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Vlachonikola E, Stamatopoulos K, Chatzidimitriou A. T Cells in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: A Two-Edged Sword. Front Immunol 2021; 11:612244. [PMID: 33552073 PMCID: PMC7857025 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.612244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a malignancy of mature, antigen-experienced B lymphocytes. Despite great progress recently achieved in the management of CLL, the disease remains incurable, underscoring the need for further investigation into the underlying pathophysiology. Microenvironmental crosstalk has an established role in CLL pathogenesis and progression. Indeed, the malignant CLL cells are strongly dependent on interactions with other immune and non-immune cell populations that shape a highly orchestrated network, the tumor microenvironment (TME). The composition of the TME, as well as the bidirectional interactions between the malignant clone and the microenvironmental elements have been linked to disease heterogeneity. Mounting evidence implicates T cells present in the TME in the natural history of the CLL as well as in the establishment of certain CLL hallmarks e.g. tumor evasion and immune suppression. CLL is characterized by restrictions in the T cell receptor gene repertoire, T cell oligoclonal expansions, as well as shared T cell receptor clonotypes amongst patients, strongly alluding to selection by restricted antigenic elements of as yet undisclosed identity. Further, the T cells in CLL exhibit a distinctive phenotype with features of “exhaustion” likely as a result of chronic antigenic stimulation. This might be relevant to the fact that, despite increased numbers of oligoclonal T cells in the periphery, these cells are incapable of mounting effective anti-tumor immune responses, a feature perhaps also linked with the elevated numbers of T regulatory subpopulations. Alterations of T cell gene expression profile are associated with defects in both the cytoskeleton and immune synapse formation, and are generally induced by direct contact with the malignant clone. That said, these abnormalities appear to be reversible, which is why therapies targeting the T cell compartment represent a reasonable therapeutic option in CLL. Indeed, novel strategies, including CAR T cell immunotherapy, immune checkpoint blockade and immunomodulation, have come to the spotlight in an attempt to restore the functionality of T cells and enhance targeted cytotoxic activity against the malignant clone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisavet Vlachonikola
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Kostas Stamatopoulos
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Anastasia Chatzidimitriou
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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Ciabatti E, Valetto A, Bertini V, Ferreri MI, Guazzelli A, Grassi S, Guerrini F, Petrini I, Metelli MR, Caligo MA, Rossi S, Galimberti S. Myelodysplastic syndromes: advantages of a combined cytogenetic and molecular diagnostic workup. Oncotarget 2017; 8:79188-79200. [PMID: 29108298 PMCID: PMC5668031 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.16578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2016] [Accepted: 03/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study we present a new diagnostic workup for the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) including FISH, aCGH, and somatic mutation assays in addition to the conventional cytogenetics (CC). We analyzed 61 patients by CC, FISH for chromosome 5, 7, 8 and PDGFR rearrangements, aCGH, and PCR for ASXL1, EZH2, TP53, TET2, RUNX1, DNMT3A, SF3B1 somatic mutations. Moreover, we quantified WT1 and RPS14 gene expression levels, in order to find their possible adjunctive value and their possible clinical impact. CC analysis showed 32% of patients with at least one aberration. FISH analysis detected chromosomal aberrations in 24% of patients and recovered 5 cases (13.5%) at normal karyotype (two 5q- syndromes, one del(7) case, two cases with PDGFR rearrangement). The aGCH detected 10 "new" unbalanced cases in respect of the CC, including one with alteration of the ETV6 gene. After mutational analysis, 33 patients (54%) presented at least one mutation and represented the only marker of clonality in 36% of all patients. The statistical analysis confirmed the prognostic role of CC either on overall or on progression-free-survival. In addition, deletions detected by aCGH and WT1 over-expression negatively conditioned survival. In conclusion, our work showed that 1) the addition of FISH (at least for chr. 5 and 7) can improve the definition of the risk score; 2) mutational analysis, especially for the TP53 and SF3B1, could better define the type of MDS and represent a "clinical warning"; 3) the aCGH use could be probably applied to selected cases (with suboptimal response or failure).
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Ciabatti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.,GenOMec, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
| | - Angelo Valetto
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Veronica Bertini
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Maria Immacolata Ferreri
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alice Guazzelli
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Susanna Grassi
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.,GenOMec, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
| | - Francesca Guerrini
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Iacopo Petrini
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Maria Rita Metelli
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Maria Adelaide Caligo
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Simona Rossi
- Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy
| | - Sara Galimberti
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Hallek M. Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Exciting Times. Oncol Res Treat 2016; 39:8. [PMID: 26889878 DOI: 10.1159/000443821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2016] [Accepted: 01/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Hallek
- Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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