Characterizing caspase-1 involvement during esophageal disease progression.

Barrett's esophagus (BE) is an inflammatory condition and a neoplastic precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Inflammasome signaling, which contributes to acute and chronic inflammation, results in caspase-1 activation leading to the secretion of IL-1ß and IL-18, and inflammatory cell death (pyroptosis). This study aimed to characterize caspase-1 expression, and its functional importance, during disease progression to BE and EAC. Three models of disease progression (Normal-BE-EAC) were employed to profile caspase-1 expression: (1) a human esophageal cell line model; (2) a murine model of BE; and (3) resected tissue from BE-associated EAC patients. BE patient biopsies and murine BE organoids were cultured ex vivo in the presence of a caspase-1 inhibitor, to determine the importance of caspase-1 for inflammatory cytokine and chemokine secretion.Epithelial caspase-1 expression levels were significantly enhanced in BE (p < 0.01). In contrast, stromal caspase-1 levels correlated with histological inflammation scores during disease progression (p < 0.05). Elevated secretion of IL-1ß from BE explanted tissue, compared to adjacent normal tissue (p < 0.01), confirmed enhanced activity of caspase-1 in BE tissue. Caspase-1 inhibition in LPS-stimulated murine BE organoids caused a significant reduction in IL-1ß (p < 0.01) and CXCL1 (p < 0.05) secretion, confirming the importance of caspase-1 in the production of cytokines and chemokines associated with disease progression from BE to EAC. Targeting caspase-1 activity in BE patients should therefore be tested as a novel strategy to prevent inflammatory complications associated with disease progression.

Precision Oncology, Artificial Intelligence, and Novel Therapeutic Advancements in the Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment of Cancer: Highlights from the 59th Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) Annual Conference.

Advancements in oncology, especially with the era of precision oncology, is resulting in a paradigm shift in cancer care. Indeed, innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are paving the way towards enhanced diagnosis, prevention, and personalised treatments as well as novel drug discoveries. Despite excellent progress, the emergence of resistant cancers has curtailed both the pace and extent to which we can advance. By combining both their understanding of the fundamental biological mechanisms and technological advancements such as artificial intelligence and data science, cancer researchers are now beginning to address this. Together, this will revolutionise cancer care, by enhancing molecular interventions that may aid cancer prevention, inform clinical decision making, and accelerate the development of novel therapeutic drugs. Here, we will discuss the advances and approaches in both artificial intelligence and precision oncology, presented at the 59th Irish Association for Cancer Research annual conference.

Complement is increased in treatment resistant rectal cancer and modulates radioresistance.

Resistance to neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (neo-CRT) is a significant clinical problem in the treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer. Identification of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers predicting therapeutic response is required to improve patient outcomes. Increasing evidence supports a role for the complement system in resistance to anti-cancer therapy. In this study, increased expression of complement effectors C3 and C5 and increased production of anaphylatoxins, C3a and C5a, was observed in radioresistant rectal cancer cells. Modulation of the central complement effector, C3, was demonstrated to functionally alter the radioresponse, with C3 overexpression significantly enhancing radioresistance, whilst C3 inhibition significantly increased sensitivity to a clinically-relevant dose of radiation. Inhibition of C3 was demonstrated to increase DNA damage and alter cell cycle distribution, mediating a shift towards a radiosensitive cell cycle phenotype suggesting a role for C3 in reprogramming of the tumoural radioresponse. Expression of the complement effectors C3 and C5 was significantly increased in human rectal tumour tissue, as was expression of CFB, a component of the alternative pathway of activation. Elevated levels of C3a and C5b-9 in pre-treatment sera from rectal cancer patients was associated with subsequent poor responses to neo-CRT and poorer survival. Together these data demonstrate a role for complement in the radioresistance of rectal cancer and identify key complement components as potential biomarkers predicting response to neo-CRT and outcome in rectal cancer.

Energy Metabolism, Metabolite, and Inflammatory Profiles in Human Ex Vivo Adipose Tissue Are Influenced by Obesity Status, Metabolic Dysfunction, and Treatment Regimes in Patients with Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma.

