Hammons, J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2026

Immune determinants of leuprolide-associated cardiovascular risk in prostate cancer

Leuprolide, a widely used androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer (PC), has been associated with increased cardiovascular events (CVE), although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Through integrated spatial transcriptomic analyses of murine heart and immune-stromal profiling in patient blood, we identified immune programs linked to leuprolide-associated CVE risk. Spatial analyses revealed the distinct organization of lymphoid (T+B cells) aggregates and inflammatory macrophages in the plaque following leuprolide exposure that accompanied by ventricular hypertrophy, relative to normal vasculature. Parallel profiling of circulatory soluble and cellular components in patients demonstrated CD8+T cell enriched pattern in ~44% of patients, including memory and type 1 cytotoxic subsets that linked to treatment-induced CVE, such as ventricular dysfunctions, but no contribution of adipocytokines. These translational findings highlight the stratification of leuprolide-associated CVE risk in PC patients based on circulating T cell profiling and could guide the risk mitigation with alternative ADT agents.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2023

Clinically relevant orthotopic pancreatic cancer models for adoptive T cell therapy

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive tumor. Prognosis is poor and survival is low in patients diagnosed with this disease; [~]12% at 5 years. Immunotherapy, including adoptive T cell transfer therapy, has not impacted outcomes in PDAC patients, due in part to the hostile tumor microenvironment (TME) which limits T cell trafficking and persistence. We posit that murine models serve as useful tools to study the fate of T cell therapy. Currently, genetically engineered mouse models (GEMM) for PDAC are considered a "gold-standard" as they recapitulate many aspects of human disease. However, these models have limitations, including marked tumor variability across individual mice and cost of colony maintenance. We characterized the immunologic features and trafficking patterns of adoptively transferred T cells in orthotopic PDAC models using two mouse cell lines, KPC-Luc and MT-5, isolated from KPC-GEMM mouse models (KrasLSL-G12D/+p53-/- and KrasLSL-G12D/+p53LSL-R172H/+, respectively). The MT-5 orthotopic model best recapitulates the cellular and stromal features of the TME in the PDAC GEMM. In contrast, far more host immune cells infiltrate KPC-Luc tumors, which have less stroma. Albeit CD4+ T cells were similarly detected in MT-5 tumors compared to KPC-GEMM in mice. Interestingly, we found that CAR T cells redirected to recognize mesothelin on these tumors that signal via CD3{sigma} and 41BB (Meso-41BB{sigma}-CAR T cells) post antigen recognition infiltrated the tumors of mice bearing stroma-devoid KPC-Luc orthotopic tumors, but not MT-5 tumors. Our data establish for the first time a reproducible and realistic clinical system useful for modeling stroma-rich and stroma-devoid PDAC tumors. These models shall serve in-depth study of how to overcome barriers that limit anti-tumor activity of adoptively transferred T cells.

cancer biology↗