NKAP alters tumor immune microenvironment and promotes glioma growth via Notch1 signaling

BACKGROUND: Glioma is one of the most aggressive malignant brain tumors which is characterized with highly infiltrative growth and poor prognosis. NKAP (NF-κB activating protein) is a widely expressed 415-amino acid nuclear protein that is overexpressed by gliomas, but its function in glioma was still unknown. METHODS: CCK8 and EDU assay was used to examine the cell viability in vitro, and the xenograft models in nude mice were established to explore the roles of NAKP in vivo. The expressions of NKAP, Notch1 and SDF-1 were analyzed by immunofluorescence analysis. The expression of NKAP and Notch1 in glioma and normal human brain samples were analyzed by immunohistochemical analysis. In addition, CHIP, Gene chip, western blot, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, ELISA and luciferase assay were used to investigate the internal connection between NKAP and Notch1. RESULTS: Here we showed that overexpression of NKAP in gliomas could promote tumor growth by contributing to a Notch1-dependent immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment. Downregulation of NKAP in gliomas had abrogated tumor growth and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, compared to the control group, inhibiting NKAP set up obstacles to tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) polarization and recruitment by decreasing the secretion of SDF-1 and M-CSF. To identify the potential mechanisms involved, we performed RNA sequencing analysis and found that Notch1 appeared to positively correlate with the expression of NKAP. Furthermore, we proved that NKAP performed its function via directly binding to Notch1 promoter and trans-activating it. Notch1 inhibition could alleviate NKAP’s gliomagenesis effects. CONCLUSION: these observations suggest that NKAP promotes glioma growth by TAM chemoattraction through upregulation of Notch1 and this finding introduces the potential utility of NKAP inhibitors for glioma therapy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-019-1281-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.