Drug-induced PD-L1 expression and cell stress response in breast cancer cells can be balanced by drug combination
Abstract
The impact of chemotherapy on tumor-immune system interaction can be either beneficial or harmful, which is represented by the immunogenic cell death (ICD) paradigm or overexpression of the immunosuppressive protein – programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). In this study we explore the impact of steroid receptor coactivator inhibitor, other targeted anti-cancer compounds and traditional chemotherapeutic agents on the expression of PD-L1 in four breast cancer (BC) cell lines. Our results show that these agents induce PD-L1 expression, yet the magnitude of this induction varies substantially across the different compounds. In addition, we utilized the E0771 ER + BC cells as a model to examine in greater detail the relationship between pharmacological pressure, cell stress and the induction of PD-L1. Our results imply that drug induced PD-L1 expression occurs in the broader context of cell-stress, without conferring acquired drug-resistance. Furthermore, a balance between BC cytotoxicity, induction of cell-stress and the overexpression of PD-L1 can be achieved through the selection of appropriate combinations of anti-cancer compounds. Therefore, we propose that drug combination can be employed not only for increasing the direct kill of cancer cells, but also as a strategy to minimize the activation of immunosuppressive and cancer cell pro-survival program responses during drug treatment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 22, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41598-019-51537-7
Entities
People
- Bert W. O’malley
- David M. Lonard
- Sang Jun Han
- Yang Yu
- Yosi Gilad
- Yossi Eliaz
Organizations
- Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
- United States Department of Defense