CXCL9 inhibits tumour growth and drives anti-PD-L1 therapy in ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in ovarian cancer remains disappointing. Several studies have identified the chemokine CXCL9 as a robust prognosticator of improved survival in ovarian cancer and a characteristic of the immunoreactive subtype, which predicts ICB response. However, the function of CXCL9 in ovarian cancer has been poorly studied. METHODS: Impact of Cxcl9 overexpression in the murine ID8-Trp53-/- and ID8-Trp53-/-Brca2-/- ovarian cancer models on survival, cellular immune composition, PD-L1 expression and anti-PD-L1 therapy. CXCL9 expression analysis in ovarian cancer subtypes and correlation to reported ICB response. RESULTS: CXCL9 overexpression resulted in T-cell accumulation, delayed ascites formation and improved survival, which was dependent on adaptive immune function. In the ICB-resistant mouse model, the chemokine was sufficient to enable a successful anti-PD-L1 therapy. In contrast, these effects were abrogated in Brca2-deficient tumours, most likely due to an already high intrinsic chemokine expression. Finally, in ovarian cancer patients, the clear-cell subtype, known to respond best to ICB, displayed a significantly higher proportion of CXCL9high tumours than the other subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: CXCL9 is a driver of successful ICB in preclinical ovarian cancer. Besides being a feasible predictive biomarker, CXCL9-inducing agents thus represent attractive combination partners to improve ICB in this cancer entity.

The Chemokine CX3CL1 Improves Trastuzumab Efficacy in HER2 Low-Expressing Cancer In Vitro and In Vivo.

A crucial mode of action of trastuzumab is the labeling of HER2-positive (HER2+) tumor cells for the eradication by natural killer (NK) cells, a process called antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). However, despite widespread HER2 expression among cancer entities, only a fraction, with robust HER2 overexpression, benefits from trastuzumab therapy. ADCC requires both sufficient lymphocytic infiltration and close binding of the immune cells to the antibody-tagged tumor cells. We hypothesized that the chemokine CX3CL1 could improve both processes, as it is synthesized as a membrane-bound, adhesive form that is eventually cleaved into a soluble, chemotactic protein. Here, we show that CX3CL1 overexpression is a positive prognostic marker in breast cancer. CX3CL1 overexpression attracted tumor-suppressive lymphocytes, including NK cells, and inhibited tumor growth and lung metastasis in the syngeneic 4T1 breast cancer mouse model. In HER2+ SKBR3, MDA-MB-453, and HT-29 tumor cells, CX3CL1 overexpression increased NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro and acted synergistically with trastuzumab. Even though CX3CL1 did not further improve trastuzumab efficacy in vivo in the trastuzumab-sensitive MDA-MB-453 model, it compensated for NK-cell depletion and prolonged survival. In the HER2 low-expressing HT-29 model, however, CX3CL1 overexpression not only prolonged survival time but also overcame trastuzumab resistance in a partly NK cell-dependent manner. Taken together, these findings identify CX3CL1 as a feasible pharmacologic target to enable trastuzumab therapy in HER2 low-expressing cancers and render it a potential predictive biomarker to determine therapy responders.

Spatiotemporal Control of Lipid Conversion, Actin-Based Mechanical Forces, and Curvature Sensors during Clathrin/AP-1-Coated Vesicle Biogenesis.

Clathrin/adaptor protein-1-coated carriers connect the secretory and the endocytic pathways. Carrier biogenesis relies on distinct protein networks changing membrane shape at the trans-Golgi network, each regulating coat assembly, F-actin-based mechanical forces, or the biophysical properties of lipid bilayers. How these different hubs are spatiotemporally coordinated remains largely unknown. Using in vitro reconstitution systems, quantitative proteomics, and lipidomics, as well as in vivo cell-based assays, we characterize the protein networks controlling membrane lipid composition, membrane shape, and carrier scission. These include PIP5K1A and phospholipase C-beta 3 controlling the conversion of PI[4]P into diacylglycerol. PIP5K1A binding to RAC1 provides a link to F-actin-based mechanical forces needed to tubulate membranes. Tubular membranes then recruit the BAR-domain-containing arfaptin-1/2 guiding carrier scission. These findings provide a framework for synchronizing the chemical/biophysical properties of lipid bilayers, F-actin-based mechanical forces, and the activity of proteins sensing membrane shape during clathrin/adaptor protein-1-coated carrier biogenesis.

Septin6 and Septin7 GTP binding proteins regulate AP-3- and ESCRT-dependent multivesicular body biogenesis.

