Project description:Metastatic uveal melanoma generally responds poorly to immunotherapy. The aim here was to sequence tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from uveal melanoma metastases to study their phenotypes and T-cell receptor (TCR) clonotypes. We performed paired single-cell transcriptome and TCR sequencing using the 10x Genomics platform of IL2-expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from 7 liver and 1 subcutaneous metastasis.
Project description:Uveal melanoma is an aggressive cancer that metastasizes to the liver in about half of patients, being at that time almost always fatal. Identification of patients at high risk of metastases may provide indication for a frequent follow-up for early detection of metastases and treatment. The analysis of the gene expression profiling of primary human uveal melanomas showed high expression of SDCBP (encoding for syndecan-binding protein-1 or syntenin-1), which appeared higher in patients with recurrence, whereas expression of syndecans was lower and unrelated to progression. Moreover, we found that high expression of SDCBP gene was related to metastatic progression in two additional independent dataset of uveal melanoma patients. More importantly, immunohistochemistry showed that high expression of syntenin-1 protein in primary tumours was significantly related to metastatic recurrence in our cohort of patients. Syntenin-1 expression was confirmed by RT-PCR, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry in cultured uveal melanoma cells or primary tumours. A pseudo-metastatic model of uveal melanoma to the liver was developed in NOD/SCID/IL2R null mice and the study of syntenin-1 expression in primary and metastatic lesions revealed higher syntenin-1 expression in metastases. The inhibition of SDCBP expression by siRNA impaired the ability of uveal melanoma cells to migrate in a woundâhealing assay. These results suggest that SDCBP is involved in uveal melanoma progression and that it represents a candidate molecular marker of metastases and a potential therapeutic target. Gene expression profiles of 29 unique samples from uveal melanoma patients were measured.
Project description:Adoptive T-cell Therapy (ACT) involves using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) isolated from metastatic melanoma and expanding them ex vivo prior to infusion into lympho-depleted patients. This is one of the most promising approaches to treat metastatic melanoma, with the rates of clinical response between 48-50% based on studies done at NCI, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX), and Sheba Medical Center (Tel Aviv, Israel). In the Phase II ACT Trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center , our group has uncovered an association between positive clinical response and the amount of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes expressing B and T Lymphocyte Attenuator (BTLA), a reported inhibitory receptor on T-cells. We used microarrays to detail the differences in the global programme of gene expression between CD8+BTLA+ vs CD8+BTLA- TILs in order to understand the molecular basis of the clinical association. TILs were isolated by enzymatically digest the melanoma tumor fragments obtained from Stage IIIc/IV melanoma patients at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The TILs were expanded with high-dose IL-2 for two weeks prior to sorting by FACS (fluoresecence-activated cell sorter) for CD8+BTLA+ and CD8+BTLA- susbets. RNA was extracted from each sorted subsets and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays
Project description:Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare form of melanoma with a genetics and immunology that is different from skin melanoma. Previous studies have identified genetic driver events of early stage disease when the tumor is confined to the eye. In this study, we have characterized genomic events in UM metastases using whole-genome and RNA sequencing from thirty-two and twenty-eight patients, respectively, and profiled individual tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in a number of the metastases. We find that 91% of the patients have metastases carrying inactivating events in the tumor suppressor BAP1 and this coincided with somatic alterations in GNAQ, GNA11, CYSLTR2, PLCB4, SF3B1 and/or CDKN2A. Mutational signature analysis revealed a rare subset of tumors with prominent signs of UV damage, associated with outlier mutational burden. We study copy number variations (CNV) and find overrepresented events, some of which were not altered in matched primary eye tumors. A focused siRNA screen identified functionally significant genes of some of the segments recurrently gained. We reintroduced a functional copy of BAP1 into a patient-derived BAP1 deficient tumor cell line and found broad transcriptomic changes of genes associated with subtype distinction and prognosis in primary UM. Lastly, our analysis of the immune microenvironments of metastases revealed a presence of tumor-reactive T cells. However, a large fraction expressed the immune checkpoint receptors such as TIM-3, TIGIT and LAG3. These results provide an updated view of genomic events represented in metastatic UM and immune interactions in advanced lesions.
