Targeting STAT3-VISTA axis to suppress tumor aggression and burden in acute myeloid leukemia

The acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients obtain limited benefits from current immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs), although immunotherapy have achieved encouraging success in numerous cancers. Here, we found that V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA), a novel immune checkpoint, is highly expressed in primary AML cells and associated with poor prognosis of AML patients. Targeting VISTA by anti-VISTA mAb boosts T cell-mediated cytotoxicity to AML cells. Interestingly, high expression of VISTA is positively associated with hyperactive STAT3 in AML. Further evidence showed that STAT3 functions as a transcriptional regulator to modulate VISTA expression by directly binding to DNA response element of VISTA gene. We further develop a potent and selective STAT3 inhibitor W1046, which significantly suppresses AML proliferation and survival. W1046 remarkably enhances the efficacy of VISTA mAb by activating T cells via inhibition of STAT3 signaling and down-regulation of VISTA. Moreover, combination of W1046 and VISTA mAb achieves a significant anti-AML effect in vitro and in vivo. Overall, our findings confirm that VISTA is a potential target for AML therapy which transcriptionally regulated by STAT3 and provide a promising therapeutic strategy for immunotherapy of AML. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13045-023-01410-y.