Hepatic interferon regulatory factor 8 expression suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma progression and enhances the response to anti–programmed cell death protein‐1 therapy

Autor: Hongxi, Wu, Yan, Li, Guangjiang, Shi, Shijia, Du, Xiaobin, Wang, Wanli, Ye, Zixuan, Zhang, Ya, Chu, Shuqian, Ma, Dajia, Wang, Yuan, Li, Zhen, Chen, Lutz, Birnbaumer, Zhuo, Wang, Yong, Yang
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Hepatology. 76:1602-1616
ISSN: 1527-3350
0270-9139
Popis: Therapeutic blockade of the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint pathways has resulted in significant reactivation of T cell-mediated antitumor immunity and is a promising clinical anticancer treatment modality in several tumor types, but the durable response rate remains relatively low (15%-20%) in most patients with HCC for unknown reasons. Evidence reveals that the interferon signaling pathway plays a critical role in modulating the efficacy and sensitivity of anti-PD-1 therapy against multiple tumor types, but the mechanisms are unclear.Using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis based on HCC databases, we found that deceased expression of interferon regulatory factor (IRF) 8 in HCC, among all the nine IRF members that regulate interferon signals, was associated with poor prognosis of patients with HCC. Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis identified the interferon-gamma and PD-1 signaling signatures as the top suppressed pathways in patients with IRF8-low HCC. Contrarily, overexpression of IRF8 in HCC cells significantly enhanced antitumor effects in immune-competent mice, modulating infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and T cell exhaustion in tumor microenvironment. We further demonstrated that IRF8 regulated recruitment of TAMs by inhibiting the expression of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL20). Mechanically, IRF8-mediated repression of c-fos transcription resulted in decreased expression of CCL20, rather than directly bound to CCL20 promoter region. Importantly, adeno-associated virus 8-mediated hepatic IRF8 rescue significantly suppressed HCC progression and enhanced the response to anti-PD-1 therapy.This work identified IRF8 as an important prognostic biomarker in patients with HCC that predicted the response and sensitivity to anti-PD-1 therapy and uncovered it as a therapeutic target for enhancing the efficacy of immune therapy.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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