Project description:Tumor cells orchestrate their microenvironment. Here, we provide biochemical, structural, functional and clinical evidence that Cathepsin S (CTSS) alterations induce a tumor-promoting immune microenvironment in follicular lymphoma (FL). We found CTSS mutations at Y132 in 6% of FL (19/305). Another 13% (37/286) had CTSS amplification, which was associated with higher CTSS expression. CTSS Y132 mutations lead to accelerated autocatalytic conversion from pro-CTSS to active CTSS and increase substrate cleavage, including CD74 which regulates MHC-II-restricted antigen presentation. Lymphoma cells with hyperactive CTSS more efficiently activated antigen-specific CD4+ T-cells in vitro. Tumors with hyperactive CTSS showed increased CD4+ T-cell infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine perturbation in a mouse model and in human FLs. In mice, this CTSS-induced immune microenvironment promoted tumor growth. Clinically, patients with CTSS-hyperactive FL had better treatment outcomes with standard immunochemotherapies, indicating that these immunosuppressive regimens target both the lymphoma cells and the tumor-promoting immune microenvironment. Digital multiplexed gene expression profiling of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of the GLSG2000 cohort was performed as previously described (Hellmuth et al., Blood 2018)
Project description:Tumor cells orchestrate their microenvironment. Here, we provide biochemical, structural, functional and clinical evidence that Cathepsin S (CTSS) alterations induce a tumor-promoting immune microenvironment in follicular lymphoma (FL). We found CTSS mutations at Y132 in 6% of FL (19/305). Another 13% (37/286) had CTSS amplification, which was associated with higher CTSS expression. CTSS Y132 mutations lead to accelerated autocatalytic conversion from pro-CTSS to active CTSS and increase substrate cleavage, including CD74 which regulates MHC-II-restricted antigen presentation. Lymphoma cells with hyperactive CTSS more efficiently activated antigen-specific CD4+ T-cells in vitro. Tumors with hyperactive CTSS showed increased CD4+ T-cell infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine perturbation in a mouse model and in human FLs. In mice, this CTSS-induced immune microenvironment promoted tumor growth. Clinically, patients with CTSS-hyperactive FL had better treatment outcomes with standard immunochemotherapies, indicating that these immunosuppressive regimens target both the lymphoma cells and the tumor-promoting immune microenvironment. Digital multiplexed gene expression profiling of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of the validation cohort was performed as previously described (Hellmuth et al., Blood 2018)
Project description:Transcriptomic profiling; Determination of the transcriptomic similarity between Egfr fl/fl and Met fl/fl progenitor cells isolated from excised livers (n=3, each)
Project description:Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a B-cell lymphoma with a complex tumor microenvironment that is rich in non-malignant immune cells. We applied single-cell RNA-sequencing to characterize the immune microenvironment of FL. This provides a classification framework of the FL microenvironment, their association with FL genotypes and antigen presentation, and informs different potential immunotherapeutic strategies.
Project description:Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a B-cell lymphoma with a complex tumor microenvironment that is rich in non-malignant immune cells. We applied single-cell RNA-sequencing to characterize the immune microenvironment of FL. This provides a classification framework of the FL microenvironment, their association with FL genotypes and antigen presentation, and informs different potential immunotherapeutic strategies.
Project description:Tumor cells can induce their own advantageous microenvironment. Here, we describe aberrant cathepsin S (CTSS) activity to modulate T-cell activation in follicular lymphoma (FL). In donor-derived FLs following bone marrow transplantation, we identified independent acquisition of CTSS mutations at Y132 in the donor´s and recipient's tumors. In a larger cohort, 6% of FL (20/312) harbored CTSS mutations, mostly Y132D, another 14% had CTSS amplification (40/280). Y132D leads to accelerated conversion from pro-CTSS to active CTSS and increased substrate cleavage, including CD74, which regulates MHC-II restricted antigen-presentation. In co-culture experiments, CTSS mutant lymphoma cells induced increased antigen-specific CD4+ T-cell activation. Moreover, antigen-processing was the top upregulated pathway in CTSS mutant primary FL biopsies. Thus, aberrant CTSS activity is a promising target in lymphoma.
Project description:Background Follicular lymphoma (FL), the most common indolent non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, is a heterogeneous disease and a paradigm of the contribution of immune tumor microenvironment to disease onset, progression, and therapy resistance. Patient-derived models are scarce and fail to reproduce immune phenotypes and therapeutic responses. Methods To capture disease heterogeneity and microenvironment cues, we developed a patient-derived lymphoma spheroid (FL-PDLS) model culturing FL cells from lymph nodes (LN) with an optimized cytokine cocktail that mimics LN stimuli and maintains tumor cell viability. Results FL-PDLS, mainly composed of tumor B cells (60% on average) and autologous T cells (13% CD4 and 3% CD8 on average, respectively), rapidly organizes into patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) structures of three different morphotypes according to 3D imaging analysis. RNAseq analysis indicates that FL-PDLS reproduces FL hallmarks with the overexpression of cell cycle, BCR, or mTOR signaling related gene sets. FL-PDLS also recapitulates the exhausted immune phenotype typical of FL-LN, including expression of BTLA, TIGIT, PD-1, TIM-3, CD39 and CD73 on CD3+ T cells. These features render FL-PDLS an amenable system for immunotherapy testing. With this aim, we demonstrate that the combination of obinutuzumab (anti-CD20) and nivolumab (anti-PD1) reduces tumor load in a significant proportion of FL-PDLS. Interestingly, B cell depletion inversely correlates with the percentage of CD8+ cells positive for PD-1 and TIM-3. Conclusions In summary, FL-PDLS is a robust patient-derived 3D system that can be used as a tool to mimic FL pathology and to test novel immunotherapeutic approaches in a context of personalized medicine.