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) is a poor prognosis cancer with limited response rates to current treatment modalities and has a strong link to obesity. To better elucidate the role of visceral adiposity in this disease state, a full metabolic profile combined with analysis of secreted pro-inflammatory cytokines, metabolites, and lipid profiles were assessed in human ex vivo adipose tissue explants from obese and non-obese OAC patients. These data were then related to extensive clinical data including obesity status, metabolic dysfunction, previous treatment exposure, and tumour regression grades. Real-time energy metabolism profiles were assessed using the seahorse technology. Adipose explant conditioned media was screened using multiplex ELISA to assess secreted levels of 54 pro-inflammatory mediators. Targeted secreted metabolite and lipid profiles were analysed using Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry. Adipose tissue explants and matched clinical data were collected from OAC patients (n = 32). Compared to visceral fat from non-obese patients (n = 16), visceral fat explants from obese OAC patients (n = 16) had significantly elevated oxidative phosphorylation metabolism profiles and an increase in Eotaxin-3, IL-17A, IL-17D, IL-3, MCP-1, and MDC and altered secretions of glutamine associated metabolites. Adipose explants from patients with metabolic dysfunction correlated with increased oxidative phosphorylation metabolism, and increases in IL-5, IL-7, SAA, VEGF-C, triacylglycerides, and metabolites compared with metabolically healthy patients. Adipose explants generated from patients who had previously received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 14) showed elevated secretions of pro-inflammatory mediators, IL-12p40, IL-1α, IL-22, and TNF-ß and a decreased expression of triacylglycerides. Furthermore, decreased secreted levels of triacylglycerides were also observed in the adipose secretome of patients who received the chemotherapy-only regimen FLOT compared with patients who received no neo-adjuvant treatment or chemo-radiotherapy regimen CROSS. For those patients who showed the poorest response to currently available treatments, their adipose tissue was associated with higher glycolytic metabolism compared to patients who had good treatment responses. This study demonstrates that the adipose secretome in OAC patients is enriched with mediators that could prime the tumour microenvironment to aid tumour progression and attenuate responses to conventional cancer treatments, an effect which appears to be augmented by obesity and metabolic dysfunction and exposure to different treatment regimes.

Visceral adipose tissue secretome from early and late-stage oesophageal cancer patients differentially affects effector and regulatory T cells.

AIM: Visceral obesity is a key risk factor in the development of oesophagogastric junctional adenocarcinoma (OGJ), predominantly via generation of systemic low grade inflammation. Obesity-induced inflammation promotes resistance to current standards of care, enhancing tumour cell growth and survival. This study investigates the effect of the visceral adipose tissue secretome from OGJ patients with early versus advanced tumours on T-cell immunity and the role of immune checkpoint blockade in enhancing anti-tumour immunity. METHODS AND RESULTS: Visceral adipose conditioned media (ACM) from both early and late-stage OGJ patients significantly altered T cell activation status, upregulating co-stimulatory marker CD27 on T cells. ACM from both early and late-stage OGJ patients significantly altered immune checkpoint expression profiles downregulating immune checkpoints (ICs) on the surface of dual Th1/17-like and Th17-like cells and upregulating ICs on the surface of Th1-like cells and Treg cells. ACM derived from early-stage OGJ patients but not late-stage OGJ patients increased IFN-γ production by T cells. The addition of immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) did not increase IFN-γ production by T cells in the presence of late-stage ACM, collectively highlighting the dichotomous immunostimulatory effect of early-stage ACM and immune-inhibitory effect of late-stage ACM. Interestingly, ACM from early-stage OGJ patients was more pro-inflammatory than ACM from late-stage patients, reflected by decreased levels of IL-17A/F, TNF-α, IL-1RA and IL-5. CONCLUSION: The ACM-induced upregulation of ICs on T cells highlights a therapeutic vulnerability that could be exploited by ICBs to harness anti-cancer immunity and improve clinical outcomes for OGJ patients. Schematic workflow - (A) visceral adipose tissue was taken from OAC patients at time of surgery and cultured for 72 h in media. (B) The harvested ACM was co-cultured with healthy donor PBMCs that were concurrently activated with anti-CD3/28 for 48 h and T cell immunophenotyping was carried out by flow cytometry. Key findings - (A) Early and late stage ACM enhanced a Th1-like phenotype and upregulated CTLA-4 on Th1-like cells. A Th17-like phenotype was also enhanced in addition with a Treg-like phenotype. CTLA-4 and PD-L1 were upregulated on the surface of Treg-like cells. (B) ICB-attenuated IL-17 production by T cells. However, ACM attenuated ICB-mediated reduction in IL-10 production by T cells. Higher levels of pro-inflammatory factors were found in early stage ACM compared with late stage ACM.

