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Transcriptional profiling of tumor associated macrophages in human renal cell carcinoma reveals significant heterogeneity and opportunity for immunomodulation.

ABSTRACT: Among the more notable immunotherapies are checkpoint inhibitors, which prevent suppressive signaling on T cells, thereby (re)activating them to kill tumor cells. Despite remarkable treatment responses to immune checkpoint blockade, with a subset of patients achieving complete responses, a large population have little-to-no response, dictating the necessity of further research in this field. Myeloid derived cells heavily infiltrate the tumor microenvironment (TME) of many cancers and are believed to have a number of potent anti-inflammatory effects. Here we use primary non-metastatic renal cell carcinoma to interrogate the gene expression profiles of M2-tumor associated macrophages (M2-TAMs). We performed Fluorescent Activated Cell (FACS) sorting on monocytes from the peripheral blood and tumors of fresh clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) samples obtained after patients underwent a partial (7 patients-87.5%) or radical (1 patient-12.5%) nephrectomy. We then utilized NanoString gene expression profiling to show that TAMs express a heterogeneous transcriptional profile that does not cleanly fit into the traditional M1-M2 TAM paradigm. We identified expression of M1 associated costimulatory molecules, a multitude of diverse chemokines, canonical M2 associated molecules, as well as factors involved in the Complement system and checkpoint receptors. Our data are in agreement with other published literature investigating TAMs in various non-ccRCC TMEs, and support the growing literature concerning expression of Complement factors and checkpoint receptors on TAMs.

SUBMITTER: Nirschl TR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7076295 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Transcriptional profiling of tumor associated macrophages in human renal cell carcinoma reveals significant heterogeneity and opportunity for immunomodulation.

Nirschl Thomas R TR El Asmar Margueritta M Ludwig Wesley W WW Ganguly Sudipto S Gorin Michael A MA Johnson Michael H MH Pierorazio Phillip M PM Drake Charles G CG Allaf Mohamad E ME Zarif Jelani C JC

American journal of clinical and experimental urology 20200225 1

Among the more notable immunotherapies are checkpoint inhibitors, which prevent suppressive signaling on T cells, thereby (re)activating them to kill tumor cells. Despite remarkable treatment responses to immune checkpoint blockade, with a subset of patients achieving complete responses, a large population have little-to-no response, dictating the necessity of further research in this field. Myeloid derived cells heavily infiltrate the tumor microenvironment (TME) of many cancers and are believe ...[more]

PMID: 32211454

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Project description:BackgroundThe combination of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) with standard therapies is becoming a common approach for overcoming resistance to cancer immunotherapy in most human malignancies including metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). In this regard, insights into the immunomodulatory properties of antiangiogenic agents may help designing multidrug schedules based on specific immune synergisms.MethodsWe used orthogonal transcriptomic and phenotyping platforms combined with functional analytic pipelines to elucidate the immunomodulatory effect of the antiangiogenic agent pazopanib in mRCC patients. Nine patients were studied longitudinally over a period of 6 months. We also analyzed transcriptional data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) RCC cohort (N = 571) to assess the prognostic implications of our findings. The effect of pazopanib was assessed in vitro on NK cells and T cells. Additionally, myeloid-derived suppressor (MDSC)-like cells were generated from CD14+ monocytes transfected with mimics of miRNAs associated with MDSC function in the presence or absence of pazopanib.ResultsPazopanib administration caused a rapid and dramatic reshaping in terms of frequency and transcriptional activity of multiple blood immune cell subsets, with a downsizing of MDSC and regulatory T cells in favor of a strong enhancement in PD-1 expressing cytotoxic T and Natural Killer effectors. These changes were paired with an increase of the expression of transcripts reflecting activation of immune-effector functions. This immunomodulation was marked but transient, peaking at the third month of treatment. Moreover, the intratumoral expression level of a MDSC signature (MDSC INT) was strongly associated with poor prognosis in RCC patients. In vitro experiments indicate that the observed immunomodulation might be due to an inhibitory effect on MDSC-mediated suppression, rather than a direct effect on NK and T cells.ConclusionsThe marked but transient nature of this immunomodulation, peaking at the third month of treatment, provides the rationale for the use of antiangiogenics as a preconditioning strategy to improve the efficacy of ICB.

Project description:BackgroundTo improve cancer therapy, it is critical to target metastasizing cells. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cells found in the blood of patients with solid tumors and may play a key role in cancer dissemination. Uncovering CTC phenotypes offers a potential avenue to inform treatment. However, CTC transcriptional profiling is limited by leukocyte contamination; an approach to surmount this problem is single cell analysis. Here we demonstrate feasibility of performing high dimensional single CTC profiling, providing early insight into CTC heterogeneity and allowing comparisons to breast cancer cell lines widely used for drug discovery.Methodology/principal findingsWe purified CTCs using the MagSweeper, an immunomagnetic enrichment device that isolates live tumor cells from unfractionated blood. CTCs that met stringent criteria for further analysis were obtained from 70% (14/20) of primary and 70% (21/30) of metastatic breast cancer patients; none were captured from patients with non-epithelial cancer (n = 20) or healthy subjects (n = 25). Microfluidic-based single cell transcriptional profiling of 87 cancer-associated and reference genes showed heterogeneity among individual CTCs, separating them into two major subgroups, based on 31 highly expressed genes. In contrast, single cells from seven breast cancer cell lines were tightly clustered together by sample ID and ER status. CTC profiles were distinct from those of cancer cell lines, questioning the suitability of such lines for drug discovery efforts for late stage cancer therapy.Conclusions/significanceFor the first time, we directly measured high dimensional gene expression in individual CTCs without the common practice of pooling such cells. Elevated transcript levels of genes associated with metastasis NPTN, S100A4, S100A9, and with epithelial mesenchymal transition: VIM, TGFß1, ZEB2, FOXC1, CXCR4, were striking compared to cell lines. Our findings demonstrate that profiling CTCs on a cell-by-cell basis is possible and may facilitate the application of 'liquid biopsies' to better model drug discovery.

Dataset Information

Transcriptional profiling of tumor associated macrophages in human renal cell carcinoma reveals significant heterogeneity and opportunity for immunomodulation.

Publications

Transcriptional profiling of tumor associated macrophages in human renal cell carcinoma reveals significant heterogeneity and opportunity for immunomodulation.

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