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Immunotherapy treatments with anti-PD-1 boost recovery in less than 30% of treated cancer patients, indicating the complexity of the tumor microenvironment. Expression of HLA-E is linked to poor clinical outcomes in mice and human patients. However, the contributions to immune evasion of HLA-E, a ligand for the inhibitory CD94/NKG2A receptor, when expressed on tumors, compared with adjacent tissue and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, remains unclear. In this study, we report that epithelial-derived cancer cells, tumor macrophages, and CD141+ conventional dendritic cells (cDC) contributed to HLA-E enrichment in carcinomas. Different cancer types showed a similar pattern of enrichment. Enrichment correlated to NKG2A upregulation on CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TIL) but not on CD4+ TILs. CD94/NKG2A is exclusively expressed on PD-1high TILs while lacking intratumoral CD103 expression. We also found that the presence of CD94/NKG2A on human tumor-specific T cells impairs IL2 receptor-dependent proliferation, which affects IFNγ-mediated responses and antitumor cytotoxicity. These functionalities recover following antibody-mediated blockade in vitro and ex vivo Our results suggest that enriched HLA-E:CD94/NKG2A inhibitory interaction can impair survival of PD-1high TILs in the tumor microenvironment.

Original publication

DOI

10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-18-0885

Type

Journal article

Journal

Cancer Immunol Res

Publication Date

08/2019

Volume

7

Pages

1293 - 1306

Keywords

Antigens, CD, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cell Line, Tumor, Cytokines, Flow Cytometry, Gene Expression, Histocompatibility Antigens Class I, Humans, Integrin alpha Chains, Ligands, Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating, NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily C, NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D, Tumor Microenvironment