Project description:Current cancer immunotherapies are assumed to improve infiltration and cytotoxicity of immune cells in the tumor. However, tumor cells have developed a variety of resistance mechanisms to suppress the MHC class I antigen presentation, and thereby impair the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells. Here, we identified Mal2 as a key player that mediates the turnover of the antigen-MHC-I complex and reduce the antigen presentation on tumor cells. Mal2 promotes the endocytosis of tumor antigen via direct interaction with the MHC-I complex and endosome-associated Rab5/7. In mouse and human breast tumor models, inhibition of Mal2 profoundly enhanced the cytotoxicity of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells and suppressed breast tumor growth, suggesting that Mal2 is a potential target for breast cancer immunotherapy.
Project description:Loss of antigen presentation by MHCI is a common mechanism of tumor immune evasion. Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity influences MHCI expression, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the relative flow of electrons through complex I or II of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) regulates MHCI expression and antigen presentation in cancer cells. Specifically, reducing electron flow from complex II increases mitochondrial succinate which activates transcription of MHCI and antigen processing and presentation (APP) genes. These phenotypes are independent of the interferon (IFN) signaling pathway and driven by succinate-mediated enzymatic inhibition of lysine-specific demethylases, KDM5A/B and destabilization of polycomb repressor complex 2 (PRC2). Finally, knockout of the mitochondrial Complex I inhibitor protein, MCJ, preferentially reduces electron flow through Complex II and increases succinate which drives an enhanced antigen-dependent CD8+ T cell response to mouse melanoma tumors in vivo. These findings suggest that the mitochondrial ETC can be manipulated therapeutically to enhance antitumor immune responses independently of IFNγ.
Project description:Activated SUMOylation is a hallmark of aggressive cancers. Starting from a targeted screening for SUMO-regulated immune evasion mechanisms, we identified an evolutionary conserved function of activated SUMOylation, which attenuates the immunogenicity of tumor cells. Activated SUMOylation allows cancer cells to evade CD8+ T-cell immunosurveillance by repressing the MHC-I antigen processing and presentation machinery (APM). While loss of the MHC-I APM is a frequent cause of resistance to cancer immunotherapies, the pharmacological inhibition of SUMOylation (SUMOi) restored the expression of the MHC-I APM and enhanced the susceptibility of tumor cells to CD8+ T-cell mediated killing. Importantly, SUMOi also triggered the activation of CD8+ T-cells itself and thereby drives a feed-forward loop amplifying the specific anti-tumor immune response. In summary, we show that activated SUMOylation converts tumor cells into a state of immune evasion, and identify SUMOi as rational therapeutic strategy for enhancing the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies.
Project description:Loss of MHC class I (MHC-I) antigen presentation in cancer cells can lead to immunotherapy resistance. Using a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen we identify a critical role for polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) in the coordinated transcriptional silencing of the MHC-I antigen processing pathway (MHC-I APP). This evolutionarily conserved function of PRC2 promotes evasion of T-cell mediated immunity, enabling tumour transmission to non-histocompatible recipients in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour. MHC-I APP gene promoters in MHC-I low cancers harbour bivalent activating H3K4me3 and repressive H3K27me3 histone modifications, silencing basal MHC-I expression and restricting cytokine induced MHC-I APP gene upregulation. Bivalent chromatin at MHC-I APP genes is a normal developmental process active in embryonic stem cells and maintained during neural progenitor differentiation. This physiological silencing of MHC-I expression highlights a conserved mechanism by which cancers arising from these primitive tissues coopt PRC2 activity to enable immune evasion.
Project description:Loss of MHC class I (MHC-I) antigen presentation in cancer cells can lead to immunotherapy resistance. Using a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen we identify a critical role for polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) in the coordinated transcriptional silencing of the MHC-I antigen processing pathway (MHC-I APP). This evolutionarily conserved function of PRC2 promotes evasion of T-cell mediated immunity, enabling tumor transmission to non-histocompatible recipients in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor. MHC-I APP gene promoters in MHC-I low cancers harbour bivalent activating H3K4me3 and repressive H3K27me3 histone modifications, silencing basal MHC-I expression and restricting cytokine induced MHC-I APP gene upregulation. Bivalent chromatin at MHC-I APP genes is a normal developmental process active in embryonic stem cells and maintained during neural progenitor differentiation. This physiological silencing of MHC-I expression highlights a conserved mechanism by which cancers arising from these primitive tissues coopt PRC2 activity to enable immune evasion.
Project description:Immune evasion by tumors is promoted by low T cell infiltration, an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, poor T cell activity directed against the tumor, and reduced tumor antigen presentation. We showed previously that tumor expression of the DNA dioxygenase TET2 enhances recruitment of T cells through activating the expression of CXCL9, 10 and 11. Vitamin C treatment was shown to increase these effects in a TET2 dependent manner. Using scSeq analysis, we show that an additional function for TET2 in tumors is to enhance the expression of genes involved in antigen presentation, including those encoding H-2 MHC proteins, B2M, TAP1, TAPBP, and components of immunoproteasome. Using the B16-OVA melanoma model, we show that antigen expression in tumors is blocked if TET2 expression is eliminated and that vitamin C further promotes tumor antigen presentation in a TET2-dependent manner. Consistently, T cell killing assays demonstrate that effective killing of tumor by antigen-specific T cells requires TET2 expression in the tumor cells. Analysis of patient tumor samples indicates that TET2 activity, as measured through 5hmC levels, correlates directly with expression of antigen-presentation gene expression and with patient outcomes.
Project description:One of the primary mechanisms of tumor cell immune evasion is the loss of antigenicity, which arises due to lack of immunogenic tumor antigens as well as dysregulation of the antigen processing machinery. In a screen for small-molecule compounds from herbal medicine thatpotetiate T cell-mediated cytotoxicity, we identified atractylenolide I (ATT-I) that significantly promotes tumor antigen presentation of both human and mouse colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and thereby enhances the cytotoxic response of CD8+ T cells. Cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) with multiplexed quantitative mass spectrometry identified the proteasome 26S subunit non-ATPase 4 (PSMD4), an essential component of the immunoproteasome complex,as a primary target protein of ATT-I. Binding of ATT-I with PSMD4 augments the antigenprocessing activity of immunoproteasome, leading to enhanced major histocompatibility class I(MHC-I)-mediated antigen presentation on cancer cells. In syngeneic mouse CRC models and human patient-derived CRC organoid models, ATT-I treatment promotes the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells and thus profoundly enhances the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Collectively, we show here that targeting the function of immunoproteasome with ATT-I promotes tumor antigen presentation, empowers T-cell cytotoxicity, and thus elevates the tumorresponse to immunotherapy.
Project description:Increased antigen cross-presentation but impaired cross-priming after activation of PPARγ is mediated by up-regulation of B7H1 Dendritic cells (DCs) are able to take up exogenous antigens and present antigen-derived peptides on MHC class I molecules, a process termed cross-presentation. The mannose receptor (MR), an endocytic receptor expressed on a variety of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), has been demonstrated to target soluble antigens exclusively towards cross-presentation. In this study, we investigated the role of the murine nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), a ligand-activated transcription factor with immunomodulatory properties, in MR-mediated endocytosis and cross-presentation of the model antigen ovalbumin (OVA). We could demonstrate both in vitro and in vivo that activation of PPARγ resulted in increased MR expression, which in consequence led to enhanced MR-mediated endocytosis and elevated cross-presentation of soluble OVA. Concomitantly, activation of PPARγ in DCs induced up-regulation of the co-inhibitory molecule B7H1, which, despite enhanced cross-presentation, caused an impaired activation of naive OVA-specific CD8+ T cells and the induction of T cell tolerance. These data provide a mechanistic basis for the immunomodulatory action of PPARγ which might open new possibilities in development of therapeutical approaches aimed at the control of excessive immune responses, e.g. in T cell-mediated autoimmunity. Comparison of murine mannose receptor negative versus mannose receptor positive bone marrow-derived DCs