Jean-Philippe Merlio

Primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PCDLBCL), leg type (PCDLBCL-LT) is a rare subset of DLBCL that exhibits genetic features shared with LBCL of immune-privileged sites (notably the MYD88L265P mutation) and is enriched in tumor-associated macrophages expressing M2 markers. Using a unique PCDLBCL-LT cell line (ARSI cell line) developed in our institute, we sought to mechanistically decipher the interplay between lymphoma cells and macrophages. We demonstrate that ARSI cells induce phenotypic, transcriptional, and functional changes in macrophages obtained from primary monocytes and THP-1 cell line. These changes do not require cell-cell contact, and proteome analysis of ARSI secretome reveals high concentration of several cytokines and chemokines known to affect macrophages, including interleukin-10 (IL-10). We then demonstrate that IL-10/Interleukin 10 receptor subunit alpha (IL-10RA) interaction blockade inhibits macrophage polarization induced by tumor cells. These findings are reproduced when macrophages are cocultured with PCDLBCL-LT cells from different patient-derived xenografts. However, among 4 other DLBCL cell lines, only the MYD88-mutated OCI-Ly3 cell line exhibits similar effects, which highlights the variability of macrophage interplays and led us to hypothesize that macrophage shaping, beyond the cutaneous localization, may rely on specific genetics of tumor cells. Finally, we reveal that macrophages enhance tumor cell proliferation and promote resistance to doxorubicin in coculture. In conclusion, these results confirm the robustness of this model to study lymphoma cell and macrophage interplays, underline the critical role of IL-10 in lymphoma microenvironment modeling, and may contribute to better defining its specificities in an era of rising microenvironment-targeted therapies.

Some pancreatic ductal-type (PDADK) and lung adenocarcinomas (LADK) lacking other molecular drivers are reported to harbor NRG1 fusions as potential novel therapeutic targets. We investigated the feasibility of a fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH)-based diagnosis of NRG1 fusions in a case series of PDADK and LADK lacking other identified oncogenic drivers. First, among a case series of PDADK, KRAS analyses (PCR followed in PCR-negative cases by RNA sequencing—RNAseq) found 27/162 (16.7%) KRAS wild-type cases, among which 1/162 (0.6%) NRG1 fusion was diagnosed using FISH. Secondly, among a case series of LDAK, 191/446 (42.8%) cases had no molecular alterations in EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, HER2, MET, ALK, ROS1 and RET according to NGS and FISH analyses and, among them, 4/446 (0.9%) cases had NRG1 fusions using FISH. Finally, four additional cases out of the two previously mentioned cases series (1 PDADK and 3 LADK) with NRG1 fusions diagnosed by first-line RNAseq were also concluded as NRG1 FISH-positive. The NRG1 FISH tests for the nine NRG1 FISH-positive cases resulted in 50% to 80% of positive tumor nuclei, all with single 3′-NRG1 FISH signals. In our series, of the 22 cases analyzed with both NRG1 FISH (positivity criterion of at least 15% of tumor nuclei with a split between the 5′- and the 3′- parts of the probes and/or isolated single 3′-NRG1 signal) and RNAseq, 17 cases were FISH– RNAseq– and 5 cases were FISH+ RNAseq+ (no FISH+ RNAseq– or FISH– RNAseq+ cases in our study) resulting in 100% sensibility and specificity for the NRG1 FISH test. In the case of no access to RNAseq, NRG1 FISH consists of a valuable tool searching for NRG1 fusions in patients with advanced cancers.

In this issue of Blood, Vadivel et al showed that Staphylococcus aureus promotes therapeutic resistance to several drugs commonly used in the treatment of In this issue of Blood, Vadivel et al showed that Staphylococcus aureus promotes therapeutic resistance to several drugs commonly used in the treatment of

The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized our ability to precisely modify the genome and has led to gene editing in clinical applications. Comprehensive analysis of gene editing products at the targeted cut-site has revealed a complex spectrum of outcomes. ON-target genotoxicity is underestimated with standard PCR-based methods and necessitates appropriate and more sensitive detection methods. Here, we present two complementary Fluorescence-Assisted Megabase-scale Rearrangements Detection (FAMReD) systems that enable the detection, quantification, and cell sorting of edited cells with megabase-scale loss of heterozygosity (LOH). These tools reveal rare complex chromosomal rearrangements caused by Cas9-nuclease and show that LOH frequency depends on cell division rate during editing and p53 status. Cell cycle arrest during editing suppresses the occurrence of LOH without compromising editing. These data are confirmed in human stem/progenitor cells, suggesting that clinical trials should consider p53 status and cell proliferation rate during editing to limit this risk by designing safer protocols.

As a major cancer hallmark, there is a sustained interest in understanding the telomerase contribution to carcinogenesis in order to therapeutically target this enzyme. This is particularly relevant in primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL), a malignancy showing telomerase dysregulation with few investigative data available. In CTCL, we examined the mechanisms involved in telomerase transcriptional activation and activity regulation. We analyzed 94 CTCL patients from a Franco-Portuguese cohort, as well as 8 cell lines, in comparison to 101 healthy controls. Our results showed that not only polymorphisms (SNPs) located at the promoter of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene (rs2735940 and rs2853672) but also an SNP located within the coding region (rs2853676) could influence CTCL occurrence. Furthermore, our results sustained that the post-transcriptional regulation of hTERT contributes to CTCL lymphomagenesis. Indeed, CTCL cells present a different pattern of hTERT spliced transcripts distribution from the controls, mostly marked by an increase in the hTERT β+ variants proportion. This increase seems to be associated with CTCL development and progression. Through hTERT splicing transcriptome modulation with shRNAs, we observed that the decrease in the α-β+ transcript induced a decrease in the cell proliferation and tumorigenic capacities of T-MF cells in vitro. Taken together, our data highlight the major role of post-transcriptional mechanisms regulating telomerase non canonical functions in CTCL and suggest a new potential role for the α-β+ hTERT transcript variant.