Department of Medicine III, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Laboratory for Translational Cancer Immunology, Gene Center, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Front Immunol. 2018 Feb 27;9:385. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00385. eCollection 2018.
Immune checkpoint inhibition has been shown to successfully reactivate endogenous T cell responses directed against tumor-associated antigens, resulting in significantly prolonged overall survival in patients with various tumor entities. For malignancies with low endogenous immune responses, this approach has not shown a clear clinical benefit so far. Therapeutic vaccination, particularly dendritic cell (DC) vaccination, is a strategy to induce T cell responses. Interaction of DCs and T cells is dependent on receptor-ligand interactions of various immune checkpoints. In this study, we analyzed the influence of blocking antibodies targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), HVEM, CD244, TIM-3, and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) on the proliferation and cytokine secretion of T cells after stimulation with autologous TLR-matured DCs. In this context, we found that LAG-3 blockade resulted in superior T cell activation compared to inhibition of other pathways, including PD-1/PD-L1. This result was consistent across different methods to measure T cell stimulation (proliferation, IFN-γ secretion), various stimulatory antigens (viral and bacterial peptide pool, specific viral antigen, specific tumor antigen), and seen for both CD4 and CD8 T cells. Only under conditions with a weak antigenic stimulus, particularly when combining antigen presentation by peripheral blood mononuclear cells with low concentrations of peptides, we observed the highest T cell stimulation with dual blockade of LAG-3 and PD-1 blockade. We conclude that priming of novel immune responses can be strongly enhanced by blockade of LAG-3 or dual blockade of LAG-3 and PD-1, depending on the strength of the antigenic stimulus.
免疫检查点抑制已被证明可成功重新激活针对肿瘤相关抗原的内源性 T 细胞反应,导致各种肿瘤实体患者的总生存期显著延长。对于内源性免疫反应较低的恶性肿瘤,迄今为止,这种方法尚未显示出明显的临床益处。治疗性疫苗接种,特别是树突状细胞 (DC) 疫苗接种,是一种诱导 T 细胞反应的策略。DC 和 T 细胞的相互作用取决于各种免疫检查点的受体-配体相互作用。在这项研究中,我们分析了针对程序性细胞死亡蛋白 1 (PD-1)、HVEM、CD244、TIM-3 和淋巴细胞激活基因 3 (LAG-3) 的阻断抗体对自体 TLR 成熟的 DC 刺激后 T 细胞增殖和细胞因子分泌的影响。在这种情况下,我们发现与抑制其他途径(包括 PD-1/PD-L1)相比,LAG-3 阻断导致 T 细胞激活更好。这一结果在不同的 T 细胞刺激测量方法(增殖、IFN-γ 分泌)、各种刺激抗原(病毒和细菌肽库、特定病毒抗原、特定肿瘤抗原)以及 CD4 和 CD8 T 细胞中均一致。只有在抗原刺激较弱的情况下,特别是当外周血单核细胞进行抗原呈递与低浓度肽结合时,我们观察到 LAG-3 和 PD-1 双重阻断时 T 细胞刺激最高。我们得出结论,根据抗原刺激的强度,通过阻断 LAG-3 或 LAG-3 和 PD-1 的双重阻断可以强烈增强新的免疫反应的启动。