Inhibition of tumor intrinsic BANF1 activates antitumor immune responses via cGAS-STING and enhances the efficacy of PD-1 blockade

Bibliographic Details
Title: Inhibition of tumor intrinsic BANF1 activates antitumor immune responses via cGAS-STING and enhances the efficacy of PD-1 blockade
Authors: Fei Wang, Yang Li, Jinming Yu, Dawei Chen, Fei Wu, Meng Wu, Minglei Wang, Yiheng Huang, Minxin Chen, Weiyan Wang, Tao Zhong, Xiaozheng Chen
Source: Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, Vol 11, Iss 8 (2023)
Publisher Information: BMJ Publishing Group, 2023.
Publication Year: 2023
Collection: LCC:Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens
Subject Terms: Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens, RC254-282
More Details: Background BANF1 is well known as a natural opponent of cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) activity on genomic self-DNA. However, the roles of BANF1 in tumor immunity remain unclear. Here, we investigate the possible impact of BANF1 on antitumor immunity and response to immunotherapy.Methods The Cancer Genome Atlas public data were analyzed to evaluate the relevance of the expression of BANF1, patients’ survival and immune cell infiltration. We monitored tumor growth and explored the antitumor efficacy of targeting tumor-intrinsic BANF1 in combination with anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) in MC38 or B16F10 tumor models in both immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice. Flow cytometry, immunofluorescence and T cells depletion experiments were used to validate the role of BANF1 in tumor immune microenvironment reprogramming. RNA sequencing was then used to interrogate the mechanisms how BANF1 regulated antitumor immunity.Results We show that upregulated expression of BANF1 in tumor tissues is significantly associated with poor survival and is negatively correlated with immune cell infiltration. Deficiency of BANF1 in tumor cells markedly antagonizes tumor growth in immunocompetent but not immunocompromised mice, and enhances the response to immunotherapy in murine models of melanoma and colon cancer. In the immunotherapy clinical cohort, patients with high BANF1 expression had a worse prognosis. Mechanistically, BANF1 knockout activates antitumor immune responses mediated by cGAS-synthase-stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) pathway, resulting in an immune-activating tumor microenvironment including increased CD8+ T cell infiltration and decreased myeloid-derived suppressor cell enrichment.Conclusions BANF1 is a key regulator of antitumor immunity mediated by cGAS-STING pathway. Therefore, our study provides a rational that targeting BANF1 is a potent strategy for enhancing immunotherapy for cancer with BANF1 upregulation.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2051-1426
Relation: https://jitc.bmj.com/content/11/8/e007035.full; https://doaj.org/toc/2051-1426
DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-007035
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/cd515017455642a28a603fce88caff4a
Accession Number: edsdoj.515017455642a28a603fce88caff4a
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:20511426
DOI:10.1136/jitc-2023-007035
Published in:Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
Language:English