Immunogenomics of colorectal adenocarcinoma: Survival distinctions represented by immune receptor, CDR3 chemical features and high expression of BTN gene family members

IGL CDR3 Hydropathy and Antigen Chemical Complementarity Associated with Greater Disease-Free Survival in Lung Adenocarcinoma: Implications for Gender Disparities

With lung cancer remaining a challenging disease, new approaches to biomarker discovery and therapy development are needed. Recent immunogenomics, adaptive immune receptor approaches have indicated that it is very likely that B cells play an important role in mediating better overall outcomes. As such, we assessed physicochemical features of lung adenocarcinoma resident IGL complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3) amino acid (AA) sequences and determined that hydrophobic CDR3 AA sequences were associated with a better disease-free survival (DFS) probability. Further, using a recently developed chemical complementarity scoring algorithm particularly suitable for the evaluation of large patient datasets, we determined that IGL CDR3 chemical complementarity with certain cancer testis antigens was associated with better DFS. Chemical complementarity scores for IGL CDR3-MAGEC1 represented a gender bias, with an overrepresentation of males among the higher IGL-CDR3-CTA complementarity scores that were in turn associated with better DFS (logrank p < 0.065). Overall, this study pointed towards potential biomarkers for prognoses that, in some cases are likely gender-specific; and towards biomarkers for guiding therapy, e.g., IGL-based opportunities for antigen targeting in the lung cancer setting.

Tumor Resident, B-Cell Receptor Chemical Characteristics Associated with Better Overall Survival for Neuroblastoma

Pediatric neuroblastoma (NBL) is one of the most common pediatric cancers, and it can often be aggressive. Genetic and demographic factors can correlate with the severity of NBL, but the variations in the B-cell receptors (BCRs) or immunoglobulin proteins present in the NBL tumors, and their relationships to survival, are not well understood. BCRs contain variations in their complementary determining region-3 (CDR3s) amino acid sequences, due to variable recombinations of the V- and J-gene segments. Accordingly, these variations in CDR3s may represent different antigen interactions and thereby different survival probabilities. Thus, we mined the TARGET project, NBL tumor RNAseq files for BCR recombination reads. Evaluations of the physicochemical properties of IGK, IGL, and IGH CDR3s from these tumors pointed to properties of IGK and IGL in particular as associated with survival distinctions, based on several independent bioinformatics approaches, including a novel homology grouping approach facilitated by a recently developed web tool, adaptivematch.com. In conclusion, tumor resident BCR chemical features are likely useful for better risk stratification and for guiding therapy, and the availability of a user-friendly web tool will likely facilitate using BCR chemical features to meet those goals.

Specific TCR V-J gene segment recombinations leading to the identification pan-V-J CDR3s associated with survival distinctions: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

In the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) setting, we examined lymph node biopsy, T-cell receptor features, and the DLBLC patient human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, to provide a basis for assessing survival distinctions represented by the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research (NCICCR) dataset. While previous analyses of other cancer datasets have indicated that specific T-cell receptor (TCR) V or J gene segments, independently, can be associated with a survival distinction, we have here identified V-J recombinations, representing specific V and J gene segments associated with survival distinctions. As specific V-J recombinations represent relatively conserved complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3) amino acid sequences, we assessed the entire DLBCL NCICCR dataset for such conserved CDR3 features. Overall, this approach indicated the opportunity of identifying DLBCL patient subpopulations with TCR CDR3 features, and HLA alleles, with significant survival distinctions, possibly identifying cohorts more likely to benefit from a given immunotherapy.