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The efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) varies greatly among metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Loss of heterozygosity at the HLA-I locus (HLA-LOH) has been identified as an important immune escape mechanism. However, despite HLA-I disruptions in their tumor, many patients have durable ICB responses. Here we seek to identify HLA-I-independent features associated with ICB response in NSCLC. We use single-cell profiling to identify tumor-infiltrating, clonally expanded CD4

Colorectal cancer (CRC), a disease of high incidence and mortality, has had few treatment advances owing to a large degree of inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity. Attempts to classify subtypes of colorectal cancer to develop treatment strategies has been attempted by Consensus Molecular Subtypes (CMS) classification. However, the cellular etiology of CMS classification is incompletely understood and controversial. Here, we generated and analyzed a single-cell transcriptome atlas of 49,859 CRC cells from 16 patients, validated with an additional 31,383 cells from an independent CRC patient cohort. We describe subclonal transcriptomic heterogeneity of CRC tumor epithelial cells, as well as discrete stromal populations of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Within CRC CAFs, we identify the transcriptional signature of specific subtypes (CAF-S1 and CAF-S4) in more than 1,500 CRC patients using bulk transcriptomic data that significantly stratifies overall survival in multiple independent cohorts. We also uncovered two CAF-S1 subpopulations, ecm-myCAF and TGFß-myCAF, known to be associated with primary resistance to immunotherapies. We demonstrate that scRNA analysis of malignant, stromal, and immune cells exhibit a more complex picture than portrayed by bulk transcriptomic-based Consensus Molecular Subtypes (CMS) classification. By demonstrating an abundant degree of heterogeneity amongst these cell types, our work shows that CRC is best represented in a transcriptomic continuum crossing traditional classification systems boundaries. Overall, this CRC cell map provides a framework to re-evaluate CRC tumor biology with implications for clinical trial design and therapeutic development.

Summary: Patient-derived tumor organoids (TOs) are emerging as high-fidelity models to study cancer biology and develop novel precision medicine therapeutics. However, utilizing TOs for systems-biology-based approaches has been limited by a lack of scalable and reproducible methods to develop and profile these models. We describe a robust pan-cancer TO platform with chemically defined media optimized on cultures acquired from over 1,000 patients. Crucially, we demonstrate tumor genetic and transcriptomic concordance utilizing this approach and further optimize defined minimal media for organoid initiation and propagation. Additionally, we demonstrate a neural-network-based high-throughput approach for label-free, light-microscopy-based drug assays capable of predicting patient-specific heterogeneity in drug responses with applicability across solid cancers. The pan-cancer platform, molecular data, and neural-network-based drug assay serve as resources to accelerate the broad implementation of organoid models in precision medicine research and personalized therapeutic profiling programs.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is widely used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and works by inhibiting the PD-1/PDL1 axis to reinvigorate exhausted T cells. In the prevailing model, the primary mechanism for direct tumor cell killing occurs through cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Here, we use single-cell multi-omic profiling (a combination of single-cell RNA sequencing, TCR sequencing, and surface protein profiling) in 10 NSCLC patients to identify a population of CD4+ T cells that are tumor-infiltrating, clonally expanded, and express a cytotoxic gene program. Concordantly, we found in the same patients a subpopulation of tumor cells with elevated HLA class II expression, suggesting a mechanism for tumor-mediated antigen presentation to CD4+ T cells. Finally, we show that a cytotoxic CD4 gene signature is associated with improved progression-free survival in a cohort of 180 NSCLC patients treated with ICB regimens, including those with loss of heterozygosity at the HLA class I locus. Overall, these results suggest a model where cytotoxic CD4+ T cells can perform direct tumor cell killing in a class II restricted manner and that their presence is associated with favorable ICB outcomes in NSCLC. Citation Format: Denise Lau, Sonal Khare, Derek Reiman, Tim Rand, Ameen A. Salahudeen, Aly Khan. Cytotoxic CD4+ T cells contribute to anti-tumor immune responses in NSCLC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 1487.

Summary: Here, we report that MYC rescues early human cells undergoing reprogramming from a proliferation pause induced by OCT3/4, SOX2, and KLF4 (OSK). We identified ESRG as a marker of early reprogramming cells that is expressed as early as day 3 after OSK induction. On day 4, ESRG positive (+) cells converted to a TRA-1-60 (+) intermediate state. These early ESRG (+) or TRA-1-60 (+) cells showed a proliferation pause due to increased p16INK4A and p21 and decreased endogenous MYC caused by OSK. Exogenous MYC did not enhance the appearance of initial reprogramming cells but instead reactivated their proliferation and improved reprogramming efficiency. MYC increased expression of LIN41, which potently suppressed p21 post-transcriptionally. MYC suppressed p16 INK4A. These changes inactivated retinoblastoma protein (RB) and reactivated proliferation. The RB-regulated proliferation pause does not occur in immortalized fibroblasts, leading to high reprogramming efficiency even without exogenous MYC. : Rand et al. find that MYC promotes proliferation of human intermediate reprogrammed cells rather than initiation of reprogramming. MYC post-transcriptionally activates LIN41, resulting in post-transcriptional suppression of p21. Suppression of p21 results in reduction of RB activity, which is a negative regulator of reprogramming progression. Keywords: reprogramming, pluripotency, induced pluripotent stem cell, proliferation, senescence, immortalization, MYC, LIN41, post-transcriptional regulation

