Blocking the recruitment of naive CD4+ T cells reverses immunosuppression in breast cancer

Cell Res. 2017 Apr;27(4):461-482. doi: 10.1038/cr.2017.34. Epub 2017 Mar 14.

Abstract

The origin of tumor-infiltrating Tregs, critical mediators of tumor immunosuppression, is unclear. Here, we show that tumor-infiltrating naive CD4+ T cells and Tregs in human breast cancer have overlapping TCR repertoires, while hardly overlap with circulating Tregs, suggesting that intratumoral Tregs mainly develop from naive T cells in situ rather than from recruited Tregs. Furthermore, the abundance of naive CD4+ T cells and Tregs is closely correlated, both indicating poor prognosis for breast cancer patients. Naive CD4+ T cells adhere to tumor slices in proportion to the abundance of CCL18-producing macrophages. Moreover, adoptively transferred human naive CD4+ T cells infiltrate human breast cancer orthotopic xenografts in a CCL18-dependent manner. In human breast cancer xenografts in humanized mice, blocking the recruitment of naive CD4+ T cells into tumor by knocking down the expression of PITPNM3, a CCL18 receptor, significantly reduces intratumoral Tregs and inhibits tumor progression. These findings suggest that breast tumor-infiltrating Tregs arise from chemotaxis of circulating naive CD4+ T cells that differentiate into Tregs in situ. Inhibiting naive CD4+ T cell recruitment into tumors by interfering with PITPNM3 recognition of CCL18 may be an attractive strategy for anticancer immunotherapy.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • Breast Neoplasms / blood
  • Breast Neoplasms / immunology*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • CD4 Antigens / metabolism
  • CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • Calcium-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Chemokines, CC / metabolism
  • Chemotaxis
  • Clone Cells
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Humans
  • Immunosuppression Therapy*
  • Lymphocyte Count
  • Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / immunology
  • Macrophages / metabolism
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism
  • Mice, SCID
  • Prognosis
  • RNA, Small Interfering / metabolism
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
  • T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / immunology
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • CCL18 protein, human
  • CD4 Antigens
  • Calcium-Binding Proteins
  • Chemokines, CC
  • Membrane Proteins
  • PITPNM3 protein, human
  • RNA, Small Interfering
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell