The major problem in cancer treatment is that, although patients respond to the initial treatment with cancer remission, the vast majority of the treated patients will have tumor recurrence in the primary and metastatic sites. For patients receiving immunotherapy, the recurring tumor cells frequently become antigen-loss-variants (ALVs) due to pressure and selection by the immune system. ALV outgrowth is an important mechanism by which tumors survive the immune attack and render immunotherapies targeting a single or multiple antigens ineffective. Recently, we discovered that when primed under Th9-polarizing conditions, nave CD8+ T cells could also differentiate into an IL-9-producing Tc9 subset (Lu et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2014). Although less cytolytic in vitro as compared with Tc1 cells, adoptive transfer of tumor-specific Tc9 cells elicits a significantly greater antitumor response against large established melanoma (B16 and B16-OVA) and colon (MC38-gp100) tumors. More importantly, our preliminary studies showed that adoptively transferred tumor (OVA)-specific Tc9 but not Tc1 cells eradicated not only OVA-expressing tumor cells but also large established chimeric tumors containing both OVA-expressing and OVA-negative tumor cells, as well as OVA-negative tumor cells grown on the contralateral flank of mice, indicating that the Tc9 cells could mediate the killing of local bystander and remote ALVs in vivo. Based on these novel findings, we hypothesize that the Tc9 subset may be a superb effector T-cell subset for cancer immunotherapy to eradicate primary and recurrent ALV tumors.
Aim 1 will determine whether and how Tc9 cells mediate killing of ALVs via epitope spreading and induction of a host CTL response against other antigens expressed by the tumor cells, and Aim 2 will determine the potential of human tumor-specific Tc9 cells in killing human primary and ALV tumors in vivo. These innovative and mechanistic studies will shed light on the mechanisms underlying Tc9 cell-mediated antitumor immunity and will thus establish a foundation for translating this discovery into more effective immunotherapies using tumor-specific T-cell subsets in human cancers.

Public Health Relevance

In this project we will determine the roles of specialized white blood cells, called CD8+ IL-9-secreting Tc9 cells, in promoting an immune response against mouse and human tumors. We hypothesize that these Tc9 cells may be a superb effector T-cell subset for cancer immunotherapy to eradicate primary and recurrent (relapsed) tumors that the immune system no longer recognizes. In this project, we will examine how Tc9 cells induce antitumor responses and their potential for use in cancer immunotherapy.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA200539-06
Application #
10006728
Study Section
Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy Study Section (CII)
Program Officer
Sommers, Connie L
Project Start
2016-07-01
Project End
2021-06-30
Budget Start
2020-07-01
Budget End
2021-06-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Methodist Hospital Research Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
185641052
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77030
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Lu, Yong; Wang, Qiang; Xue, Gang et al. (2018) Th9 Cells Represent a Unique Subset of CD4+ T Cells Endowed with the Ability to Eradicate Advanced Tumors. Cancer Cell 33:1048-1060.e7
Ma, Xingzhe; Bi, Enguang; Huang, Chunjian et al. (2018) Cholesterol negatively regulates IL-9-producing CD8+ T cell differentiation and antitumor activity. J Exp Med 215:1555-1569
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Zhao, Yinghua; Chu, Xiao; Chen, Jintong et al. (2016) Dectin-1-activated dendritic cells trigger potent antitumour immunity through the induction of Th9 cells. Nat Commun 7:12368