Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy

Despite the remarkable successes of cancer immunotherapies, the majority of patients will experience only partial response followed by relapse of resistant tumors. While treatment resistance has frequently been attributed to clonal selection and immunoediting, comparisons of paired primary and relap...

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Main Authors: Amit Gutwillig, Nadine Santana-Magal, Leen Farhat-Younis, Diana Rasoulouniriana, Asaf Madi, Chen Luxenburg, Jonathan Cohen, Krishnanand Padmanabhan, Noam Shomron, Guy Shapira, Annette Gleiberman, Roma Parikh, Carmit Levy, Meora Feinmesser, Dov Hershkovitz, Valentina Zemser-Werner, Oran Zlotnik, Sanne Kroon, Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, Reno Debets, Nathan Edward Reticker-Flynn, Peleg Rider, Yaron Carmi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2022-09-01
Series:eLife
Subjects:
Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/80315
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author Amit Gutwillig
Nadine Santana-Magal
Leen Farhat-Younis
Diana Rasoulouniriana
Asaf Madi
Chen Luxenburg
Jonathan Cohen
Krishnanand Padmanabhan
Noam Shomron
Guy Shapira
Annette Gleiberman
Roma Parikh
Carmit Levy
Meora Feinmesser
Dov Hershkovitz
Valentina Zemser-Werner
Oran Zlotnik
Sanne Kroon
Wolf-Dietrich Hardt
Reno Debets
Nathan Edward Reticker-Flynn
Peleg Rider
Yaron Carmi
author_facet Amit Gutwillig
Nadine Santana-Magal
Leen Farhat-Younis
Diana Rasoulouniriana
Asaf Madi
Chen Luxenburg
Jonathan Cohen
Krishnanand Padmanabhan
Noam Shomron
Guy Shapira
Annette Gleiberman
Roma Parikh
Carmit Levy
Meora Feinmesser
Dov Hershkovitz
Valentina Zemser-Werner
Oran Zlotnik
Sanne Kroon
Wolf-Dietrich Hardt
Reno Debets
Nathan Edward Reticker-Flynn
Peleg Rider
Yaron Carmi
author_sort Amit Gutwillig
collection DOAJ
description Despite the remarkable successes of cancer immunotherapies, the majority of patients will experience only partial response followed by relapse of resistant tumors. While treatment resistance has frequently been attributed to clonal selection and immunoediting, comparisons of paired primary and relapsed tumors in melanoma and breast cancers indicate that they share the majority of clones. Here, we demonstrate in both mouse models and clinical human samples that tumor cells evade immunotherapy by generating unique transient cell-in-cell structures, which are resistant to killing by T cells and chemotherapies. While the outer cells in this cell-in-cell formation are often killed by reactive T cells, the inner cells remain intact and disseminate into single tumor cells once T cells are no longer present. This formation is mediated predominantly by IFNγ-activated T cells, which subsequently induce phosphorylation of the transcription factors signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and early growth response-1 (EGR-1) in tumor cells. Indeed, inhibiting these factors prior to immunotherapy significantly improves its therapeutic efficacy. Overall, this work highlights a currently insurmountable limitation of immunotherapy and reveals a previously unknown resistance mechanism which enables tumor cells to survive immune-mediated killing without altering their immunogenicity.
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spelling doaj.art-fb33e4cafa1a4209ba1b058808d753b42022-12-22T03:50:59ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2022-09-011110.7554/eLife.80315Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapyAmit Gutwillig0Nadine Santana-Magal1Leen Farhat-Younis2Diana Rasoulouniriana3Asaf Madi4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3441-3228Chen Luxenburg5Jonathan Cohen6Krishnanand Padmanabhan7Noam Shomron8Guy Shapira9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9376-4955Annette Gleiberman10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4155-4224Roma Parikh11Carmit Levy12Meora Feinmesser13Dov Hershkovitz14Valentina Zemser-Werner15Oran Zlotnik16Sanne Kroon17https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5722-0763Wolf-Dietrich Hardt18https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9892-6420Reno Debets19https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-807XNathan Edward Reticker-Flynn20Peleg Rider21Yaron Carmi22https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0972-0616Department of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelCell and Developmental Biology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelCell and Developmental Biology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelCell and Developmental Biology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelCell and Developmental Biology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelCell and Developmental Biology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelHuman Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelHuman Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Institute of Pathology, Rabin Medical Center- Beilinson Hospital, Petach Tikva, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Institute of Pathology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, IsraelInstitute of Pathology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of General Surgery, Rabin Medical Center- Beilinson Campus, Petach Tikva, IsraelDepartment of Biology, Institute of Microbiology, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Biology, Institute of Microbiology, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Rotterdam, NetherlandsSchool of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, United StatesDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDepartment of Pathology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IsraelDespite the remarkable successes of cancer immunotherapies, the majority of patients will experience only partial response followed by relapse of resistant tumors. While treatment resistance has frequently been attributed to clonal selection and immunoediting, comparisons of paired primary and relapsed tumors in melanoma and breast cancers indicate that they share the majority of clones. Here, we demonstrate in both mouse models and clinical human samples that tumor cells evade immunotherapy by generating unique transient cell-in-cell structures, which are resistant to killing by T cells and chemotherapies. While the outer cells in this cell-in-cell formation are often killed by reactive T cells, the inner cells remain intact and disseminate into single tumor cells once T cells are no longer present. This formation is mediated predominantly by IFNγ-activated T cells, which subsequently induce phosphorylation of the transcription factors signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and early growth response-1 (EGR-1) in tumor cells. Indeed, inhibiting these factors prior to immunotherapy significantly improves its therapeutic efficacy. Overall, this work highlights a currently insurmountable limitation of immunotherapy and reveals a previously unknown resistance mechanism which enables tumor cells to survive immune-mediated killing without altering their immunogenicity.https://elifesciences.org/articles/80315immunotherapycancer immunologycell in cellentosis
spellingShingle Amit Gutwillig
Nadine Santana-Magal
Leen Farhat-Younis
Diana Rasoulouniriana
Asaf Madi
Chen Luxenburg
Jonathan Cohen
Krishnanand Padmanabhan
Noam Shomron
Guy Shapira
Annette Gleiberman
Roma Parikh
Carmit Levy
Meora Feinmesser
Dov Hershkovitz
Valentina Zemser-Werner
Oran Zlotnik
Sanne Kroon
Wolf-Dietrich Hardt
Reno Debets
Nathan Edward Reticker-Flynn
Peleg Rider
Yaron Carmi
Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
eLife
immunotherapy
cancer immunology
cell in cell
entosis
title Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
title_full Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
title_fullStr Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
title_full_unstemmed Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
title_short Transient cell-in-cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
title_sort transient cell in cell formation underlies tumor relapse and resistance to immunotherapy
topic immunotherapy
cancer immunology
cell in cell
entosis
url https://elifesciences.org/articles/80315
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