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Zbtb46 coordinates tumor angiogenesis and tumor immunity to control tumor outcome

ABSTRACT: Tumor-angiogenesis and -immunity play critical roles in cancer progression and outcome. The existence of an inverse correlation hints at common regulatory mechanism(s) controlling these two processes. Here, we report that Zbtb46, a repressive transcription factor and widely accepted marker for classical dendritic cells (DCs), constitutes one such regulatory mechanism in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and is downregulated in both DCs and endothelial cells (ECs) by tumor-derived factors to facilitate robust tumor growth. This downregulation leads to the development of hallmark features of a pro-tumor environment, including dysfunctional vasculature and immunosuppressive cell accumulation. Analysis of cancer patient data revealed a similar association of a low ZBTB46 expression with an immunosuppressive TME and a worse prognosis. In contrast, upon enforced Zbtb46 expression, the hallmark TME features are mitigated, and tumor growth is restricted. Mechanistically, Zbtb46-deficient ECs were highly angiogenic, and Zbtb46-deficient bone-marrow precursors upregulated Cebpb and showed enhanced myeloid lineage output. Conversely, Zbtb46-maintenance normalizes ECs and, by suppressing Cebpb, skews the polarization of bone-marrow precursors towards more DCs and fewer macrophages, leading to an immune-hot TME. Remarkably, Zbtb46 mRNA treatment synergized with anti-PD1 immunotherapy to improve tumor management in pre-clinical models. These findings identify Zbtb46 as a common regulatory mechanism for angiogenesis and for non-hematopoietic-stem-cell-mediated myeloid lineage skewing in cancer and suggest that maintaining its expression could have therapeutic benefits.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE226087 | GEO | 2024/02/24

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Immunotherapeutics represent highly promising agents with the potential to improve patient outcomes in a variety of cancer types. Unfortunately, single-agent immunotherapy has achieved limited clinical benefit to date in patients suffering from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). This may be due to the presence of a uniquely immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) present in PDACs, which creates a barrier to effective immune surveillance. Critical obstacles to immunotherapy in PDAC tumors include the dense desmoplastic stroma that acts as a barrier to T-cell infiltration and the high numbers of tumor-associated immunosuppressive cells. We have identified hyperactivated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activity in neoplastic PDAC cells as a significant regulator of the fibrotic and immunosuppressive TME. We found that FAK activity was elevated in human PDAC tissues and correlates with high levels of fibrosis and poor CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell infiltration. Single-agent FAK inhibition (VS-4718) dramatically limited tumor progression, resulting in a doubling of survival in the p48-Cre/LSL-KrasG12D/p53Flox/+ (KPC) mouse model of human PDAC. This alteration in tumor progression was associated with dramatically reduced tumor fibrosis, decreased numbers of tumor-infiltrating immature myeloid cells and immunosuppressive macrophages. We postulated that these desirable effects of FAK inhibition on the TME might render PDAC tumors more sensitive to immunotherapy. Accordingly, we found that VS-4718 rendered the previously unresponsive KPC mouse model responsive to anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA4 antagonists leading to a nearly tripling of survival times. These data suggest that FAK inhibition increases immune surveillance by overcoming the fibrotic and immunosuppressive PDAC TME thus rendering tumors more responsive to immunotherapy. We treated KP orthotopic tumor-bearing mice with vehicle and FAK inhibitor (FAKi) for 14 days, then extracted total RNA from tumor tissues.

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Zbtb46 coordinates tumor angiogenesis and tumor immunity to control tumor outcome

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