MYC oncogene is associated with suppression of tumor immunity and targeting Myc induces tumor cell immunogenicity for therapeutic whole cell vaccination
Author
Wu, XiaofangNelson, Marie
Basu, Mousumi
Srinivasan, Priya
Lazarski, Christopher
Zhang, Peng
Zheng, Pan
Sandler, Anthony David
Date
2021-03-23Journal
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of CancerPublisher
BMJ Publishing GroupType
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background MYC oncogene is deregulated in 70% of all human cancers and is associated with multiple oncogenic functions including immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. The role of MYC in the immune microenvironment of neuroblastoma and melanoma is investigated and the effect of targeting Myc on immunogenicity of cancer cells is evaluated. Methods Immune cell infiltrates and immunogenic pathway signatures in the context of MYCN amplification were analyzed in human neuroblastoma tumors and in metastatic melanoma. Dose response and cell susceptibility to MYC inhibitors (I-BET726 and JQ1) were determined in mouse cell lines. The influence of downregulating Myc in tumor cells was characterized by immunogenic pathway signatures and functional assays. Myc-suppressed tumor cells were used as whole cell vaccines in preclinical neuroblastoma and melanoma models. Results Analysis of immune phenotype in human neuroblastoma and melanoma tumors revealed that MYCN or c-MYC amplified tumors respectively are associated with suppressed immune cell infiltrates and functional pathways. Targeting Myc in cancer cells with I-BET726 and JQ1 results in cell cycle arrest and induces cell immunogenicity. Combining vaccination of Myc-inhibited tumor cells with checkpoint inhibition induced robust antitumor immunity and resulted in therapeutic cancer vaccine therapy in mouse neuroblastoma tumors. Despite vigorous antitumor immunity in the mouse melanoma model, upregulation of immunosuppressive pathways enabled tumor escape. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the Myc oncogene is an appropriate target for inducing tumor cell immunogenicity and suggests that Myc-suppressed whole tumor cells combined with checkpoint therapy could be used for formulating a personalized therapeutic tumor vaccine.Sponsors
This work has been supported in part by the EVAN Foundation, the Catherine Blair foundation, and the Michael Sandler Research Fund as well as the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.Rights/Terms
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Identifier to cite or link to this item
http://hdl.handle.net/10713/15077ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1136/jitc-2020-001388