FLOT and CROSS chemotherapy regimens alter the frequency of CD27+ and CD69+ T cells in oesophagogastric adenocarcinomas: implications for combination with immunotherapy.

Combining immunostimulatory chemotherapies with immunotherapy is an attractive strategy to enhance treatment responses in oesophagogastric junctional adenocarcinoma (OGJ). This study investigates the immunostimulatory properties of FLOT, CROSS and MAGIC chemotherapy regimens in the context of OGJ using in vitro and ex vivo models of the treatment-naïve and post-chemotherapy treated tumour microenvironment. FLOT and CROSS chemotherapy regimens increased surrogate markers of immunogenic cell death (HMGB1 and HLA-DR), whereas the MAGIC treatment regimen decreased HMGB1 and HLA-DR on OGJ cells (markedly for epirubicin). Tumour-infiltrating and circulating T cells had significantly lower CD27 expression and significantly higher CD69 expression post-FLOT and post-CROSS treatment. Similarly, the supernatant from FLOT- and CROSS-treated OGJ cell lines and from FLOT- and CROSS-treated OGJ biopsies cultured ex vivo also decreased CD27 and increased CD69 expression on T cells. Following 48 h treatment with post-FLOT and post-CROSS tumour conditioned media the frequency of CD69+ T cells in culture negatively correlated with the levels of soluble immunosuppressive pro-angiogenic factors in the conditioned media from ex vivo explants. Supernatant from FLOT- and CROSS-treated OGJ cell lines also increased the cytotoxic potential of healthy donor T cells ex vivo and enhanced OGJ patient-derived lymphocyte mediated-killing of OE33 cells ex vivo. Collectively, this data demonstrate that FLOT and CROSS chemotherapy regimens possess immunostimulatory properties, identifying these chemotherapy regimens as rational synergistic partners to test in combination with immunotherapy and determine if this combinatorial approach could boost anti-tumour immunity in OGJ patients and improve clinical outcomes.

PD-1 and TIGIT blockade differentially affect tumour cell survival under hypoxia and glucose deprived conditions in oesophageal adenocarcinoma; implications for overcoming resistance to PD-1 blockade in hypoxic tumours.

Recent studies have demontrated that immune checkpoint receptors are expressed on the surface of oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) cells and might confer a survival advantage. This study explores the role of PD-1 and TIGIT signalling in OAC cells in either promoting or inhibiting the survival of OAC cells under characteristic features of the tumour microenvironment including nutrient-deprivation and hypoxia. PD-1 and TIGIT are expressed in normal and pre-malignant oesophageal epithelial cells and this expression significantly decreases along the normal- Barrett's Oesophagus- OAC disease sequence. However, glucose-deprivation and hypoxia significantly upregulated PD-1 and TIGIT on the surface of OAC cells in vitro. PD-1 blockade decreased OAC cell proliferation under normoxia but enhanced proliferation and decreased cell death in OAC cells under hypoxia and glucose-deprivation. TIGIT blockade decreased proliferation and induced OAC cell death, an effect that was maintained under nutrient-deprivation and hypoxia. Basal respiration and glycolytic reserve were enhanced and GLUT1 was upregulated on the surface of a subpopulation of OAC cells following PD-1 blockade. In contrast, TIGIT blockade enhanced a glycolytic phenotype in OAC cells, yet decreased other metabolic parameters including oxidative phosphorylation and basal respiration. Interestingly, inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation significantly upregulated TIGIT expression and inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis significantly decreased PD-1 on the surface of a subpopulation of OAC cells in vitro. These findings suggest an immune-independent mechanism for PD-1 inhibitor resistance in hypoxic tumours and suggest that TIGIT might be a more effective therapeutic target in OAC compared with PD-1 for treating hypoxic tumours.

Opposing Immune-Metabolic Signature in Visceral Versus Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue in Patients with Adenocarcinoma of the Oesophagus and the Oesophagogastric Junction.

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) is an exemplar model of obesity-associated cancer. Previous work in our group has demonstrated that overweight/obese OAC patients have better responses to neoadjuvant therapy, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Unravelling the immune-metabolic signatures of adipose tissue may provide insight for this observation. We hypothesised that different metabolic pathways predominate in visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and inflammatory secretions will differ between the fat depots. Real-time ex vivo metabolic profiles of VAT and SAT from 12 OAC patients were analysed. These samples were screened for the secretion of 54 inflammatory mediators, and data were correlated with patient body composition. Oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) was significantly higher in VAT when compared to SAT. OXPHOS was significantly higher in the SAT of patients receiving neoadjuvant treatment. VEGF-A, VEGF-C, P1GF, Flt-1, bFGF, IL-15, IL-16, IL-17A, CRP, SAA, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, IL-2, IL-13, IFN-γ, and MIP-1ß secretions were significantly higher from VAT than SAT. Higher levels of bFGF, Eotaxin-3, and TNF-α were secreted from the VAT of obese patients, while higher levels of IL-23 and TARC were secreted from the SAT of obese patients. The angiogenic factors, bFGF and VEGF-C, correlated with visceral fat area. Levels of OXPHOS are higher in VAT than SAT. Angiogenic, vascular injury and inflammatory cytokines are elevated in VAT versus SAT, indicating that VAT may promote inflammation, linked to regulating treatment response.

The Prognostic Value of the Lymph Node in Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma; Incorporating Clinicopathological and Immunological Profiling.

Response rates to the current gold standards of care for treating oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) remain modest with 15-25% of patients achieving meaningful pathological responses, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic strategies. This study consists of immune, angiogenic, and inflammatory profiling of the tumour microenvironment (TME) and lymph node microenvironment (LNME) in OAC. The prognostic value of nodal involvement and clinicopathological features was compared using a retrospective cohort of OAC patients (n = 702). The expression of inhibitory immune checkpoints by T cells infiltrating tumour-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) and tumour tissue post-chemo(radio)therapy at surgical resection was assessed by flow cytometry. Nodal metastases is of equal prognostic importance to clinical tumour stage and tumour regression grade (TRG) in OAC. The TME exhibited a greater immuno-suppressive phenotype than the LNME. Our data suggests that blockade of these checkpoints may have a therapeutic rationale for boosting response rates in OAC.

The Protein Secretome Is Altered in Rectal Cancer Tissue Compared to Normal Rectal Tissue, and Alterations in the Secretome Induce Enhanced Innate Immune Responses.

Locally advanced rectal cancer is treated with neoadjuvant-chemoradiotherapy; however, only ~22% of patients achieve a complete response, and resistance mechanisms are poorly understood. The role of inflammation and immune cell biology in this setting is under-investigated. In this study, we profiled the inflammatory protein secretome of normal (non-cancer) (n = 8) and malignant rectal tissue (n = 12) pre- and post-radiation in human ex vivo explant models and examined the influence of these untreated and treated secretomes on dendritic cell biology (n = 8 for cancer and normal). These resultant profiles were correlated with patient clinical characteristics. Nineteen factors were secreted at significantly higher levels from the rectal cancer secretome when compared to the normal rectal secretome; Flt-1, P1GF, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-10, CCL20, CCL26, CCL22, CCL3, CCL4, CCL17, GM-CSF, IL-12/IL-23p40, IL-17A, IL-1α, IL-17A/F, IL-1RA, TSLP and CXCL10 (p < 0.05). Radiation was found to have differential effects on normal rectal tissue and rectal cancer tissue with increased IL-15 and CCL22 secretion following radiation from normal rectal tissue explants (p < 0.05), while no significant alterations were observed in the irradiated rectal cancer tissue. Interestingly, however, the irradiated rectal cancer secretome induced the most potent effect on dendritic cell maturation via upregulation of CD80 and PD-L1. Patient's visceral fat area correlated with secreted factors including CCL20, suggesting that obesity status may alter the tumour microenvironment (TME). These results suggest that radiation does not have a negative effect on the ability of the rectal cancer TME to induce an immune response. Understanding these responses may unveil potential therapeutic targets to enhance radiation response and mitigate normal tissue injury. Tumour irradiation in this cohort enhances innate immune responses, which may be harnessed to improve patient treatment outcome.

Radiation-induced Bystander Effect (RIBE) alters mitochondrial metabolism using a human rectal cancer ex vivo explant model.

Locally advanced rectal cancer is treated with neoadjuvant-chemoradiotherapy, however only 22% of patients achieve a complete response. Resistance mechanisms are poorly understood. Radiation-induced Bystander Effect (RIBE) describes the effect of radiation on neighbouring unirradiated cells. We investigated the effects of ex vivo RIBE-induction from normal and rectal cancer tissue on bystander cell metabolism, mitochondrial function and metabolomic profiling. We correlated bystander events to patient clinical characteristics. Ex vivo RIBE-induction caused metabolic alterations in bystander cells, specifically reductions in OXPHOS following RIBE-induction in normal (p = 0.01) and cancer tissue (p = 0.03) and reduced glycolysis following RIBE-induction in cancer tissue (p = 0.01). Visceral fat area correlated with glycolysis (p = 0.02) and ATP production (p = 0.03) following exposure of cells to TCM from irradiated cancer biopsies. Leucine levels were reduced in the irradiated cancer compared to the irradiated normal secretome (p = 0.04). ROS levels were higher in cells exposed to the cancer compared to the normal secretome (p = 0.04). RIBE-induction ex vivo causes alterations in the metabolome in normal and malignant rectal tissue along with metabolic alterations in bystander cellular metabolism. This may offer greater understanding of the effects of RIBE on metabolism, mitochondrial function and the secreted metabolome.

High Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptor 1 Expression Correlates with Poor Survival of Uveal Melanoma Patients and Cognate Antagonist Drugs Modulate the Growth, Cancer Secretome, and Metabolism of Uveal Melanoma Cells.

Metastatic uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare, but often lethal, form of ocular cancer arising from melanocytes within the uveal tract. UM has a high propensity to spread hematogenously to the liver, with up to 50% of patients developing liver metastases. Unfortunately, once liver metastasis occurs, patient prognosis is extremely poor with as few as 8% of patients surviving beyond two years. There are no standard-of-care therapies available for the treatment of metastatic UM, hence it is a clinical area of urgent unmet need. Here, the clinical relevance and therapeutic potential of cysteinyl leukotriene receptors (CysLT1 and CysLT2) in UM was evaluated. High expression of CYSLTR1 or CYSLTR2 transcripts is significantly associated with poor disease-free survival and poor overall survival in UM patients. Digital pathology analysis identified that high expression of CysLT1 in primary UM is associated with reduced disease-specific survival (p = 0.012; HR 2.76; 95% CI 1.21-6.3) and overall survival (p = 0.011; HR 1.46; 95% CI 0.67-3.17). High CysLT1 expression shows a statistically significant (p = 0.041) correlation with ciliary body involvement, a poor prognostic indicator in UM. Small molecule drugs targeting CysLT1 were vastly superior at exerting anti-cancer phenotypes in UM cell lines and zebrafish xenografts than drugs targeting CysLT2. Quininib, a selective CysLT1 antagonist, significantly inhibits survival (p < 0.0001), long-term proliferation (p < 0.0001), and oxidative phosphorylation (p < 0.001), but not glycolysis, in primary and metastatic UM cell lines. Quininib exerts opposing effects on the secretion of inflammatory markers in primary versus metastatic UM cell lines. Quininib significantly downregulated IL-2 and IL-6 in Mel285 cells (p < 0.05) but significantly upregulated IL-10, IL-1ß, IL-2 (p < 0.0001), IL-13, IL-8 (p < 0.001), IL-12p70 and IL-6 (p < 0.05) in OMM2.5 cells. Finally, quininib significantly inhibits tumour growth in orthotopic zebrafish xenograft models of UM. These preclinical data suggest that antagonism of CysLT1, but not CysLT2, may be of therapeutic interest in the treatment of UM.

The Radiation-Induced Bystander Effect (RIBE) and its Connections with the Hallmarks of Cancer.

Radiation therapy is one of the pillars of cancer treatment, with approximately one half of all cancer patients receiving it as part of their standard of care. Emerging evidence indicates that the biological effects of radiation are not limited to targeted cells. The radiation-induced bystander effect (RIBE) refers to the plethora of biological phenomena occurring in nonirradiated cells as a result of signal transmission from an irradiated cell. Experimental evidence has linked RIBE to numerous hallmarks of cancer including resisting cell death, tumor immune evasion, genomic instability, deregulated cellular energetics, tumor-promoting inflammation and sustained proliferative signaling as well as enhanced radioresistance, thus highlighting the potential role of RIBE events in patient treatment response. The mechanisms underlying RIBE events in vivo are poorly understood. However, elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in their manifestation may reveal novel therapeutic targets to improve radiation response in cancer patients.