Immunometabolic interference between cancer and COVID-19

Even though cancer patients are generally considered more susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, the mechanisms driving their predisposition to severe forms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not yet been deciphered. Since metabolic disorders are associated with homeostatic frailty, which increases the risk of infection and cancer, we asked whether we could identify immunometabolic pathways intersecting with cancer and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thanks to a combined flow cytometry and multiomics approach, here we show that the immunometabolic traits of COVID-19 cancer patients encompass alterations in the frequency and activation status of circulating myeloid and lymphoid subsets, and that these changes are associated with i) depletion of tryptophan and its related neuromediator tryptamine, ii) accumulation of immunosuppressive tryptophan metabolites (i.e., kynurenines), and iii) low nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) availability. This metabolic imbalance is accompanied by altered expression of inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), with a distinctive downregulation of IL-6 and upregulation of IFNγ mRNA expression levels. Altogether, our findings indicate that cancer not only attenuates the inflammatory state in COVID-19 patients but also contributes to weakening their precarious metabolic state by interfering with NAD+-dependent immune homeostasis.

Melanoma-specific bcl-2 promotes a protumoral M2-like phenotype by tumor-associated macrophages

Background

A bidirectional crosstalk between tumor cells and the surrounding microenvironment contributes to tumor progression and response to therapy. Our previous studies have demonstrated that bcl-2 affects melanoma progression and regulates the tumor microenvironment. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether bcl-2 expression in melanoma cells could influence tumor-promoting functions of tumor-associated macrophages, a major constituent of the tumor microenvironment that affects anticancer immunity favoring tumor progression.

Methods

THP-1 monocytic cells, monocyte-derived macrophages and melanoma cells expressing different levels of bcl-2 protein were used. ELISA, qRT-PCR and Western blot analyses were used to evaluate macrophage polarization markers and protein expression levels. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was performed to evaluate transcription factor recruitment at specific promoters. Boyden chamber was used for migration experiments. Cytofluorimetric and immunohistochemical analyses were carried out to evaluate infiltrating macrophages and T cells in melanoma specimens from patients or mice.

Results

Higher production of tumor-promoting and chemotactic factors, and M2-polarized activation was observed when macrophages were exposed to culture media from melanoma cells overexpressing bcl-2, while bcl-2 silencing in melanoma cells inhibited the M2 macrophage polarization. In agreement, the number of melanoma-infiltrating macrophages in vivo was increased, in parallel with a greater expression of bcl-2 in tumor cells. Tumor-derived interleukin-1β has been identified as the effector cytokine of bcl-2-dependent macrophage reprogramming, according to reduced tumor growth, decreased number of M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages and increased number of infiltrating CD4⁺IFNγ⁺ and CD8⁺IFNγ⁺ effector T lymphocytes, which we observed in response to in vivo treatment with the IL-1 receptor antagonist kineret. Finally, in tumor specimens from patients with melanoma, high bcl-2 expression correlated with increased infiltration of M2-polarized CD163⁺ macrophages, hence supporting the clinical relevance of the crosstalk between tumor cells and microenvironment.

Conclusions

Taken together, our results show that melanoma-specific bcl-2 controls an IL-1β-driven axis of macrophage diversion that establishes tumor microenvironmental conditions favoring melanoma development. Interfering with this pathway might provide novel therapeutic strategies.

Lipid Metabolism and Cancer Immunotherapy: Immunosuppressive Myeloid Cells at the Crossroad

Cancer progression generates a chronic inflammatory state that dramatically influences hematopoiesis, originating different subsets of immune cells that can exert pro- or anti-tumor roles. Commitment towards one of these opposing phenotypes is driven by inflammatory and metabolic stimuli derived from the tumor-microenvironment (TME). Current immunotherapy protocols are based on the reprogramming of both specific and innate immune responses, in order to boost the intrinsic anti-tumoral activity of both compartments. Growing pre-clinical and clinical evidence highlights the key role of metabolism as a major influence on both immune and clinical responses of cancer patients. Indeed, nutrient competition (i.e., amino acids, glucose, fatty acids) between proliferating cancer cells and immune cells, together with inflammatory mediators, drastically affect the functionality of innate and adaptive immune cells, as well as their functional cross-talk. This review discusses new advances on the complex interplay between cancer-related inflammation, myeloid cell differentiation and lipid metabolism, highlighting the therapeutic potential of metabolic interventions as modulators of anticancer immune responses and catalysts of anticancer immunotherapy.

Influence of Innate Immunity on Cancer Cell Stemness

Even if cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent only a small proportion of the tumor mass, they significantly account for tumor maintenance, resistance to therapies, relapse and metastatic spread, due to their increased capacity of self-renewal, multipotency, tumorigenicity and quiescence. Emerging evidence suggests that the immune contexture within the tumor microenvironment (TME) determines both the response to therapy and the clinical outcome. In this context, CSCs acquire immune evasion skills by editing immune cell functions and sculpting the immunosuppressive landscape of TME. Reciprocally, infiltrating immune cells influence CSCs self-renewal, tumorigenicity and metastasis. In this review, we summarize the immunomodulatory properties of CSCs, as well as the impact of innate immune cells on cancer cells stemness in the different phases of cancer immunoediting process and neoplastic progression.

