Enhancing PD-L1 Degradation by ITCH during MAPK Inhibitor Therapy Suppresses Acquired Resistance

ABSTRACT: Disrupting PD-1/PD-L1 interaction rejuvenates antitumor immunity. Clinical successes by blocking PD-1/PD-L1 binding have grown across wide-ranging cancer histologies, but innate therapy resistance is evident in the majority of treated patients1. Cancer cells can express robust surface levels of PD-L1 to tolerize tumor-specific T cells, but regulation of PD-L1 protein levels in the cancer cell is poorly understood. Quasi-mesenchymal tumor cells up-regulate PD-L1/L2 and induce an immune-suppressive microenvironment, including expansion of M2-like macrophages and regulatory T cells and exclusion of CD8+ T-cell infiltration2. Targeted therapy, including MAPK inhibitor therapy in melanoma, leads to quasi-mesenchymal transitions and resistance3, and both MAPK inhibitor treatment and mesenchymal signatures are associated with innate anti-PD-1 resistance4,5. Here we identify ITCH as an E3 ligase that downregulates tumor cell-surface PD-L1/L2 in PD-L1/L2-high cancer cells, including MAPK inhibitor-resistant melanoma, and suppresses acquired MAPK inhibitor resistance in and only in immune-competent mice. ITCH interacts with and poly-ubiquitinates PD-L1/L2, and ITCH deficiency increases cell-surface PD-L1/L2 expression and reduces T cell activation. Mouse melanoma tumors grow faster with Itch knockdown only in syngeneic hosts but not in immune-deficient mice. MAPK inhibitor therapy induces tumor cell-surface PD-L1 expression in murine melanoma, recapitulating the responses of clinical melanoma3, and this induction is more robust with Itch knockdown. Notably, suppression of ITCH expression first elicits a shift toward an immune-suppressive microenvironment and then accelerates resistance development. These findings collectively identify ITCH as a critical negative regulator of PD-L1 tumor cell-surface expression and provide insights into previously unexplained role of PD-L1 in adaptive resistance to therapy.

INSTRUMENT(S): Orbitrap Fusion Lumos

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (ncbitaxon:9606)

SUBMITTER: Roger S. Lo  

PROVIDER: MSV000089180 | MassIVE | Thu Mar 31 10:07:00 BST 2022

REPOSITORIES: MassIVE