Novel APOBEC1 target 1 (Nat1) (also known as “p97,” “Dap5,” and “Eif4g2”) is a ubiquitously expressed cytoplasmic protein that is homologous to the C-terminal two thirds of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4G (Eif4g1). We previously showed that Nat1-null mouse embryonic stem cells (mES cells) are resistant to differentiation. In the current study, we found that NAT1 and eIF4G1 share many binding proteins, such as the eukaryotic translation initiation factors eIF3 and eIF4A and ribosomal proteins. However, NAT1 did not bind to eIF4E or poly(A)-binding proteins, which are critical for cap-dependent translation initiation. In contrast, compared with eIF4G1, NAT1 preferentially interacted with eIF2, fragile X mental retardation proteins (FMR), and related proteins and especially with members of the proline-rich and coiled-coil–containing protein 2 (PRRC2) family. We also found that Nat1-null mES cells possess a transcriptional profile similar, although not identical, to the ground state, which is established in wild-type mES cells when treated with inhibitors of the ERK and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) signaling pathways. In Nat1-null mES cells, the ERK pathway is suppressed even without inhibitors. Ribosome profiling revealed that translation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 3 (Map3k3) and son of sevenless homolog 1 (Sos1) is suppressed in the absence of Nat1. Forced expression of Map3k3 induced differentiation of Nat1-null mES cells. These data collectively show that Nat1 is involved in the translation of proteins that are required for cell differentiation.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPS cells) are rapidly emerging as a powerful tool for biomedical discovery. The advent of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells) with human embryonic stem (hES)-cell-like properties has led to hPS cells with disease-specific genetic backgrounds for in vitro disease modeling and drug discovery as well as mechanistic and developmental studies. To fully realize this potential, it will be necessary to modify the genome of hPS cells with precision and flexibility. Pioneering experiments utilizing site-specific double-strand break (DSB)-mediated genome engineering tools, including zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), have paved the way to genome engineering in previously recalcitrant systems such as hPS cells. However, these methods are technically cumbersome and require significant expertise, which has limited adoption. A major recent advance involving the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) endonuclease has dramatically simplified the effort required for genome engineering and will likely be adopted widely as the most rapid and flexible system for genome editing in hPS cells. In this unit, we describe commonly practiced methods for CRISPR endonuclease genomic editing of hPS cells into cell lines containing genomes altered by insertion/deletion (indel) mutagenesis or insertion of recombinant genomic DNA.

SummaryThe mRNA-cleavage step of RNA interference is mediated by an endonuclease, Argonaute2 (Ago2), within the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). Ago2 uses one strand of the small interfering (si) RNA duplex as a guide to find messenger RNAs containing complementary sequences and cleaves the phosphodiester backbone at a specific site measured from the guide strand’s 5′ end. Here, we show that both strands of siRNA get loaded onto Ago2 protein in Drosophila S2 cell extracts. The anti-guide strand behaves as a RISC substrate and is cleaved by Ago2. This cleavage event is important for the removal of the anti-guide strand from Ago2 protein and activation of RISC.

The RNA interference (RNAi) pathway is initiated by processing long double-stranded RNA into small interfering RNA (siRNA). The siRNA-generating enzyme was purified from Drosophila S2cells and consists of two stoichiometric subunits: Dicer-2(DCR-2) and a previously unknown protein that we named R2D2. R2D2 is homologous to the Caenorhabditis elegans RNAi protein RDE-4. Association with R2D2 does not affect the enzymatic activity of DCR-2. Rather, the DCR-2/R2D2 complex, but not DCR-2 alone, binds to siRNA and enhances sequence-specific messenger RNA degradation mediated by the RNA-initiated silencing complex (RISC). These results indicate that R2D2 bridges the initiation and effector steps of the Drosophila RNAi pathway by facilitating siRNA passage from Dicer to RISC.

RNA interference is carried out by the small double-stranded RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). The RISC-bound small RNA guides the RISC complex to identify and cleave mRNAs with complementary sequences. The proteins that make up the RISC complex and cleave mRNA have not been unequivocally defined. Here, we report the biochemical purification of RISC activity to homogeneity from Drosophila Schnieder 2 cell extracts. Argonaute 2 (Ago-2) is the sole protein component present in the purified, functional RISC. By using a bioinformatics method that combines sequence-profile analysis with predicted protein secondary structure, we found homology between the PIWI domain of Ago-2 and endonuclease V and identified potential active-site amino acid residues within the PIWI domain of Ago-2.

Reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) promotes a broad array of cellular changes. Here we show that the let-7 family of microRNAs acts as an inhibitory influence on the reprogramming process through a regulatory pathway involving prodifferentiation factors, including EGR1. Inhibiting let-7 in human cells promotes reprogramming to a comparable extent to c-MYC when combined with OCT4, SOX2, and KLF4, and persistence of let-7 inhibits reprogramming. Inhibiting let-7 during reprogramming leads to an increase in the level of the let-7 target LIN-41/TRIM71, which in turn promotes reprogramming and is important for overcoming the let-7 barrier to reprogramming. Mechanistic studies revealed that LIN-41 regulates a broad array of differentiation genes, and more specifically, inhibits translation of EGR1 through binding its cognate mRNA. Together our findings outline a let-7-based pathway that counteracts the activity of reprogramming factors through promoting the expression of prodifferentiation genes. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.