TIGIT/CD155 axis mediates resistance to immunotherapy in patients with melanoma with the inflamed tumor microenvironment

• Kawashima, Shusuke

• Inozume, Takashi

• Kawazu, Masahito

• Ueno, Toshihide

• Nagasaki, Joji

• Tanji, Etsuko

• Honobe, Akiko

• Ohnuma, Takehiro

• Kawamura, Tatsuyoshi

• Umeda, Yoshiyasu

• Nakamura, Yasuhiro

• Kawasaki, Tomonori

• Kiniwa, Yukiko

• Yamasaki, Osamu

• Fukushima, Satoshi

• Ikehara, Yuzuru

• Mano, Hiroyuki

• Suzuki, Yutaka

• Nishikawa, Hiroyoshi

• Matsue, Hiroyuki

• Togashi, Yosuke

Abstract

Background<br> Patients with cancer benefit from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), and those with an inflamed tumor microenvironment (TME) and/or high tumor mutation burden (TMB), particularly, tend to respond to ICIs; however, some patients fail, whereas others acquire resistance after initial response despite the inflamed TME and/or high TMB. We assessed the detailed biological mechanisms of resistance to ICIs such as programmed death 1 and/or cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 blockade therapies using clinical samples.<br> <br> Methods<br> We established four pairs of autologous tumor cell lines and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from patients with melanoma treated with ICIs. These tumor cell lines and TILs were subjected to comprehensive analyses and in vitro functional assays. We assessed tumor volume and TILs in vivo mouse models to validate identified mechanism. Furthermore, we analyzed additional clinical samples from another large melanoma cohort.<br> <br> Results<br> Two patients were super-responders, and the others acquired resistance: the first patient had a non-inflamed TME and acquired resistance due to the loss of the beta-2 microglobulin gene, and the other acquired resistance despite having inflamed TME and extremely high TMB which are reportedly predictive biomarkers. Tumor cell line and paired TIL analyses showed high CD155, TIGIT ligand, and TIGIT expression in the tumor cell line and tumor-infiltrating T cells, respectively. TIGIT blockade or CD155-deletion activated T cells in a functional assay using an autologous cell line and paired TILs from this patient. CD155 expression increased in surviving tumor cells after coculturing with TILs from a responder, which suppressed TIGIT+ T-cell activation. Consistently, TIGIT blockade or CD155-deletion could aid in overcoming resistance to ICIs in vivo mouse models. In clinical samples, CD155 was related to resistance to ICIs in patients with melanoma with an inflamed TME, including both primary and acquired resistance.<br> <br> Conclusions<br> The TIGIT/CD155 axis mediates resistance to ICIs in patients with melanoma with an inflamed TME, promoting the development of TIGIT blockade therapies in such patients with cancer.

Journal

• Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

  Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 9 (11), e003134-, 2021-11

  BMJ

Keywords

• Cancer Research
• Pharmacology
• Oncology
• Molecular Medicine
• Immunology
• Immunology and Allergy

Details

• CRID: 1050571859110654592
• NII Article ID: 120007175403
• ISSN: 20511426
• DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2021-003134
• Web Site: https://ousar.lib.okayama-u.ac.jp/62992
• Web Site: https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1136/jitc-2021-003134
• Text Lang: en
• Article Type: journal article
• Data Source:
  • IRDB
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN