Gene expression profile at single cell level of non-malignant cells in KRAS syngeniec mouse tumor models harboring STK11 and/or KEAP1 co-muation
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ABSTRACT: STK11/LKB1 and KEAP1 mutations are associated with immunotherapy resistance. We employed KRAS syngeneic mouse cells (K) and generated KEAP1 loss (KK) or STK11/KEAP1 loss (KLK) by CRISPR/KO. Then we injected these tumor cells and collected the tumor for single-cell RNA-seq. Our aim is to analyze the impact of STK11 and/or KEAP1 deficiency on the immune microenvironment.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of BL/6 mice harboring a mutant Kras allele, with or without knockouts of Stk11 and/or Keap1, or with expression of an Nfe2l2 transgene, Nrf2Tg. In lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), stabilization of the transcription factor NRF2 through genomic alterations in KEAP1 and NFE2L2 occurs in roughly a quarter of patients, often in the context of STK11 tumor suppressor loss. In this study, we demonstrate that NRF2 activation in the context of concurrent KRAS mutation and STK11 loss promotes aggressive LUAD tumor behavior in both human and mouse preclinical models. This phenotype is associated with metabolic rewiring and rescue by NRF2 of redox stress, high in STK11 null tumors. Applying a novel, pan-lung cancer, diagnostic NRF2 activation gene expression signature that is independent of frequently co-occurring mutations, we dissect the independent contributions of the three most frequent genetic events in human LUAD (NRF2 activation, STK11 loss and KRAS mutations) on patient prognosis and clinical responses in a dataset of second-line LUAD patients treated with immunotherapy or chemotherapy (OAK trial). Our findings underscore that both individual effects and epistatic relationships among oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways influence tumor biology, immune contexture and patient clinical outcomes. Our work also highlights the value of lung cancer disease sub-classification based on genetic and expression profiling as part of patient clinical management.
Project description:Mutations in STK11/LKB1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are associated with poor patient responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and introduction of a Stk11/Lkb1 (L) mutation into murine lung adenocarcinomas driven by mutant Kras and Trp53 loss (KP) resulted in an ICB refractory syngeneic KPL tumor. Mechanistically this occurred because KPL mutant NSCLCs lacked TCF1-expressing CD8 T cells, a phenotype recapitulated in human STK11/LKB1 mutant NSCLCs. Systemic inhibition of Axl results in increased type I interferon secretion from dendritic cells that expanded tumor-associated TCF1+ PD-1+ CD8 T cells, restoring therapeutic response to PD-1 ICB for KPL tumors. This was observed in syngeneic immunocompetent mouse models and in humanized mice bearing STK11/LKB1 mutant NSCLC human tumor xenografts. NSCLC patients with identified STK11/LKB1 mutations receiving bemcentinib and pembrolizumab demonstrated objective clinical response to combination therapy. We conclude that AXL is a critical targetable driver of immune suppression in STK11/LKB1 mutant NSCLC.
Project description:InactivatingSTK11/KEAP1 co-mutations are genomic drivers of primary resistance totherapies and worse outcome in KRAS-mutatedlung adenocarcinoma(LUAD), however the underlying mechanisms is still not understood.Here we provide a transcriptomic analysis of over 3800 “real-world” LUAD cases that concomitant loss of STK11 and KEAP1 in a KRAS-mutant tumorleads to significant upregulation of fatty acid metabolism, and redox signaling pathways with significantly high expression of ferroptosis evasion genes, SCD1 and SLC7A11. Global transcriptomics and kinase arrays demonstrate the role SCD1 in regulating AKT/GSK3β/NRF2 signaling mediated modulation of SLC7A11 and GSH metabolism. Furthermore, in a lipidomic assay, SCD1 knockout led to regulation of SFA-MUFA levels that promoted ferroptosis. SCD1 inhibition reverses the resistance to ferroptosis induction promoted by STK11/KEAP1 loss inmouse models. These data provide evidence that SCD1 protects ferroptosis induction and therapeutic targeting of this pathway is a promising translational strategy in KRAS mutant LUADs with concomitant loss ofSTK11 and KEAP1.
