Browsing by Subject "Cancer immunotherapy"
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Item Acoustofluidic assembly of primary tumor-derived organotypic cell clusters for rapid evaluation of cancer immunotherapy(BMC, 2023-02-04) Wu, Zhuhao; Ao, Zheng; Cai, Hongwei; Li, Xiang; Chen, Bin; Tu, Honglei; Wang, Yijie; Lu, Rongze Olivia; Gu, Mingxia; Cheng, Liang; Lu, Xin; Guo, Feng; Medicine, School of MedicineCancer immunotherapy shows promising potential for treating breast cancer. While patients may have heterogeneous treatment responses for adjuvant therapy, it is challenging to predict an individual patient’s response to cancer immunotherapy. Here, we report primary tumor-derived organotypic cell clusters (POCCs) for rapid and reliable evaluation of cancer immunotherapy. By using a label-free, contactless, and highly biocompatible acoustofluidic method, hundreds of cell clusters could be assembled from patient primary breast tumor dissociation within 2 min. Through the incorporation of time-lapse living cell imaging, the POCCs could faithfully recapitulate the cancer-immune interaction dynamics as well as their response to checkpoint inhibitors. Superior to current tumor organoids that usually take more than two weeks to develop, the POCCs can be established and used for evaluation of cancer immunotherapy within 12 h. The POCCs can preserve the cell components from the primary tumor due to the short culture time. Moreover, the POCCs can be assembled with uniform fabricate size and cell composition and served as an open platform for manipulating cell composition and ratio under controlled treatment conditions with a short turnaround time. Thus, we provide a new method to identify potentially immunogenic breast tumors and test immunotherapy, promoting personalized cancer therapy.Item Atractylenolide I enhances responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade therapy by activating tumor antigen presentation(The American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2021-05-17) Xu, Hanchen; Van der Jeught, Kevin; Zhou, Zhuolong; Zhang, Lu; Yu, Tao; Sun, Yifan; Li, Yujing; Wan, Changlin; So, Ka Man; Liu, Degang; Frieden, Michael; Fang, Yuanzhang; Mosley, Amber L.; He, Xiaoming; Zhang, Xinna; Sandusky, George E.; Liu, Yunlong; Meroueh, Samy O.; Zhang, Chi; Wijeratne, Aruna B.; Huang, Cheng; Ji, Guang; Lu, Xiongbin; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineOne of the primary mechanisms of tumor cell immune evasion is the loss of antigenicity, which arises due to lack of immunogenic tumor antigens as well as dysregulation of the antigen processing machinery. In a screen for small-molecule compounds from herbal medicine that potentiate T cell–mediated cytotoxicity, we identified atractylenolide I (ATT-I), which substantially promotes tumor antigen presentation of both human and mouse colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and thereby enhances the cytotoxic response of CD8+ T cells. Cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) with multiplexed quantitative mass spectrometry identified the proteasome 26S subunit non–ATPase 4 (PSMD4), an essential component of the immunoproteasome complex, as a primary target protein of ATT-I. Binding of ATT-I with PSMD4 augments the antigen-processing activity of immunoproteasome, leading to enhanced MHC-I–mediated antigen presentation on cancer cells. In syngeneic mouse CRC models and human patient–derived CRC organoid models, ATT-I treatment promotes the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells and thus profoundly enhances the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Collectively, we show here that targeting the function of immunoproteasome with ATT-I promotes tumor antigen presentation and empowers T cell cytotoxicity, thus elevating the tumor response to immunotherapy.Item Author Correction: α-Galactosylceramide and its analog OCH differentially affect the pathogenesis of ISO-induced cardiac injury in mice(Springer Nature, 2022) Chen, Xin; Liu, Jie; Liu, Jie; Wang, Wen-Jia; Lai, Wen-Jing; Li, Shu-Hui; Deng, Ya-Fei; Zhou, Jian-Zhi; Yang, Sheng-Qian; Liu, Ying; Shou, Wei-Nian; Cao, Da-Yan; Li, Xiao-Hui; Pediatrics, School of MedicineThis corrects the article "α-Galactosylceramide and its analog OCH differentially affect the pathogenesis of ISO-induced cardiac injury in mice" in volume 41 on page 1416.Item Characterization of intratumor microbiome in cancer immunotherapy(Elsevier, 2023-07-12) Zhang, Zhao; Gao, Qian; Ren, Xiangmei; Luo, Mei; Liu, Yuan; Liu, Peilin; Liu, Yun; Ye, Youqiong; Che, Xiang; Liu, Hong; Han, Leng; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineItem Engineering chimeric antigen receptor neutrophils from human pluripotent stem cells for targeted cancer immunotherapy(Cell Press, 2022) Chang, Yun; Syahirah, Ramizah; Wang, Xuepeng; Jin, Gyuhyung; Torregrosa-Allen, Sandra; Elzey, Bennett D.; Hummel, Sydney N.; Wang, Tianqi; Li, Can; Lian, Xiaojun; Deng, Qing; Broxmeyer, Hal E.; Bao, Xiaoping; Microbiology and Immunology, School of MedicineNeutrophils, the most abundant white blood cells in circulation, are closely related to cancer development and progression. Healthy primary neutrophils present potent cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines through direct contact and via generation of reactive oxygen species. However, due to their short half-life and resistance to genetic modification, neutrophils have not yet been engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to enhance their antitumor cytotoxicity for targeted immunotherapy. Here, we genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells with synthetic CARs and differentiated them into functional neutrophils by implementing a chemically defined platform. The resulting CAR neutrophils present superior and specific cytotoxicity against tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, we established a robust platform for massive production of CAR neutrophils, paving the way to myeloid cell-based therapeutic strategies that would boost current cancer-treatment approaches.Item Evaluation of cancer immunotherapy using mini-tumor chips(Ivyspring International, 2022-05-01) Ao, Zheng; Cai, Hongwei; Wu, Zhuhao; Hu, Liya; Li, Xiang; Kaurich, Connor; Gu, Mingxia; Cheng, Liang; Lu, Xin; Guo, Feng; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of MedicineRationale: Predicting tumor responses to adjuvant therapies can potentially help guide treatment decisions and improve patient survival. Currently, tumor pathology, histology, and molecular profiles are being integrated into personalized profiles to guide therapeutic decisions. However, it remains a grand challenge to evaluate tumor responses to immunotherapy for personalized medicine. Methods: We present a microfluidics-based mini-tumor chip approach to predict tumor responses to cancer immunotherapy in a preclinical model. By uniformly infusing dissociated tumor cells into isolated microfluidic well-arrays, 960 mini-tumors could be uniformly generated on-chip, with each well representing the ex vivo tumor niche that preserves the original tumor cell composition and dynamic cell-cell interactions and autocrine/paracrine cytokines. Results: By incorporating time-lapse live-cell imaging, our mini-tumor chip allows the investigation of dynamic immune-tumor interactions as well as their responses to cancer immunotherapy (e.g., anti-PD1 treatment) in parallel within 36 hours. Additionally, by establishing orthotopic breast tumor models with constitutive differential PD-L1 expression levels, we showed that the on-chip interrogation of the primary tumor's responses to anti-PD1 as early as 10 days post tumor inoculation could predict the in vivo tumors' responses to anti-PD1 at the endpoint of day 24. We also demonstrated the application of this mini-tumor chip to interrogate on-chip responses of primary tumor cells isolated from primary human breast and renal tumor tissues. Conclusions: Our approach provides a simple, quick-turnaround solution to measure tumor responses to cancer immunotherapy.Item Identification of Hypoxia-ALCAMhigh Macrophage- Exhausted T Cell Axis in Tumor Microenvironment Remodeling for Immunotherapy Resistance(Wiley, 2024) Xun, Zhenzhen; Zhou, Huanran; Shen, Mingyi; Liu, Yao; Sun, Chengcao; Du, Yanhua; Jiang, Zhou; Yang, Liuqing; Zhang, Qing; Lin, Chunru; Hu, Qingsong; Ye, Youqiong; Han, Leng; Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of MedicineAlthough hypoxia is known to be associated with immune resistance, the adaptability to hypoxia by different cell populations in the tumor microenvironment and the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. This knowledge gap has hindered the development of therapeutic strategies to overcome tumor immune resistance induced by hypoxia. Here, bulk, single‐cell, and spatial transcriptomics are integrated to characterize hypoxia associated with immune escape during carcinogenesis and reveal a hypoxia‐based intercellular communication hub consisting of malignant cells, ALCAM high macrophages, and exhausted CD8+ T cells around the tumor boundary. A hypoxic microenvironment promotes binding of HIF‐1α complex is demonstrated to the ALCAM promoter therefore increasing its expression in macrophages, and the ALCAM high macrophages co‐localize with exhausted CD8+ T cells in the tumor spatial microenvironment and promote T cell exhaustion. Preclinically, HIF‐1ɑ inhibition reduces ALCAM expression in macrophages and exhausted CD8+ T cells and potentiates T cell antitumor function to enhance immunotherapy efficacy. This study reveals the systematic landscape of hypoxia at single‐cell resolution and spatial architecture and highlights the effect of hypoxia on immunotherapy resistance through the ALCAM high macrophage‐exhausted T cell axis, providing a novel immunotherapeutic strategy to overcome hypoxia‐induced resistance in cancers.Item In-situ cryo-immune engineering of tumor microenvironment with cold-responsive nanotechnology for cancer immunotherapy(Springer Nature, 2023-01-24) Ou, Wenquan; Stewart, Samantha; White, Alisa; Kwizera, Elyahb A.; Xu, Jiangsheng; Fang, Yuanzhang; Shamul, James