Label-free identification of activated T lymphocytes through tridimensional microsensors on chip

Label-free approaches to assess cell properties ideally suit the requirements of cell-based therapeutics, since they permit to characterize cells with minimal perturbation and manipulation, at the benefit of sample recovery and re-employment for treatment. For this reason, label-free techniques would find sensible application in adoptive T cell-based immunotherapy. In this work, we describe the label-free and single-cell detection of in vitro activated T lymphocytes in flow through an electrical impedance-based setup. We describe a novel platform featuring 3D free-standing microelectrodes presenting passive upstream and downstream extensions and integrated into microfluidic channels. We employ such device to measure the impedance change associated with T cell activation at electrical frequencies maximizing the difference between non-activated and activated T cells. Finally, we harness the impedance signature of unstimulated T cells to set a boundary separating activated and non-activated clones, so to characterize the selectivity and specificity of the system. In conclusion, the strategy here proposed highlights the possible employment of impedance to assess T cell activation in label-free.

In vitro fate mapping of stem cell development at the single cell level

Vincent Trachsel

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are responsible for the continuous production of all blood cells. This unique ability has made it possible to successfully use HSCs in the clinical setting to remedy various blood disorders. However, despite six decades of research, the full potential of HSCs to treat patients with hematological malignancies is still restricted by the low number of functional stem cells that can be isolated from different sources. In vitro HSC expansion has been widely considered a potential solution but has proven to be extremely difficult due to the rapid loss of functional potential of cells in the culture outside of their natural microenviron-mental niche. In order to achieve robust HSC expansion in vitro, it is crucial to better under-stand the mechanisms that regulate HSC fate choices. Moreover, the absence of reliable mark-ers for identifying functional HSCs on a culture dish necessitates the use of expensive and time-consuming in vivo assays. The discovery of predictive phenotypic markers for HSC potential could address this problem. Many platforms for analyzing HSC fate at the single-cell level have been reported, but they generally suffer from poor cell viability, limited throughput, unreliable phenotyping by immunocytochemistry, and the difficulty of performing long-term cell cultures. Additionally, these platforms are usually fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a poly-mer known to have several disadvantages for cell-based applications. This thesis addresses these shortcomings through the development of a robust microchip sys-tem for the high-resolution, live-cell analysis of hundreds to thousands of single stem cells and their daughter cells. The platform combines key advantages of microfluidic technology (for cell lineage analysis) and hydrogel microwell array technology (for gentle cell capture and long-term culture). The platform is fabricated from two different layers of hydrogel to create a closed ar-ray of grooves, where cellsâ movements are restricted and grow along one axis. This design en-ables an unambiguous tracking of a single cell and all of its progeny over several generations. These two layers are produced from different biocompatible hydrogels: poly (2-hydroxyethyl methylacrylate) / trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (pHEMA-TMPTMA), a copolymer acting as a topographically structured cellular substrate that can be closed with a polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel lid. These two parts are combined together and covalently bonded to each oth-er after the seeding of live cells into the grooves of the bottom part. To assess the potential of the platform for single stem-cell analyses, HSCs were cultured and their behavior (including cell fate, proliferation kinetics, and functionality) were thoroughly characterized. To analyze imaging data obtained from single-cell time-lapse experiments performed on the platform, an algorithm was developed to automatically identify and track single HSCs and their daughter cells, efficiently extracting various parameters, such as single-cell proliferation kinet-ics, cell fate choices, and lineage relationships. Mitochondria have recently been identified as key modulators of HSC function; however, their specific role in fate regulation has remained obscure. Therefore, the single-cell analysis plat-form was applied to measure the distribution of mitochondrial mass in dividing HSCs and their progeny to assess a potential correlation with HSC fate choices. This

EPFL2018

New roles of the lymphatic endothelium in modulating adaptive immunity: implications for immune tolerance and cancer immunotherapy

