Combined treatment with HMGN1 and anti-CD4 depleting antibody reverses T cell exhaustion and exerts robust anti-tumor effects in mice

BACKGROUND: Transient depletion of CD4(+) T cells results in tumor suppression and survival benefit in murine models; however, the tumor progression and recurrence still occur over more long-term monitoring of mice. Thus, we explored an additional strategy to enhance endogenous immune responses by an alarmin, high mobility group nucleosome binding protein 1 (HMGN1). METHODS: The anti-tumor effects of HMGN1, anti-CD4 depleting antibody, and their combined treatment were monitored in the Colon26 or the B16F10 subcutaneous murine models. The tumor-infiltrating CD8(+) T cell proliferation, differentiation, exhaustion, and its gene expression were determined by flow cytometry, transcriptome analysis, and quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: Our results show that a systemic administration of low doses of HMGN1 with an anti-CD4 depleting antibody (HMGN1/αCD4) promoted expansion of CD8(+) T cell populations (e.g. CD137(+) PD-1(+) and CD44(hi) PD-1(+)), recruited CCR7(+) migratory dendritic cells to the tumor, and reduced co-inhibitory molecules (e.g. PD-1, LAG-3, and TIM-3) to counteract CD8(+) T cell exhaustion. CONCLUSION: The HMGN1/αCD4 treatment expanded effector CD8(+) T cells and prolonged their anti-tumor activities by rescuing them from exhaustion, thus resulting in tumor regression and even rejection in long-term monitored mice. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-019-0503-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.