Project description:Griffin GK, Wu J, Iracheta-Vellve A, Patti JC, Hsu J, Davis T, Dele-Oni D, Du PP, Halawi A, Ishizuka JJ, Kim S, Klaeger S, Knudsen NH, Miller BC, Nguyen T, Olander K, Papanastasiou M, Rachimi S, Robitschek EJ, Schneider EM, Yeary M, Zimmer M, Jaffe JD, Carr SA, Doench JG, Haining WN, Yates KB, Manguso RT, Bernstein BE. 2020. Epigenetic dysregulation is a defining feature of tumorigenesis and has been implicated in immune escape, yet mechanisms that drive immune evasion are poorly understood. To systematically identify epigenetic factors that modulate the immune sensitivity of tumor cells, we performed in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screens targeting 936 chromatin regulators in mouse tumor models treated with immune checkpoint blockade. We identified the H3K9-methyltransferase SETDB1 and other members of the HUSH and KAP1 complexes as cell-intrinsic mediators of immune escape in tumor cells. We also found that amplification of SETDB1 (1q21) in human tumors is associated with reduced cytotoxic T-cell infiltration and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that SETDB1 represses broad domains, hundreds of kilobases in size, many of which reside within the open genome compartment. These SETDB1 domains are enriched for transposable elements (TEs) and immune gene clusters associated with segmental duplication events, a central mechanism of mammalian genome evolution. SETDB1 loss derepresses latent TE-encoded regulatory elements and proximal immune genes within these repetitive regions, including canonical co-stimulatory ligands, and induces hundreds of putative TE-encoded viral antigens. Our study establishes SETDB1 as an epigenetic checkpoint that suppresses intrinsic immunogenicity in cancer cells, and thus represents a candidate target for immunotherapy.
Project description:Epigenetic dysregulation is a defining feature of tumorigenesis and has been implicated in immune escape. However, the epigenetic mechanisms that drive immune evasion in cancer are poorly understood. To systematically identify epigenetic factors that modulate the immune sensitivity of tumor cells, we performed in vivo loss of function screens targeting 936 chromatin regulators in mouse tumor models treated with immune checkpoint blockade. We identified the H3K9-methyltransferase SETDB1 and other members of the HUSH and KAP1 complexes as cell-intrinsic mediators of immune escape in tumor cells. We also found that amplification of SETDB1 (1q21) in human tumors is associated with reduced cytotoxic T-cell infiltration and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that SETDB1 targets broad domains, hundreds of kilobases in size, many of which reside within the open genome compartment. These SETDB1 domains are enriched for transposable elements (TEs) and immune gene clusters associated with segmental duplication events, a central mechanism of mammalian genome evolution. SETDB1 loss derepresses latent TE-encoded regulatory elements and proximal immune genes within these repetitive regions, including canonical NKG2D ligands, and induces hundreds of putative TE-encoded viral antigens. Our study establishes SETDB1 as an epigenetic checkpoint that suppresses intrinsic immunogenicity in cancer cells, and thus represents a candidate target for immunotherapy.
Project description:Despite recent advances in the treatment of melanoma, many patients with metastatic disease still succumb to their disease. To identify tumor-intrinsic modulators of immunity to melanoma, we performed a whole-genome CRISPR screen in melanoma and identified multiple components of the HUSH complex, including Setdb1, as hits. We found that loss of Setdb1 leads to increased immunogenicity and complete tumor clearance in a CD8+ T-cell dependent manner. Mechanistically, loss of Setdb1 causes de-repression of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) in melanoma cells and triggers tumor-cell intrinsic type-I interferon signaling, upregulation of MHC-I expression, and increased CD8+ T-cell infiltration. Furthermore, spontaneous immune clearance observed in Setdb1-/- tumors results in subsequent protection from other ERV-expressing tumor lines, supporting the functional anti-tumor role of ERV-specific CD8+ T-cells found in the Setdb1-/- microenvironment. Blocking the type-I interferon receptor in mice grafted with Setdb1-/- tumors decreases immunogenicity by decreasing MHC-I expression, leading to decreased T-cell infiltration and increased melanoma growth comparable to Setdb1wt tumors. Together, these results indicate a critical role for Setdb1 and type-I interferons in generating an inflamed tumor microenvironment, and potentiating tumor-cell intrinsic immunogenicity in melanoma. This study further emphasizes regulators of ERV expression and type-I interferon expression as potential therapeutic targets for augmenting anti-cancer immune responses.
