Transcriptomic and Immunophenotypic Characterization of Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Transcriptomic and Immunophenotypic Characterization of Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Tongue Kyriakos Chatzopoulos1,9 · Sotiris Sotiriou1 · Andrea R. Collins2 · Panagiotis Kartsidis3 · Alessandra C. Schmitt4 · Xianfeng Chen5 · Khashayarsha Khazaie6 · Michael L. Hinni7 · Colleen A. Ramsower4 · Matthew A. Zarka4 · Samir H. Patel8 · Joaquin J. Garcia1,9 Received: 17 July 2020 / Accepted: 22 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The tumor immune microenvironment of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma may be accountable for differences in clinical behavior, particularly between different age groups. We performed RNA expression profiling and evaluated tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and their T-cell subsets in order to assess the functional status of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma tumor microenvironment and detect potentially clinically useful associations. Archival surgical pathology material from sixteen oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma patients was microscopically evaluated for TIL densities. RNA was extracted from macrodissected whole tumor sections and normal controls and RNA expression profiling was performed by the NanoString PanCancer IO 360 Gene Expression Panel. Immunostains for CD4, CD8 and FOXP3 were evaluated manually and by digital image analysis. Oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas had increased TIL densities, numerically dominated by CD4 + T cells, followed by CD8 + and FOXP3 + T cells. RNA expression profiling of tumors versus normal controls showed tumor signature upregulation in inhibitory immune signaling (CTLA4, TIGIT and PD-L2), followed by inhibitory tumor mechanisms (IDO1, TGF-β, B7-H3 and PD-L1). Patients older than 44 years showed a tumor microenvironment with increased Tregs and CTLA4 expression. Immunohistochemically assessed CD8% correlated well with molecular signatures related to CD8 + cytotoxic T-cell functions. FOXP3% correlated significantly with CTLA4 upregulation. CTLA4 molecular signature could be predicted by FOXP3% assessed by immunohistochemistry ( R2 = 0.619, p = 0.026). Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma hosts a complex inhibitory immune microenvironment, partially reflected in immunohistochemically quantified CD8 + and FOXP3 + T-cell subsets. Immunohistochemistry can be a useful screening tool for detecting tumors with upregulated expression of the targetable molecule CTLA4. Keywords Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes · CD4-positive T lymphocytes · CD8-positive T lymphocytes · Regulatory T lymphocytes · Immunohistochemistry · Genetic transcription · Tongue · Oral cavity · Squamous cell carcinoma Abbreviations HPV Human papillomavirus TILs Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes PD-L1 Programmed death ligand 1 FOXP3 Forkhead box P3 CTLA4 Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-020-01229-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authoriz
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