LXR-inverse agonism stimulates immune-mediated tumor destruction by enhancing CD8 T-cell activity in triple negative breast cancer

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype that is untreatable with hormonal or HER2-targeted therapies and is also typically unresponsive to checkpoint-blockade immunotherapy. Within the tumor microenvironment dysregulated immune cell metabolism has emerged as a key mechanism of tumor immune-evasion. We have discovered that the Liver-X-Receptors (LXRα and LXRβ), nuclear receptors known to regulate lipid metabolism and tumor-immune interaction, are highly activated in TNBC tumor associated myeloid cells. We therefore theorized that inhibiting LXR would induce immune-mediated TNBC-tumor clearance. Here we show that pharmacological inhibition of LXR activity induces tumor destruction primarily through stimulation of CD8+ T-cell cytotoxic activity and mitochondrial metabolism. Our results imply that LXR inverse agonists may be a promising new class of TNBC immunotherapies.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Dec 20, 2019
Source ID
10.1038/s41598-019-56038-1

Entities

People

  • Arindam Chatterjee
  • Aurore-cecile Valfort
  • Colin A Flaveny
  • Jinsong Zhang
  • Katherine J. Carpenter
  • Laurie P. Shornick
  • Monideepa Sengupta
  • Nick Steinauer
  • Richard J. Di Paolo
  • Shabnam Majidi
  • Suomia Abuirqeba

Organizations

  • Office of Extramural Research
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Breast cancer cell signaling and growth regulation.
  • Oncology
  • Oncology (Cancer Research).

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech