Oncogenic epidermal growth factor receptor signal-induced histone deacetylation suppresses chemokine gene expression in human lung adenocarcinoma

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated (mt) lung adenocarcinoma (LA) is refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, the mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. CD8(+) T cell infiltration was significantly lower in EGFR-mt than in EGFR-wild-type LA, which was associated with suppression of chemokine expression. Since this T cell-deserted tumor microenvironment may lead to the refractoriness of ICIs against EGFR-mt LA, we investigated the mechanism by focusing on the regulation of chemokine expression. The expression of C-X-C motif ligand (CXCL) 9, 10 and 11, which constitute a gene cluster on chromosome 4, was suppressed under EGFR signaling. The assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) revealed open chromatin peaks near this gene cluster following EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment. The histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor recovered the expression of CXCL9, 10 and 11 in EGFR-mt LA. Nuclear HDAC activity, as well as histone H3 deacetylation, were dependent on oncogenic EGFR signaling. Furthermore, the Cleavage Under Targets and Tagmentation (CUT & Tag) assay revealed a histone H3K27 acetylation peak at 15 kb upstream of CXCL11 after treatment with EGFR-TKI, which corresponded to one of the open chromatin peaks detected by ATAC-seq. The data suggest that EGFR-HDAC axis mediates silencing of the chemokine gene cluster through chromatin conformational change, which might be relevant to the ICI resistance by creating T cell-deserted tumor microenvironment. Targeting this axis may develop a new therapeutic strategy to overcome the ICI resistance of EGFR-mt LA.