| 1. |
- Blumel, Edda, et al.
(författare)
-
Staphylococcal alpha-toxin tilts the balance between malignant and non-malignant CD4+ T cells in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Oncoimmunology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2162-4011 .- 2162-402X. ; 8:11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Staphylococcus aureus is implicated in disease progression in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Here, we demonstrate that malignant T cell lines derived from CTCL patients as well as primary malignant CD4+ T cells from Sézary syndrome patients are considerably more resistant to alpha-toxin-induced cell death than their non-malignant counterparts. Thus, in a subset of Sézary syndrome patients the ratio between malignant and non-malignant CD4+ T cells increases significantly following exposure to alpha-toxin. Whereas toxin-induced cell death is ADAM10 dependent in healthy CD4+ T cells, resistance to alpha-toxin in malignant T cells involves both downregulation of ADAM10 as well as other resistance mechanisms. In conclusion, we provide first evidence that Staphylococcus aureus derived alpha-toxin can tilt the balance between malignant and non-malignant CD4+ T cells in CTCL patients. Consequently, alpha-toxin may promote disease progression through positive selection of malignant CD4+ T cells, identifying alpha-toxin as a putative drug target in CTCL.
|
|
| 2. |
- Kaffes, Ioannis, et al.
(författare)
-
Human Mesenchymal glioblastomas are characterized by an increased immune cell presence compared to Proneural and Classical tumors
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Oncoimmunology. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC. - 2162-4011 .- 2162-402X. ; 8:11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in adults, with a median survival of 14.6 months. Recent efforts have focused on identifying clinically relevant subgroups to improve our understanding of pathogenetic mechanisms and patient stratification. Concurrently, the role of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment has received increasing attention, especially T cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). The latter are a mixed population of activated brain-resident microglia and infiltrating monocytes/monocyte-derived macrophages, both of which express ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (IBA1). This study investigated differences in immune cell subpopulations among distinct transcriptional subtypes of GBM. Human GBM samples were molecularly characterized and assigned to Proneural, Mesenchymal or Classical subtypes as defined by NanoString nCounter Technology. Subsequently, we performed and analyzed automated immunohistochemical stainings for TAM as well as specific T cell populations. The Mesenchymal subtype of GBM showed the highest presence of TAM, CD8(+), CD3(+) and FOXP3(+) T cells, as compared to Proneural and Classical subtypes. High expression levels of the TAM-related gene AIF1, which encodes the TAM-specific protein IBA1, correlated with a worse prognosis in Proneural GBM, but conferred a survival benefit in Mesenchymal tumors. We used our data to construct a mathematical model that could reliably identify Mesenchymal GBM with high sensitivity using a combination of the aforementioned cell-specific IHC markers. In conclusion, we demonstrated that molecularly distinct GBM subtypes are characterized by profound differences in the composition of their immune microenvironment, which could potentially help to identify tumors amenable to immunotherapy.
|
|
| 3. |
- Kreutzman, Anna, et al.
(författare)
-
Immunological monitoring of newly diagnosed CML patients treated with bosutinib or imatinib first-line
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Oncoimmunology. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC. - 2162-4011 .- 2162-402X. ; 8:9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Changes in the immune system induced by tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have been shown to positively correlate with therapy responses in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, only a few longitudinal studies exist and no randomized comparisons between two TKIs have been reported. Therefore, we prospectively analyzed the immune system of newly diagnosed CML patients treated with imatinib (n = 20) or bosutinib (n = 13), that participated in the randomized BFORE trial (NCT02130557). Comprehensive immunophenotyping, plasma protein profiling, and functional assays to determine activation levels of T and NK cells were performed at diagnosis, 3, and 12 months after therapy start. All results were correlated with clinical parameters such as Sokal risk and BCR-ABL load measured according to IS%. At diagnosis, low Sokal risk CML patients had a higher frequency of cytotoxic cells (CD8 + T and NK cells), increased cytotoxic potential of NK cells and lower frequency of naive and central memory CD4 + T cells. Further, soluble plasma protein profile divided patients into two distinct clusters with different disease burden at diagnosis. During treatment, BCR-ABL IS% correlated with immunological parameters such as plasma proteins, together with different memory subsets of CD4+ and CD8 + T cells. Interestingly, the proportion and cytotoxic potential of NK cells together with several soluble proteins increased during imatinib treatment. In contrast, no major immunological changes were observed during bosutinib treatment. In conclusion, imatinib and bosutinib were shown to have differential effects on the immune system in this randomized clinical trial. Increased number and function of NK cells were especially observed during imatinib therapy.
|
|
| 4. |
- Radestad, Emelie, et al.
