hTERT est capable d'interagir avec les HSPGs facilitant ainsi son internalisation par les DC. Elle emprunte ensuite les voies endolysosomale et cytosolique pour générer des peptides nommés UCP présentés dans le contexte HLA-DR. Cette découverte soutient son utilisation en immunothérapie associée aux chimiothérapies. Nous avons ensuite identifié quatre peptides dérivés de hTERT restreints HLA-DP4 puis comparé leur immunogénicité avec les UCP. Cette analyse a mis en évidence la supériorité des UCP en termes d'immunoprévalence et d'immunodominance. Enfin, nous avons étudié l'impact de l'acquisition d'une résistance à l'oxaliplatine sur le profil antigénique de lignées tumorales de cancers colorectaux (CCR). L'évaluation des réponses immunitaires de patients atteints de CCR nous a permis d'identifier des peptides immunogènes dérivés d'Ag surexprimés après une exposition à l'oxaliplatine. En conclusion, ces travaux pourront participer à l'amélioration des stratégies d'immunothérapie et d'immunomonitoring ciblant les lymphocytes CD4 Thl.Immune cells are able to recognize and eliminate cancer cells to prevent from cancer development. Among them, antitumoral activity is mainly attributed to CD4 T helper 1 (Thl) cells. CD4 Thl cells are activated upon recognition of tumor antigen presented on the Major Histocompatibility Complex class II (MHC-II) molecules. These cells possess their own cytotoxic capacities and activate other immune cells. Firstly, we were interested in the mechanism of presentation of the catalytic subunit of telomerase (hTERT) which is an attractive tumor antigen target for immunotherapies. hTERT protein can interact with cell surface HSPGs facilitating its internalization by DC. Then, hTERT uses thé endo-lysosomal and cytosolic proteolysis pathways to generale immunogenic peptides named UCP (Universal Cancer Peptide) presented in HLA-DR context. This discovery is an additional argument in favor of using hTERT as a target for cancer immunotherapies. Then, we identified four novel hTERT-derived peptides presented by HLA-DP4 and compared their immunogenicity with UCP. This analysis highlighted the superiority of UCP in term of immunoprevalence and immunodominance. This stresses the importance of considering MHC-II locus for immunotherapy strategies stimulating CD4 T cells. Finally, we studied the impact of oxaliplatin treatment and/or oxaliplatin résistance acquisition on CRC antigenome. Evaluation of immune responses in CRC patients permitted the identification of immunogenic peptides derived from antigens upregulated after oxaliplatin exposition. In conclusion, this work could participate in the improvement of cancer immunotherapies and immunomonitoring targeting CD4 Thl cells

Interest of Tumor-Specific CD4 T Helper 1 Cells for Therapeutic Anticancer Vaccine

Nowadays, immunotherapy represents one promising approach for cancer treatment. Recently, spectacular results of cancer immunotherapy clinical trials have confirmed the crucial role of immune system in cancer regression. Therapeutic cancer vaccine represents one widely used immunotherapy strategy to stimulate tumor specific T cell responses but clinical impact remains disappointing in targeting CD8 T cells. Although CD8 T cells have been initially considered to be the main protagonists, it is now clear that CD4 T cells also play a critical role in antitumor response. In this article, we discuss the role of tumor antigen-specific CD4 T cell responses and how we can target these cells to improve cancer vaccines

Biologie, concepts et principes des CAR-T cells

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Characterization of atypical T cells generated during ex vivo expansion process for T cell-based adoptive immunotherapy

Engineered T cell-based adoptive immunotherapies met promising success for the treatment of hematological malignancies. Nevertheless, major hurdles remain to be overcome regarding the management of relapses and the translation to solid tumor settings. Properties of T cell-based final product should be appropriately controlled to fine-tune the analysis of clinical trial results, to draw relevant conclusions, and finally to improve the efficacy of these immunotherapies. For this purpose, we addressed the existence of atypical T cell subsets and deciphered their phenotypic and functional features in an HPV16-E7 specific and MHC II-restricted transgenic-TCR-engineered T cell setting. To note, atypical T cell subsets include mismatched MHC/co-receptor CD8 or CD4 and miscommitted CD8+ or CD4+ T cells. We generated both mismatched and appropriately matched MHC II-restricted transgenic TCR on CD8 and CD4-expressing T cells, respectively. We established that CD4+ cultured T cells exhibited miscommitted phenotypic cytotoxic pattern and that both interleukin (IL)-2 or IL-7/IL-15 supplementation allowed for the development of this cytotoxic phenotype. Both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets, transduced with HPV16-E7 specific transgenic TCR, demonstrated cytotoxic features after exposure to HPV-16 E7-derived antigen. Ultimately, the presence of such atypical T cells, either mismatched MHC II-restricted TCR/CD8+ T cells or cytotoxic CD4+ T cells, is likely to influence the fate of patient-infused T cell product and would need further investigation

Umbilical Cord Blood as a Source of Less Differentiated T Cells to Produce CD123 CAR-T Cells

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) therapy has led to great successes in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB), stored in UCB banks, is an attractive source of T cells for CAR-T production. We used a third generation CD123 CAR-T (CD28/4-1BB), which was previously developed using an adult’s Peripheral Blood (PB), to test the ability of obtaining CD123 CAR-T from fresh or cryopreserved UCB. We obtained a cell product with a high and stable transduction efficacy, and a poorly differentiated phenotype of CAR-T cells, while retaining high cytotoxic functions in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, CAR-T produced from cryopreserved UCB are as functional as CAR-T produced from fresh UCB. Overall, these data pave the way for the clinical development of UCB-derived CAR-T. UCB CAR-T could be transferred in an autologous manner (after an UCB transplant) to reduce post-transplant relapses, or in an allogeneic setting, thanks to fewer HLA restrictions which ease the requirements for a match between the donor and recipient

Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans Promote Telomerase Internalization and MHC Class II Presentation on Dendritic Cells

International audienceTelomerase is a prototype-shared tumor Ag and represents an attractive target for anticancer immunotherapy. We have previously described promiscuous and immunogenic HLA-DR-restricted peptides derived from human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and referred as universal cancer peptide (UCP). In nonsmall cell lung cancer, the presence of spontaneous UCP-specific CD4 T cell responses increases the survival of chemotherapy-responding patients. However, the precise mechanisms of hTERT's uptake, processing, and presentation on MHC-II molecules to stimulate CD4 T cells are poorly understood. In this work, by using well-characterized UCP-specific CD4 T cell clones, we showed that hTERT processing and presentation on MHC-II involve both classical endolysosomal and nonclassical cytosolic pathways. Furthermore, to our knowledge, we demonstrated for the first time that hTERT's internalization by dendritic cells requires its interaction with surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Altogether, our findings provide a novel mechanism of tumor-specific CD4 T cell activation and will be useful for the development of novel cancer immunotherapies that harness CD4 T cells