The interactions of tumours with normal host tissue are key determinants of cancer growth and progression. The ability or inability of the patient’s immune system to mount a response against the tumour is tightly correlated with prognosis. One of the ways tumours avoid detection and elimination by the immune system is by expressing programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). PD-L1 binds to its receptor programmed death 1 (PD1) on T cells, inhibiting T cell responsiveness to antigenic stimuli. Blockade of the PD1/PD-L1 pathway removes this negative signal and restores anti-tumour immunity. While this blockade of PD1/PD-L1 is well established through the use of antibodies, small molecule inhibitors of PD1/PD-L1 are relatively unknown. We employed in silico docking in order to find small molecules capable of binding to either PD1 or PD-L1, and the highest-ranked compounds were tested in biophysical assays for their ability to inhibit PD1/PD-L1 binding. A thermal shift assay identified a pyrazole compound as a possible binding partner for PD-L1, but follow-up assays showed that it had no effect on the PD1/PD-L1 interaction and that its apparent binding was probably due to aggregation. An ELISA assay identified a tryptophan diamine compound as an apparent stabilizer of the PD1/PD-L1 interaction. However this compound, too, was later identified to be inactive in orthogonal assays. We identified a family of salicylic acid derivatives that interfered with TR-FRET measurements – an unusual observation, given that TR-FRET is touted as being insensitive to most mechanisms of compound interference. This discovery should help other fragment- screening groups identify false positives more easily. We also probed the mechanism of inhibition of a recently disclosed family of small molecule PD1/PD-L1 inhibitors from Bristol-Myers Squibb. Concurrently with other groups, we used protein NMR, size exclusion chromatography, and SPR to determine that the compounds were inducing homodimerization through the PD1-binding face of PD-L1. Furthermore, using cellular crosslinking and live cell imaging, we showed that these first generation inhibitors are fairly ineffective at inhibiting this interaction on the cell surface. More potent compounds will be needed to see any cellular effect from this mechanism of action. / Graduate / 2019-02-15

Objective: This study aimed to identify the programmed death ligand-1 (PDL1, also termed as CD274) and its positively correlated immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) and to determine the immune subtypes of CD274-centered ICG combinations in oral and squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and Methods: Firstly, the 95 ICGs obtained via literature reviews were identified in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database in relation to OSCC, and such 88 ICG expression profiles were extracted. ICGs positively correlated with CD274 were utilized for subsequent analysis. The relationship between ICGs positively correlated with CD274 and immunotherapy biomarkers (tumor mutation burden (TMB), and adaptive immune resistance pathway genes) was investigated, and the relationships of these genes with OSCC clinical features were explored. The prognostic values of CD274 and its positively correlated ICGs and also their associated gene pairs were revealed using the survival analysis. Results: Eight ICGs, including CTLA4, ICOS, TNFRSF4, CD27, B- and T-lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA), ADORA2A, CD40LG, and CD28, were found to be positively correlated with CD274. Among the eight ICGs, seven ICGs (CTLA4, ICOS, TNFRSF4, CD27, BTLA, CD40LG, and CD28) were significantly negatively correlated with TMB. The majority of the adaptive immune resistance pathway genes were positively correlated with ICGs positively correlated with CD274. The survival analysis utilizing the TCGA-OSCC data showed that, although CD274 was not significantly associated with overall survival (OS), the majority of ICGs positively correlated with CD274 (BTLA, CD27, CTLA4, CD40LG, CD28, ICOS, and TNFRSF4) were significantly correlated with OS, whereby their low-expression predicted a favorable prognosis. The survival analysis based on the gene pair subtypes showed that the combination subtypes of CD274_low/BTLA_low, CD274_low/CD27_low, CD274_low/CTLA4_low, CD8A_high/BTLA_low, CD8A_high/CD27_low, and CD8A_high/CTLA4_low predicted favorable OS. Conclusion: The results in this study provide a theoretical basis for prognostic immune subtyping of OSCC and highlight the importance of developing future immunotherapeutic strategies for treating oral cancer.

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The virus SARS-CoV-2 gave rise to a global pandemic and several vaccines, whose efficiency needed to be evaluated, have been developed. Our immune system is regulated by several mechanisms that activate and inhibit immune response. PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 are immune inhibitors with a possible correlation between the potency of the immune response and the number of inhibitors. The hypothesis of this study is that individuals with a lower antibody response after vaccination have higher levels of PD-1/PD-L1. Using an ELISA, the concentration of the proteins was measured from blood plasma from 19 individuals from the CoVacc Cohort, with known antibody response after one as well as two doses of vaccine. The study found a significant correlation between the inhibitors PD-1 and PD-L1 after both the first and the second dose. No correlation was found between the response of antibodies and PD-1/PD-L1 and the hypothesis is therefore rejected. It is possible that the interval between each dose of vaccine and the collection of blood plasma was not optimized for this study. It is also possible that the number of individuals that were included in this study was too low. Considering this result, more research should be conducted on the subject before an absolute conclusion can be drawn. / Viruset SARS-Cov-2 gav upphov till en global pandemi och flera vacciner vars effektbehövde utvärderas har utvecklats. Vårt immunförsvar regleras av flera mekanismersom samverkar genom att aktivera respektive hämma immunförsvaret. PD-1 och dessligand PD-L1 är immuninhibitorer med en möjlig korrelation mellan styrkan hosimmunsvaret och mängden inhibitorer. Hypotesen för denna studie är att individermed ett lägre antikroppssvar efter vaccination har högre nivåer av PD-1 och PD-L1.Med hjälp av en ELISA mättes koncentrationen av PD-1 och PD-L1 med blodplasmafrån 19 individer ur CoVacc kohorten med kända antikroppsnivåer som fått enrespektive två doser av vaccin mot COVID-19. Studien fann en signifikant korrelationmellan hämmarna PD-1 och PD-L1 både efter första och andra dosen. Ingenkorrelation hittades mellan antikroppsresponsen och nivåerna av PD-1 och PD-L1 ochhypotesen förkastas därför. Det är möjligt att tidpunkten för provtagning eftervaccindoserna inte valdes optimalt för denna undersökning. Det är också möjligt attför få individer ingick i studien. Mot bakgrund av detta bör mer forskning göras i ämnetinnan en absolut slutsats kan dras.