G.; Xie, Changqing; Nurudeen, Suliat; Tirada, Nikki P.; Lu, Xiongbin; Tkaczuk, Katherine H. R.; He, Xiaoming; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineCancer immunotherapy that deploys the host’s immune system to recognize and attack tumors, is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. However, its efficacy is greatly restricted by the immunosuppressive (i.e., immunologically cold) tumor microenvironment (TME). Here, we report an in-situ cryo-immune engineering (ICIE) strategy for turning the TME from immunologically “cold” into “hot”. In particular, after the ICIE treatment, the ratio of the CD8+ cytotoxic T cells to the immunosuppressive regulatory T cells is increased by more than 100 times in not only the primary tumors with cryosurgery but also distant tumors without freezing. This is achieved by combining cryosurgery that causes “frostbite” of tumor with cold-responsive nanoparticles that not only target tumor but also rapidly release both anticancer drug and PD-L1 silencing siRNA specifically into the cytosol upon cryosurgery. This ICIE treatment leads to potent immunogenic cell death, which promotes maturation of dendritic cells and activation of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells as well as memory T cells to kill not only primary but also distant/metastatic breast tumors in female mice (i.e., the abscopal effect). Collectively, ICIE may enable an efficient and durable way to leverage the immune system for combating cancer and its metastasis.Item Lysosomal acid lipase, CSF1R, and PD-L1 determine functions of CD11c+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells(The American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2022-09-08) Zhao, Ting; Liu, Sheng; Ding, Xinchun; Johnson, Erica M.; Hanna, Nasser H.; Singh, Kanhaiya; Sen, Chandan K.; Wan, Jun; Du, Hong; Yan, Cong; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of MedicineLysosomal acid lipase (LAL) is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway of neutral lipids. In the blood of LAL-deficient (Lal-/-) mice, increased CD11c+ cells were accompanied by upregulated programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. Single-cell RNA sequencing of Lal-/- CD11c+ cells identified 2 distinctive clusters with a major metabolic shift toward glucose utilization and reactive oxygen species overproduction. Pharmacologically blocking pyruvate dehydrogenase in glycolysis not only reduced CD11c+ cells and their PD-L1 expression but also reversed their capabilities of T cell suppression and tumor growth stimulation. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) played an essential role in controlling Lal-/- CD11c+ cell homeostasis and function and PD-L1 expression. Pharmacological inhibition of LAL activity increased CD11c, PD-L1, and CSF1R levels in both normal murine myeloid cells and human blood cells. Tumor-bearing mice and human patients with non-small cell lung cancer also showed CD11c+ cell expansion with PD-L1 and CSF1R upregulation and immunosuppression. There were positive correlations among CD11c, PD-L1, and CSF1R expression and negative correlations with LAL expression in patients with lung cancer or melanoma using The Cancer Genome Atlas database and patient samples. Therefore, CD11c+ cells switched their functions to immune suppression and tumor growth stimulation through CSF1R/PD-L1 upregulation and metabolic reprogramming.Item MAL2 drives immune evasion in breast cancer by suppressing tumor antigen presentation(The American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2021-01-07) Fang, Yuanzhang; Wang, Lifei; Wan, Changlin; Sun, Yifan; Van der Jeught, Kevin; Zhou, Zhuolong; Dong, Tianhan; So, Ka Man; Yu, Tao; Li, Yujing; Eyvani, Haniyeh; Colter, Austyn B.; Dong, Edward; Cao, Sha; Wang, Jin; Schneider, Bryan P.; Sandusky, George E.; Liu, Yunlong; Zhang, Chi; Lu, Xiongbin; Zhang, Xinna; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineImmune evasion is a pivotal event in tumor progression. To eliminate human cancer cells, current immune checkpoint therapy is set to boost CD8+ T cell-mediated cytotoxicity. However, this action is eventually dependent on the efficient recognition of tumor-specific antigens via T cell receptors. One primary mechanism by which tumor cells evade immune surveillance is to downregulate their antigen presentation. Little progress has been made toward harnessing potential therapeutic targets for enhancing antigen presentation on the tumor cell. Here, we identified MAL2 as a key player that determines the turnover of the antigen-loaded MHC-I complex and reduces the antigen presentation on tumor cells. MAL2 promotes the endocytosis of tumor antigens via direct interaction with the MHC-I complex and endosome-associated RAB proteins. In preclinical models, depletion of MAL2 in breast tumor cells profoundly enhanced the cytotoxicity of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells and suppressed breast tumor growth, suggesting that MAL2 is a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer immunotherapy.