Peritumoral B cells drive proangiogenic responses in HMGB1-enriched esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Several B-cell subsets with distinct functions and polarized cytokine profiles that extend beyond antibody production have been reported in different cancers. Here we have demonstrated that proliferating B cells were predominantly found in the peritumoral region of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). These B cells were enriched in tumor nests with high expression of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). High densities of peritumoral proliferating B cells and concomitantly high intratumoral HMGB1 expression showed improved prognostic significance, surpassing prognostic stratification of ESCC patients based on HMGB1 positivity alone. This striking association led us to set up models to test whether cancer-derived HMGB1 could shape tumor microenvironment via modulation on B cells. Overexpression of HMGB1 in ESCC cell lines (KYSE510 and EC18) enhanced proliferation and migration of B cells. Transcriptomic analysis showed that migratory B cells exhibited high enrichment of proangiogenic genes. VEGF expression in proliferating B cells was induced upon co-culture of HMGB1-overexpressing tumor cells and B cells. Secretome array profiling of conditioned media (CM) from the co-culture revealed rich expression of proangiogenic proteins. Consequently, incubation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells with CM promoted angiogenesis in tube formation and migration assays. HMGB1 inhibitor, glycyrrhizin, abolishes all the observed proangiogenic phenotypes. Finally, co-injection of B cells and CM with HMGB1-overexpressing tumor cells, but not with glycyrrhizin, significantly enhanced tumor growth associated with increased microvascular density in ESCC xenograft mice model. Our results indicate that cancer-derived HMGB1 elevates angiogenesis in ESCC by shifting the balance toward proangiogenic signals in proliferating B cells.

Immune contexture analysis in immuno-oncology: applications and challenges of multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry.

The tumor microenvironment is an integral player in cancer initiation, tumor progression, response and resistance to anti-cancer therapy. Understanding the complex interactions of tumor immune architecture (referred to as 'immune contexture') has therefore become increasingly desirable to guide our approach to patient selection, clinical trial design, combination therapies, and patient management. Quantitative image analysis based on multiplexed fluorescence immunohistochemistry and deep learning technologies are rapidly developing to enable researchers to interrogate complex information from the tumor microenvironment and find predictive insights into treatment response. Herein, we discuss current developments in multiplexed fluorescence immunohistochemistry for immune contexture analysis, and their application in immuno-oncology, and discuss challenges to effectively use this technology in clinical settings. We also present a multiplexed image analysis workflow to analyse fluorescence multiplexed stained tumor sections using the Vectra Automated Digital Pathology System together with FCS express flow cytometry software. The benefit of this strategy is that the spectral unmixing accurately generates and analyses complex arrays of multiple biomarkers, which can be helpful for diagnosis, risk stratification, and guiding clinical management of oncology patients.

Tradeoff between metabolic i-proteasome addiction and immune evasion in triple-negative breast cancer.

In vitro studies have suggested proteasome inhibitors could be effective in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We found that bortezomib and carfilzomib induce proteotoxic stress and apoptosis via the unfolded protein response (UPR) in TNBC cell lines, with sensitivity correlated with expression of immuno-(PSMB8/9/10) but not constitutive-(PSMB5/6/7) proteasome subunits. Equally, the transcriptomes of i-proteasome-high human TNBCs are enriched with UPR gene sets, and the genomic copy number landscape reflects positive selection pressure favoring i-proteasome activity, but in the setting of adjuvant treatment, this is actually associated with favorable prognosis. Tumor expression of PSMB8 protein (ß5i) is associated with levels of MHC-I, interferon-γ-inducible proteasome activator PA28ß, and the densities of stromal antigen-presenting cells and lymphocytes (TILs). Crucially, TILs were protective among TNBCs that maintain high ß5i but did not stratify survival amongst ß5i-low TNBCs. Moreover, ß5i expression was lower in brain metastases than in patient-matched primary breast tumors (n = 34; P = 0.007), suggesting that suppression contributes to immune evasion and metastatic progression. Hence, inhibiting proteasome activity could be counterproductive in the adjuvant treatment setting because it potentiates anti-TNBC immunity.

Impact of pre-therapy glioblastoma multiforme microenvironment on clinical response to autologous CMV-specific T-cell therapy.

OBJECTIVES: Clinical response to antibody-based immunotherapies targeting checkpoint inhibitors is critically dependent on the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). However, the precise impact of the TIME on adoptive cellular immunotherapy remains unexplored. Here we have conducted a long-term follow-up analysis of patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) who were treated with autologous CMV-specific T-cell therapy to delineate the potential impact of the TIME on their clinical response. METHODS: Multiplexed immunohistochemical analysis of CD3, PD-L1 and Sox-2 in GBM tissue biopsies obtained before autologous T-cell therapy was carried out and correlated with long-term survival of GBM patients adoptively treated with T-cell therapy. RESULTS: Tumor microenvironment analyses revealed that the pre-treatment cellular composition of the tumor tissue may influence the subsequent response to adoptive T-cell therapy. GBM patients who showed prolonged overall survival following T-cell therapy had a significantly lower number of tumor-infiltrating CD3+ T cells in recurrent tumors than that in patients with short-term survival. Furthermore, long-term surviving patients showed low or undetectable PD-L1 expression in tumor cells in recurrent GBM biopsies. CONCLUSION: We hypothesise that lack of PD-L1-mediated immunosuppression in the TIME may allow efficient immune control following adoptive T-cell therapy. Future studies combining anti-PD-L1 or genetically modified T cells with PD-1 receptor knockdown could be considered to improve clinical responses in patients who have high PD-L1 expression in their tumors.

Hormone-sensing mammary epithelial progenitors: emerging identity and hormonal regulation.

The hormone-sensing mammary epithelial cell (HS-MEC-expressing oestrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) and progesterone receptor (PGR)) is often represented as being terminally differentiated and lacking significant progenitor activity after puberty. Therefore while able to profoundly influence the proliferation and function of other MEC populations, HS-MECs are purported not to respond to sex hormone signals by engaging in significant cell proliferation during adulthood. This is a convenient and practical simplification that overshadows the sublime, and potentially critical, phenotypic plasticity found within the adult HS-MEC population. This concept is exemplified by the large proportion (~80 %) of human breast cancers expressing PGR and/or ERα, demonstrating that HS-MECs clearly proliferate in the context of breast cancer. Understanding how HS-MEC proliferation and differentiation is driven could be key to unraveling the mechanisms behind uncontrolled HS-MEC proliferation associated with ERα- and/or PGR-positive breast cancers. Herein we review evidence for the existence of a HS-MEC progenitor and the emerging plasticity of the HS-MEC population in general. This is followed by an analysis of hormones other than oestrogen and progesterone that are able to influence HS-MEC proliferation and differentiation: androgens, prolactin and transforming growth factor-beta1.