Project description:Adoptive T-cell Therapy (ACT) involves using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) isolated from metastatic melanoma and expanding them ex vivo prior to infusion into lympho-depleted patients. This is one of the most promising approaches to treat metastatic melanoma, with the rates of clinical response between 48-50% based on studies done at NCI, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX), and Sheba Medical Center (Tel Aviv, Israel). In the Phase II ACT Trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center , our group has uncovered an association between positive clinical response and the amount of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes expressing B and T Lymphocyte Attenuator (BTLA), a reported inhibitory receptor on T-cells. We used microarrays to detail the differences in the global programme of gene expression between CD8+BTLA+ vs CD8+BTLA- TILs in order to understand the molecular basis of the clinical association.
Project description:Uveal melanoma is an aggressive cancer that metastasizes to the liver in about half of patients, being at that time almost always fatal. Identification of patients at high risk of metastases may provide indication for a frequent follow-up for early detection of metastases and treatment. The analysis of the gene expression profiling of primary human uveal melanomas showed high expression of SDCBP (encoding for syndecan-binding protein-1 or syntenin-1), which appeared higher in patients with recurrence, whereas expression of syndecans was lower and unrelated to progression. Moreover, we found that high expression of SDCBP gene was related to metastatic progression in two additional independent dataset of uveal melanoma patients. More importantly, immunohistochemistry showed that high expression of syntenin-1 protein in primary tumours was significantly related to metastatic recurrence in our cohort of patients. Syntenin-1 expression was confirmed by RT-PCR, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry in cultured uveal melanoma cells or primary tumours. A pseudo-metastatic model of uveal melanoma to the liver was developed in NOD/SCID/IL2R null mice and the study of syntenin-1 expression in primary and metastatic lesions revealed higher syntenin-1 expression in metastases. The inhibition of SDCBP expression by siRNA impaired the ability of uveal melanoma cells to migrate in a wound–healing assay. These results suggest that SDCBP is involved in uveal melanoma progression and that it represents a candidate molecular marker of metastases and a potential therapeutic target.
Project description:CD8+ T cells are the primary target of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy in the treatment of melanoma. ICI therapy only benefits a subset of patients and complicating this issue is a reliable prediction method that does not require invasive biopsies. In the hope of remedying this challenge, we conducted single-cell transcriptomic analyses of CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes (CD8-mPBLs) and, importantly, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (CD8-mTILs) from 8 patients with metastatic melanoma.
Project description:Metastatic uveal melanoma is less well understood than its primary counterpart, has a distinct biology compared to skin melanoma and lacks effective treatments. Here we genomically profile metastatic tumors and infiltrating lymphocytes. BAP1 alterations were overrepresented and occurred in 29/32 of cases. An outlier tumor had high mutational burden associated with UV-damage. CDKN2A deletions also occurred, which are rarely present in primaries. We profiled recurrent copy number alterations associated with metastasis and performed a focused knockdown screen on overexpressed targets. We investigated the role of BAP1 by reintroducing a functional allele into a deficient patient-derived cell line, revealing a broad shift towards a transcriptomic subtype associated with better prognosis. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were in several cases tumor-reactive, but expression of the immune checkpoint receptors TIM-3, TIGIT and LAG3 was abundant. This study represents the largest whole-genome analysis of uveal melanoma to date and presents an updated view of the metastatic disease.
Project description:Despite advances in surgery and radiotherapy of uveal melanoma (UM), many patients develop distant metastases that poorly respond to therapy. Improved therapies for the metastatic disease are therefore urgently needed. Expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a target of kinase inhibitors and humanized antibodies in use for several cancers, had been reported. 48 human UMs were analyzed by expression profiling. Evidence for signaling in tumors was obtained through the application of a UM-specific EGF signature. The EGFR specific kinase inhibitor, Gefitinib, and the humanized monoclonal antibody, Cetuximab, were tested for their effect on EGFR signaling. Natural killer cell mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and TNF-alpha release was analyzed for Cetuximab. EGFR appears suited as a novel molecular drug target for therapy of uveal melanoma. Gene expression profiles of 19 unique samples from uveal melanoma patients were measured.