Project description:Despite recent advances in the treatment of melanoma, many patients with metastatic disease still succumb to their disease. To identify tumor-intrinsic modulators of immunity to melanoma, we performed a whole-genome CRISPR screen in melanoma and identified multiple components of the HUSH complex, including Setdb1, as hits. We found that loss of Setdb1 leads to increased immunogenicity and complete tumor clearance in a CD8+ T-cell dependent manner. Mechanistically, loss of Setdb1 causes de-repression of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) in melanoma cells and triggers tumor-cell intrinsic type-I interferon signaling, upregulation of MHC-I expression, and increased CD8+ T-cell infiltration. Furthermore, spontaneous immune clearance observed in Setdb1-/- tumors results in subsequent protection from other ERV-expressing tumor lines, supporting the functional anti-tumor role of ERV-specific CD8+ T-cells found in the Setdb1-/- microenvironment. Blocking the type-I interferon receptor in mice grafted with Setdb1-/- tumors decreases immunogenicity by decreasing MHC-I expression, leading to decreased T-cell infiltration and increased melanoma growth comparable to Setdb1wt tumors. Together, these results indicate a critical role for Setdb1 and type-I interferons in generating an inflamed tumor microenvironment, and potentiating tumor-cell intrinsic immunogenicity in melanoma. This study further emphasizes regulators of ERV expression and type-I interferon expression as potential therapeutic targets for augmenting anti-cancer immune responses.
Project description:Metabolic alteration influences cancer immunity. However, the role and mechanism of metabolic adaption on immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) responses remains ill-defined. Here, metabolomic profiling in mouse tumor models and cancer patients treated with ICB was performed. We found that metabolite inosine was associated with ICB sensitivity in mice and humans, and overcame ICB resistance in several mouse tumor models. Notably, inosine sensitized tumor cells to T cell-mediated cytotoxicity by amplifying tumor-intrinsic immunogenicity. Chemical proteomics further identified that inosine directly bound and inhibited ubiquitin-activating enzyme UBA6. Tumor intrinsic UBA6 loss augmented tumor immunogenicity and substituted the synergistic effect of inosine in combination with ICB. Clinically, tumor UBA6 expression negatively correlated with ICB response in cancer patients. Thus, we reveal an unappreciated function of inosine on tumor-intrinsic immunogenicity and UBA6 as a candidate target for immunotherapy.
Project description:Despite substantial progress that has been made in understanding how tumors escape immune surveillance, measures to counteract tumor immune evasion have been limited. Suppression of tumor antigen expression is a common adaptive mechanism that cancers use to evade detection and destruction by the immune system. Epigenetic modifications play a critical role in in various aspects of immune invasion, including the regulation of tumor antigen expression. To identify novel epigenetic regulators of tumor antigen expression, we established a transplantable syngeneic tumor model of immune escape with silenced antigen expression and used this system as a platform for a CRISPR-Cas9 suppressor screen targeting genes encoding epigenetic modifiers. We found that genetic disruption of the chromatin modifiers Atf7ip or its interacting partner Setdb1 in tumor cells restored tumor antigen expression, resulting in augmented tumor immunogenicity concomitant with elevated endogenous retroviral antigens (ERVs), mRNA intron retention. ERVs disinhibition was associated with a robust type I interferon response and increased T cell infiltration, leading to rejection of cells lacking intact Atf7ip or Setdb1. ATF7IP or SETDB1 expression inversely correlated with antigen processing and presentation pathways, interferon signaling, and T cell infiltration and cytotoxicity in human cancers. Our results provide a rationale for targeting Atf7ip or Setdb1 in cancer immunotherapy.
Project description:Subsets of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are derepressed in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) deficient for Setdb1, which catalyzes histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3). Most of those ERVs, including IAPs, remain silent if Setdb1 is deleted in differentiated embryonic cells; however they are derepressed when deficient for Dnmt1, suggesting that Setdb1 is dispensable for ERV silencing in somatic cells. However, H3K9me3 enrichment on ERVs is maintained in differentiated cells and is mostly diminished in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking Setdb1. We find that distinctive sets of ERVs are reactivated in different types of Setdb1-deficient somatic cells, including the VL30-class of ERVs in MEFs, whose derepression is dependent on cell type-specific transcription factors (TFs). These data suggest a more general role for Setdb1 in ERV silencing, which provides an additional layer of epigenetic silencing through the H3K9me3 modification.
Project description:Subsets of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are derepressed in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) deficient for Setdb1, which catalyzes histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3). Most of those ERVs, including IAPs, remain silent if Setdb1 is deleted in differentiated embryonic cells; however they are derepressed when deficient for Dnmt1, suggesting that Setdb1 is dispensable for ERV silencing in somatic cells. However, H3K9me3 enrichment on ERVs is maintained in differentiated cells and is mostly diminished in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking Setdb1. We find that distinctive sets of ERVs are reactivated in different types of Setdb1-deficient somatic cells, including the VL30-class of ERVs in MEFs, whose derepression is dependent on cell type-specific transcription factors (TFs). These data suggest a more general role for Setdb1 in ERV silencing, which provides an additional layer of epigenetic silencing through the H3K9me3 modification.