1
|
Borch A, Carri I, Reynisson B, Alvarez HMG, Munk KK, Montemurro A, Kristensen NP, Tvingsholm SA, Holm JS, Heeke C, Moss KH, Hansen UK, Schaap-Johansen AL, Bagger FO, de Lima VAB, Rohrberg KS, Funt SA, Donia M, Svane IM, Lassen U, Barra C, Nielsen M, Hadrup SR. IMPROVE: a feature model to predict neoepitope immunogenicity through broad-scale validation of T-cell recognition. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1360281. [PMID: 38633261 PMCID: PMC11021644 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1360281] [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] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Mutation-derived neoantigens are critical targets for tumor rejection in cancer immunotherapy, and better tools for neoepitope identification and prediction are needed to improve neoepitope targeting strategies. Computational tools have enabled the identification of patient-specific neoantigen candidates from sequencing data, but limited data availability has hindered their capacity to predict which of the many neoepitopes will most likely give rise to T cell recognition. Method To address this, we make use of experimentally validated T cell recognition towards 17,500 neoepitope candidates, with 467 being T cell recognized, across 70 cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. Results We evaluated 27 neoepitope characteristics, and created a random forest model, IMPROVE, to predict neoepitope immunogenicity. The presence of hydrophobic and aromatic residues in the peptide binding core were the most important features for predicting neoepitope immunogenicity. Conclusion Overall, IMPROVE was found to significantly advance the identification of neoepitopes compared to other current methods.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Annie Borch
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Ibel Carri
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Birkir Reynisson
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Heli M. Garcia Alvarez
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Kamilla K. Munk
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | | | - Siri A. Tvingsholm
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jeppe Sejerø Holm
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Christina Heeke
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Keith Henry Moss
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Ulla Kring Hansen
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | | | | | | | - Samuel A. Funt
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States
| | - Marco Donia
- National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
| | - Inge Marie Svane
- National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
| | - Ulrik Lassen
- Department of Oncology, Phase 1 Unit, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Carolina Barra
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Morten Nielsen
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Sine Reker Hadrup
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Schaap-Johansen AL, Marcatili P. A Computational Pipeline for Predicting Cancer Neoepitopes. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2552:475-488. [PMID: 36346610 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2609-2_27] [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] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Mutant Peptide eXtractor and Informer (MuPeXI), by Bjerregaard et al. (Cancer Immunol Immunother CII 66:1123-1130, 2017), is a program which identifies tumor-specific peptides and assesses their potential to be neoepitopes. MuPeXI takes as input a VCF file and a list of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types and optionally a gene expression profile to assess a peptide's potential to be a neoepitope. MuPeXI can be downloaded and run both locally and on a web server. Here, we describe a pipeline for processing the input data so that it can be used for MuPeXI and how to run MuPeXI both locally and as a web server.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, ØrstedsPlads, Lyngby, Denmark.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Schaap-Johansen AL, Vujović M, Borch A, Hadrup SR, Marcatili P. T Cell Epitope Prediction and Its Application to Immunotherapy. Front Immunol 2021; 12:712488. [PMID: 34603286 PMCID: PMC8479193 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.712488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
T cells play a crucial role in controlling and driving the immune response with their ability to discriminate peptides derived from healthy as well as pathogenic proteins. In this review, we focus on the currently available computational tools for epitope prediction, with a particular focus on tools aimed at identifying neoepitopes, i.e. cancer-specific peptides and their potential for use in immunotherapy for cancer treatment. This review will cover how these tools work, what kind of data they use, as well as pros and cons in their respective applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Milena Vujović
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Annie Borch
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Sine Reker Hadrup
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Ashley J, Schaap-Johansen AL, Mohammadniaei M, Naseri M, Marcatili P, Prado M, Sun Y. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated formation of protein binding polynucleotides. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 49:1065-1074. [PMID: 33398328 PMCID: PMC7826267 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa1263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Revised: 12/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) enzyme plays an integral part in the V(D)J recombination, allowing for the huge diversity in expression of immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors within lymphocytes, through their unique ability to incorporate single nucleotides into oligonucleotides without the need of a template. The role played by TdT in lymphocytes precursors found in early vertebrates is not known. In this paper, we demonstrated a new screening method that utilises TdT to form libraries of variable sized (vsDNA) libraries of polynucleotides that displayed binding towards protein targets. The extent of binding and size distribution of each vsDNA library towards their respective protein target can be controlled through the alteration of different reaction conditions such as time of reaction, nucleotide ratio and initiator concentration raising the possibility for the rational design of aptamers prior to screening. The new approach, allows for the screening of aptamers based on size as well as sequence in a single round, which minimises PCR bias. We converted the protein bound sequences to dsDNA using rapid amplification of variable ends assays (RAVE) and sequenced them using next generation sequencing. The resultant aptamers demonstrated low nanomolar binding and high selectivity towards their respective targets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jon Ashley
- Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark.,International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Av. Mestre José Veiga Braga 4715-330, Portugal
| | | | - Mohsen Mohammadniaei
- Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| | - Maryam Naseri
- Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| | - Marta Prado
- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Av. Mestre José Veiga Braga 4715-330, Portugal
| | - Yi Sun
- Technical University of Denmark, Department of Health Technology, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Vujovic M, Degn KF, Marin FI, Schaap-Johansen AL, Chain B, Andresen TL, Kaplinsky J, Marcatili P. T cell receptor sequence clustering and antigen specificity. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2020; 18:2166-2173. [PMID: 32952933 PMCID: PMC7473833 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2020.06.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been increasing interest in the role of T cells and their involvement in cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. However, the nature of T cell receptor (TCR) epitope recognition at a repertoire level is not yet fully understood. Due to technological advances a plethora of TCR sequences from a variety of disease and treatment settings has become readily available. Current efforts in TCR specificity analysis focus on identifying characteristics in immune repertoires which can explain or predict disease outcome or progression, or can be used to monitor the efficacy of disease therapy. In this context, clustering of TCRs by sequence to reflect biological similarity, and especially to reflect antigen specificity have become of paramount importance. We review the main TCR sequence clustering methods and the different similarity measures they use, and discuss their performance and possible improvement. We aim to provide guidance for non-specialists who wish to use TCR repertoire sequencing for disease tracking, patient stratification or therapy prediction, and to provide a starting point for those aiming to develop novel techniques for TCR annotation through clustering.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Milena Vujovic
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Kristine Fredlund Degn
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Frederikke Isa Marin
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Anna-Lisa Schaap-Johansen
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Benny Chain
- UCL Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, Wing 3.2, Cruciform Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Lars Andresen
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Joseph Kaplinsky
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd, University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Medicine, Old Road Campus Research Building, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads, Building 345C, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|