Regulatory T cells (Tregs) suppress the host immune response and maintain immune homeostasis. Tregs also promote cancer progression and are involved in resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitor ...treatments. Recent studies identified selective CCR8 expression on tumor-infiltrating Tregs; CCR8+ Tregs have been indicated as a possible new target of cancer immunotherapy. Here, we investigated the features of CCR8+ Tregs in lung cancer patients. CCR8+ Tregs were highly activated and infiltration of CCR8+ Tregs in tumors was associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer patients. We also investigated their immune suppressive function, especially the influence on cytotoxic T lymphocyte cell function. The Cancer Genome Atlas analysis revealed that CD8 T cell activities were suppressed in high CCR8-expressing tumors. Additionally, depletion of CCR8+ cells enhanced CD8 T cell function in an ex vivo culture of lung tumor-infiltrating cells. Moreover, CCR8+ Tregs, but not CCR8- Tregs, induced from human PBMCs markedly suppressed CD8 T cell cytotoxicity. Finally, we demonstrated the therapeutic effect of targeting CCR8 in a murine model of lung cancer. These findings reveal the significance of CCR8+ Tregs for immunosuppression in lung cancer, especially via cytotoxic T lymphocyte cell suppression, and suggest the potential value of CCR8-targeted therapy for cancer treatment.
Pirfenidone, a broad-spectrum antifibrotic agent, is known to have efficacy in certain fibrotic disease models, and is under clinical trials in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We ...investigated the antifibrotic effect of pirfenidone, and its regulatory effect on various pulmonary cytokines, in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis in mice at the protein level, using prednisolone as a reference agent. Pirfenidone attenuated the bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis at a minimum effective dose of 30 mg/kg/day t.i.d. from the analysis of lung hydroxyproline content. Both pirfenidone (30, 100 mg/kg/day t.i.d) and prednisolone (3, 15 mg/kg/day q.d.) suppressed lung inflammatory edema; however, prednisolone failed to suppress pulmonary fibrosis, which was significantly suppressed only by pirfenidone. Both pirfenidone and prednisolone suppressed the increase in lung interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-12p40 and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 levels induced by bleomycin. On the other hand, pirfenidone prevented the bleomycin-induced decrease in lung interferon (IFN)-γ levels, while prednisolone had no such effect. Furthermore, pirfenidone suppressed elevation of lung basic-fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 levels, but prednisolone had no such effect. The increases in lung stroma cell derived factor (SDF)-1α and IL-18 were also suppressed. These findings suggest that pirfenidone exerts its antifibrotic effect through regulation of lung IFN-γ, bFGF and TGF-β1 levels during the development of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. The effect on SDF-1α and IL-18 levels may also be related to the antifibrotic effects of pirfenidone.
Vaccines that efficiently target severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), are the best means for controlling viral ...spread. This study evaluated the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine S-268019-b, which comprises the recombinant full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S-910823 (antigen) and A-910823 (adjuvant). In addition to eliciting both Th1-type and Th2-type cellular immune responses, two doses of S-910823 plus A-910823 induced anti-spike protein IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. In a SARS-CoV-2 challenge test, S-910823 plus A-910823 mitigated SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced weight loss and death and inhibited viral replication in mouse lungs. S-910823 plus A-910823 promoted cytokine and chemokine at the injection site and immune cell accumulation in the draining lymph nodes. This led to the formation of germinal centers and the induction of memory B cells, antibody-secreting cells, and memory T cells. These findings provide fundamental property of S-268019-b, especially importance of A-910823 to elicit humoral and cellular immune responses.
Adjuvants are chemical or biological materials that enhance the efficacy of vaccines. A-910823 is a squalene-based emulsion adjuvant used for S-268019-b, a novel vaccine against severe acute ...respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is currently in clinical development. Published evidence has demonstrated that A-910823 can enhance the induction of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in humans and animal models. However, the characteristics and mechanisms of the immune responses induced by A-910823 are not yet known.
To characterize A-910823, we compared the adaptive immune response profile enhanced by A-910823 with that of other adjuvants (AddaVax, QS21, aluminum salt-based adjuvants, and empty lipid nanoparticle eLNP) in a murine model. Compared with other adjuvants, A-910823 enhanced humoral immune responses to an equal or greater extent following potent T follicular helper (Tfh) and germinal center B (GCB) cell induction, without inducing a strong systemic inflammatory cytokine response. Furthermore, S-268019-b containing A-910823 adjuvant produced similar results even when given as a booster dose following primary administration of a lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated messenger RNA (mRNA-LNP) vaccine. Preparation of modified A-910823 adjuvants to identify which components of A-910823 play a role in driving the adjuvant effect and detailed evaluation of the immunological characteristics induced by each adjuvant showed that the induction of humoral immunity and Tfh and GCB cell induction in A-910823 were dependent on α-tocopherol. Finally, we revealed that the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the draining lymph nodes and induction of serum cytokines and chemokines by A-910823 were also dependent on the α-tocopherol component.
This study demonstrates that the novel adjuvant A-910823 is capable of robust Tfh cell induction and humoral immune responses, even when given as a booster dose. The findings also emphasize that α-tocopherol drives the potent Tfh-inducing adjuvant function of A-910823. Overall, our data provide key information that may inform the future production of improved adjuvants.
Robust induction of cancer-antigen-specific CD8
T cells is essential for the success of cancer peptide vaccines, which are composed of a peptide derived from a cancer-specific antigen and an ...immune-potentiating adjuvant, such as a Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist. Efficient delivery of a vaccine antigen and an adjuvant to antigen-presenting cells in the draining lymph nodes (LNs) holds key to maximize vaccine efficacy. Here, we developed S-540956, a novel TLR9-agonistic adjuvant consisting of B-type CpG ODN2006 (also known as CpG7909), annealed to its complementary sequence oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) conjugated to a lipid; it could target both a cancer peptide antigen and a CpG-adjuvant in the draining LNs. S-540956 accumulation in the draining LNs and activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) were significantly higher than that of ODN2006. Mechanistic analysis revealed that S-540956 enhanced the induction of MHC class I peptide-specific CD8
T cell responses
TLR9 in a CD4
T cell-independent manner. In mice, the therapeutic effect of S-540956-adjuvanted with a human papillomavirus (HPV)-E7 peptide vaccine against HPV-E7-expressing TC-1 tumors was significantly better than that of an ODN2006-adjuvanted vaccine. Our findings demonstrate a novel adjuvant discovery with the complementary strand conjugated to a lipid, which enabled draining LN targeting and increased ODN2006 accumulation in draining LNs, thereby enhancing the adjuvant effect. Our findings imply that S-540956 is a promising adjuvant for cancer peptide vaccines and has a high potential for applications in various vaccines, including recombinant protein vaccines.
Partner of sld five 1 (PSF1) is an evolutionary conserved DNA replication factor involved in DNA replication in lower species, which is strongly expressed in normal stem cell populations and ...progenitor cell populations. Recently, we have investigated PSF1 functions in cancer cells and found that PSF1 plays a significant role in tumour growth. These findings provide initial evidence for the potential of PSF1 as a therapeutic target. Here, we reveal that PSF1 contains an immunogenic epitope suitable for an antitumour vaccine. We analysed PSF1 peptides eluted from affinity-purified human leukocyte antigen (HLA) by mass spectrometry and identified PSF1
peptide (YLYDRLLRI) that has the highest prediction score using an in silico algorithm. PSF1
peptide induced PSF1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses such as the production of interferon-γ and cytotoxicity. Because PSF1 is expressed in cancer cell populations and highly expressed in cancer stem cell populations, these data suggest that vaccination with PSF1
peptide may be a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.
