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Characterization of macrophage--cancer cell crosstalk in estrogen receptor positive and triple-negative breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Tumor heterogeneity may broadly influence the activation of tumor-associated macrophages. We aimed to dissect how breast cancer cells of different molecular characteristics contribute to macrophage phenotype and function. Therefore, we performed whole transcriptome sequencing of human monocytes that were co-cultured with estrogen receptor positive (ER(+)) or triple-negative (TNBC) breast cancer cell lines and studied the biological responses related to the differential gene activation in both monocytes and cancer cells by pathway analysis. ER(+) and TNBC cancer cell lines induced distinctly different macrophage phenotypes with different biological functions, cytokine and chemokine secretion, and morphology. Conversely, ER(+) and TNBC breast cancer cell lines were distinctly influenced by the presence of macrophages. ER(+) cells demonstrated up-regulation of an acute phase inflammatory response, IL-17 signaling and antigen presentation pathway, whereas thioredoxin and vitamin D3 receptor pathways were down-regulated in the respective macrophages. The TNBC educated macrophages down-regulated citrulline metabolism and differentiated into M2-like macrophages with increased MMR protein expression and CCL2 secretion. These data demonstrate how different cancer cells educate the host cells to support tumor growth and might explain why high infiltration of macrophages in TNBC tumors associates with poor prognosis.

SUBMITTER: Hollmen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4361875 | biostudies-other | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:PURPOSE:A subset of estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer (BC) contains high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), similar to triple-negative BC (TNBC). The majority of immuno-oncology trials target TNBCs because of the greater proportion of TIL-rich TNBCs. The extent to which the immune microenvironments of immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC differ is unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS:RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; n = 697 ER-positive BCs; n = 191 TNBCs) were used for discovery; microarray expression data from Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC; n = 1,186 ER-positive BCs; n = 297 TNBCs) was used for validation. Patients in the top 25th percentile of a previously published total TIL metagene score distribution were considered immune rich. We compared expression of immune cell markers, immune function metagenes, and immuno-oncology therapeutic targets among immune-rich subtypes. RESULTS:Relative fractions of resting mast cells (TCGA P adj = .009; METABRIC P adj = 4.09E-15), CD8+ T cells (TCGA P adj = .015; METABRIC P adj = 0.390), and M2-like macrophages (TCGA P adj= 4.68E-05; METABRIC P adj = .435) were higher in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, but M0-like macrophages (TCGA P adj = 0.015; METABRIC P adj = .004) and M1-like macrophages (TCGA P adj = 9.39E-08; METABRIC P adj = 6.24E-11) were higher in immune-rich TNBCs. Ninety-one immune-related genes (eg, CXCL14, CSF3R, TGF-B3, LRRC32/GARP, TGFB-R2) and a transforming growth factor ? (TGF-?) response metagene were significantly overexpressed in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, whereas 41 immune-related genes (eg, IFNG, PD-L1, CTLA4, MAGEA4) were overexpressed in immune-rich TNBCs in both discovery and validation data sets. TGF-? pathway member genes correlated negatively with expression of immune activation markers (IFNG, granzyme-B, perforin) and positively with M2-like macrophages (IL4, IL10, and MMP9) and regulatory T-cell (FOXP3) markers in both subtypes. CONCLUSION:Different immunotherapy strategies may be optimal in immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC. Drugs targeting the TGF-? pathway and M2-like macrophages are promising strategies in immune-rich ER-positive BCs to augment antitumor immunity.

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Characterization of macrophage--cancer cell crosstalk in estrogen receptor positive and triple-negative breast cancer.

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