Recent Advances In Immuno-oncology Research Articles

Development of an Immune-Related Risk Signature in Patients with Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma.

With recent advances in immunooncology and tumor microenvironment, the treatment landscape of bladder urothelial carcinoma has been changing dramatically. We aim to construct an immune gene-related signature which can predict BLCA patients' overall survival. Transcriptomic data of BLCA patients was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and immune-related genes were downloaded from the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal database. Prognostic immune-related genes were identified. We then constructed and validated an immune gene-related signature. Tumor-related transcription factors were downloaded from the Cistrome database, and a network between them and prognostic immune-related genes was generated. Cox's proportional hazards model and the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were performed to assess our signature's prognostic ability. Relationship between the signature and patients' clinicopathologic features was then explored to validate its clinical value. We further downloaded concentration of six types of immune cells from the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource database to explore immune-related potential mechanisms of the signature.

Immunomodulatory Effects of Pevonedistat, a NEDD8-Activating Enzyme (NAE) Inhibitor, in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)

Introduction: T cells from patients with CLL and lymphoma show highly impaired immune synapse formation, cytotoxic function, and adhesion and migration capabilities. Recent advances in immunooncology led to the emergence of therapeutic agents that permit reversal of T-cell exhaustion in cancer. However, rational development of novel combination approaches in immunotherapy requires detailed understanding of how targeted therapies influence T-cell function.We have shown that pevonedistat (TAK-924), an investigational NAE inhibitor, abrogates NFκB activation in CLL cells. Pevonedistat forms a covalent adduct with NEDD8, a ubiquitin-like modifier, thereby disrupting its interaction with NAE. This leads to reduced activity of Cullin-RING ligases (CRLs), a group of ubiquitin ligases that require modification by NEDD8 for their function. Ultimately, a decrease in CRL activity leads to reduced ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of CRL substrates, extending the half-life of these proteins, including inhibitor of NFκB (IκB). Moreover, NFκB is critical in T-cell function. However, limited data exist on the effects of targeting neddylation on T-cell response. Here, we demonstrate that targeting neddylation in vitro preserves T-cell functionality and may lead to favorable T-cell population shifts in CLL.Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from patients with CLL (n=50), and T cells were purified using Dynabeads. Pevonedistat was obtained from Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Cambridge, MA).Results: In vitro T-cell receptor (TCR; CD3/CD28) stimulation induced T-cell activation and proliferation. Continuous treatment of T cells with pevonedistat led to rapid (2 hour) disruption of cullin neddylation, followed by a significant reduction in activity of NFκB and NFAT as assessed by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence. Despite this reduction, CD4 and CD8 T cells continued to respond to TCR stimulation, with relative abundance of early markers of activation (CD40L, CD69). However, we observed reduced expression of CD25 and PD-1 at 72 hours. Continuous treatment with pevonedistat led to a dose-dependent decrease in IL-2 secretion and reduced proliferation of the CD4 T-cell subset (CFSE, Ki-67) but did not induce apoptosis. Unlike CLL cells, CD4 T cells did not undergo DNA re-replication and G2/M arrest in response to pevonedistat.We further analyzed T-cell subsets following TCR stimulation. Concurrent treatment with pevonedistat led to an increase in IFNγ-secreting CD4 T cells, whereas IL-4 production decreased, suggesting a shift toward the Th1 phenotype. Furthermore, we observed a robust decrease of the iTreg population, accompanied by downregulation of FoxP3 mRNA and protein within the CD4 T-cell subset, indicating that targeting neddylation may help to reverse the immunosuppressive phenotype in CLL.To mimic the in vivo pharmacokinetics of pevonedistat, we performed drug washouts where CLL-derived T cells were exposed to 2-hour pulse treatment with 1 µM pevonedistat prior to TCR stimulation. Under these conditions, cullin neddylation and NFκB activity began to recover by 8 hours, with near complete recovery by 24 hours. Moreover, pevonedistat did not disrupt allogeneic (OCI-LY19 cells) or autologous (CD40L-stimulated CLL cells) T-cell cytotoxicity. Meanwhile, CD8 T cells continued to produce perforin and granzyme B.Conclusions: Our data suggest that pharmacologic targeting of NAE preserves T-cell cytotoxic function and may enhance anti-tumor immunity in CLL. Combined with our earlier reports that targeting NAE kills CLL cells under lymph node-mimicking conditions, these data provide a strong rationale for continued investigation of pevonedistat in CLL and lymphoid malignancies. DisclosuresSpurgeon:Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding; Oncternal: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; MEI Pharma: Consultancy. Berger:Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co.: Employment. Danilov:Gilead Sciences: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astra Zeneca: Consultancy; Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding; Aptose Biosciences: Research Funding; Takeda Oncology: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Consultancy; Bayer Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding.

Molecularly-driven precision medicine for advanced bladder cancer.

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder is a heterogeneous disease with many challenges for clinicians and patients alike. However, for the most part of the last three decades, treatment and outcomes for patients with this disease have not changed a lot. With recent advances in immunooncology leading to the approval of multiple agents for the metastatic setting, the treatment landscape started to change. With the emergent data from landmark multi-institutional sequencing projects as well as molecular data from recent trials, our understanding of the underlying disease biology, response patterns as well as definition of molecular subtypes has evolved tremendously. This review aims to summarize the currently available concepts of mutational profiles and molecular subtypes as well as their implications for management of urothelial carcinoma.

The role of immunotherapy in solid tumors: report from the Campania Society of Oncology Immunotherapy (SCITO) meeting, Naples 2014.

The therapeutic approach to advanced or metastatic solid tumors, either with chemotherapy or targeted therapies, is mainly palliative. Resistance to chemotherapy occurs very frequently and is one of the most important reasons for disease progression. Immunotherapy has the potential to mount an ongoing, dynamic immune response that can kill tumor cells for an extended time after the conventional therapy has been administered. Such a long-lasting response is potentially able to completely eradicate tumor cells, rather than producing only a temporary killing of cells. The most promising immune-based treatments are monoclonal antibodies that act as checkpoint inhibitors (e.g. ipilimumab and nivolumab), adoptive cell therapy (e.g. T-cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors) and vaccines (e.g. sipuleucel-T). Ipilimumab is currently approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and sipuleucel-T is approved for advanced prostate cancer. There is great interest in immunotherapy in other solid tumors, potentially used alone or in a multimodal fashion with chemotherapy and/or biological drugs. In this paper, we review recent advances in immuno-oncology in solid malignancies (except melanoma) as were discussed at the inaugural meeting of the Campania Society of Oncology Immunotherapy (SCITO).