Overcoming EGFR-Mediated Dendritic Cell Dysfunction to Enhance Anti-tumor Immunity in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC by Precisely Targeting CD73 With pH-responsive Nanocarriers.

ABSTRACT: EGFR mutations remain a major challenge in immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with poor responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors driven by mechanisms associated with EGFR mutation-mediated tumor microenvironment (TME) modulation. This study reveals that EGFR mutations prominently impaired dendritic cell (DC) maturation, disrupting their capacity to effectively prime CD8⁺ T cells and thereby compromising anti-tumor immune responses. By application of clinical specimen analyses, multi-omics approaches, and in vivo mouse models, this work demonstrates that EGFR mutations elicited adenosine production through the ERK/c-Jun signaling axis in tumor cells, establishing an immunosuppressive TME that impeded maturation and antigen presentation of DCs, and in turn weak

SUBMITTER: Shang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12767102 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature