Abstract 1612: Tumor intrinsic changes determine immune-checkpoint response in Richter's transformation
Authors: Iyer Prajish Sundaram , Yang Lu , Zhang Yang Zhi , Kim Hyo Jin , Secreto Charla , Sinha Sutapa , Kay Neil , Ansell Stephen , Ding Wei , Wang Lili 
Published: July 2021

Richter's transformation (RT) is a clinically challenging and aggressive transformation of CLL (Chronic lymphocytic leukemia) to lymphoma. Immune-checkpoint therapy has improved outcomes in selective lymphoma types. Nearly 40% of RT patients respond to anti-PD1, while the underlying CLL do not show any response, and 10% of CLL patients progress post-anti-PD1 treatment. Previous studies mostly focused on T-cell responses elicited by anti-PD1, however, intrinsic changes in CLL and RT B-cells induced by the treatment remains elusive. We hypothesized that pre-existing active transcriptional circuitry and distinct B-cell subsets in the CLL and RT B-cells may determine the response to anti-PD1 treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 3 patients who received pembrolizumab(anti-PD1) as a single agent. Samples were obtained at baseline and 3 months post-treatment initiation. Among these patients, 2 are progressors while 1 is a responder. We performed single-cell RNAseq (10X Genomics) on B-cells enriched from PBMCs derived from 3 samples (1 Responder: RS2, 2 progressors: CLL14 and CLL17) before and after treatment using chromium single cell 3' gene expression library. A total of ~10000 cells were captured with an average detection of 1000 genes/sample. To delineate the transcriptional changes upon the anti-PD1 treatment, we first integrated the single-cell data from 6 samples (before and after Pembro) and performed unsupervised clustering analysis using UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and projection). We identified 8 different clusters based on highly expressed marker genes. Cluster 2(C2) was increased in the responder as compared to the progressors post-pem treatment. To determine the activated pathways in each cluster, we performed gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA) using the Enrichr method. This analysis revealed upregulation of distinct pathways related to IFNG/MYC(C1), IFNG(C2), ER stress(C3), B-cell dependent T cell activation related pathway(C4), MYC targets/TNFα(C5,6,7) indicating intra-tumor transcriptional heterogeneity. To decipher the intratumor cell differentiation changes, we performed pseudotime trajectory analysis using Monocle 2 coupled with B cell developmental stage markers. We identified 7 different states, with distinct changes of state in responder sample RS2 (State 4,5, 6, and 7 were increased in RS2 post-treatment) while CLL samples(progressors) did not have distinct changes. Integration with B cell development revealed that aggressive B cells with CD38 expression were highly induced upon anti-PD1 in responder RS2 while regulatory (CD1d) and memory B cells (CD27) remained the same, suggesting PD1 induced intrinsic changes contributing to the disease response. We identified distinct transcriptional states in B cells within responders and progressors which may govern the intra-tumor and inter-tumor heterogeneity to the anti-PD1 response.

Citation Format: Prajish Sundaram Iyer, Lu Yang, Yang Zhi Zhang, Hyo Jin Kim, Charla Secreto, Sutapa Sinha, Neil Kay, Stephen Ansell, Wei Ding, Lili Wang. Tumor intrinsic changes determine immune-checkpoint response in Richter's transformation [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 1612.