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IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction

NK cells have potent antitumor capacity. They are enriched in the human liver, with a large subset specialized for tissue-residence. The potential for liver-resident versus liver-infiltrating NK cells to populate, and exert antitumor functions in, human liver tumors has not been studied. We examined...

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Autores principales: Easom, Nicholas J. W., Stegmann, Kerstin A., Swadling, Leo, Pallett, Laura J., Burton, Alice R., Odera, Dennis, Schmidt, Nathalie, Huang, Wei-Chen, Fusai, Giuseppe, Davidson, Brian, Maini, Mala K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29867983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01009
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author Easom, Nicholas J. W.
Stegmann, Kerstin A.
Swadling, Leo
Pallett, Laura J.
Burton, Alice R.
Odera, Dennis
Schmidt, Nathalie
Huang, Wei-Chen
Fusai, Giuseppe
Davidson, Brian
Maini, Mala K.
author_facet Easom, Nicholas J. W.
Stegmann, Kerstin A.
Swadling, Leo
Pallett, Laura J.
Burton, Alice R.
Odera, Dennis
Schmidt, Nathalie
Huang, Wei-Chen
Fusai, Giuseppe
Davidson, Brian
Maini, Mala K.
author_sort Easom, Nicholas J. W.
collection PubMed
description NK cells have potent antitumor capacity. They are enriched in the human liver, with a large subset specialized for tissue-residence. The potential for liver-resident versus liver-infiltrating NK cells to populate, and exert antitumor functions in, human liver tumors has not been studied. We examined liver-resident and liver-infiltrating NK cells directly ex vivo from human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and liver colorectal (CRC) metastases, compared with matched uninvolved liver tissue. We found that NK cells were highly prevalent in both HCC and liver CRC metastases, although at lower frequencies than unaffected liver. Up to 79% of intratumoral NK cells had the CXCR6(+)CD69(+) liver-resident phenotype. Direct ex vivo staining showed that liver-resident NK cells had increased NKG2D expression compared to their non-resident counterparts, but both subsets had NKG2D downregulation within liver tumors compared to uninvolved liver. Proliferation of intratumoral NK cells (identified by Ki67) was selectively impaired in those with the most marked NKG2D downregulation. Human liver tumor NK cells were functionally impaired, with reduced capacity for cytotoxicity and production of cytokines, even when compared to the hypo-functional tissue-resident NK cells in unaffected liver. Coculture of human liver NK cells with the human hepatoma cell line PLC/PRF/5, or with autologous HCC, recapitulated the defects observed in NK cells extracted from tumors, with downmodulation of NKG2D, cytokine production, and target cell cytotoxicity. Transwells and conditioned media confirmed a requirement for cell contact with PLC/PRF/5 to impose NK cell inhibition. IL-15 was able to recover antitumor functionality in NK cells inhibited by in vitro exposure to HCC cell lines or extracted directly from HCC. In summary, our data suggest that the impaired antitumor function of local NK cells reflects a combination of the tolerogenic features inherent to liver-resident NK cells together with additional contact-dependent inhibition imposed by HCC itself. The demonstration that IL-15 can recover hepatic NK cell function following tumor exposure supports its inclusion in immunotherapy strategies.
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spelling pubmed-59540382018-06-04 IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction Easom, Nicholas J. W. Stegmann, Kerstin A. Swadling, Leo Pallett, Laura J. Burton, Alice R. Odera, Dennis Schmidt, Nathalie Huang, Wei-Chen Fusai, Giuseppe Davidson, Brian Maini, Mala K. Front Immunol Immunology NK cells have potent antitumor capacity. They are enriched in the human liver, with a large subset specialized for tissue-residence. The potential for liver-resident versus liver-infiltrating NK cells to populate, and exert antitumor functions in, human liver tumors has not been studied. We examined liver-resident and liver-infiltrating NK cells directly ex vivo from human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and liver colorectal (CRC) metastases, compared with matched uninvolved liver tissue. We found that NK cells were highly prevalent in both HCC and liver CRC metastases, although at lower frequencies than unaffected liver. Up to 79% of intratumoral NK cells had the CXCR6(+)CD69(+) liver-resident phenotype. Direct ex vivo staining showed that liver-resident NK cells had increased NKG2D expression compared to their non-resident counterparts, but both subsets had NKG2D downregulation within liver tumors compared to uninvolved liver. Proliferation of intratumoral NK cells (identified by Ki67) was selectively impaired in those with the most marked NKG2D downregulation. Human liver tumor NK cells were functionally impaired, with reduced capacity for cytotoxicity and production of cytokines, even when compared to the hypo-functional tissue-resident NK cells in unaffected liver. Coculture of human liver NK cells with the human hepatoma cell line PLC/PRF/5, or with autologous HCC, recapitulated the defects observed in NK cells extracted from tumors, with downmodulation of NKG2D, cytokine production, and target cell cytotoxicity. Transwells and conditioned media confirmed a requirement for cell contact with PLC/PRF/5 to impose NK cell inhibition. IL-15 was able to recover antitumor functionality in NK cells inhibited by in vitro exposure to HCC cell lines or extracted directly from HCC. In summary, our data suggest that the impaired antitumor function of local NK cells reflects a combination of the tolerogenic features inherent to liver-resident NK cells together with additional contact-dependent inhibition imposed by HCC itself. The demonstration that IL-15 can recover hepatic NK cell function following tumor exposure supports its inclusion in immunotherapy strategies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5954038/ /pubmed/29867983 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01009 Text en Copyright © 2018 Easom, Stegmann, Swadling, Pallett, Burton, Odera, Schmidt, Huang, Fusai, Davidson and Maini. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Immunology
Easom, Nicholas J. W.
Stegmann, Kerstin A.
Swadling, Leo
Pallett, Laura J.
Burton, Alice R.
Odera, Dennis
Schmidt, Nathalie
Huang, Wei-Chen
Fusai, Giuseppe
Davidson, Brian
Maini, Mala K.
IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title_full IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title_fullStr IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title_full_unstemmed IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title_short IL-15 Overcomes Hepatocellular Carcinoma-Induced NK Cell Dysfunction
title_sort il-15 overcomes hepatocellular carcinoma-induced nk cell dysfunction
topic Immunology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29867983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01009
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