Dissecting the roles of a novel immune-checkpoint receptor complex in driving T cell dysfunction in cancers

剖析新型免疫检查点受体复合物在驱动癌症 T 细胞功能障碍中的作用

• 批准号: 10315469
• 负责人: Cassandra Gilmour
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 依托单位: CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10315469
• 关键词: Dissecting; roles; novel; immune; checkpoint

Project Summary. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have become the breakthrough therapy in the era of cancer immunotherapy. However, one of the major challenges is that the majority of patients do not respond, indicating the urgent need to identify and target non-redundant immuno-suppressive pathways. In this regard, our preliminary studies have identified a novel cross talk mechanism between two immune checkpoint proteins, namely V-domain Immunoglobulin Suppressor of T- cell Activation (VISTA) and T-cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT). We hypothesize that VISTA and TIGIT form a novel co-inhibitory receptor complex that dampens T cell activation and drives T cell dysfunction. This proposal will test this hypothesis by two specific aims: First, we will perform mutagenesis studies and subject these mutants to binding and functional studies to better understand the binding epitopes and the causal link between binding and function. Lastly, we will investigate how VISTA and TIGIT drive T cell dysfunction during tumor growth in both a polyclonal and antigen specific manner. Together, these studies will warrant future studies to develop therapeutic inhibitors that block this IC receptor complex, reverse T cell dysfunction, and improve clinical outcomes in human cancers.

项目摘要。 免疫检查点抑制剂（ICI）已成为免疫时代的突破性疗法 癌症免疫疗法。然而，主要挑战之一是大多数患者 没有反应，表明迫切需要识别和靶向非冗余免疫抑制 途径。在这方面，我们的初步研究发现了一种新颖的串扰机制 两个免疫检查点蛋白之间，即 T- 的 V 域免疫球蛋白抑制蛋白 细胞激活 (VISTA) 和具有 Ig 和 ITIM 结构域的 T 细胞免疫受体 (TIGIT)。我们 假设 VISTA 和 TIGIT 形成一种新型共抑制受体复合物，抑制 T 细胞激活并驱动 T 细胞功能障碍。该提案将通过两个具体的方法来检验该假设 目标：首先，我们将进行诱变研究，并对这些突变体进行结合和 功能研究，以更好地了解结合表位以及结合之间的因果关系 和功能。最后，我们将研究 VISTA 和 TIGIT 如何驱动 T 细胞功能障碍 肿瘤以多克隆和抗原特异性方式生长。这些研究共同将 需要未来的研究来开发阻断这种 IC 受体复合物的治疗性抑制剂， 逆转 T 细胞功能障碍，改善人类癌症的临床结果。