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Zhao X, Shao S, Hu L. The recent advancement of TCR-T cell therapies for cancer treatment. Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai) 2024; 56:663-674. [PMID: 38557898 PMCID: PMC11187488 DOI: 10.3724/abbs.2024034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Adoptive cell therapies involve infusing engineered immune cells into cancer patients to recognize and eliminate tumor cells. Adoptive cell therapy, as a form of living drug, has undergone explosive growth over the past decade. The recognition of tumor antigens by the T-cell receptor (TCR) is one of the natural mechanisms that the immune system used to eliminate tumor cells. TCR-T cell therapy, which involves introducing exogenous TCRs into patients' T cells, is a novel cell therapy strategy. TCR-T cell therapy can target the entire proteome of cancer cells. Engineering T cells with exogenous TCRs to help patients combat cancer has achieved success in clinical trials, particularly in treating solid tumors. In this review, we examine the progress of TCR-T cell therapy over the past five years. This includes the discovery of new tumor antigens, protein engineering techniques for TCR, reprogramming strategies for TCR-T cell therapy, clinical studies on TCR-T cell therapy, and the advancement of TCR-T cell therapy in China. We also propose several potential directions for the future development of TCR-T cell therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Zhao
- />Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell SystemsShanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell BiologyCenter for Excellence in Molecular Cell ScienceChinese Academy of SciencesShanghai200031China
| | - Shuai Shao
- />Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell SystemsShanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell BiologyCenter for Excellence in Molecular Cell ScienceChinese Academy of SciencesShanghai200031China
| | - Lanxin Hu
- />Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell SystemsShanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell BiologyCenter for Excellence in Molecular Cell ScienceChinese Academy of SciencesShanghai200031China
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Chen A, Yu Z, Ma N, Lu X, Zhang Y, Xu W, Wang Y, Xie J, Qin Y, Mo G, Wu S, Hou J, Zhu W. Atovaquone enhances antitumor efficacy of TCR-T therapy by augmentation of ROS-induced ferroptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2024; 73:49. [PMID: 38349553 PMCID: PMC10864481 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-024-03628-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024]
Abstract
T-cell receptor (TCR) engineered T-cell therapy has recently emerged as a promising adoptive immunotherapy approach for tumor treatment, yet hindered by tumor immune evasion resulting in poor therapeutic efficacy. The introduction of ferroptosis-targeted inducers offers a potential solution, as they empower T cells to induce ferroptosis and exert influence over the tumor microenvironment. Atovaquone (ATO) stands as a prospective pharmaceutical candidate with the potential to target ferroptosis, effectively provoking an excessive generation and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a combination therapy comprising ATO and TCR-T cells against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), both in vitro and in vivo. The results of lactate dehydrogenase and cytokine assays demonstrated that ATO enhanced cytotoxicity mediated by AFP-specific TCR-T cells and promoted the release of IFN-γ in vitro. Additionally, in an established HCC xenograft mouse model, the combined therapy with low-dose ATO and TCR-T cells exhibited heightened efficacy in suppressing tumor growth, with no apparent adverse effects, comparable to the results achieved through monotherapy. The RNA-seq data unveiled a significant activation of the ferroptosis-related pathway in the combination therapy group in comparison to the TCR-T cells group. Mechanistically, the synergy between ATO and TCR-T cells augmented the release of IFN-γ by TCR-T cells, while concurrently elevating the intracellular and mitochondrial levels of ROS, expanding the labile iron pool, and impairing the integrity of the mitochondrial membrane in HepG2 cells. This multifaceted interaction culminated in the potentiation of ferroptosis within the tumor, primarily induced by an excess of ROS. In summary, the co-administration of ATO and TCR-T cells in HCC exhibited heightened vulnerability to ferroptosis. This heightened susceptibility led to the inhibition of tumor growth and the stimulation of an anti-tumor immune response. These findings suggest that repurposing atovaquone for adoptive cell therapy combination therapy holds the potential to enhance treatment outcomes in HCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anan Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Zhiwu Yu
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Cancer Hospital and Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510095, Guangdong, China
| | - Na Ma
- Department of Pathology, The First People's Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, 528000, China
| | - Xinyu Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Yajing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, China
| | - Weikang Xu
- Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510220, China
| | - Yiyue Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Jiayi Xie
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Yuqi Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Guoheng Mo
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Sha Wu
- Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Proteomics, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Jinlin Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
| | - Wei Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
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Qi J, Zhu H, Li Y, Guan X, He Y, Ren G, Guo Q, Liu L, Gu Y, Dong X, Liu Y. Creation of a High-Throughput Microfluidic Platform for Single-Cell Transcriptome Sequencing of Cell-Cell Interactions. SMALL METHODS 2023; 7:e2300730. [PMID: 37712212 DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202300730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2023] [Revised: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
Cell-cell interaction is one of the major modalities for transmitting information between cells and activating the effects of functional cells. However, the construction of high-throughput analysis technologies from cell omics focusing on the impact of interactions of functional cells on targets has been relatively unexplored. Here, they propose a droplet-based microfluidic platform for cell-cell interaction sequencing (c-c-seq) and screening in vitro to address this challenge. A class of interacting cells is pre-labeled using cell molecular tags, and additional single-cell sequencing reagents are introduced to quickly form functional droplet mixes. Lastly, gene expression analysis is used to deduce the impact of the interaction, while molecular sequence tracing identifies the type of interaction. Research into the active effect between antigen-presenting cells and T cells, one of the most common cell-to-cell interactions, is crucial for the advancement of cancer therapy, particularly T cell receptor-engineered T cell therapy. As it allows for high throughput, this platform is superior to well plates as a research platform for cell-to-cell interactions. When combined with the next generation of sequencing, the platform may be able to more accurately evaluate interactions between epitopes and receptors and verify their functional relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingyu Qi
