ISG15 targets glycosylated PD-L1 and promotes its degradation to enhance antitumor immune effects in lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Immunocheckpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been widely used in the clinical treatment of lung cancer. Although clinical studies and trials have shown that patients can benefit significantly after PD-1/PD-L1 blocking therapy, less than 20% of patients can benefit from ICIs therapy due to tumor heterogeneity and the complexity of immune microenvironment. Several recent studies have explored the immunosuppression of PD-L1 expression and activity by post-translational regulation. Our published articles demonstrate that ISG15 inhibits lung adenocarcinoma progression. Whether ISG15 can enhance the efficacy of ICIs by modulating PD-L1 remains unknown. METHODS: The relationship between ISG15 and lymphocyte infiltration was identified by IHC. The effects of ISG15 on tumor cells and T lymphocytes were assessed using RT-qPCR and Western Blot and in vivo experiments. The underlying mechanism of PD-L1 post-translational modification by ISG15 was revealed by Western blot, RT-qPCR, flow cytometry, and Co-IP. Finally, we performed validation in C57 mice as well as in lung adenocarcinoma tissues. RESULTS: ISG15 promotes the infiltration of CD4(+) T lymphocytes. In vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that ISG15 induces CD4(+) T cell proliferation and invalidity and immune responses against tumors. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that the ubiquitination-like modifying effect of ISG15 on PD-L1 increased the modification of K48-linked ubiquitin chains thus increasing the degradation rate of glycosylated PD-L1 targeting proteasomal pathway. The expression of ISG15 and PD-L1 was negatively correlated in NSCLC tissues. In addition, reduced accumulation of PD-L1 by ISG15 in mice also increased splenic lymphocyte infiltration as well as promoted cytotoxic T cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment, thereby enhancing anti-tumor immunity. CONCLUSIONS: The ubiquitination modification of PD-L1 by ISG15 increases K48-linked ubiquitin chain modification, thereby increasing the degradation rate of glycosylated PD-L1-targeted proteasome pathway. More importantly, ISG15 enhanced the sensitivity to immunosuppressive therapy. Our study shows that ISG15, as a post-translational modifier of PD-L1, reduces the stability of PD-L1 and may be a potential therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-023-04135-1.