1. BRAFV600E/pTERT double mutated papillary thyroid cancers exhibit immune gene suppression.
- Author
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Sigarteu Chindris, Ana-Maria, Rivera, Michael, Ma, Yaohua, Nair, Asha, Liu, Yi, Wang, Xue, Necela, Brian M., Kachergus, Jennifer M., Casler, John D., Brett, Christopher, Rivas Mejia, Ana M., Bernet, Victor J., Copland III, John A., Knutson, Keith L., Thompson, E. Aubrey, and Smallridge, Robert C.
- Subjects
GENE silencing ,THYROID cancer ,IMMUNOSUPPRESSION ,CELL populations ,BRAF genes - Abstract
Introduction: BRAFV600E mutation (BRAF
mut ) is common in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and most patients have an excellent outcome. However, a TERT-promoter mutation (pTERTmut ) in the presence of BRAFmut (BRAFmut pTERTmut ) has been demonstrated to confer a more aggressive behavior to PTC. Lymphocytic infiltration is often present in PTC. In this study, we sought to decipher the relationship between the BRAF and pTERT mutations and immune gene dysregulation in tumor samples from a cohort of 147 samples of PTC. Methods: The abundance of 770 immune gene transcripts was determined by multiprex capture/detection and digital counting of mRNA transcripts using the NanoString nCounter® PanCancer Immune Profiling Panel. Results: We identified 40 immune transcripts differentially expressed in BRAFmut pTERTmut vs BRAFmut pTERT wildtype (pTERTwt ) (P <0.05). Transcripts induced by BRAFmut alone were significantly repressed in BRAFmut pTERTmut samples, such as genes expressed by lymphoid cells, antigen-presenting cells, and cytotoxic cells, including chemokines, cytokines, checkpoint control proteins, interferon downstream markers, TNF superfamily proteins and BMP markers. A validation analysis using 444 samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) PTC dataset yielded similar results. Deconvolution analysis confirmed differences in the immune cell populations such as increased presence of M2 macrophages in the BRAFmut pTERTmut Mayo cohort and a lower abundance of M1 macrophages in the BRAFmut pTERTmut TCGA cohort compared to BRAFmut pTERTwt . Most of the immune gene pathways were enriched in the BRAFmut pTERTwt tumors in both Mayo and TCGA cohorts but not in BRAFmut pTERTmut . BRAFmut pTERTwt had higher stromal lymphocytes infiltration as compared to BRAFwt pTERTwt tumors, corroborating the transcriptomic findings. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first report of a potential link between TERT and the immune microenvironment, offering an explanation for the aggressive nature of BRAFmut pTERTmut PTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2024
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