Tumor-Derived Prostaglandin E2 Promotes p50 NF-κB-Dependent Differentiation of Monocytic MDSCs

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) include immature monocytic (M-MDSC) and granulocytic (PMN-MDSC) cells that share the ability to suppress adaptive immunity and to hinder the effectiveness of anticancer treatments. Of note, in response to IFNγ, M-MDSCs release the tumor-promoting and immunosuppressive molecule nitric oxide (NO), whereas macrophages largely express antitumor properties. Investigating these opposing activities, we found that tumor-derived prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) induces nuclear accumulation of p50 NF-κB in M-MDSCs, diverting their response to IFNγ toward NO-mediated immunosuppression and reducing TNFα expression. At the genome level, p50 NF-κB promoted binding of STAT1 to regulatory regions of selected IFNγ-dependent genes, including inducible nitric oxide synthase (Nos2). In agreement, ablation of p50 as well as pharmacologic inhibition of either the PGE2 receptor EP2 or NO production reprogrammed M-MDSCs toward a NOS2^low/TNFα^high phenotype, restoring the in vivo antitumor activity of IFNγ. Our results indicate that inhibition of the PGE2/p50/NO axis prevents MDSC-suppressive functions and restores the efficacy of anticancer immunotherapy. SIGNIFICANCE: Tumor-derived PGE2-mediated induction of nuclear p50 NF-κB epigenetically reprograms the response of monocytic cells to IFNγ toward an immunosuppressive phenotype, thus retrieving the anticancer properties of IFNγ. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/80/13/2874/F1.large.jpg.

SPARC Is a New Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Marker Licensing Suppressive Activities

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are well-known key negative regulators of the immune response during tumor growth, however scattered is the knowledge of their capacity to influence and adapt to the different tumor microenvironments and of the markers that identify those capacities. Here we show that the secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) identifies in both human and mouse MDSC with immune suppressive capacity and pro-tumoral activities including the induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis. In mice the genetic deletion of SPARC reduced MDSC immune suppression and reverted EMT. Sparc^−/− MDSC were less suppressive overall and the granulocytic fraction was more prone to extrude neutrophil extracellular traps (NET). Surprisingly, arginase-I and NOS2, whose expression can be controlled by STAT3, were not down-regulated in Sparc^−/− MDSC, although less suppressive than wild type (WT) counterpart. Flow cytometry analysis showed equal phosphorylation of STAT3 but reduced ROS production that was associated with reduced nuclear translocation of the NF-kB p50 subunit in Sparc^−/− than WT MDSC. The limited p50 in nuclei reduce the formation of the immunosuppressive p50:p50 homodimers in favor of the p65:p50 inflammatory heterodimers. Supporting this hypothesis, the production of TNF by Sparc^−/− MDSC was significantly higher than by WT MDSC. Although associated with tumor-induced chronic inflammation, TNF, if produced at high doses, becomes a key factor in mediating tumor rejection. Therefore, it is foreseeable that an unbalance in TNF production could skew MDSC toward an inflammatory, anti-tumor phenotype. Notably, TNF is also required for inflammation-driven NETosis. The high level of TNF in Sparc^−/− MDSC might explain their increased spontaneous NET formation as that we detected both in vitro and in vivo, in association with signs of endothelial damage. We propose SPARC as a new potential marker of MDSC, in both human and mouse, with the additional feature of controlling MDSC suppressive activity while preventing an excessive inflammatory state through the control of NF-kB signaling pathway.

Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells: Ductile Targets in Disease

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) represent a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells with major regulatory functions and rise during pathological conditions, including cancer, infections and autoimmune conditions. MDSC expansion is generally linked to inflammatory processes that emerge in response to stable immunological stress, which alter both magnitude and quality of the myelopoietic output. Inability to reinstate physiological myelopoiesis would fall in an “emergency state” that perpetually reprograms myeloid cells toward suppressive functions. While differentiation and reprogramming of myeloid cells toward an immunosuppressive phenotype can be considered the result of a multistep process that originates in the bone marrow and culminates in the tumor microenvironment, the identification of its driving events may offer potential therapeutic approaches in different pathologies. Indeed, whereas expansion of MDSCs, in both murine and human tumor bearers, results in reduced immune surveillance and antitumor cytotoxicity, placing an obstacle to the effectiveness of anticancer therapies, adoptive transfer of MDSCs has shown therapeutic benefits in autoimmune disorders. Here, we describe relevant mechanisms of myeloid cell reprogramming leading to generation of suppressive MDSCs and discuss their therapeutic ductility in disease.

