CD16 expression on neutrophils predicts treatment efficacy of capecitabine in colorectal cancer patients

Susceptibility of Melanoma Cells to Targeted Therapy Correlates with Protection by Blood Neutrophils

Elevated levels of peripheral blood and tumor tissue neutrophils are associated with poorer clinical response and therapy resistance in melanoma. The underlying mechanism and the role of neutrophils in targeted therapy is still not fully understood. Serum samples of patients with advanced melanoma were collected and neutrophil-associated serum markers were measured and correlated with response to targeted therapy. Blood neutrophils from healthy donors and patients with advanced melanoma were isolated, and their phenotypes, as well as their in vitro functions, were compared. In vitro functional tests were conducted through nonadherent cocultures with melanoma cells. Protection of melanoma cell lines by neutrophils was assessed under MAPK inhibition. Blood neutrophils from advanced melanoma patients exhibited lower CD16 expression compared to healthy donors. In vitro, both healthy-donor- and patient-derived neutrophils prevented melanoma cell apoptosis upon dual MAPK inhibition. The effect depended on cell-cell contact and melanoma cell susceptibility to treatment. Interference with protease activity of neutrophils prevented melanoma cell protection during treatment in cocultures. The negative correlation between neutrophils and melanoma outcomes seems to be linked to a protumoral function of neutrophils. In vitro, neutrophils exert a direct protective effect on melanoma cells during dual MAPK inhibition. This study further hints at a crucial role of neutrophil-related protease activity in protection.

Tumor-associated neutrophils in pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains a challenge to modern-day cancer therapeutics, with a dismal five-year survival rate of 12%. Due to the pancreas's location and desmoplasia surrounding it, patients receive late diagnoses and fail to respond to chemotherapy regimens. Tumor-promoting inflammation, one of the emerging hallmarks of cancer, contributes to tumor cells' survival and proliferation. This inflammation often results from infiltrating leukocytes and pro-inflammatory cytokines released into the tumor microenvironment (TME). Neutrophils, one of our body's most prominent immune cells, are essential in sustaining the inflammation observed in the TME. Recent reports demonstrate that neutrophils are complicit in cancer progression and metastasis. Additionally, abundant data suggest that tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) could be considered as one of the emerging targets for multiple cancer types, including PC. This review will focus on the most recent updates regarding neutrophil recruitments and functions in the cancer microenvironment and the potential development of neutrophils-targeted putative therapeutic strategies in PC.

Implications of single-cell immune landscape of tumor microenvironment for the colorectal cancer diagnostics and therapy

Colorectal cancer (CRC) originates from the polyps lining the colon and is among the most common types of cancer. With the increasing popularity of single-cell sequencing technologies, researchers have been able to better understand the immune landscape of colorectal cancer, by analyzing their expression and interactions in detail with the tumor microenvironment (TME) at single-cell level. Since the tumor-immune cell interactions play a critical part in the advancement as well as treatment response in colorectal cancer, the release of inhibitory factors such as T cells are important for recognizing and destroying cancer cells. Such information is vital to identify immunotherapeutic targets for cure and monitoring response to treatments. Therefore, a comprehensive single-cell studies-based overview of key immunogenic agents regulating the TME of CRC is provided in this review. Tumor-associated macrophages can promote tumor growth and resistance to treatment by releasing factors that inhibit the function of other immune cells. Additionally, colorectal cancer cells can express programmed cell death protein 1 and its ligand, which can also inhibit T-cell function. Researchers have found that certain types of immune cells, prominently T cells, natural killer, and dendritic cells, can have a positive impact on the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. Treatments like immune checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T therapies that help to release the inhibitory signals from the cancer cells allow the immune cells to function more effectively.

