Polymerase ε (POLE) ultra-mutated tumors induce robust tumor-specific CD4+ T cell responses in endometrial cancer patients

Authors

Stefania Bellone, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Floriana Centritto, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Jonathan Black, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Carlton Schwab, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Diana English, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Emiliano Cocco, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Salvatore Lopez, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University Campus Bio-Medico of Roma, Roma, Italy.
Elena Bonazzoli, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Federica Predolini, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Francesca Ferrari, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Dan-Arin Silasi, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Elena Ratner, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Masoud Azodi, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Peter E. Schwartz, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Alessandro D. Santin, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208063, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA. Electronic address: alessandro.santin@yale.edu.

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Gynecologic oncology

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Around 7-10% of endometrial carcinomas are characterized by polymerase-ε-(POLE) exonuclease-domain-mutations, an ultra-mutated-phenotype and a favorable prognosis. It is currently unknown whether POLE ultra-mutated-tumors are more immunogenic when compared to the other groups of endometrial cancers. METHODS: We used autologous-dendritic-cells (DC) pulsed with whole-tumor-extracts to assess the level of CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell-activation induced by POLE-ultramutated (+) and POLE wild-type (-) endometrial cancer cells in vitro. T-lymphocyte-proliferations were evaluated using CFSE and/or ([3H])thymidine-incorporation-assays while the ability to specifically kill autologous-tumor-cells by cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte (CTL) was tested in standard 4-h-(51)Cr-cytotoxicity-assays. In order to correlate cytotoxic activity and proliferation by CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes, respectively, with a particular lymphoid subset, two-color-flow-cytometric analysis of intracellular-cytokine-expression (IFN-γ vs IL-4) at the single cell level was also performed. RESULTS: DC-pulsed with tumor extracts were able to induce CTL-responses against autologous-tumor-cells in both POLE (+) and POLE (-) cancer patients (P=0.305). These CD8+ T-cell-populations were cytotoxic against tumor-cells but they did not lyse PHA-stimulated-autologous-lymphocytes or autologous-EBV-transformed-lymphoblastoid-control-cell-lines. In contrast, only POLE (+) tumor-lysate-pulsed-DC were able to induce significant proliferation and high IFN-γ expression (i.e., Th1-cytokine-bias) in autologous in vitro DC-stimulated CD4+ T-cells as well as naïve CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells from patients-peripheral-blood (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: POLE ultra-mutated-tumors are significantly more immunogenic when compared to POLE (-) tumors, in particular to the helper arm of the immune system. These data lend support to the hypothesis that the better prognosis of patients with POLE (+) tumors may at least in part be linked to their enhanced immunogenicity.

First Page

11

Last Page

7

DOI

10.1016/j.ygyno.2015.04.027

Publication Date

7-1-2015

Recommended Citation

Bellone, Stefania; Centritto, Floriana; Black, Jonathan; Schwab, Carlton; English, Diana; Cocco, Emiliano; Lopez, Salvatore; Bonazzoli, Elena; Predolini, Federica; Ferrari, Francesca; Silasi, Dan-Arin; Ratner, Elena; Azodi, Masoud; Schwartz, Peter E.; and Santin, Alessandro D., "Polymerase ε (POLE) ultra-mutated tumors induce robust tumor-specific CD4+ T cell responses in endometrial cancer patients" (2015). Obstetrics and Gynecology. 164.
https://scholar.bridgeporthospital.org/obgyn/164

Identifier

25931171 (pubmed); NIHMS685114 (mid); PMC4469551 (pmc); 10.1016/j.ygyno.2015.04.027 (doi); S0090-8258(15)00856-2 (pii)