Metabolic influence on the differentiation of suppressive myeloid cells in cancer

New evidences indicate that the metabolic instruction of immunity (immune metabolism) results from the integration of cell metabolism and whole-body metabolism, which are both influenced by nutrition, microbiome metabolites and disease-driven metabolism (e.g. cancer metabolism). Cancer metabolism influences the immunological homeostasis and promotes immune alterations that support disease progression, hence influencing the clinical outcome. Cancer cells display increased glucose uptake and fermentation of glucose to lactate, even in the presence of completely functioning mitochondria. A major side effect of this event is immunosuppression, characterized by limited immunogenicity of cancer cells and restriction of the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer immunotherapy. Here, we discuss how the metabolism of myeloid cells associated with cancer contributes to the differentiation of their suppressive phenotype and therefore to cancer immune evasion.

Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase Acts as a Metabolic Gate for Mobilization of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells

Cancer induces alteration of hematopoiesis to fuel disease progression. We report that in tumor-bearing mice the macrophage colony-stimulating factor elevates the myeloid cell levels of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), the rate-limiting enzyme in the NAD salvage pathway, which acts as negative regulator of the CXCR4 retention axis of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. NAMPT inhibits CXCR4 through a NAD/Sirtuin 1-mediated inactivation of HIF1α-driven CXCR4 gene transcription, leading to mobilization of immature myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and enhancing their production of suppressive nitric oxide. Pharmacologic inhibition or myeloid-specific ablation of NAMPT prevented MDSC mobilization, reactivated specific antitumor immunity, and enhanced the antitumor activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Our findings identify NAMPT as a metabolic gate of MDSC precursor function, providing new opportunities to reverse tumor immunosuppression and to restore clinical efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with cancer. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings identify NAMPT as a metabolic gate of MDSC precursor function, providing new opportunities to reverse tumor immunosuppression and to restore clinical efficacy of immunotherapy in cancer patients.

Protumor Steering of Cancer Inflammation by p50 NF-κB Enhances Colorectal Cancer Progression

Although tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) display a M2-skewed tumor-promoting phenotype in most cancers, in colorectal cancer, both TAM polarization and its impact remain controversial. We investigated the role of the M2-polarizing p50 NF-κB subunit in orchestrating TAM phenotype, tumor microenvironment composition, and colorectal cancer progression. We first demonstrated, by parallel studies in colitis-associated cancer (CAC) and in genetically driven Apc^Min mouse models, that the p50-dependent inhibition of M1-polarized gut inflammation supported colorectal cancer development. In accordance with these studies, p50^-/- mice displayed exacerbated CAC with fewer and smaller tumors, along with enhanced levels of M1/Th1 cytokines/chemokines, including IL12 and CXCL10, whose administration restrained CAC development in vivo The inflammatory profile supporting tumor resistance in colons from p50^-/- tumor bearers correlated inversely with TAM load and positively with both recruitment of NK, NKT, CD8⁺ T cells and number of apoptotic tumor cells. In agreement, myeloid-specific ablation of p50 promoted tumor resistance in mice, whereas in colorectal cancer patients, a high number of p50⁺ TAMs at the invasive margin was associated with decreased IL12A and TBX21 expression and worse postsurgical outcome. Our findings point to p50 involvement in colorectal cancer development, through its engagement in the protumor activation of macrophages, and identify a candidate for prognostic and target therapeutic intervention. Cancer Immunol Res; 6(5); 578-93. ©2018 AACR.

VEGF blockade enhances the antitumor effect of BRAFV600E inhibition

The development of resistance remains a major obstacle to long‐term disease control in cancer patients treated with targeted therapies. In BRAF‐mutant mouse models, we demonstrate that although targeted inhibition of either BRAF or VEGF initially suppresses the growth of BRAF‐mutant tumors, combined inhibition of both pathways results in apoptosis, long‐lasting tumor responses, reduction in lung colonization, and delayed onset of acquired resistance to the BRAF inhibitor PLX4720. As well as inducing tumor vascular normalization and ameliorating hypoxia, this approach induces remodeling of the extracellular matrix, infiltration of macrophages with an M1‐like phenotype, and reduction in cancer‐associated fibroblasts. At the molecular level, this therapeutic regimen results in a de novo transcriptional signature, which sustains and explains the observed efficacy with regard to cancer progression. Collectively, our findings offer new biological rationales for the management of clinical resistance to BRAF inhibitors based on the combination between BRAF^V600E inhibitors with anti‐angiogenic regimens.

RORC1 Regulates Tumor-Promoting "Emergency" Granulo-Monocytopoiesis

Cancer-driven granulo-monocytopoiesis stimulates expansion of tumor promoting myeloid populations, mostly myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). We identified subsets of MDSCs and TAMs based on the expression of retinoic-acid-related orphan receptor (RORC1/RORγ) in human and mouse tumor bearers. RORC1 orchestrates myelopoiesis by suppressing negative (Socs3 and Bcl3) and promoting positive (C/EBPβ) regulators of granulopoiesis, as well as the key transcriptional mediators of myeloid progenitor commitment and differentiation to the monocytic/macrophage lineage (IRF8 and PU.1). RORC1 supported tumor-promoting innate immunity by protecting MDSCs from apoptosis, mediating TAM differentiation and M2 polarization, and limiting tumor infiltration by mature neutrophils. Accordingly, ablation of RORC1 in the hematopoietic compartment prevented cancer-driven myelopoiesis, resulting in inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis.