Response to tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte adoptive therapy is associated with preexisting CD8+ T-myeloid cell networks in melanoma

Sci Immunol. 2024 Feb 2;9(92):eadg7995. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adg7995. Epub 2024 Feb 2.

Abstract

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using ex vivo-expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) can eliminate or shrink metastatic melanoma, but its long-term efficacy remains limited to a fraction of patients. Using longitudinal samples from 13 patients with metastatic melanoma treated with TIL-ACT in a phase 1 clinical study, we interrogated cellular states within the tumor microenvironment (TME) and their interactions. We performed bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, and spatial proteomic analyses in pre- and post-ACT tumor tissues, finding that ACT responders exhibited higher basal tumor cell-intrinsic immunogenicity and mutational burden. Compared with nonresponders, CD8+ TILs exhibited increased cytotoxicity, exhaustion, and costimulation, whereas myeloid cells had increased type I interferon signaling in responders. Cell-cell interaction prediction analyses corroborated by spatial neighborhood analyses revealed that responders had rich baseline intratumoral and stromal tumor-reactive T cell networks with activated myeloid populations. Successful TIL-ACT therapy further reprogrammed the myeloid compartment and increased TIL-myeloid networks. Our systematic target discovery study identifies potential T-myeloid cell network-based biomarkers that could improve patient selection and guide the design of ACT clinical trials.

MeSH terms

  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive*
  • Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / metabolism
  • Melanoma* / genetics
  • Proteomics
  • Tumor Microenvironment