Biology subjects

Vickery, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Vickery, J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Epigenetically regulated p53 activity maintains intestinal regulatory T cell identity to prevent inflammation

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are critical guardians of immune homeostasis that must operate in diverse and often inflammatory conditions. However, the mechanisms that Tregs use to maintain their stability and function, especially in response to the stresses of distinct microenvironments, remain incompletely understood. Previous work identified the repressive chromatin modification histone 3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) as a rheostat for Treg function. Here, we find that loss of H3K27me3 in Tregs activates the tumor suppressor p53. Stabilization of p53 using the MDM2 inhibitor Nutlin-3 protected Tregs from losing their master transcription factor Foxp3 in vitro when cultured with the Th17 cytokines IL-6 and IL-1{beta}, while p53 deficiency rendered Tregs more prone to Foxp3 loss. Treg-specific p53 deficiency resulted in accumulation of cells that had lost Foxp3 expression ("ex-Tregs") and reduction of suppressive markers on Tregs specifically in the colon. Additionally, these mice exhibited inflammation in the colon at homeostasis and increased severity of induced colitis. These results demonstrate a specific role for p53 in the maintenance of Treg stability in Th17-polarizing environments and present a possible target for improving Treg-based immunotherapies for diseases defined by intestinal inflammation, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

TLR2 signaling uniquely destabilizes tumor Tregs to promote cancer immunotherapy

A fundamental principle of immune responses is that innate immunity promotes adaptive immunity, but in the context of cancer immunity, the importance of innate receptor signaling is poorly defined. To study how Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling contributes to cancer immunity, we used an attenuated strain of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) that inhibits tumor growth in mice. We found that Lm stimulation of TLR2, but not TLR5 or TLR9, was essential for tumor control. As expected, TLR2 supported the priming of Lm-specific T cells in lymphoid tissues. However, TLR2 signaling in innate immune cells within tumors also destabilized Foxp3 expression in regulatory T cells (Tregs), a function that was not mediated by other TLRs. Reduced Treg function promoted tumor antigen cross-presentation by DC1s to enhance the functionality of recalled tumor-specific CD8+ T cells directly within tumors. These findings reveal a unique capacity for TLR2 signaling to diminish immunosuppression and promote cancer immunity.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2022

Multimodal Prediction of Breast Cancer Recurrence Assays and Risk of Recurrence

Gene expression-based recurrence assays are strongly recommended to guide the use of chemotherapy in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, but such testing is expensive, can contribute to delays in care, and may not be available in low-resource settings. Here, we describe the training and independent validation of a deep learning model that predicts recurrence assay result and risk of recurrence using both digital histology and clinical risk factors. We demonstrate that this approach outperforms an established clinical nomogram (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.833 versus 0.765 in an external validation cohort, p = 0.003), and can identify a subset of patients with excellent prognoses who may not need further genomic testing.

cancer biology↗