The Landscape of the Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cell and Prognostic Nomogram in Colorectal Cancer

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells are associated with prognosis and immunotherapy targets in colorectal cancer (CRC). The recently developed CIBERSORT method allows immune cell analysis by deconvolution of high-throughput data onto gene expression. In this study, we analyzed the relative proportions of immune cells in GEO (94 samples) and TCGA (522 samples) CRC data based on the CIBERSORT method. A total of 22 types of tumor-infiltrating immune cells were evaluated. Combined with GEO and TCGA data, it was found that naive B cells, M2 macrophages, and resting mast cells were highly expressed in normal tissues, while M0 macrophages, M1 macrophages, activated mast cells, and neutrophils were highly expressed in tumors. Moreover, we constructed a prognostic model by infiltrating immune cells that showed high specificity and sensitivity in both the training (AUC of 5-year survival = 0.699) and validation (AUC of 5-year survival = 0.844) sets. This provides another basis for clinical prognosis. The results of multiple immunofluorescence detection showed that there were differences in the results of bioinformatics analysis. Neutrophils were highly expressed in normal tissues, and M2 macrophages were highly expressed in tumor tissues. Collectively, our data suggested that infiltrating immune cells in CRC may be an important determinant of prognosis and immunotherapy.

High Density of CD16+ Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Is Associated with Enhanced Responsiveness to Chemotherapy and Prolonged Overall Survival

Simple Summary

The late—and in most cases at an advanced stage—diagnosis of patients with ovarian cancer (OC) and the high recurrence rate make this malignant disease the most lethal among gynecological cancers. With a mortality-to-incidence ratio of 0.74, OC is a tumor with the fifth most frequent progression after esophageal cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and brain tumors. The updated FIGO staging system is the gold standard in the clinic and includes surgical, radiologic, and pathologic elements to describe the extent of OC. This system is used to describe tumor extent, plan further therapy, and predict prognosis. However, it is consistently observed that patients with identical stages and treatments have a completely different outcome in terms of survival and recurrence. This fact indicates that this classification alone is not sufficient for the prognosis of OC in the vast majority of cases. Over the last two decades, many studies have demonstrated the critical role of the tumor microenvironment in tumorigenesis, progression, prognosis, and response to chemotherapy. In the current study, we investigate the role of CD16 expression in OC.

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most aggressive and fatal malignancy of the female reproductive system. Debulking surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy represents the standard treatment, but recurrence rates are particularly high. Over the past decades, the association between the immune system and cancer progression has been extensively investigated. However, the interaction between chemotherapy and cancer immune infiltration is still unclear. In this study, we examined the prognostic role of CD16 expression in OC, as related to the effectiveness of standard adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. Methods: We analyzed the infiltration by immune cells expressing CD16, a well-characterized natural killer (NK) and myeloid cell marker, in a tissue microarray (TMA) of 47 patient specimens of primary OCs and their matching recurrences by immunohistochemistry (IHC). We analyzed our data first in the whole cohort, then in the primary tumors, and finally in recurrences. We focused on recurrence-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), and chemosensitivity. Chemosensitivity was defined as RFS of more than 6 months. Results: There was no significant correlation between CD16 expression and prognosis in primary carcinomas. However, interestingly, a high density of CD16-expressing tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) in recurrent carcinoma was associated with better RFS (p = 0.008) and OS (p = 0.029). Moreover, high CD16 cell density in recurrent ovarian carcinoma showed a significant association with chemosensitivity (p = 0.034). Univariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the high expression of CD16+ TIC in recurrent cancer biopsies is significantly associated with an increased RFS (HR = 0.49; 95% CI 0.24–0.99; p = 0.047) and OS (HR = 0.28; 95% CI 0.10–0.77; p = 0.013). However, this was not independent of known prognostic factors such as age, FIGO stage, resection status, and the number of chemotherapy cycles. Conclusions: The high density of CD16-expressing TICs in recurrent ovarian cancer is associated with a better RFS and OS, thereby suggesting a previously unsuspected interaction between standard OC chemotherapy and immune cell infiltration.

Trauma-induced heme release increases susceptibility to bacterial infection

Infection is a common complication of major trauma that causes significantly increased morbidity and mortality. The mechanisms, however, linking tissue injury to increased susceptibility to infection remain poorly understood. To study this relationship, we present a potentially novel murine model in which a major liver crush injury is followed by bacterial inoculation into the lung. We find that such tissue trauma both impaired bacterial clearance and was associated with significant elevations in plasma heme levels. While neutrophil (PMN) recruitment to the lung in response to Staphylococcus aureus was unchanged after trauma, PMN cleared bacteria poorly. Moreover, PMN show > 50% less expression of TLR2, which is responsible, in part, for bacterial recognition. Administration of heme effectively substituted for trauma. Finally, day 1 trauma patients (n = 9) showed similar elevations in free heme compared with that seen after murine liver injury, and circulating PMN showed similar TLR2 reduction compared with volunteers (n = 6). These findings correlate to high infection rates.

Tumor promoting capacity of polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells and their neutralization

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) represent a highly immunosuppressive population that expands in tumor bearing hosts and inhibits both T and NK cell antitumor effector functions. Among MDSC subpopulations, the polymorphonuclear (PMN) one is gaining increasing interest since it is a predominant MDSC subset in most cancer entities and inherits unique properties to facilitate metastatic spread. In addition, further improvement in distinguishing PMN-MDSC from neutrophils has contributed to the design of novel therapeutic approaches. In this review, we summarize the current view on the origin of PMN-MDSC and their relation to classical neutrophils. Furthermore, we outline the metastasis promoting features of these cells and promising strategies of their targeting to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

M6A "Writer" Gene METTL14: A Favorable Prognostic Biomarker and Correlated With Immune Infiltrates in Rectal Cancer

Rectal cancer (RC) is the leading cause of tumor-related death among both men and women. The efficacy of immunotherapy for rectal cancer is closely related to the immune infiltration level. The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification may play a pivotal role in tumor-immune interactions. However, the roles of m6A-related genes in tumor-immune interactions of rectal cancer remain largely unknown. After an evaluation on the expression levels of m6A-related genes and their correlations with the prognosis of rectal cancer patients, we found that METTL14 was the only gene to be significantly correlated with prognosis in rectal cancer patients. Therefore, we further observed the impact of METTL14 expression and m6A modification on the immune infiltration in rectal cancer. Our study indicates that low expression of the m6A “writer” gene METTL14 in rectal cancer may lead to the downregulation of m6A RNA modification, thus reducing the level of immune cell infiltration and resulting in poor prognosis. METTL14 expression level is an independent prognostic factor in rectal cancer and is positively correlated with the immune infiltration level. Our study identified METTL14 as a potential target for enhancing immunotherapy efficacy in rectal cancer.

Granulocytes and Cells of Granulocyte Origin-The Relevant Players in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancy and cause of cancer death worldwide, and it still remains a therapeutic challenge for western medicine. There is strong evidence that, in addition to genetic predispositions, environmental factors have also a substantial impact in CRC development. The risk of CRC is attributed, among others to dietary habits, alcohol consumption, whereas physical activity, food containing dietary fiber, dairy products, and calcium supplements have a protective effect. Despite progress in the available therapies, surgery remains a basic treatment option for CRC. Implementation of additional methods of treatment such as chemo- and/or targeted immunotherapy, improved survival rates, however, the results are still far from satisfactory. One of the reasons may be the lack of deeper understanding of the interactions between the tumor and different types of cells, including tumor infiltrating granulocytes. While the role of neutrophils is quite well explored in many cancers, role of eosinophils and basophils is often underestimated. As part of this review, we focused on the function of different granulocyte subsets in CRC, emphasizing the beneficial role of eosinophils and basophils, as well as dichotomic mode of neutrophils action. In addition, we addressed the current knowledge on cells of granulocyte origin, specifically granulocytic myeloid derived suppressor cells (Gr-MDSCs) and their role in development and progression of CRC.