Septins (SEPTs) form a family of GTP-binding proteins implicated in cytoskeleton and membrane organization, cell division and host/pathogen interactions. The precise function of many family members remains elusive. We show that SEPT6 and SEPT7 complexes bound to F-actin regulate protein sorting during multivesicular body (MVB) biogenesis. These complexes bind AP-3, an adapter complex sorting cargos destined to remain in outer membranes of maturing endosomes, modulate AP-3 membrane interactions and the motility of AP-3-positive endosomes. These SEPT-AP interactions also influence the membrane interaction of ESCRT (endosomal-sorting complex required for transport)-I, which selects ubiquitinated cargos for degradation inside MVBs. Whereas our findings demonstrate that SEPT6 and SEPT7 function in the spatial, temporal organization of AP-3- and ESCRT-coated membrane domains, they uncover an unsuspected coordination of these sorting machineries during MVB biogenesis. This requires the E3 ubiquitin ligase LRSAM1, an AP-3 interactor regulating ESCRT-I sorting activity and whose mutations are linked with Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathies.

Liposome-based assays to study membrane-associated protein networks.

Transport carriers regulate the bidirectional flow of membrane between the compartments of the secretory and endocytic pathways. Their biogenesis relies on the recruitment of a number of cytosolic proteins and protein complexes on specific membrane microdomains with defined protein and lipid compositions. The timely assembly of these cellular machines onto membranes involves multiple protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions and is necessary to select membrane proteins and lipids into nascent carriers, to bend the flat membrane of the donor compartment, to change the shape of this nascent carrier into a tubular-vesicular structure, and to operate its scission from the donor compartment. A challenge in this field of membrane cell biology has been to identify these machineries and to understand their precise function, in particular by studying their spatial and temporal dynamics during carrier biogenesis. During the past years, liposome-based synthetic biology fully recapitulating the fidelity of carrier biogenesis as seen in vivo has proved to be instrumental to identify these key cytosolic components using mass spectrometry and their dynamics using fluorescence microscopy. We describe here the methods to isolate on synthetic membranes the protein networks needed for carrier biogenesis, to identify them using label-free quantitative proteomics, and to visualize their dynamics on giant unilamellar vesicles.

Bidirectional transport between the trans-Golgi network and the endosomal system.

The exchange of proteins and lipids between the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and the endosomal system requires multiple cellular machines, whose activities are coordinated in space and time to generate pleomorphic, tubulo-vesicular carriers that deliver their content to their target compartments. These machines and their associated protein networks are recruited and/or activated on specific membrane domains where they select proteins and lipids into carriers, contribute to deform/elongate and partition membrane domains using the mechanical forces generated by actin polymerization or movement along microtubules. The coordinated action of these protein networks contributes to regulate the dynamic state of multiple receptors recycling between the cell surface, endosomes and the TGN, to maintain cell homeostasis as exemplified by the biogenesis of lysosomes and related organelles, and to establish/maintain cell polarity. The dynamic assembly and disassembly of these protein networks mediating the exchange of membrane domains between the TGN and endosomes regulates cell-cell signalling and thus the development of multi-cellular organisms. Somatic mutations in single network components lead to changes in transport dynamics that may contribute to pathological modifications underlying several human diseases such as mental retardation.

Protein complexes containing CYFIP/Sra/PIR121 coordinate Arf1 and Rac1 signalling during clathrin-AP-1-coated carrier biogenesis at the TGN.

Actin dynamics is a tightly regulated process involved in various cellular events including biogenesis of clathrin-coated, AP-1 (adaptor protein 1)-coated transport carriers connecting the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and the endocytic pathway. However, the mechanisms coordinating coat assembly, membrane and actin remodelling during post-TGN transport remain poorly understood. Here we show that the Arf1 (ADP-ribosylation factor 1) GTPase synchronizes the TGN association of clathrin-AP-1 coats and protein complexes comprising CYFIP (cytoplasmic fragile-X mental retardation interacting protein; Sra, PIR121), a clathrin heavy chain binding protein associated with mental retardation. The Rac1 GTPase and its exchange factor beta-PIX (PAK-interacting exchange factor) activate these complexes, allowing N-WASP-dependent and Arp2/3-dependent actin polymerization towards membranes, thus promoting tubule formation. These phenomena can be recapitulated with synthetic membranes. This protein-network-based mechanism facilitates the sequential coordination of Arf1-dependent membrane priming, through the recruitment of coats and CYFIP-containing complexes, and of Rac1-dependent actin polymerization, and provides complementary but independent levels of regulation during early stages of clathrin-AP1-coated carrier biogenesis.