Biology subjects

Winter, P. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Winter, P. S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Deciphering the tumor-specific immunopeptidome in vivo with genetically engineered mouse models

Effective immunosurveillance of cancer requires the presentation of peptide antigens on major histocompatibility complex Class I (MHC-I). Recent developments in proteomics have improved the identification of peptides that are naturally presented by MHC-I, collectively known as the "immunopeptidome". Current approaches to profile tumor immunopeptidomes have been limited to in vitro investigation, which fails to capture the in vivo repertoire of MHC-I peptides, or bulk tumor lysates, which are obscured by the lack of tumor-specific MHC-I isolation. To overcome these limitations, we report here the engineering of a Cre recombinase-inducible affinity tag into the endogenous mouse MHC-I gene and targeting of this allele to the KrasLSL-G12D/+; p53fl/fl (KP) mouse model (KP; KbStrep). This novel approach has allowed us to isolate tumor-specific MHC-I peptides from autochthonous pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) in vivo. With this powerful analytical tool, we were able to profile the evolution of the LUAD immunopeptidome through tumor progression and show that in vivo MHC-I presentation is shaped by post-translational mechanisms. We also uncovered novel, putative LUAD tumor associated antigens (TAAs). Many peptides that were recurrently presented in vivo exhibited very low expression of the cognate mRNA, provoking reconsideration of antigen prediction pipelines that triage peptides according to transcript abundance. Beyond cancer, the KbStrep allele is compatible with a broad range of Cre-driver lines to explore antigen presentation in vivo in the pursuit of understanding basic immunology, infectious disease, and autoimmunity.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Transcriptional subtype-specific microenvironmental crosstalk and tumor cell plasticity in metastatic pancreatic cancer

Bulk transcriptomic studies have defined classical and basal-like gene expression subtypes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) that correlate with survival and response to chemotherapy; however, the underlying mechanisms that govern these subtypes and their heterogeneity remain elusive. Here, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing of 23 metastatic PDAC needle biopsies and matched organoid models to understand how tumor cell-intrinsic features and extrinsic factors in the tumor microenvironment (TME) shape PDAC cancer cell phenotypes. We identify a novel cancer cell state that co-expresses basal-like and classical signatures, demonstrates upregulation of developmental and KRAS-driven gene expression programs, and represents a transitional intermediate between the basal-like and classical poles. Further, we observe structure to the metastatic TME supporting a model whereby reciprocal intercellular signaling shapes the local microenvironment and influences cancer cell transcriptional subtypes. In organoid culture, we find that transcriptional phenotypes are plastic and strongly skew toward the classical expression state, irrespective of genotype. Moreover, we show that patient-relevant transcriptional heterogeneity can be rescued by supplementing organoid media with factors found in the TME in a subtype-specific manner. Collectively, our study demonstrates that distinct microenvironmental signals are critical regulators of clinically relevant PDAC transcriptional states and their plasticity, identifies the necessity for considering the TME in cancer modeling efforts, and provides a generalizable approach for delineating the cell-intrinsic versus -extrinsic factors that govern tumor cell phenotypes.

cancer biology↗