(författare)
-
Immune profiling and identification of prognostic immune-related risk factors in human ovarian cancer
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Oncoimmunology. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC. - 2162-4011 .- 2162-402X. ; 8:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Suppression of immune reactivity by increased expression of co-inhibitory receptors has been discussed as a major reason as to why the immune system fails to control tumor development. Elucidating the co-inhibitory expression pattern of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in different cancer types will help to develop future treatment strategies. We characterized markers reflecting and affecting T-cell functionality by flow cytometry on lymphocytes isolated from blood, ascites and tumor from advanced ovarian cancer patients (n = 35). Significantly higher proportions of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells expressed coinhibitory receptors LAG-3, PD-1 and TIM-3 in tumor and ascites compared to blood. Co-expression was predominantly observed among intratumoral CD8+ T-cells and the most common combination was PD-1 and TIM-3. Analysis of 26 soluble factors revealed highest concentrations of IP-10 and MCP-1 in both ascites and tumor. Correlating these results with clinical outcome revealed the proportion of CD8+ T-cells without expression of LAG-3, PD-1 and TIM-3 to be beneficial for overall survival. In total we identified eight immune-related risk factors associated with reduced survival. Ex vivo activation showed tumor-derived CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells to be functionally active, assessed by the production of IFN-gamma, IL-2, TNF-alpha, IL-17 and CD107a. Blocking the PD-1 receptor resulted in significantly increased release of IFN-. suggesting potential reinvigoration. The ovarian tumor environment exhibits an inflammatory milieu with abundant presence of infiltrating immune cells expressing inhibitory checkpoints. Importantly, we found subsets of CD8+ T-cells with double and triple expression of co-inhibitory receptors, supporting the need for multiple checkpoint-targeting agents to overcome T-cell dysfunction in ovarian cancer.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Berntsson, Jonna, et al.
(författare)
-
Pre-diagnostic anthropometry, sex, and risk of colorectal cancer according to tumor immune cell composition
- 2019
-
Ingår i: OncoImmunology. - 2162-4011. ; 8:12
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Obesity is a well-established risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC), but the association with the tumor microenvironment has been sparsely described. Herein, we examined the relationship between pre-diagnostic anthropometry and CRC risk according to tumor immune cell composition, with particular reference to potential sex differences. The density of different immune cell subsets was assessed by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays with tumors from 584 incident CRC cases in a prospective, population-based cohort (n = 28098). Multivariable Cox regression models, adjusted for age, smoking, alcohol intake, and educational level, were applied to calculate risk of immune marker-defined CRC in relation to quartiles of pre-diagnostic height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, waist-hip ratio (WHR), and body fat percentage (BFP). Obesity was all over significantly associated with risk of CRC with low density of FoxP3+ T cells and low programmed cell-death protein 1 (PD-L1) expression on tumor cells, but with high density of CD8+ T cells and CD20+ B cells. In women, obesity was significantly associated with risk of PD-L1 high tumors (p= 0.009 for weight, p= 0.039 for BMI). Contrastingly, in men, obesity defined by all anthropometric factors was significantly associated with PD-L1 low tumors (p= 0.005 for weight, p = 0.002 for BMI, p<0.001 for waist, p= 0.011 for hip, p<0.001 for WHR, and p= 0.004 for BFP). In summary, obesity appears to influence the immune landscape of CRC, possibly in a sex-dependent manner. Thus, anthropometry and sex may be important factors to take into account when assessing the prognostic or predictive value of relevant complementary immune biomarkers.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
