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Elliot TAE, Lecky DAJ, Bending D. T-cell response to checkpoint blockade immunotherapies: from fundamental mechanisms to treatment signatures. Essays Biochem 2023; 67:967-977. [PMID: 37386922 PMCID: PMC10539945 DOI: 10.1042/ebc20220247] [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] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023]
Abstract
Immune checkpoint immunotherapies act to block inhibitory receptors on the surface of T cells and other cells of the immune system. This can increase activation of immune cells and promote tumour clearance. Whilst this is very effective in some types of cancer, significant proportions of patients do not respond to single-agent immunotherapy. To improve patient outcomes, we must first mechanistically understand what drives therapy resistance. Many studies have utilised genetic, transcriptional, and histological signatures to find correlates of effective responses to treatment. It is key that we understand pretreatment predictors of response, but also to understand how the immune system becomes treatment resistant during therapy. Here, we review our understanding of the T-cell signatures that are critical for response, how these immune signatures change during treatment, and how this information can be used to rationally design therapeutic strategies. We highlight how chronic antigen recognition drives heterogeneous T-cell exhaustion and the role of T-cell receptor (TCR) signal strength in exhausted T-cell differentiation and molecular response to therapy. We explore how dynamic changes in negative feedback pathways can promote resistance to single-agent therapy. We speculate that this resistance may be circumvented in the future through identifying the most effective combinations of immunotherapies to promote sustained and durable antitumour responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas A E Elliot
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
| | - David A J Lecky
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
| | - David Bending
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
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Elliot TAE, Jennings EK, Lecky DAJ, Rouvray S, Mackie GM, Scarfe L, Sheriff L, Ono M, Maslowski KM, Bending D. Nur77-Tempo mice reveal T cell steady state antigen recognition. Discov Immunol 2022; 1:kyac009. [PMID: 36704407 PMCID: PMC7614040 DOI: 10.1093/discim/kyac009] [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] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
In lymphocytes, Nr4a gene expression is specifically regulated by antigen receptor signalling, making them ideal targets for use as distal T cell receptor (TCR) reporters. Nr4a3-Timer of cell kinetics and activity (Tocky) mice are a ground-breaking tool to report TCR-driven Nr4a3 expression using Fluorescent Timer protein (FT). FT undergoes a time-dependent shift in its emission spectrum following translation, allowing for the temporal reporting of transcriptional events. Our recent work suggested that Nr4a1/Nur77 may be a more sensitive gene to distal TCR signals compared to Nr4a3, so we, therefore, generated Nur77-Timer-rapidly-expressed-in-lymphocytes (Tempo) mice that express FT under the regulation of Nur77. We validated the ability of Nur77-Tempo mice to report TCR and B cell receptor signals and investigated the signals regulating Nur77-FT expression. We found that Nur77-FT was sensitive to low-strength TCR signals, and its brightness was graded in response to TCR signal strength. Nur77-FT detected positive selection signals in the thymus, and analysis of FT expression revealed that positive selection signals are often persistent in nature, with most thymic Treg expressing FT Blue. We found that active TCR signals in the spleen are low frequency, but CD69+ lymphoid T cells are enriched for FT Blue+ Red+ T cells, suggesting frequent TCR signalling. In non-lymphoid tissue, we saw a dissociation of FT protein from CD69 expression, indicating that tissue residency is not associated with tonic TCR signals. Nur77-Tempo mice, therefore, combine the temporal dynamics from the Tocky innovation with increased sensitivity of Nr4a1 to lower TCR signal strengths.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas A. E. Elliot
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Emma K. Jennings
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - David A. J. Lecky
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Sophie Rouvray
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Gillian M. Mackie
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Lisa Scarfe
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Lozan Sheriff
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Masahiro Ono
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Kendle M. Maslowski
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - David Bending
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK,Correspondence: David Bending, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
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Elliot TAE, Jennings EK, Lecky DAJ, Thawait N, Flores-Langarica A, Copland A, Maslowski KM, Wraith DC, Bending D. Antigen and checkpoint receptor engagement recalibrates T cell receptor signal strength. Immunity 2021; 54:2481-2496.e6. [PMID: 34534438 PMCID: PMC8585507 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2021.08.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Revised: 06/21/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
How T cell receptor (TCR) signal strength modulates T cell function and to what extent this is modified by immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) are key questions in immunology. Using Nr4a3-Tocky mice, we characterized early quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in CD4+ T cells in relation to TCR signaling strength. We captured how dose- and time-dependent programming of distinct co-inhibitory receptors rapidly recalibrates T cell activation thresholds and visualized the immediate effects of ICB on T cell re-activation. Our findings reveal that anti-PD1 immunotherapy leads to an increased TCR signal strength. We defined a strong TCR signal metric of five genes upregulated by anti-PD1 in T cells (TCR.strong), which was superior to a canonical T cell activation gene signature in stratifying melanoma patient outcomes to anti-PD1 therapy. Our study therefore reveals how analysis of TCR signal strength-and its manipulation-can provide powerful metrics for monitoring outcomes to immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas A E Elliot
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Emma K Jennings
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - David A J Lecky
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Natasha Thawait
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Adriana Flores-Langarica
- Infrastructure and Facilities, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Alastair Copland
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Kendle M Maslowski
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK; Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - David C Wraith
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - David Bending
- Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
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