Biology subjects

Teh, C. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Teh, C. E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Early cytokine-driven adaptation of survival pathways in lymphoid cells during targeted therapies

Venetoclax, a first-in-class BH3 mimetic drug targeting BCL-2, has improved outcomes for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Early measurements of the depth of the venetoclax treatment response, assessed by minimal residual disease, are strong predictors of long-term clinical outcomes. Yet, there are limited data concerning the early changes induced by venetoclax treatment that might inform strategies to improve responses. To address this gap, we conducted longitudinal mass cytometric profiling of blood cells from patients with CLL during the first two months of venetoclax monotherapy. At baseline, we resolved CLL heterogeneity at the single-cell level to define multiple subpopulations in all patients distinguished by proliferative, metabolic and cell survival proteins. Venetoclax induced significant reduction in all CLL subpopulations coincident with rapid upregulation of pro-survival BCL-2, BCL-XL and MCL-1 proteins in surviving cells, which had reduced sensitivity to the drug. Mouse models recapitulated the venetoclax-induced elevation of survival proteins in B cells and CLL-like cells that persisted in vivo, with genetic models demonstrating that extensive apoptosis and access to the B cell cytokine, BAFF, were essential. Accordingly, analysis of patients with CLL that were treated with a different targeted therapy, the anti-CD20 antibody obinutuzumab, also exhibited marked elevation of BAFF and increased pro-survival proteins in leukemic cells that persisted. Overall, these data highlight the rapid adaptation of CLL cells to targeted therapies via homeostatic factors and support co-targeting of cytokine signals to achieve deeper and more durable long-term responses. Key pointsO_LILeukaemic cells rapidly adapt to targeted therapy by elevating pro-survival protein expression. C_LIO_LICell attrition and increased bioavailability of homeostatic cytokines drive this heightened survival, highlighting avenues for more potent combination therapies. C_LI

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Molecular control of the lymphocyte death timer

When stimulated, individual lymphocytes program times for division and death that are inherited within families, revealing a common timing mechanism transmitted over generations. Here we describe a threshold-based mechanism for the time to die. By comparing protein levels in control and apoptosis disabled cells, we show that death can be predicted by a cooperating ensemble of BCL-2 family proteins falling below a critical threshold. Single cell measurements predict the time of death with a simple formula, where an additional inhibition factor explains accelerated death induced by BH3 mimetic compounds. Thus, we identify the death timer as a protein-threshold device that underlies signal integration machinery. Together these results reveal that predicting lymphocyte behavior at single cell level, in complex environments, is possible with modular multiscale models that incorporate timers and heritability features of critical proteins.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2021

Early immune pressure imposed by tissue resident memory T cells sculpts tumour evolution in non-small cell lung cancer

Tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) provide immune defence against local infection and can inhibit cancer progression. However, it is unclear to what extent chronic inflammation impacts TRM activation and how the immune pressure exerted by TRM affects developing tumours in humans. We performed deep profiling of lung cancers arising in never-smokers (NS) and ever-smokers (ES), finding evidence of enhanced TRM immunosurveillance in ES lung. Only tumours arising in ES patients underwent clonal immune escape, even when evaluating cancers with similar tumour mutational burden to NS patients, suggesting that the timing of immune pressure exerted by TRM is a critical factor in the evolution of tumour immune evasion. Tumours grown in T cell quiescent NS lungs displayed little evidence of immune evasion and had fewer neoantigens with low diversity, paradoxically making them amenable to treatment with agonist of the costimulatory molecule, ICOS. These data demonstrate local environmental insults enhance TRM immunosurveillance of human tissue, shape the evolution of tumour immunogenicity and that this interplay informs effective immunotherapeutic modalities.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

CytofRUV: Removing unwanted variation to integrate multiple CyTOF datasets

Mass cytometry (CyTOF) is a technology that has revolutionised single cell biology. One illuminating application of CyTOF has been in understanding the mechanisms of blood cancer resistance to therapy. Longitudinal studies of clinical cohorts during drug treatment provide a deeper understanding of the molecular changes that underlie sensitivity or resistance to treatment in each patient. However, understanding the biological impact of a cancer drug in such studies necessitates the integration of multiple CyTOF batches. To date, the integration of CyTOF datasets remains a challenge due to technical differences arising in multiple batches. To overcome this limitation, we developed an approach called CytofRUV for analysing multiple CyTOF batches which includes an R-Shiny application with diagnostics plots. CytofRUV can correct for batch effects and integrate data from large numbers of patients and conditions across batches, to confidently compare cellular changes and correlate these with clinically relevant outcomes.

bioinformatics↗