Targeting tumor-associated immune suppression with selective protein kinase A type I (PKAI) inhibitors may enhance cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

Despite the tremendous progress in last few years, the cancer immunotherapy has not yet improved disease-free because of the tumor-associated immune suppression being a major barrier. Novel trends to enhance cancer immunotherapy aims at harnessing the therapeutic manipulation of signaling pathways mediating the tumor-associated immune suppression, with the general aims of: (a) reversing the tumor immune suppression; (b) enhancing the innate and adaptive components of anti-tumor immunosurveillance, and (c) protecting immune cells from the suppressive effects of T regulatory cells (Tregs) and the tumor-derived immunoinhibitory mediators. A particular striking example in this context is the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase A type I (PKAI) pathway. Oncogenic cAMP/PKAI signaling has long been implicated in the initiation and progression of several human cancers. Emerging data indicate that cAMP/PKAI signaling also contributes to tumor- and Tregs-derived suppression of innate and adaptive arms of anti-tumor immunosurveillance. Therapeutically, selective PKAI inhibitors have been developed which have shown promising anti-cancer activity in pre-clinical and clinical settings. Rp-8-Br-cAMPS is a selective PKAI antagonist that is widely used as a biochemical tool in signal transduction research. Collateral data indicate that Rp-8-Br-cAMPS has shown immune-rescuing potential in terms of enhancing the innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity, as well as protecting adaptive T cells from the suppressive effects of Tregs. Therefore, this proposal specifically implicates that combining selective PKAI antagonists/inhibitors with cancer immunotherapy may have multifaceted benefits, such as rescuing the endogenous anti-tumor immunity, enhancing the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy, and direct anti-cancer effects.