Growing evidence suggests that microbes can influence the efficacy of cancer therapies. By studying colon cancer models, we found that bacteria can metabolize the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine ...(2′,2′-difluorodeoxycytidine) into its inactive form, 2′,2′-difluorodeoxyuridine. Metabolism was dependent on the expression of a long isoform of the bacterial enzyme cytidine deaminase (CDDL), seen primarily in Gammaproteobacteria. In a colon cancer mouse model, gemcitabine resistance was induced by intratumor Gammaproteobacteria, dependent on bacterial CDDL expression, and abrogated by cotreatment with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Gemcitabine is commonly used to treat pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and we hypothesized that intratumor bacteria might contribute to drug resistance of these tumors. Consistent with this possibility, we found that of the 113 human PDACs that were tested, 86 (76%) were positive for bacteria, mainly Gammaproteobacteria.
We recently reported that bacteria can be found within pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors. Some of these bacteria can metabolize and thereby inactivate the nucleoside analog gemcitabine. ...We demonstrated that the long isoform of the bacterial enzyme cytidine deaminase (CDD) mediates the metabolism of gemcitabine. The clinical effect of overcoming this potential mechanism of drug resistance has yet to be studied.
Bacteria were first detected in human tumors more than 100 years ago, but the characterization of the tumor microbiome has remained challenging because of its low biomass. We undertook a ...comprehensive analysis of the tumor microbiome, studying 1526 tumors and their adjacent normal tissues across seven cancer types, including breast, lung, ovary, pancreas, melanoma, bone, and brain tumors. We found that each tumor type has a distinct microbiome composition and that breast cancer has a particularly rich and diverse microbiome. The intratumor bacteria are mostly intracellular and are present in both cancer and immune cells. We also noted correlations between intratumor bacteria or their predicted functions with tumor types and subtypes, patients' smoking status, and the response to immunotherapy.
A variety of species of bacteria are known to colonize human tumours
, proliferate within them and modulate immune function, which ultimately affects the survival of patients with cancer and their ...responses to treatment
. However, it is not known whether antigens derived from intracellular bacteria are presented by the human leukocyte antigen class I and II (HLA-I and HLA-II, respectively) molecules of tumour cells, or whether such antigens elicit a tumour-infiltrating T cell immune response. Here we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing and HLA peptidomics to identify a peptide repertoire derived from intracellular bacteria that was presented on HLA-I and HLA-II molecules in melanoma tumours. Our analysis of 17 melanoma metastases (derived from 9 patients) revealed 248 and 35 unique HLA-I and HLA-II peptides, respectively, that were derived from 41 species of bacteria. We identified recurrent bacterial peptides in tumours from different patients, as well as in different tumours from the same patient. Our study reveals that peptides derived from intracellular bacteria can be presented by tumour cells and elicit immune reactivity, and thus provides insight into a mechanism by which bacteria influence activation of the immune system and responses to therapy.
