Weekly Top Scientific Research Review (11/3/2017-17/3/2017)

This week’s topic are about Early tumour growth, Class IIa HDAC inhibition, Antibody therapy, Neanderthal behaviour and Autophagy. Are you attracted by these interesting discoveries? Don’t wait, let’s browse together!

1. Early tumour growth halted.

Cells that eventually give rise to tumours attract immune cells that help to shield them from the body’s defences. This may be one of the earliest events in tumour formation. Bin Zhao at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, and his colleagues studied liver cancer in mice and found that tumour-initiating cells (TICs) turn on production of Yes-associated protein (YAP). This molecule promotes cell proliferation and attracts immune cells called macrophages, which boost tumour growth. The TICs began doing this at an early stage of tumour growth, when they existed as single cells.

Blocking macrophage recruitment prevented TICs from developing into tumours and caused the immune system to eliminate them rapidly. The team also discovered YAP activation and macrophage recruitment in a small sample of precancerous lesions from human livers, suggesting that similar mechanisms might be involved in some human cancers. Targeting YAP or macrophages could be a therapeutic strategy for liver cancer, the authors suggest.

Read more, please click http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v543/n7644/full/543152b.html

2. Class IIa HDAC inhibition reduces breast tumours and metastases through antitumour macrophages.

Although the main focus of immuno-oncology has been manipulating the adaptive immune system, harnessing both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system might produce superior tumour reduction and elimination. Tumour-associated macrophages often have net pro-tumour effects, but their embedded location and their untapped potential provide impetus to discover strategies to turn them against tumours. Strategies that deplete (anti-CSF-1 antibodies and CSF-1R inhibition)or stimulate (agonistic anti-CD40 or inhibitory anti-CD47 antibodies) tumour-associated macrophages have had some success.

Jennifer L. Guerriero at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Massachusetts, USA, and her colleagues hypothesized that pharmacologic modulation of macrophage phenotype could produce an anti-tumour effect. The team previously reported that a first-in-class selective class IIa histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, TMP195, influenced human monocyte responses to the colony-stimulating factors CSF-1 and CSF-2 in vitro. Here, they utilize a macrophage-dependent autochthonous mouse model of breast cancer to demonstrate that in vivo TMP195 treatment alters the tumour microenvironment and reduces tumour burden and pulmonary metastases by modulating macrophage phenotypes. TMP195 induces the recruitment and differentiation of highly phagocytic and stimulatory macrophages within tumours. Furthermore, combining TMP195 with chemotherapy regimens or T-cell checkpoint blockade in this model significantly enhances the durability of tumour reduction. These data introduce class IIa HDAC inhibition as a means to harness the anti-tumour potential of macrophages to enhance cancer therapy.

Read more, please click http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21409.html

3. Early antibody therapy can induce long-lasting immunity to SHIV.

Highly potent and broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibodies (bNAbs) have been used to prevent and treat lentivirus infections in humanized mice, macaques, and humans. In immunotherapy experiments, administration of bNAbs to chronically infected animals transiently suppresses virus replication, which invariably returns to pre-treatment levels and results in progression to clinical disease.

Here, Yoshiaki Nishimura at National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA, and his colleagues  show that early administration of bNAbs in a macaque simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) model is associated with very low levels of persistent viraemia, which leads to the establishment of T-cell immunity and resultant long-term infection control. Animals challenged with SHIV_AD8-EO by mucosal or intravenous routes received a single 2-week course of two potent passively transferred bNAbs (3BNC117 and 10-1074). Viraemia remained undetectable for 56-177 days, depending on bNAb half-life in vivo. Moreover, in the 13 treated monkeys, plasma virus loads subsequently declined to undetectable levels in 6 controller macaques. Four additional animals maintained their counts of T cells carrying the CD4 antigen (CD4⁺) and very low levels of viraemia persisted for over 2 years. The frequency of cells carrying replication-competent virus was less than 1 per 10⁶ circulating CD4⁺ T cells in the six controller macaques. Infusion of a T-cell-depleting anti-CD8β monoclonal antibody to the controller animals led to a specific decline in levels of CD8⁺ T cells and the rapid reappearance of plasma viraemia. In contrast, macaques treated for 15 weeks with combination anti-retroviral therapy, beginning on day 3 after infection, experienced sustained rebound plasma viraemia when treatment was interrupted. Their results show that passive immunotherapy during acute SHIV infection differs from combination anti-retroviral therapy in that it facilitates the emergence of potent CD8⁺ T-cell immunity able to durably suppress virus replication.

Read more, please click http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21435.html

4. Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus.

Recent genomic data have revealed multiple interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, but there is currently little genetic evidence regarding Neanderthal behaviour, diet, or disease.

Laura S. Weyrich at School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide in Adelaide, South Australia, and his colleagues described the shotgun-sequencing of ancient DNA from five specimens of Neanderthal calcified dental plaque (calculus) and the characterization of regional differences in Neanderthal ecology. At Spy cave, Belgium, Neanderthal diet was heavily meat based and included woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep (mouflon), characteristic of a steppe environment. In contrast, no meat was detected in the diet of Neanderthals from El Sidrón cave, Spain, and dietary components of mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss reflected forest gathering. Differences in diet were also linked to an overall shift in the oral bacterial community (microbiota) and suggested that meat consumption contributed to substantial variation within Neanderthal microbiota. Evidence for self-medication was detected in an El Sidrón Neanderthal with a dental abscess and a chronic gastrointestinal pathogen (Enterocytozoon bieneusi). Metagenomic data from this individual also contained a nearly complete genome of the archaeal commensal Methanobrevibacter oralis (10.2× depth of coverage)—the oldest draft microbial genome generated to date, at around 48,000 years old. DNA preserved within dental calculus represents a notable source of information about the behaviour and health of ancient hominin specimens, as well as a unique system that is useful for the study of long-term microbial evolution, the authors suggest.

Read more, please click http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21674.html

5. Autophagy maintains the metabolism and function of young and old stem cells.

With age, haematopoietic stem cells lose their ability to regenerate the blood system, and promote disease development. Autophagy is associated with health and longevity, and is critical for protecting haematopoietic stem cells from metabolic stress.

Theodore T. Ho at Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California in California, USA, and his colleagues show that loss of autophagy in haematopoietic stem cells causes accumulation of mitochondria and an activated metabolic state, which drives accelerated myeloid differentiation mainly through epigenetic deregulations, and impairs haematopoietic stem-cell self-renewal activity and regenerative potential. Strikingly, most haematopoietic stem cells in aged mice share these altered metabolic and functional features. However, approximately one-third of aged haematopoietic stem cells exhibit high autophagy levels and maintain a low metabolic state with robust long-term regeneration potential similar to healthy young haematopoietic stem cells. Their results demonstrate that autophagy actively suppresses haematopoietic stem-cell metabolism by clearing active, healthy mitochondria to maintain quiescence and stemness, and becomes increasingly necessary with age to preserve the regenerative capacity of old haematopoietic stem cells.

Read more, please click http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v543/n7644/full/nature21388.html