Dendritic cell Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the differentiation of TH1 and Treg cells in cancer
- Beijing Normal University, China
- Fudan University, China
- Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, China
Abstract
Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in anti-tumor immunity by inducing T cell differentiation. Herein, we found that the DC mechanical sensor Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the reciprocal differentiation of TH1 and regulatory T (Treg) cells in cancer. Genetic deletion of Piezo1 in DCs inhibited the generation of TH1 cells while driving the development of Treg cells in promoting cancer growth in mice. Mechanistically, Piezo1-deficient DCs regulated the secretion of the polarizing cytokines TGFβ1 and IL-12, leading to increased TGFβR2-p-Smad3 activity and decreased IL-12Rβ2-p-STAT4 activity while inducing the reciprocal differentiation of Treg and TH1 cells. In addition, Piezo1 integrated the SIRT1-hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1α)-dependent metabolic pathway and calcium-calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway to orchestrate reciprocal TH1 and Treg lineage commitment through DC-derived IL-12 and TGFβ1. Our studies provide critical insight for understanding the role of the DC-based mechanical regulation of immunopathology in directing T cell lineage commitment in tumor microenvironments.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files; Source Data files have provided for Fig.1.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation for Key Programm of China (31730024)
- Guangwei Liu
National Natural Science Foundation for General Program of China (32170911)
- Guangwei Liu
Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation of China (5202013)
- Guangwei Liu
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Fudan University, Shanghai, China, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and Beijing Normal University (IACUC-DWZX-2017-003 and CLS-EAW-2017-002)
Human subjects: Normal human DCs (CC-2701; Lonza) and human cord blood CD4+ T cells (2C-200; Lonza) were obtained from Lonza Company. All human subject experiments were performed with the approval of the Ethics Committee of of Fudan University, China and Beijing Normal University, China.
Copyright
© 2022, Wang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dendritic cell Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the differentiation of TH1 and Treg cells in cancer
eLife 11:e79957.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79957
Further reading
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- Cancer Biology
Background:
Cervical adenocarcinoma (ADC) is more aggressive compared to other types of cervical cancer (CC), such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and tumor heterogeneity are recognized as pivotal factors in cancer progression and therapy. However, the disparities in TIME and heterogeneity between ADC and SCC are poorly understood.
Methods:
We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on 11 samples of ADC tumor tissues, with other 4 SCC samples served as controls. The immunochemistry and multiplexed immunofluorescence were conducted to validate our findings.
Results:
Compared to SCC, ADC exhibited unique enrichments in several sub-clusters of epithelial cells with elevated stemness and hyper-malignant features, including the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster. ADC displayed a highly immunosuppressive environment characterized by the enrichment of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and tumor-promoting neutrophils. The Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster recruits Tregs via ALCAM-CD6 signaling, while Tregs reciprocally induce stemness in the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster through TGFβ signaling. Importantly, our study revealed that the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster could serve as a valuable predictor of lymph node metastasis for CC patients.
Conclusions:
This study highlights the significance of ADC-specific cell clusters in establishing a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment, ultimately contributing to the heightened aggressiveness and poorer prognosis of ADC compared to SCC.
Funding:
Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82002753; 82072882; 81500475) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ40324; 2022JJ70103).
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- Cancer Biology
- Immunology and Inflammation
In this study, we present a proof-of-concept classical vaccination experiment that validates the in silico identification of tumor neoantigens (TNAs) using a machine learning-based platform called NAP-CNB. Unlike other TNA predictors, NAP-CNB leverages RNA-seq data to consider the relative expression of neoantigens in tumors. Our experiments show the efficacy of NAP-CNB. Predicted TNAs elicited potent antitumor responses in mice following classical vaccination protocols. Notably, optimal antitumor activity was observed when targeting the antigen with higher expression in the tumor, which was not the most immunogenic. Additionally, the vaccination combining different neoantigens resulted in vastly improved responses compared to each one individually, showing the worth of multiantigen-based approaches. These findings validate NAP-CNB as an innovative TNA identification platform and make a substantial contribution to advancing the next generation of personalized immunotherapies.