Growing evidence suggests that microbes can influence cancer progression and the efficacy of cancer therapies. Using colon cancer models, we found that bacteria can metabolize the chemotherapeutic ...drug gemcitabine into its inactive deaminated form, 2′,2′-difluorodeoxyuridine (dFdU). Metabolism was dependent on the expression of a long isoform of the bacterial enzyme cytidine deaminase (CDDL) which is almost exclusively present among Gammaproteobacteria. In a colon cancer mouse model, gemcitabine resistance was induced by intra-tumor Gammaproteobacteria. Gemcitabine resistance was dependent on bacterial CDDL expression, and was abrogated by co-treatment with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Because gemcitabine is commonly used to treat pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), we hypothesized that intra-tumor bacteria might contribute to drug resistance in these tumors. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that 86 of 113 human PDACs (76%) tested were positive for bacteria, mainly Gammaproteobacteria. Bacteria may also affect additional cancer hallmarks, for instance, by targeting of key human signaling pathways and modulation of immune responses. These phenomena motivated us to explore effects of specific intra-tumor bacteria besides effects on drug metabolism. Using a syngeneic breast cancer murine model for intra-tumor bacteria, we assessed changes in gene expression of host cells within the tumor in the presence of bacteria that we previously found in human breast cancer tumors. Our preliminary data suggest that the presence of certain types of bacteria can modulate the number and function of some intra-tumor immune populations in this model. This was first detected by bulk tumor RNA sequencing which indicated that immune response changed as a function of different types of bacteria in the tumor. Subsequently, using flow cytometry, we observed a decrease in CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, and macrophages by a specific bacterial species. Single cell RNA sequencing of immune cells from tumors in this model indicated changes in myeloid cell behavior, which could potentially cause the observed decreases in T cell populations
BackgroundThe query for tumor shared and neo-antigens as a therapeutic approach has been the focus of cancer immunology for the past two decades. Notably, these peptide sequences can bind to HLA ...molecules and present on the cell surface, subsequently to be recognized by T-cell receptors (TCRs), activating the immune system and so facilitating in tumor rejection.1–3 The search for new origins of targetable types of HLA peptides is consistently growing, and new studies show peptides that are derived from non-canonical open reading frames (ORFs), altered translation, proteasome splicing, viral proteins and more.4–6 In light of the new findings, showing the important role of intra-tumor and gut bacteria in tumor-genesis and their effect on the immune response,7–10 we went on a quest for discovering whether intracellular bacteria antigens can be presented by tumor cells, and whether these antigens may elicit an immune response.MethodsCombination of HLA peptidomics with 16S rDNA sequencing.ResultsCombination of HLA peptidomics with 16S rDNA sequencing of 17 melanoma metastasis derived from 9 different patients, lead us to the unbiased identification of an intracellular bacterial peptide repertoire presented on HLA-I and HLA-II molecules. We were able to validate these results by co-culturing the bacterial species identified by 16S sequencing with the patient derived melanoma cells, further validating the peptide’s presentation by preforming HLA peptidomics on the infected cells. Importantly, we were able to identify common bacterial peptides from different metastases of the same patient as well as from different patients. Some of the common bacterial peptides, as well as others, were able to elicit an immune response by the autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), suggesting potential therapeutic implications of these peptides.ConclusionsThe insights gathered through this study elucidate the effect of intra-tumor bacteria on the immune response and so, may lead to the development of novel clinical applications.ReferencesNeefjes J, Jongsma ML, Paul P, Bakke O. Towards a systems understanding of MHC class I and MHC class II antigen presentation. Nat Rev Immunol 2011;11: 823–836.Stronen E, Toebes M, Kelderman S, et al. Targeting of cancer neoantigens with donor-derived T cell receptor repertoires. Science 2016; 352: 1337–1341.Rosenberg SA, Restifo NP. Adoptive cell transfer as personalized immunotherapy for human cancer. Science 2015; 348: 62–68.Chen J, Brunner AD, Cogan JZ, et al. Pervasive functional translation of noncanonical human open reading frames. Science 2020; 367: 1140–1146.Starck SR, Shastri N. Nowhere to hide: unconventional translation yields cryptic peptides for immune surveillance. Immunol Rev 2016;272:8–16.Croft NP, Smith SA, Pickering J, et al. Most viral peptides displayed by class I MHC on infected cells are immunogenic. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116: 3112–3117.Gopalakrishnan V, Spencer CN, Nezi L, et al. Gut microbiome modulates response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in melanoma patients. Science 2018;359:97–103.Routy B, Le Chatelier E, Derosa L, et al. Gut microbiome influences efficacy of PD-1-based immunotherapy against epithelial tumors. Science 2018;359:91–97.Matson V, Fessler J, Bao R, et al. The commensal microbiome is associated with anti-PD-1 efficacy in metastatic melanoma patients. Science 2018;359:104–108.10. Nejman D, Livyatan I, Fuks G et al. The human tumor microbiome is composed of tumor type-specific intracellular bacteria. Science 2020;368:973–980.
PDF
