Anti-TNFRSF4 monoclonal antibody, clone PY-97

Objectives/Hypothesis To investigate differences in the immunogenomic landscape among young patients presenting with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). Study Design Retrospective database review. Methods Normalized messenger mRNA expression data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. OCSCC patients were categorized into young and older age groups with a cutoff of 45 years. Human papillomavirus-positive tumors were excluded. Cell fractions, marker expression, and mutational load were compared between age groups using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Adjustment for multiple comparisons was performed using the Benjamini-Hochberg method, with a false discovery rate of 0.05. Results Two hundred forty-five OCSCC tumors were included; 21 (8.6%) were young (37.1 +/- 7.5 years) and 224 (91.4%) were older (64.5 +/- 10.3 years). There was no significant difference between groups in the fraction of B and T lymphocytes, macrophages, monocytes, natural killers, and dendritic cells. Cytolytic activity score was decreased in young patients (8.33 vs. 18.9, P = .023). Additionally, young patients had significantly lower expression of immunomodulatory markers of immune activation, including PD-1 (PDCD1, P = .003), CTLA4 (P = .025), TIGIT (P = .002), GITR (TNFRSF18, P = .005), OX40 (TNFRSF4, P = .009), LAG-3 (P < .001), and TIM-3 (HAVCR2, P = .002). Young patients had a significantly lower number of single nucleotide variant-derived neoantigens (26.2 vs. 60.6, P < .001). Conclusions OCSCC patients aged 45 years and younger appear to have an attenuated immune response that may be related to a lower frequency of immunogenic mutations. This may contribute to the pathogenesis of these tumors, and ultimately help inform personalized immune-based therapeutic strategies for young patients with OCSCC. Level of Evidence NA Laryngoscope, 2020

Aims: The present study aimed to compare the gene-expression profiling of CD133(+) and CD133(-) D10 cells. Materials & methods: Cancer stem cell-like properties and gene-expression profiling of CD133(+) D10 cells versus CD133(-) cells were evaluated. Results: The CD133(+) D10 cells showed significantly higher clonogenic and spheroid forming potential, also higher expression of stemness genes NANOG and OCT4A compared with the CD133(-) cells. Gene-expression profiling of CD133(+) versus CD133(-) D10 cells revealed that 130 genes including ABC transporter superfamily (ABCC1, ABCG2 and ABCC6) were upregulated, while 61 genes including apoptosis modifying genes (CASP8 and TNFRSF4) were downregulated. Conclusion: We conclude that many genes involved in drug resistance and tumor aggressiveness are upregulated in CD133(+) D10 cells and targeting them might be an efficient strategy for treatment of melanoma.