Lambert Charles François Potin

Lymphatic vessels have traditionally been considered as passive conduits for interstitial fluid drainage and for immune cell trafficking to lymph nodes. In the last two decades, many studies have challenged this classical dogma: lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) were shown to actively interact with immune cells by secreting chemokines and cytokines, and presenting antigens to T cells. These newly described functions pinpoint a multi-faceted role of LECs in orchestrating the immune response through both passive and active mechanisms. Yet, precise mechanisms leading to antigen-specific fine-tuning of the T cell response remain unexplored. Moreover, although lymphatics have been shown to play important roles in cancer, the contributions of LECs in regulating antitumor immunity have been largely overlooked by the biomedical community. This doctoral thesis aimed at filling these gaps. First, in order to investigate the mechanisms and implications of LEC antigen presentation to CD4+ T cells, we engineered a mouse model where LECs lacked the ability to present antigens to CD4+ T cells. In these mice, antigen-specific responses to vaccination were increased when compared to wild-type controls. Moreover, we demonstrated that LECs were poor inducers of CD4+ T cell activation in vitro, and that they could dampen CD4+ T cell activation by dendritic cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that LECs participate to the peripheral immune tolerance of CD4+ T cells. Second, we investigated the immunological consequences of the development of lymphatic vessels, called lymphangiogenesis, in mouse melanoma. Upon induction of tumor lymphangiogenesis, we observed striking tumor enrichment with immune cells, which resulted in a higher sensitivity of those tumors to immunotherapy. We subsequently demonstrated that inducing lymphangiogenesis in a mouse model of cold tumors, which lack immune infiltrates and do not respond to immunotherapies, could restore their responsiveness to immunotherapy treatments. Third, to predict which cancer types were the most likely to replicate the findings we obtained in mouse melanoma, we mined The Cancer Genome Atlas database for gene expression. We identified a set of cancers, such as colon adenocarcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma, where high expression of the lymphangiogenic growth factor was associated with a strong T cell signature. This doctoral thesis unveiled new immunomodulatory functions of LECs by which antigen-specific immune tolerance is induced. Additionally, it opened new avenues to target lymphatics therapeutically in cancer to potentiate immunotherapies. We believe this work contributes to demonstrating the immunological importance of LECs, and hope that lymphatics will be considered as an important immunomodulatory player of the tumor microenvironment when developing novel immunotherapies.

EPFL2018

BCG hydrogel promotes CTSS-mediated antigen processing and presentation, thereby suppressing metastasis and prolonging survival in melanoma

Bing Feng, Li Tang

Background The use of intralesional Mycobacterium bovis BCG (intralesional live BCG) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma resulted in regression of directly injected, and occasionally of distal lesions. However, intralesional-BCG is less effective in patients with visceral metastases and did not significantly improve overall survival. Methods We generated a novel BCG lysate and developed it into a thermosensitive PLGA-PEG-PLGA hydrogel (BCG hydrogel), which was injected adjacent to the tumor to assess its antitumor effect in syngeneic tumor models (B16F10, MC38). The effect of BCG hydrogel treatment on contralateral tumors, lung metastases, and survival was assessed to evaluate systemic long-term efficacy. Gene expression profiles of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and of tumor-draining lymph nodes from BCG hydrogel-treated mice were analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and CD8(+) T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity was assessed by TCR-sequencing. To confirm the mechanistic findings, RNA-seq data of biopsies obtained from in-transit cutaneous metastases of patients with melanoma who had received intralesional-BCG therapy were analyzed. Results Here, we show that BCG lysate exhibits enhanced antitumor efficacy compared to live mycobacteria and promotes a proinflammatory tumor microenvironment and M1 macrophage (M phi) polarization in vivo. The underlying mechanisms of BCG lysate-mediated tumor immunity are dependent on M phi and dendritic cells (DCs). BCG hydrogel treatment induced systemic immunity in melanoma-bearing mice with suppression of lung metastases and improved survival. Furthermore, BCG hydrogel promoted cathepsin S (CTSS) activity in M phi and DCs, resulting in enhanced antigen processing and presentation of tumor-associated antigens. Finally, BCG hydrogel treatment was associated with increased frequencies of melanoma-reactive CD8(+) T cells. In human patients with melanoma, intralesional-BCG treatment was associated with enhanced M1 M phi, mature DC, antigen processing and presentation, as well as with increased CTSS expression which positively correlated with patient survival. Conclusions These findings provide mechanistic insights as well as rationale for the clinical translation of BCG hydrogel as cancer immunotherapy to overcome the current limitations of immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with melanoma.

BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP2022

In vitro fate mapping of stem cell development at the single cell level

Vincent Trachsel

EPFL2018

New roles of the lymphatic endothelium in modulating adaptive immunity: implications for immune tolerance and cancer immunotherapy

Lambert Charles François Potin

EPFL2018

BCG hydrogel promotes CTSS-mediated antigen processing and presentation, thereby suppressing metastasis and prolonging survival in melanoma

Bing Feng, Li Tang

BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP2022