Dataset Information

MEK inhibition activates STAT signaling to increase breast cancer immunogenicity via MHC-I expression.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have changed cancer care for many patients; however, breast cancers have exhibited minimal response to single agent ICI therapy. There is a significant need to identify novel targets capable of increasing cancer cell immunogenicity and response to ICIs in breast cancer. Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling is essential for many cellular processes but the relationship between MAPK signaling and cancer cell immunogenicity is less well understood. Recent reports suggest that MEK inhibition (MEKi) affects the tumor-immune microenvironment by altering the expression of interferon responsive PD-L1 and MHC-I through unknown mechanisms.

Methods

Using western blotting and flow cytometry, we sought to determine whether MEKi affects JAK-STAT signaling upstream of PD-L1 and MHC-I expression in a panel of mouse mammary cancer and triple negative breast cancer cell lines.

Results

The cell lines tested exhibited increased STAT activation in response to MEKi treatment. Furthermore, MEKi-induced MHC-I and PD-L1 expression are dependent upon STAT1 in MMTV-Neu cells. Interestingly, MEKi-induced STAT activation and interferon-responsive protein expression are abrogated with ErbB-family inhibitor co-treatment in MMTV-Neu cells, suggesting ErbB receptor signaling dependence, but not in basal-like cell lines. Importantly, analysis of basal-like breast cancer patient samples exhibited an inverse relationship between STAT1 and Ras/MAPK activation signatures.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that MAPK signaling and STAT activation are inversely related in both mouse and human mammary tumors. This work also supports further study of MEKi to increase STAT signaling and potentially, immunotherapy responses through increased MHC-I and PD-L1 expression.

SUBMITTER: Franklin DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7556720 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

MEK inhibition activates STAT signaling to increase breast cancer immunogenicity via MHC-I expression.

Franklin Derek A DA James Jamaal L JL Axelrod Margaret L ML Balko Justin M JM

Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) 20200425

<h4>Aim</h4>Immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have changed cancer care for many patients; however, breast cancers have exhibited minimal response to single agent ICI therapy. There is a significant need to identify novel targets capable of increasing cancer cell immunogenicity and response to ICIs in breast cancer. Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling is essential for many cellular processes but the relationship between MAPK signaling and cancer cell immunogenicit ...[more]

PMID: 33062958

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Project description:Notch signaling is frequently hyperactivated in breast cancer, but how the enhanced signaling contributes to the tumor process is less well understood. In this report, we identify the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a novel Notch target in breast tumor cells. Enhanced Notch signaling upregulated IL-6 expression at the transcriptional level, leading to activation of autocrine and paracrine JAK/STAT signaling. IL-6 upregulation was mediated by non-canonical Notch signaling, as it could be effectuated by a cytoplasmically localized Notch intracellular domain and was independent on the DNA-binding protein CSL. Instead, Notch-mediated IL-6 upregulation was controlled by two other factors: IKKβ, a protein in the NF-kB signaling cascade, and p53. Activation of IL-6 by Notch required IKKβ function, but interestingly, did not engage canonical NF-κB signaling, in contrast to IL-6 activation by inflammatory agents such as tumor necrosis factor, which requires canonical NF-κB signaling. With regard to p53 status, IL-6 expression was upregulated by Notch when p53 was mutated or lost, but restoring wildtype 53 into p53-mutated or -deficient cells abrogated the IL-6 upregulation. Furthermore, Notch-induced genome-wide transcriptomes from p53 wildtype and -mutated breast tumor cell lines differed extensively, and in a subset of genes upregulated by Notch in a p53-mutant cell line, upregulation was reduced by wildtype p53. In conclusion, we identify IL-6 as a novel non-canonical Notch target gene, and reveal roles for p53 and IKKβ in non-canonical Notch signaling in breast cancer and in the generation of cell context-dependent diversity in the Notch signaling output. 30 microarray samples consisting of MCF7 (ER+, wild-type p53, luminal type B breast cancer) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-, mutated p53, basal breast cancer) cells cultured on immobilized 1 μg/ml JAGGED1-Fc or 1 μg/ml DLL4-Fc or 1 μg/ml Fc control with or without 5 μM DAPT for 6 hours in 3 biological replicates.

Project description:We previously reported in atrial myocytes that inhibition of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) by laminin (LMN)-integrin signaling activates β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) stimulation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2). The present study sought to determine the signaling mechanisms by which inhibition of PKA activates β2-AR stimulation of cPLA2. We therefore determined the effects of zinterol (0.1 μM; zint-β2-AR) to stimulate ICa,L in atrial myocytes in the absence (+PKA) and presence (-PKA) of the PKA inhibitor (1 μM) KT5720 and compared these results with atrial myocytes attached to laminin (+LMN). Inhibition of Raf-1 (10 μM GW5074), phospholipase C (PLC; 0.5 μM edelfosine), PKC (4 μM chelerythrine) or IP3 receptor (IP3R) signaling (2 μM 2-APB) significantly inhibited zint-β2-AR stimulation of ICa,L in-PKA but not +PKA myocytes. Western blots showed that zint-β2-AR stimulation increased ERK1/2 phosphorylation in-PKA compared to +PKA myocytes. Adenoviral (Adv) expression of dominant negative (dn) -PKCα, dn-Raf-1 or an IP3 affinity trap, each inhibited zint-β2-AR stimulation of ICa,L in + LMN myocytes compared to control +LMN myocytes infected with Adv-βgal. In +LMN myocytes, zint-β2-AR stimulation of ICa,L was enhanced by adenoviral overexpression of wild-type cPLA2 and inhibited by double dn-cPLA2S505A/S515A mutant compared to control +LMN myocytes infected with Adv-βgal. In-PKA myocytes depletion of intracellular Ca2+ stores by 5 μM thapsigargin failed to inhibit zint-β2-AR stimulation of ICa,L via cPLA2. However, disruption of caveolae formation by 10 mM methyl-β-cyclodextrin inhibited zint-β2-AR stimulation of ICa,L in-PKA myocytes significantly more than in +PKA myocytes. We conclude that inhibition of PKA removes inhibition of Raf-1 and thereby allows β2-AR stimulation to act via PKCα/Raf-1/MEK/ERK1/2 and IP3-mediated Ca2+ signaling to stimulate cPLA2 signaling within caveolae. These findings may be relevant to the remodeling of β-AR signaling in failing and/or aging heart, both of which exhibit decreases in adenylate cyclase activity.

Dataset Information

MEK inhibition activates STAT signaling to increase breast cancer immunogenicity via MHC-I expression.

Aim

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

MEK inhibition activates STAT signaling to increase breast cancer immunogenicity via MHC-I expression.

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