Ganglioside SSEA-4 in Ewing sarcoma marks a tumor cell population with aggressive features and is a potential cell-surface immune target

Autor: Silke Jamitzky, Bianca Altvater, Carolin Krekeler, Laura Hoen, Caroline Brandes, Julia Ebbinghaus, Lisa Richter, Lisa Kosel, Laurin Ochs, Nicole Farwick, Katja Urban, Lena Kluge, Lara Bücker, Dennis Görlich, Ian C. D. Johnston, Rita Pfeifer, Wolfgang Hartmann, Claudia Rossig, Sareetha Kailayangiri
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62849-8
Popis: Abstract Carbohydrate markers of immature cells during prenatal human development can be aberrantly expressed in cancers and deserve evaluation as immune targets. A candidate target in Ewing sarcoma is the globo-series ganglioside stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4). We detected SSEA-4 expression on the cell surface of all of 14 EwS cell lines and in 21 of 31 (68%) primary EwS tumor biopsies. Among paired subpopulations of tumor cells with low versus high SSEA-4 expression, SSEA-4high expression was significantly and consistently associated with functional characteristics of tumor aggressiveness, including higher cell proliferation, colony formation, chemoresistance and propensity to migrate. SSEA-4low versus SSEA-4high expression was not related to expression levels of the EWSR1-FLI1 fusion transcript or markers of epithelial/mesenchymal plasticity. SSEA-4low cells selected from bulk populations regained higher SSEA-4 expression in vitro and during in vivo tumor growth in a murine xenograft model. T cells engineered to express SSEA-4-specific chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) specifically interacted with SSEA-4 positive EwS cells and exerted effective antigen-specific tumor cell lysis in vitro. In conclusion, with its stable expression and functional significance in EwS, SSEA-4 is an attractive therapeutic immune target in this cancer that deserves further evaluation for clinical translation.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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