BackgroundRegulatory T cells (Tregs) are involved in tumor progression and inhibition of anti-tumor immune responses by promotion of immunological tolerance in the tumor microenvironment. On the ...other hand, Treg cells in peripheral blood are also essential role in preventing autoimmunity and uncontrolled inflammation. So, selective control of tumor infiltrating Treg cells might be an attractive approach of immune-oncology therapies without disrupting their systemic anti-inflammatory functions. Here, we focused on CCR8 (C-C motif chemokine receptor 8) as a target molecule which was selectively and highly expressed on tumor-infiltrating Tregs and developed a novel anti-human CCR8 specific antibody.MethodsWe immunized mice with human CCR8 by our original immunization method which could strongly induce antibodies for membrane proteins, and then constructed hybridoma cells. Anti-human CCR8 (human CCR4 as a negative control) binding assay and human CCL1-CCR8 neutralizing assay were simultaneously performed by using supernatants of hybridoma cells to isolate human CCR8 specific strong-neutralizing antibodies. After humanization and affinity maturation of some selected clones, we selected our lead antibody by binding specificity, neutralizing activity, antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and thermodynamic stability as index.ResultsWe rapidly induced human CCR8 specific antibodies in mouse with our unique immunization methods and constructed thousands of hybridomas secreting anti-human CCR8 antibodies. We also successfully humanized some of lead antibodies which show high affinity and specificity and isolated novel anti-human CCR8 specific humanized antibody S-531011 as our development antibody after affinity maturation. S-531011 selectively recognizes human CCR8 on the surface of tumor-infiltrating Tregs and shows strong ADCC. While human CCL1 is known as a dominant ligand of CCR8 which binds extracellular loop2 and N-terminal of CCR8, S-531011 recognizes similar epitopes and effectively neutralizes CCL1-CCR8 signaling. Furthermore, S-531011 also shows favorable blood kinetics in vivo and potently inhibits tumor growth in tumor bearing human CCR8 knock-in mouse model.ConclusionsWe develop S-531011, a novel anti-human CCR8 humanized antibody which could selectively recognize and deplete tumor infiltrating Tregs. Based on our pre-clinical data, S-531011 has strong anti-tumor effect and we expect that it might be a potent novel tumor immuno-therapeutic agent with fewer side effect.Ethics ApprovalThe present study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Osaka University Hospital (approved number: 13266-15). Animal studies were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (approved number: S20192D, S20197D and S20198D).
GATA-binding protein 3 (Gata3) controls the differentiation of naive CD4 T cells into T helper 2 (Th2) cells by induction of chromatin remodeling of the Th2 cytokine gene loci, direct transactivation ...of Il5 and Il13 genes, and inhibition of Ifng . Gata3 also facilitates Th2 cell proliferation via additional mechanisms that are far less well understood. We herein found that Gata3 associates with RuvB-like protein 2 (Ruvbl2) and represses the expression of a CDK inhibitor, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2c (Cdkn2c) to facilitate the proliferation of Th2 cells. Gata3 directly bound to the Cdkn2c locus in an Ruvbl2-dependent manner. The defect in the proliferation of Gata3 -deficient Th2 cells is rescued by the knockdown of Cdkn2c , indicating that Cdkn2c is a key molecule involved in the Gata3-mediated induction of Th2 cell proliferation. Ruvbl2-knockdown Th2 cells showed decreased antigen-induced expansion and caused less airway inflammation in vivo. We therefore have identified a functional Gata3/Ruvbl2 complex that regulates the proliferation of differentiating Th2 cells through the repression of a CDK inhibitor, Cdkn2c .
Leukocyte trafficking at the endothelium requires both cellular adhesion molecules and chemotactic factors. Fractalkine, a novel transmembrane molecule with a CX3C-motif chemokine domain atop a mucin ...stalk, induces both adhesion and migration of leukocytes. Here we identify a seven-transmembrane high-affinity receptor for fractalkine and show that it mediates both the adhesive and migratory functions of fractalkine. The receptor, now termed CX3CR1, requires pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein signaling to induce migration but not to support adhesion, which also occurs without other adhesion molecules but requires the architecture of a chemokine domain atop the mucin stalk. Natural killer cells predominantly express CX3CR1 and respond to fractalkine in both migration and adhesion. Thus, fractalkine and CX3CR1 represent new types of leukocyte trafficking regulators, performing both adhesive and chemotactic functions.
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