Daniel Peeper, Head of the Division of Molecular Oncology and Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper he co-authored published in Nature Magazine:
“Congratulations to shared first authors Sofia Ibañez Molero and Johanna Veldman, the entire team and collaborators on our publication in Nature Magazine, online today!
In a nutshell:
We discovered that interactions between specific CD8 T immune cells and tumor cells are so strong that they can be used to identify and isolate highly tumor-reactive T cells from cancer samples – this may help improve immunotherapies.
What was the challenge?
It has been difficult to identify the T cells that are truly effective at killing tumors in patients. Most immunology studies have focused on profiling individual T cells, defining their activities. While this has provided valuable insight, it has not revealed how to select potent cancer-killing T cells from clinical specimens.
What did we discover?
We observed that cultured T cells that specifically recognize and kill tumor cells stick to them tightly, forming what we call ‘clusters’. We then asked: could these clusters guide us to the actively tumor-killing T cells also in patient tumors? The breakthrough came when we observed that these T cell-tumor interactions are indeed so strong that they allow clusters to be easily isolated directly from patient tumor samples. In laboratory tests and in patient-derived tumors, T cells derived from these clusters were up to nine times more effective at destroying cancer cells than single T cells.
Why is this important?
By purifying these active T cell clusters from tumors, we may be able to improve current TIL therapy. In this treatment, T cells are taken from a patient’s tumor, expanded in the lab, and then infused back into the patient, without selecting the most effective cells. TIL therapy shows clinical benefit in a subset of patients with melanoma and is currently being explored for other cancers. We now want to develop a procedure to specifically isolate T cell clusters from tumors to test them in a clinical trial for enhanced TIL therapy. In parallel, we are exploring whether the unique features of these clustered T cells can be leveraged to design new immunotherapy strategies.
Congratulations and huge thanks to everyone involved.”
Tittle: Tumour-reactive heterotypic CD8 T cell clusters from clinical samples
Authors: Sofía Ibáñez-Molero, Johanna Veldman, Juan Simon Nieto, Joleen J. H. Traets, Austin George, Kelly Hoefakker, Anita Karomi, Rolf Harkes, Bram van den Broek, Su Min Pack, Liselotte Tas, Nils L. Visser, Susan E. van Hal-van Veen, Paula Alóndiga-Mérida, Maartje Alkemade, Iris M. Seignette, Renaud Tissier, Marja Nieuwland, Martijn van Baalen, Joanna Poźniak, Erik Mul, Simon Tol, Sofia Stenqvist, Lisa M. Nilsson, Jonas A. Nilsson, John B. A. G. Haanen, Winan J. van Houdt, Daniel Peeper
Read the full article on Nature Magazine
More posts featuring Daniel Peeper on OncoDaily.