1
|
Kumar A, Taghi Khani A, Duault C, Aramburo S, Sanchez Ortiz A, Lee SJ, Chan A, McDonald T, Huang M, Lacayo NJ, Sakamoto KM, Yu J, Hurtz C, Carroll M, Tasian SK, Ghoda L, Marcucci G, Gu Z, Rosen ST, Armenian S, Izraeli S, Chen CW, Caligiuri MA, Forman SJ, Maecker HT, Swaminathan S. Intrinsic suppression of type I interferon production underlies the therapeutic efficacy of IL-15-producing natural killer cells in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J Immunother Cancer 2023; 11:jitc-2022-006649. [PMID: 37217248 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2022-006649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Type I interferons (IFN-Is), secreted by hematopoietic cells, drive immune surveillance of solid tumors. However, the mechanisms of suppression of IFN-I-driven immune responses in hematopoietic malignancies including B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) are unknown. METHODS Using high-dimensional cytometry, we delineate the defects in IFN-I production and IFN-I-driven immune responses in high-grade primary human and mouse B-ALLs. We develop natural killer (NK) cells as therapies to counter the intrinsic suppression of IFN-I production in B-ALL. RESULTS We find that high expression of IFN-I signaling genes predicts favorable clinical outcome in patients with B-ALL, underscoring the importance of the IFN-I pathway in this malignancy. We show that human and mouse B-ALL microenvironments harbor an intrinsic defect in paracrine (plasmacytoid dendritic cell) and/or autocrine (B-cell) IFN-I production and IFN-I-driven immune responses. Reduced IFN-I production is sufficient for suppressing the immune system and promoting leukemia development in mice prone to MYC-driven B-ALL. Among anti-leukemia immune subsets, suppression of IFN-I production most markedly lowers the transcription of IL-15 and reduces NK-cell number and effector maturation in B-ALL microenvironments. Adoptive transfer of healthy NK cells significantly prolongs survival of overt ALL-bearing transgenic mice. Administration of IFN-Is to B-ALL-prone mice reduces leukemia progression and increases the frequencies of total NK and NK-cell effectors in circulation. Ex vivo treatment of malignant and non-malignant immune cells in primary mouse B-ALL microenvironments with IFN-Is fully restores proximal IFN-I signaling and partially restores IL-15 production. In B-ALL patients, the suppression of IL-15 is the most severe in difficult-to-treat subtypes with MYC overexpression. MYC overexpression promotes sensitivity of B-ALL to NK cell-mediated killing. To counter the suppressed IFN-I-induced IL-15 production in MYChigh human B-ALL, we CRISPRa-engineered a novel human NK-cell line that secretes IL-15. CRISPRa IL-15-secreting human NK cells kill high-grade human B-ALL in vitro and block leukemia progression in vivo more effectively than NK cells that do not produce IL-15. CONCLUSION We find that restoration of the intrinsically suppressed IFN-I production in B-ALL underlies the therapeutic efficacy of IL-15-producing NK cells and that such NK cells represent an attractive therapeutic solution for the problem of drugging MYC in high-grade B-ALL.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anil Kumar
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Adeleh Taghi Khani
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Caroline Duault
- The Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC), Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Soraya Aramburo
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Ashly Sanchez Ortiz
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Sung June Lee
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Anthony Chan
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Tinisha McDonald
- The Hematopoietic Tissue Biorepository/Research Pathology Shared Resources, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Min Huang
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Norman J Lacayo
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Kathleen M Sakamoto
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Jianhua Yu
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Christian Hurtz
- Department of Cancer and Cellular Biology, Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Martin Carroll
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Sarah K Tasian
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Oncology, The Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Lucy Ghoda
- Hematological Malignancies Translational Science, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Guido Marcucci
- The Hematopoietic Tissue Biorepository/Research Pathology Shared Resources, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA
- Hematological Malignancies Translational Science, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Zhaohui Gu
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Steven T Rosen
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Saro Armenian
- Department of Pediatrics, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Shai Izraeli
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
- Hematology-Oncology Department, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Chun-Wei Chen
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
| | - Michael A Caligiuri
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Stephen J Forman
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, USA
| | - Holden T Maecker
- The Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC), Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Srividya Swaminathan