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | | | - Yijian Li
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Xiangyu Guan
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Ying He
- Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shenzhen, 518116, China
| | - Guanhua Ren
- China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Qiang Guo
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | | | - Ying Gu
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
| | - Xuan Dong
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human Disease Genomics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Genomics, Shenzhen, 518083, China
| | - Ya Liu
- BGI Research, Shenzhen, 518083, China
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Li J, Xiao Z, Wang D, Jia L, Nie S, Zeng X, Hu W. The screening, identification, design and clinical application of tumor-specific neoantigens for TCR-T cells. Mol Cancer 2023; 22:141. [PMID: 37649123 PMCID: PMC10466891 DOI: 10.1186/s12943-023-01844-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in neoantigen research have accelerated the development of tumor immunotherapies, including adoptive cell therapies (ACTs), cancer vaccines and antibody-based therapies, particularly for solid tumors. With the development of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics technology, the rapid identification and prediction of tumor-specific antigens (TSAs) has become possible. Compared with tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), highly immunogenic TSAs provide new targets for personalized tumor immunotherapy and can be used as prospective indicators for predicting tumor patient survival, prognosis, and immune checkpoint blockade response. Here, the identification and characterization of neoantigens and the clinical application of neoantigen-based TCR-T immunotherapy strategies are summarized, and the current status, inherent challenges, and clinical translational potential of these strategies are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiangping Li
- Division of Thoracic Tumor Multimodality Treatment, Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People's Republic of China.
| | - Zhiwen Xiao
- Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510655, People's Republic of China
| | - Donghui Wang
- Department of Radiation Oncology, The Third Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510630, People's Republic of China
| | - Lei Jia
- International Health Medicine Innovation Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People's Republic of China
| | - Shihong Nie
- Department of Radiation Oncology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Cancer Center, Chengdu, 610041, People's Republic of China
| | - Xingda Zeng
- Department of Parasitology of Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China
| | - Wei Hu
- Division of Vascular Surgery, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610072, People's Republic of China
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Li Y, Qi J, Liu Y, Zheng Y, Zhu H, Zang Y, Guan X, Xie S, Zhao H, Fu Y, Xiang H, Zhang W, Chen H, Liu H, Zhao Y, Feng Y, Bu F, Liang Y, Li Y, Xu Q, He Y, Sun L, Liu L, Gu Y, Xu X, Hou Y, Dong X, Liu Y. High-Throughput Screening of Functional Neo-Antigens and Their Specific T-Cell Receptors via the Jurkat Reporter System Combined with Droplet Microfluidics. Anal Chem 2023. [PMID: 37300490 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cells can precisely recognize a broad repertoire of targets derived from both intracellular and surface proteins of tumor cells. TCR-T adoptive cell therapy has shown safety and promising efficacy in solid tumor immunotherapy. However, antigen-specific functional TCR screening is time-consuming and expensive, which limits its application clinically. Here, we developed a novel integrated antigen-TCR screening platform based on droplet microfluidic technology, enabling high-throughput peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC)-to-TCR paired screening with a high sensitivity and low background signal. We introduced DNA barcoding technology to label peptide antigen candidate-loaded antigen-presenting cells and Jurkat reporter cells to check the specificity of pMHC-TCR candidates. Coupled with the next-generation sequencing pipeline, interpretation of the DNA barcodes and the gene expression level of the Jurkat T-cell activation pathway provided a clear peptide-MHC-TCR recognition relationship. Our proof-of-principle study demonstrates that the platform could achieve pMHC-TCR paired high-throughput screening, which is expected to be used in the cross-reactivity and off-target high-throughput paired testing of candidate pMHC-TCRs in clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yijian Li
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human Disease Genomics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Genomics, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Jingyu Qi
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- School of Basic Medicine, Qingdao Medical College, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China
| | - Yang Liu
- Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy (SZ), Shenzhen 518116, China
| | | | | | - Yupeng Zang
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Xiangyu Guan
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | | | | | - Yunyun Fu
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Haitao Xiang
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Weicong Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | | | - Huan Liu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | | | - Yu Feng
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Fanyu Bu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Yanling Liang
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Yang Li
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Qumiao Xu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Ying He
- Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Li Sun
- Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Longqi Liu
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write, Shenzhen 518120, China
| | - Ying Gu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write, Shenzhen 518120, China
| | - Xun Xu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write, Shenzhen 518120, China
| | - Yong Hou
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Xuan Dong
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human Disease Genomics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Genomics, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Ya Liu
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Single-Cell Omics, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518100, China
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