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Integrated digital pathology and transcriptome analysis identifies molecular mediators of T-cell exclusion in ovarian cancer.
- Source :
- Nature Communications; 11/4/2020, Vol. 11 Issue 1, pN.PAG-N.PAG, 1p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Close proximity between cytotoxic T lymphocytes and tumour cells is required for effective immunotherapy. However, what controls the spatial distribution of T cells in the tumour microenvironment is not well understood. Here we couple digital pathology and transcriptome analysis on a large ovarian tumour cohort and develop a machine learning approach to molecularly classify and characterize tumour-immune phenotypes. Our study identifies two important hallmarks characterizing T cell excluded tumours: 1) loss of antigen presentation on tumour cells and 2) upregulation of TGFβ and activated stroma. Furthermore, we identify TGFβ as an important mediator of T cell exclusion. TGFβ reduces MHC-I expression in ovarian cancer cells in vitro. TGFβ also activates fibroblasts and induces extracellular matrix production as a potential physical barrier to hinder T cell infiltration. Our findings indicate that targeting TGFβ might be a promising strategy to overcome T cell exclusion and improve clinical benefits of cancer immunotherapy. The exclusion of T cells from solid tumours is a potentially important mechanism that regulates whether or not cancer patients respond well to checkpoint blocking immunotherapies. Here the authors identify immune phenotypes and mediators of T cell exclusion among ovarian cancer patient samples from the ICON7 phase III trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Nature Communications
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 146833024
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19408-2