Project description:Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for ~90% of all cases of esophageal cancer and the sixth most common cause of cancer related death worldwide. 1, 2 It remains a globally challenging disease and mostly diagnosed cases requires a multidisciplinary approach with extensive treatments including surgery, chemoradiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. ESCC has a relatively high tumor mutational burden,3 suggesting that it could benefit from PD-1 blockade. Recently, three phase III clinical trials reported that PD-1 blockade significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) when combined with chemotherapy as first-line therapy in advanced/metastatic ESCC.4, 5 Moreover, in 2021 ASCO annual meeting, two phase II clinical trials reported that neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy (NACI) induced an obvious improvement of the pathologic complete response (pCR) for resectable ESCC (35. 3% and 42.5%, respectively). Several phase III trials on this topic are ongoing (NCT04807673, NCT04848753, NCT04280822) (https://clinicaltrial s.gov/ct2/show/NCT04807673), indicating that neoadjuvant NACI would become promising treatment for locally advanced ESCC. Nevertheless, not all ESCC patients could respond to NACI. Patients who responded well or poorly to neoadjuvant immunotherapy were treated with surgery. We collected samples from these patients and conducted single-cell sequencing to analyze the tumor immune microenvironment of patients with different therapeutic effects, compare the differences in immune cell composition in the immune microenvironment, and explore more effective neoadjuvant therapy methods.
Project description:Intra-tumour heterogeneity in lymphoid malignancies encompasses selection of genetic events and epigenetic regulation of transcriptional programs. Clonal-related neoplastic cell populations are unsteadily subjected to immune editing and metabolic adaptations within different tissue microenvironments. How tissue-specific mesenchymal cells impact on the diversification of aggressive lymphoma clones is still unknown. We investigated the intra-tumour heterogeneity and the specific mesenchymal modifications that are associated with A20 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cells seeding of different tissue microenvironments. We found that the tissue microenvironment casts a relevant influence over A20 transcriptional landscape also impacting on Myc and DNA damage response programs. Extending the investigation to mice deficient for the matricellular protein SPARC, a stromal prognostic factor in human DLBCL, we demonstrated a different immune imprint on A20 cells according to stromal Sparc proficiency.
Project description:Development of a vaccine formula that alters the tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes to be more immune active against a tumour is key to the improvement of clinical responses to immunotherapy. Here, we demonstrate that, in conjunction with E7 antigen specific immunotherapy, and IL-10 and PD-1 blockade, intra-tumoral administration of caerin 1.1 and 1.9 peptides further improves the tumour microenvironment (TME) when compared with injection of a control peptide. We used single cell transcriptomics and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to quantify changes in cellular activity across different cell types within the TME. We show that the injection of caerin 1.1/1.9 increases immune activating macrophages and NK cells, while reducing immunosuppressive macrophages with M2 phenotype, and increased numbers of activated CD8+ T cells with higher populations of memory and effector-memory CD8+ T subsets. Proteomic profiling demonstrated activation of Stat1 modulated apoptosis and production of nitric oxide. Further, computational integration of the proteome with the single cell transcriptome was consistent with deactivation of immune suppressive B cell function following caerin 1.1 and 1.9 treatment.
Project description:Metastatic ovarian tissues represent a complex tumour microenviroment. We analysed the tumour matrisome and immune cell environment in 39 metastatic ovarian tissues. We developed a disease score system, which positively correlated with the tumour matrisome. A distinct matrisome signature was identfied with increasing disease. Immune abundance and phenotype positively correaletd with tumour matrisome components. We developed a decellularised tissue model using metastatic ovarian omental tissues that maintained ECM protein content and architecture and cultured human blood-derived macrophages derived from four different donors. Monocytes cultured on high diseased tissues differerntiated into a distinct macrophage population, different from uninvovled (low disease) samples. Tumour ECM cultured macrophages had pro-tumorgenic phenotype and function.
Project description:Mild or transient dietary restriction (DR) improves many aspects of health and aging. Emerging evidence from us and others has demonstrated that DR also optimizes the development and quality of immune responses. However, the factors and mechanisms involved remain to be elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that DR-induced optimization of immunological memory requires co-operation between memory T cells, the intestinal microbiota, and myeloid cells. Our data indicate that DR enhances the ability of memory T cells to recruit and activate myeloid cells in the context of a secondary infection. Concomitantly, DR promotes expansion of the commensal Bifidobacteria within the large intestine, which supplies the short-chain fatty acid acetate to myeloid cells. Acetate conditioning of the myeloid compartment during DR enhances their capacity to kill pathogens. Enhanced host protection during DR is abolished when Bifidobacteria expansion is prevented, indicating that microbiota configuration and function critically dictates immune responsiveness to this dietary intervention. Altogether, DR induces both memory T cells and the gut microbiota to produce essential, distinct factors that converge on myeloid cells to promote optimal pathogen control. These findings reveal how nutritional cues promote adaptation and co-operation between multiple immune cells and the gut microbiota, which synergize to optimize immunity and protect the collective metaorganism.