Biology subjects

Estrada, M. V.

Publications and source records attributed to Estrada, M. V..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Ovarian Tumor FAK Inhibition Releases Omega-3 Fatty Acids Stimulating GATA6 Peritoneal Macrophage CXCL13 Production Enhancing Immunotherapy

High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in the USA due to chemo- and immuno-therapy resistance. We show that focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibition with ifebemtinib or tumor genetic FAK knockout (KO) in syngeneic ovarian tumor models stimulated resident large peritoneal macrophages to express CXCL13 chemokine and promoted B cell infiltration. Macrophage GATA6 inactivation prevented CXCL13 expression and enhanced FAK-KO tumor growth. Combining ifebemtinib with pegylated doxorubicin chemotherapy and anti-TIGIT immune checkpoint antibody extended survival with tumor-associated tertiary lymphoid structure formation. Mechanistically, FAK-KO heat-treated conditioned media contained exosomes enriched with omega-3 fatty acids which stimulated macrophage CXCL13 production. Ifebemtinib-treated tumors, FAK-KO exosomes, and purified eicosapentaenoic acid enhanced murine and human HGSOC-associated tumor macrophage reprogramming and CXCL13 expression. Overall, our studies define a tumor to macrophage signaling linkage via omega-3 exosome lipids supporting B cell recruitment, survival, immunotherapy enhancement, and actionable via small molecule FAK inhibition. eTOC BlurbHigh-grade serous ovarian cancer remains difficult to treat due to therapy resistance. Chen et. al. reveal that tumor FAK inhibition educates macrophages to express CXCL13 associated with B cell infiltration - highlighting a new therapeutic pathway linking FAK inhibition, omega-3 fatty acid containing exosomes, and macrophage mediated anti-tumor activation. Bullet pointsO_LIGenetic or small molecule FAK inhibition enhances ovarian tumor B cell infiltration C_LIO_LITumor FAK inhibition stimulates GATA6+ macrophages to make CXCL13 C_LIO_LIFAKi, pegylated doxorubicin and anti-TIGIT promote tertiary lymphoid structures C_LIO_LIOmega-3 fatty acids stimulate human HGSOC ascites macrophages to make CXCL13 C_LI

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Activation of the TRIF pathway and downstream targets results in the development of precancerous lesions during infection with Helicobacter.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is an established cause of many digestive diseases, including gastritis, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer. However, the mechanism by which infection with H. pylori causes these disorders is still not clearly understood. This is due to insufficient knowledge of pathways that promote H. pylori-induced disease progression. We have established a Helicobacter-induced accelerated disease progression mouse model, which involves infecting mice deficient in the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 gene (Myd88-/-) with H. felis. Using this model, we report here that that progression of H. felis-induced inflammation to high-grade dysplasia was associated with activation of type I interferon (IFN-I) signaling pathway and upregulation of related downstream target genes, IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). These observations were further corroborated by the enrichment of ISRE motifs in the promoters of upregulated genes. Further we showed that H. felis-induced inflammation in mice deficient in Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR)-domain-containing adaptor inducing interferon-{beta} (TRIF, TrifLps2) did not progress to severe gastric pathology, indicating a role of the TRIF signaling pathway in disease pathogenesis and progression. Indeed, survival analysis in gastric biopsy samples from gastric cancer patients illustrated that high expression of Trif was significantly associated with poor survival in gastric cancer.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2017

quanTIseq: quantifying immune contexture of human tumors

The immune contexture has a prognostic value in several cancers and the study of its pharmacological modulation could identify drugs acting synergistically with immune checkpoint blockers. However, the quantification of the immune contexture is hampered by the lack of simple and efficient methods. We developed quanTIseq, a deconvolution method that quantifies the densities of ten immune cell types from bulk RNA sequencing data and tissue imaging data. We performed extensive validation using simulated data, flow cytometry data, and immunohistochemistry data from three cancer cohorts.\n\nAnalysis of 8,000 samples showed that the activation of the CXCR3/CXCL9 axis, rather than the mutational load is associated with cytotoxic T cell infiltration. We also show the prognostic value of deconvolution-based immunoscore and T cell/B cell score in several solid cancers. Finally, we used quanTIseq to show how kinase inhibitors modulate the immune contexture, and we suggest that it might have predictive value for immunotherapy.

bioinformatics↗