Detecting Tumor Specific Antigen-Reactive T cells from Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes via Interaction Dependent Fucosyl-biotinylation [TCR-seq]
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Reactivation and clonal expansion of tumor specific antigen (TSA)-reactive T cells are key to the success of checkpoint blockade and adoptive transfer of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) based therapies. There are no reliable markers to specifically identify the repertoire of TSA-reactive T cells due to their heterogeneous composition. Here we introduce FucoID as a general platform to detect endogenous antigen-specific T cells and study their biology. Through this interaction dependent labeling approach, TSA-reactive T cells can be detected and separated from bystander T cells in primary tumor digests based on their cell-surface enzymatic fucosyl-biotinylation. Compared to bystander TILs, TSA-reactive TILs possess a unique gene features according to RNA-seq.
Project description:Reactivation and clonal expansion of tumor specific antigen (TSA)-reactive T cells are key to the success of checkpoint blockade and adoptive transfer of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) based therapies. There are no reliable markers to specifically identify the repertoire of TSA-reactive T cells due to their heterogeneous composition. Here we introduce FucoID as a general platform to detect endogenous antigen-specific T cells and study their biology. Through this interaction dependent labeling approach, TSA-reactive T cells can be detected and separated from bystander T cells in primary tumor digests based on their cell-surface enzymatic fucosyl-biotinylation. Compared to bystander TILs, TSA-reactive TILs possess a unique gene features according to RNA-seq.
Project description:Tumor-reactive CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) represent a subtype of T cells that could recognize and destroy tumor specifically. Understanding the regulatory mechanism of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells has important therapeutic implications. Yet the DNA methylation status of this T cell subtype has not been elucidated. In this study, we segregated tumor-reactive and bystander CD8+ TILs, as well as naïve and effector memory CD8+ T cell subtypes as controls from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, to compare their transcriptome and methylome characteristics. Transcriptome profiling confirmed previous conclusion that tumor-reactive TILs have an exhausted tissue-resident memory signature. Whole-genome methylation profiling identified a distinct methylome pattern of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells, with tumor-reactive markers (CD39 and CD103) being specifically demethylated. In addition, dynamic changes were observed during the transition of naïve T cells into tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells. Transcription factor (TF) binding motif enrichment analysis identified several immune-related TFs, including three exhaustion-related genes (NR4A1, BATF and EGR2) and VDR, that potentially play important regulatory role in tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells. Our study supports the involvement of DNA methylation in shaping tumor-reactive and bystander CD8+ TILs, and provides a valuable resource for the development of novel DNA methylation markers and future therapeutics.
Project description:Detecting Tumor Specific Antigen-Reactive T cells from Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes via Interaction Dependent Fucosyl-biotinylation [TCR-seq]
Project description:Detecting Tumor Specific Antigen-Reactive T cells from Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes via Interaction Dependent Fucosyl-biotinylation [RNA-seq]
Project description:Cellular senescence is a stress response that activates innate immunity. However, the interplay between senescent cells and the adaptive immune system remains largely unexplored. Here, we show that senescent cells display enhanced MHC class I (MHC-I) antigen processing and presentation. Immunization of mice with senescent syngeneic fibroblasts generates CD8 T cells reactive against both normal and senescent fibroblasts, some of them targeting senescence-associated MHC-I-peptides. In the context of cancer, we demonstrate that senescent cancer cells trigger strong anti-tumor protection mediated by antigen-presenting cells and CD8 T cells. This response is superior to the protection elicited by cells undergoing immunogenic cell death. Finally, induction of senescence in patient-derived cancer cells exacerbates the activation of autologous tumor-reactive CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) with no effect on non-reactive TILs. Our study indicates that immunization with senescent cancer cells strongly activates anti-tumor immunity, and this can be exploited for cancer therapy.
Project description:The local mechanisms regulating exhaustion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and responsiveness to PD-1 blockade remain partly elucidated. In human ovarian cancer we show that tumor-reactive intraepithelial (ie)CD8+ TILs engaged by antigen are polyfunctional and upregulate PD-1, which restrains their effectiveness. PD-1+ TILs exhibit a continuum of TCR-engaged/exhausted states with variable effector fitness related to CD28 costimulation, which they receive in intraepithelial niches involving myeloid antigen-presenting cells (mAPC). Following PD-1 blockade, activation of TILs requires CD28 costimulation mediated in situ by tumor mAPCs, which is locally enhanced by CTLA-4 blockade. CD40 ligand also amplifies TIL responses in situ, especially in tumors in which mAPCs are not activated. Thus, dysfunctional and exhausted TILs, in a state of TCR engagement but without proper CD28 costimulation by mAPCs in situ, are unlikely to fully benefit from PD-1 blockade.
Project description:The CMS4 sarcoma, kindly provided by A. DeLeo (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA), is a solid tumor of BALB/c (H-2d) origin, which grows aggressively in naive, syngeneic hosts following a s.c. transplant. Although the parental tumor cell line forms few metastatic foci in the lungs following i.v. administration, a highly metastatic subline, termed CMS4-met, was established from lung digests of those mice as described (Ryan MH, Bristol JA, McDuffie E, Abrams SI. Regression of extensive pulmonary metastases in mice by adoptive transfer of antigen-specific CD8(+) CTL reactive against tumor cells expressing a naturally occurring rejection epitope. J Immunol 2001;167:4286-92).<br>In this experiment we compare gene expression kinetics in the CMS4 and CMS4-met cell lines after IFNgamma treatment. Both cells were treated with IFNgamma for 4 and 24 hours respectively. The untreated and treated cells were then used for total RNA isolation, and microarray experiments.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is generally refractory to immune checkpoint blockade, although patients with genetically unstable tumors can show modest therapeutic benefit. We previously demonstrated the presence of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells in PDAC samples. Here, we charted the tumor-infiltrating T cell repertoire in PDAC by combining single-cell transcriptomics with functional testing of T cell receptors (TCRs) for reactivity against autologous tumor cells. On the basis of a comprehensive dataset including 93 tumor-reactive and 65 bystander TCR clonotypes, we delineated a gene signature that effectively distinguishes between these T cell subsets in PDAC, as well as in other tumor indications. This revealed a high frequency of tumor-reactive TCR clonotypes in three genetically unstable samples. In contrast, the T cell repertoire in six genetically stable PDAC tumors was largely dominated by bystander T cells. Nevertheless, multiple tumor-reactive TCRs were successfully identified in each of these samples, thereby providing a perspective for personalized immunotherapy in this treatment-resistant indication.
Project description:Despite the extensive use of immunotherapies in hematological malignancies, the single-cell landscape of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in these patients lags behind what has been accomplished in solid tumors. One such example is multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable plasma cell malignancy for which treatment is being redefined by immunotherapies, while single-cell studies of TILs are scarce and the phenotype of tumor-reactive T cells remains unknown. Here we aimed at defining the phenotype of tumor-reactive T cells throughout myelomagenesis. To this end, we performed single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing of bone marrow T cells in MM and its precursor states, both in patients and experimental mouse models of spontaneous disease progression.