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A PAI-macrophage axis in pancreatic cancer heterogeneity and immune evasion

ABSTRACT: Pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by a highly immunosuppressive, ECM-rich microenvironment, yet tumors display striking heterogeneity. This raises the question of whether immune resistance is a global tumor property or organized within spatially restricted niches. Using Perturb-map spatial functional genomics, we determine how different genes shape the growth and cellular environments of PDAC clones across space and time. This revealed early gene-driven remodeling of local immune neighborhoods preceding late-stage spatial clonal dominance. We identify SERPINE1 (PAI1) and SERPINB2 (PAI2) as dominant regulators of tumor microenvironment control and immune evasion. These SERPINs promote stabilization of fibrin-rich ECM niches that spatially retain and program macrophages toward immunosuppressive states while excluding cytotoxic T cells. Loss of Serpine1 or Serpinb2, or pharmacologic inhibition of PAI1 or CD18, improves tumor control and synergizes with anti-PD-1. Multimodal spatial analysis of patient tumors revealed that immunosuppressive niches form around rare SERPINB2- and SERPINE1-expressing PDAC subpopulations, dominated by SPP1+MARCO+ macrophages. These findings identify cancer-derived SERPINE1/B2 as local spatial organizers of immune suppression, linking tumor-intrinsic heterogeneity to local microenvironmental control and immunotherapy resistance in PDAC.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE289138 | GEO | 2026/07/20

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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A PAI-macrophage axis in pancreatic cancer heterogeneity and immune evasion

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