- Department of Systems Biology, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, Monrovia, California, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Taghi Khani A, Kumar A, Sanchez Ortiz A, Radecki KC, Aramburo S, Lee SJ, Hu Z, Damirchi B, Lorenson MY, Wu X, Gu Z, Stohl W, Sanz I, Meffre E, Müschen M, Forman SJ, Koff JL, Walker AM, Swaminathan S. Isoform-specific knockdown of long and intermediate prolactin receptors interferes with evolution of B-cell neoplasms. Commun Biol 2023; 6:295. [PMID: 36941341 PMCID: PMC10027679 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04667-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Prolactin (PRL) is elevated in B-cell-mediated lymphoproliferative diseases and promotes B-cell survival. Whether PRL or PRL receptors drive the evolution of B-cell malignancies is unknown. We measure changes in B cells after knocking down the pro-proliferative, anti-apoptotic long isoform of the PRL receptor (LFPRLR) in vivo in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)- and B-cell lymphoma-prone mouse models, and the long plus intermediate isoforms (LF/IFPRLR) in human B-cell malignancies. To knockdown LF/IFPRLRs without suppressing expression of the counteractive short PRLR isoforms (SFPRLRs), we employ splice-modulating DNA oligomers. In SLE-prone mice, LFPRLR knockdown reduces numbers and proliferation of pathogenic B-cell subsets and lowers the risk of B-cell transformation by downregulating expression of activation-induced cytidine deaminase. LFPRLR knockdown in lymphoma-prone mice reduces B-cell numbers and their expression of BCL2 and TCL1. In overt human B-cell malignancies, LF/IFPRLR knockdown reduces B-cell viability and their MYC and BCL2 expression. Unlike normal B cells, human B-cell malignancies secrete autocrine PRL and often express no SFPRLRs. Neutralization of secreted PRL reduces the viability of B-cell malignancies. Knockdown of LF/IFPRLR reduces the growth of human B-cell malignancies in vitro and in vivo. Thus, LF/IFPRLR knockdown is a highly specific approach to block the evolution of B-cell neoplasms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adeleh Taghi Khani
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Anil Kumar
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Ashly Sanchez Ortiz
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Kelly C Radecki
- Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Soraya Aramburo
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Sung June Lee
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Zunsong Hu
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Behzad Damirchi
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
| | - Mary Y Lorenson
- Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Xiwei Wu
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA
| | - Zhaohui Gu
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA
| | - William Stohl
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA
| | - Ignacio Sanz
- Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Lowance Center for Human Immunology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA
| | - Eric Meffre
- Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Markus Müschen
- Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Yale School of Medicine, 300 George Street, 06520, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Stephen J Forman
- Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA
- Department of Immuno-Oncology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA
| | - Jean L Koff
- Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA
| | - Ameae M Walker
- Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
| | - Srividya Swaminathan
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, 91016, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Abstract
Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a cytokine that drives the generation of myeloid cell subsets including neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells in response to stress, infections, and cancers. By modulating the functions of innate immune cells that serve as a bridge to activate adaptive immune responses, GM-CSF globally impacts host immune surveillance under pathologic conditions. As with other soluble mediators of immunity, too much or too little GM-CSF has been found to promote cancer aggressiveness. While too little GM-CSF prevents the appropriate production of innate immune cells and subsequent activation of adaptive anti-cancer immune responses, too much of GM-CSF can exhaust immune cells and promote cancer growth. The consequences of GM-CSF signaling in cancer progression are a function of the levels of GM-CSF, the cancer type, and the tumor microenvironment. In this review, we first discuss the secretion of GM-CSF, signaling downstream of the GM-CSF receptor, and GM-CSF’s role in modulating myeloid cell homeostasis. We then outline GM-CSF’s anti-tumorigenic and pro-tumorigenic effects both on the malignant cells and on the non-malignant immune and other cells in the tumor microenvironment. We provide examples of current clinical and preclinical strategies that harness GM-CSF’s anti-cancer potential while minimizing its deleterious effects. We describe the challenges in achieving the Goldilocks effect during administration of GM-CSF-based therapies to patients with cancer. Finally, we provide insights into how technologies that map the immune microenvironment spatially and temporally may be leveraged to intelligently harness GM-CSF for treatment of malignancies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anil Kumar
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, United States
| | - Adeleh Taghi Khani
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, United States
| | - Ashly Sanchez Ortiz
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, United States
| | - Srividya Swaminathan
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, United States
- Department of Hematological Malignancies, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA, United States
- *Correspondence: Srividya Swaminathan,
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Kumar A, Khani AT, Swaminathan S. Harnessing Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Innate Immune Responses for Cancer Treatment: Advances and Challenges. Explor Res Hypothesis Med 2022; 000:000-000. [DOI: 10.14218/erhm.2022.00024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
|
5
|
Duault C, Kumar A, Taghi Khani A, Lee SJ, Yang L, Huang M, Hurtz C, Manning B, Ghoda L, McDonald T, Lacayo NJ, Sakamoto KM, Carroll M, Tasian SK, Marcucci G, Yu J, Caligiuri MA, Maecker HT, Swaminathan S. Activated natural killer cells predict poor clinical prognosis in high-risk B- and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood 2021; 138:1465-1480. [PMID: 34077953 PMCID: PMC8532198 DOI: 10.1182/blood.2020009871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2020] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
B- and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B/T-ALL) may be refractory or recur after therapy by suppressing host anticancer immune surveillance mediated specifically by natural killer (NK) cells. We delineated the phenotypic and functional defects in NK cells from high-risk patients with B/T-ALL using mass cytometry, flow cytometry, and in silico cytometry, with the goal of further elucidating the role of NK cells in sustaining acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) regression. We found that, compared with their normal counterparts, NK cells from patients with B/T-ALL are less cytotoxic but exhibit an activated signature that is characterized by high CD56, high CD69, production of activated NK cell-origin cytokines, and calcium (Ca2+) signaling. We demonstrated that defective maturation of NK cells into cytotoxic effectors prevents NK cells from ALL from lysing NK cell-sensitive targets as efficiently as do normal NK cells. Additionally, we showed that NK cells in ALL are exhausted, which is likely caused by their chronic activation. We found that increased frequencies of activated cytokine-producing NK cells are associated with increased disease severity and independently predict poor clinical outcome in patients with ALL. Our studies highlight the benefits of developing NK cell profiling as a diagnostic tool to predict clinical outcome in patients with ALL and underscore the clinical potential of allogeneic NK cell infusions to prevent ALL recurrence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Duault
- The Human Immune Monitoring Center, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Anil Kumar
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA
| | - Adeleh Taghi Khani
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA
| | - Sung June Lee
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA
| | - Lu Yang
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA
| | - Min Huang
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Christian Hurtz
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Bryan Manning
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Lucy Ghoda
- Department of Hematological Malignancies and Translational Science, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| | - Tinisha McDonald
- Department of Hematological Malignancies and Translational Science, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| | - Norman J Lacayo
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Kathleen M Sakamoto
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Martin Carroll
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Sarah K Tasian
- Division of Oncology and Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA; and
| | - Guido Marcucci
- Department of Hematological Malignancies and Translational Science, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| | - Jianhua Yu
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| | - Michael A Caligiuri
- Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| | - Holden T Maecker
- The Human Immune Monitoring Center, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Srividya Swaminathan
- Department of Systems Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Monrovia, CA
- Department of Hematological Malignancies and Translational Science, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Khani AT, Sharifzad F, Mardpour S, Hassan ZM, Ebrahimi M. Tumor extracellular vesicles loaded with exogenous Let-7i and miR-142 can modulate both immune response and tumor microenvironment to initiate a powerful anti-tumor response. Cancer Lett 2020; 501:200-209. [PMID: 33220334 DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.11.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2020] [Revised: 11/08/2020] [Accepted: 11/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Despite recent advances in cancer immunotherapy, there have been limitations in cancer treatment and patient survival due to a lack of antigen recognition and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. To overcome this issue, we have shown that miRNA modified tumor-derived Extracellular Vesicles (mt-EVs) would be an advantageous prospect since they are tumor specific and associated antigen sources which cause increase in maturation and antigen-presenting function of dendritic cells. Also, miRNAs are promising candidates for cancer therapy because of their ability to control several host immune subsets to respond against cancer cells as well as tumor microenvironment remodeling. Here, we report that mt-EVs containing tumor specific antigens loaded with miRNAs (Let-7i, miR-142 and, miR-155) could increase the survival rate of tumor-bearing mice and induce reduction in tumor growth. Importantly, the administration of mt-EVs elicited cytotoxic T cells with increasing in IFNγ and Granzyme B production ability. Notably, intramuscular (IM) injection of let7i, miR142-EVs had a significant effect on dendritic cell (DC) maturation and T cell activation along with tumor shrinkage. Collectively, our findings suggest that administration of miRNA containing EVs may be effective immunotherapy against solid tumors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adeleh Taghi Khani
- Tarbiat Modares University, Department of Immunology, Tehran, Iran; Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Sciences Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Farzaneh Sharifzad
- Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Sciences Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran; Department of Applied Cell Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
| | - Soura Mardpour
- Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Sciences Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran; Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences Department, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Marzieh Ebrahimi
- Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Sciences Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
| |
Collapse
|