Cancer immunotherapy by NC410, a LAIR-2 Fc protein blocking human LAIR-collagen interaction
- University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands
- Nextcure, United States
- Nordic Bioscience, Denmark
Abstract
Collagens are a primary component of the extracellular matrix and are functional ligands for the inhibitory immune receptor leukocyte associated immunoglobulin-like receptor (LAIR)-1. LAIR-2 is a secreted protein that can act as a decoy receptor by binding collagen with higher affinity than LAIR-1. We propose that collagens promote immune evasion by interacting with LAIR-1 expressed on immune cells, and that LAIR-2 releases LAIR-1 mediated immune suppression. Analysis of public human datasets show that collagens, LAIR-1 and LAIR-2 have unique and overlapping associations with survival in certain tumors. We designed a dimeric LAIR-2 with a functional IgG1 Fc tail, NC410, and showed that NC410 increases human T cell expansion and effector function in vivo in a mouse xenogeneic-graft versus-host disease model. In humanized mouse tumor models NC410 reduces tumor growth that is dependent on T cells. Immunohistochemical analysis of human tumors shows that NC410 binds to collagen-rich areas where LAIR-1+ immune cells are localized. Our findings show that NC410 might be a novel strategy for cancer immunotherapy for immune-excluded tumors.
Data availability
Source codes were provided for Figure 1, Figure 2 and Supplemental Figure 1
Article and author information
Author details
M Ines Pascoal Ramos
Funding
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Vici 918.15.608)
- Linde Meyaard
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All mouse studies were performed at NextCure based on Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee standards according to the protocols of NextCure Animal (NCA) Study 164 (NCA#164 for Figure 3), NCA#122 (for Figure 4), NCA#209 (for Figure 5), NCA#217 (for Figure 6) and NCA#270 (for Supplementary Figure 3).
Human subjects: Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) were isolated from blood of healthy donors in agreement with ethical committee of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and after written informed consent from the subjects in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.Specimens of seven selected tumor types were included for analysis: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), glioblastoma (GBM), melanoma, non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD). Of each tumor type, in agreement with the ethical committee of the UMCU, formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) material of 9-10 tumor specimens and five healthy specimens was collected from the tissue biobank (research protocol 17-786).
Copyright
© 2021, Ramos et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 5,273
- views
-
- 699
- downloads
-
- 52
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Cancer immunotherapy by NC410, a LAIR-2 Fc protein blocking human LAIR-collagen interaction
eLife 10:e62927.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62927
Further reading
-
- Cancer Biology
- Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Despite exciting developments in cancer immunotherapy, its broad application is limited by the paucity of targetable antigens on the tumor cell surface. As an intrinsic cellular pathway, nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) conceals neoantigens through the destruction of the RNA products from genes harboring truncating mutations. We developed and conducted a high-throughput screen, based on the ratiometric analysis of transcripts, to identify critical mediators of NMD in human cells. This screen implicated disruption of kinase SMG1’s phosphorylation of UPF1 as a potential disruptor of NMD. This led us to design a novel SMG1 inhibitor, KVS0001, that elevates the expression of transcripts and proteins resulting from human and murine truncating mutations in vitro and murine cells in vivo. Most importantly, KVS0001 concomitantly increased the presentation of immune-targetable human leukocyte antigens (HLA) class I-associated peptides from NMD-downregulated proteins on the surface of human cancer cells. KVS0001 provides new opportunities for studying NMD and the diseases in which NMD plays a role, including cancer and inherited diseases.
-
- Cancer Biology
For traditional laboratory microscopy observation, the multi-dimensional, real-time, in situ observation of three-dimensional (3D) tumor spheroids has always been the pain point in cell spheroid observation. In this study, we designed a side-view observation petri dish/device that reflects light, enabling in situ observation of the 3D morphology of cell spheroids using conventional inverted laboratory microscopes. We used a 3D-printed handle and frame to support a first-surface mirror, positioning the device within a cell culture petri dish to image cell spheroid samples. The imaging conditions, such as the distance between the mirror and the 3D spheroids, the light source, and the impact of the culture medium, were systematically studied to validate the in situ side-view observation. The results proved that placing the surface mirror adjacent to the spheroids enables non-destructive in situ real-time tracking of tumor spheroid formation, migration, and fusion dynamics. The correlation between spheroid thickness and dark core appearance under light microscopy and the therapeutic effects of chemotherapy doxorubicin and natural killer cells on spheroids’ 3D structure was investigated.