Project description:HCC515 lung cells with dox-inducible KEAP1 knockdown and/or STK11 re-addition, under two different metabolic stress conditions, baseline vs. suspension, were transcriptionally profiled to investigate whether KEAP1 knockdown can rescue metabolic defects in STK11-null cancer cells and how the regulation of the transcriptome by KEAP1 knockdown is affected by STK11 status and different metabolic stress conditions. In lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), stabilization of the transcription factor NRF2 through genomic alterations in KEAP1 and NFE2L2 occurs in roughly a quarter of patients, often in the context of STK11 tumor suppressor loss. In this study, we demonstrate that NRF2 activation in the context of concurrent KRAS mutation and STK11 loss promotes aggressive LUAD tumor behavior in both human and mouse preclinical models. This phenotype is associated with metabolic rewiring and rescue by NRF2 of redox stress, high in STK11 null tumors. Applying a novel, pan-lung cancer, diagnostic NRF2 activation gene expression signature that is independent of frequently co-occurring mutations, we dissect the independent contributions of the three most frequent genetic events in human LUAD (NRF2 activation, STK11 loss and KRAS mutations) on patient prognosis and clinical responses in a dataset of second-line LUAD patients treated with immunotherapy or chemotherapy (OAK trial). Our findings underscore that both individual effects and epistatic relationships among oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways influence tumor biology, immune contexture and patient clinical outcomes. Our work also highlights the value of lung cancer disease sub-classification based on genetic and expression profiling as part of patient clinical management.
Project description:STK11/LKB1 mutation is a primary driver for immunotherapy resistance. We employed KRAS/LKB1 syngeneic mouse models by injecting tumor cells with Kras mutation, Kras/Stk11 mutation and MCT4 knockout. We used single-cell RNA-seq to analyze the impact of LKB1 deficiency on the immune microenvironment.
Project description:The myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) frequently progress to blast phase disease, an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia. To identify genes that suppress disease progression, we performed a focused CRISPR/Cas9 screen and discovered that depletion of LKB1/Stk11 led to enhanced in vitro self-renewal of murine MPN cells. Deletion of Stk11 in a mouse MPN model caused rapid lethality with enhanced fibrosis, osteosclerosis, and an accumulation of immature cells in the bone marrow, as well as enhanced engraftment of primary human MPN cells in vivo. LKB1 loss was associated with increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and stabilization of HIF1α, and downregulation of LKB1 and increased levels of HIF1α were observed in human blast phase MPN specimens. Of note, we observed strong concordance of pathways that were enriched in murine MPN cells with LKB1 loss with those enriched in blast phase MPN patient specimens, supporting the conclusion that STK11 is a tumor suppressor in the MPNs.
Project description:We investigated how selective mutation in STK11 or KEAP1 alters the transcriptional profile of cancer cells, and how the transcriptional profile of co-mutant cells might uniquely affect cancer-related pathways including control of proliferative potential, metabolic homeostasis, and cell death. We performed bulk RNAseq on none, single or double mutation of these genes in single cell knockout clones (n=3 per group) from both H358 and H292 cell lines.
Project description:Germline mutations in LKB1 (STK11) are associated with the Peutz–Jeghers syndrome (PJS), which includes aberrant mucocutaneous pigmentation, and somatic LKB1 mutations occur in 10% of cutaneous melanoma. By somatically inactivating Lkb1 with K-Ras activation (+/- p53 loss) in murine melanocytes, we observed variably pigmented and highly metastatic melanoma with 100% penetrance. LKB1 deficiency resulted in increased phosphorylation of the SRC-family kinase (SFK) YES and the subsequent expansion of a CD24+ cell population which showed increased metastatic behavior in vitro and in vivo relative to isogenic CD24- cells. These results suggest that LKB1 inactivation in the context of RAS activation facilitates metastasis by inducing a SFK-dependent expansion of a pro-metastatic, CD24+ tumor sub-population reference x sample
Project description:We performed RNA-sequencing of mouse cells derived from colony forming assays (CFA) to evaluate the transcriptome of MPN cells with deletion of the tumor suppressor STK11/LKB1 and relative controls. The CFA are from mouse primary floxed STK11 hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) transduced with retroviruses encoding the MPN mutation MPLW515L and CRE recombinase to delete STK11.
Project description:Germline mutations in LKB1 (STK11) are associated with the Peutz–Jeghers syndrome (PJS), which includes aberrant mucocutaneous pigmentation, and somatic LKB1 mutations occur in 10% of cutaneous melanoma. By somatically inactivating Lkb1 with K-Ras activation (+/- p53 loss) in murine melanocytes, we observed variably pigmented and highly metastatic melanoma with 100% penetrance. LKB1 deficiency resulted in increased phosphorylation of the SRC-family kinase (SFK) YES and the subsequent expansion of a CD24+ cell population which showed increased metastatic behavior in vitro and in vivo relative to isogenic CD24- cells. These results suggest that LKB1 inactivation in the context of RAS activation facilitates metastasis by inducing a SFK-dependent expansion of a pro-metastatic, CD24+ tumor sub-population