Inhibition of Aspartate β-Hydroxylase Enhances Anti-Tumor Immunity
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Shweta Dilip Johari,1 Katerina Krausova,1 Barbora Zucha,1 Carlos Eduardo Madureira Trufen,2 Ingrid Polakova,1 Mark Olsen,3 Michal Smahel1 1Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, BIOCEV, Vestec, Czech Republic; 2Czech Centre for Phenogenomics & Laboratory of Transgenic Models of Diseases, Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; 3Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy – Glendale, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USACorrespondence: Michal Smahel, Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, BIOCEV, Prumyslova 595, Vestec, 252 50, Czech Republic, Email smahelm@natur.cuni.czPurpose: Aspartate β-hydroxylase (ASPH) contributes to carcinogenesis by promoting tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. The enzymatic activity of ASPH can be inhibited by small molecule inhibitors that have been shown to have anti-metastatic activity in rodent models. ASPH has also been shown to inhibit the activation of natural killer (NK) cells. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of ASPH inhibition on the induction of anti-tumor immunity and to analyze the immune cells involved.Methods: In the mouse TC-1/A9 model characterized by reversible downregulation of major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I) molecules, ASPH inhibition was combined with stimulation of innate and/or adaptive immunity, and the anti-tumor response was analyzed by evaluation of tumor growth, in vivo depletion of immune cell subpopulations, and ELISPOT assay. Characteristics of immune cells in the spleen and tumor were determined by flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq).Results: ASPH inhibition did not reduce tumor growth or promote the anti-tumor effect of innate immunity stimulation with the synthetic oligonucleotide ODN1826, but it significantly enhanced tumor growth reduction induced by DNA vaccination. In vivo immune cell depletion suggested that CD8+ T cells played a critical role in this immunity stimulated by combined treatment with ASPH inhibition and DNA vaccination. ASPH inhibition also significantly enhanced the specific response of CD8+ T cells induced by DNA vaccination in splenocytes, as detected by ELISPOT assay, and reduced the number of regulatory T cells in tumors. scRNA-seq confirmed the improved activation of CD8+ T cells in tumor-infiltrating cells after combined therapy with DNA vaccination and ASPH inhibition. It also showed activation of NK cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells in tumors.Conclusion: ASPH inhibition stimulated T-cell-mediated adaptive immunity induced by DNA vaccination. Different types of lymphoid and myeloid cells were likely involved in the activated immune response that was efficient against tumors with MHC-I downregulation, which are often resistant to T-cell-based therapies. Due to different types of activated immune cells, ASPH inhibition could improve immunotherapy for tumors with various MHC-I expression levels. Keywords: cancer immunotherapy, ASPH, adaptive immunity, scRNA-seq, tumor microenvironment
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".