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Daradoumis J, Müller MD, Neckermann P, Asbach B, Schrödel S, Thirion C, Wagner R, thor Straten P, Holst PJ, Boilesen D. Preferential Expansion of HPV16 E1-Specific T Cells from Healthy Donors' PBMCs after Ex Vivo Immunization with an E1E2E6E7 Fusion Antigen. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:5863. [PMID: 38136407 PMCID: PMC10741473 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15245863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is responsible for practically all cervical and a high proportion of anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers. Therapeutic HPV vaccines in clinical development show great promise in improving outcomes for patients who mount an anti-HPV T-cell response; however, far from all patients elicit a sufficient immunological response. This demonstrates a translational gap between animal models and human patients. Here, we investigated the potential of a new assay consisting of co-culturing vaccine-transduced dendritic cells (DCs) with syngeneic, healthy, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to mimic a human in vivo immunization. This new promising human ex vivo PBMC assay was evaluated using an innovative therapeutic adenovirus (Adv)-based HPV vaccine encoding the E1, E2, E6, and E7 HPV16 genes. This new method allowed us to show that vaccine-transduced DCs yielded functional effector T cells and unveiled information on immunohierarchy, showing E1-specific T-cell immunodominance over time. We suggest that this assay can be a valuable translational tool to complement the known animal models, not only for HPV therapeutic vaccines, and supports the use of E1 as an immunotherapeutic target. Nevertheless, the findings reported here need to be validated in a larger number of donors and preferably in patient samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana Daradoumis
- InProTher ApS, Bioinnovation Institute, Ole Maaløes Vej 3, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark; (M.D.M.); (P.J.H.)
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mikkel Dons Müller
- InProTher ApS, Bioinnovation Institute, Ole Maaløes Vej 3, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark; (M.D.M.); (P.J.H.)
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Patrick Neckermann
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Benedikt Asbach
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | | | | | - Ralf Wagner
- Institute of Medical Microbiology & Hygiene, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
- Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Hospital Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauß-Allee 11, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Per thor Straten
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2730 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Peter Johannes Holst
- InProTher ApS, Bioinnovation Institute, Ole Maaløes Vej 3, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark; (M.D.M.); (P.J.H.)
| | - Ditte Boilesen
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Loma Therapeutics ApS, Bioinnovation Institute, Ole Maaløes Vej 3, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
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Smahel M, Nunvar J. Bioinformatics analysis of immune characteristics in tumors with alternative carcinogenesis pathways induced by human papillomaviruses. Virol J 2023; 20:287. [PMID: 38049810 PMCID: PMC10696676 DOI: 10.1186/s12985-023-02241-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) induce a subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) and anogenital cancers, particularly cervical cancer (CC). The major viral proteins that contribute to tumorigenesis are the E6 and E7 oncoproteins, whose expression is usually enhanced after the integration of viral DNA into the host genome. Recently, an alternative tumorigenesis pathway has been suggested in approximately half of HNSCC and CC cases associated with HPV infection. This pathway is characterized by extrachromosomal HPV persistence and increased expression of the viral E2, E4, and E5 genes. The E6, E7, E5, and E2 proteins have been shown to modify the expression of numerous cellular immune-related genes. The antitumor immune response is a critical factor in the prognosis of HPV-driven cancers, and its characterization may contribute to the prediction and personalization of the increasingly used cancer immunotherapy. METHODS We analyzed the immune characteristics of HPV-dependent tumors and their association with carcinogenesis types. Transcriptomic HNSCC and CC datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas were used for this analysis. RESULTS Clustering with immune-related genes resulted in two clusters of HPV16-positive squamous cell carcinomas in both tumor types: cluster 1 had higher activation of immune responses, including stimulation of the antigen processing and presentation pathway, which was associated with higher immune cell infiltration and better overall survival, and cluster 2 was characterized by keratinization. In CC, the distribution of tumor samples into clusters 1 and 2 did not depend on the level of E2/E5 expression, but in HNSCC, most E2/E5-high tumors were localized in cluster 1 and E2/E5-low tumors in cluster 2. Further analysis did not reveal any association between the E2/E5 levels and the expression of immune-related genes. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that while the detection of immune responses associated with preserved expression of genes encoding components of antigen processing and presentation machinery in HPV-driven tumors may be markers of better prognosis and an important factor in therapy selection, the type of carcinogenesis does not seem to play a decisive role in the induction of antitumor immunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Smahel
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, BIOCEV, 252 50, Vestec, Czech Republic.
| | - Jaroslav Nunvar
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, BIOCEV, 252 50, Vestec, Czech Republic
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Conarty JP, Wieland A. The Tumor-Specific Immune Landscape in HPV+ Head and Neck Cancer. Viruses 2023; 15:1296. [PMID: 37376596 DOI: 10.3390/v15061296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the causative agent of several anogenital cancers as well as head and neck cancers, with HPV+ head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) becoming a rapidly growing public health issue in the Western world. Due its viral etiology and potentially its subanatomical location, HPV+ HNSCC exhibits an immune microenvironment which is more inflamed and thus distinct from HPV-negative HNSCC. Notably, the antigenic landscape in most HPV+ HNSCC tumors extends beyond the classical HPV oncoproteins E6/7 and is extensively targeted by both the humoral and cellular arms of the adaptive immune system. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of HPV-specific immune responses in patients with HPV+ HNSCC. We highlight the localization, antigen specificity, and differentiation states of humoral and cellular immune responses, and discuss their similarities and differences. Finally, we review currently pursued immunotherapeutic treatment modalities that attempt to harness HPV-specific immune responses for improving clinical outcomes in patients with HPV+ HNSCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob P Conarty
- Department of Otolaryngology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Andreas Wieland
- Department of Otolaryngology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
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