Pharmacological suppression of the OTUD4/CD73 proteolytic axis revives antitumor immunity against immune-suppressive breast cancers

• Published in: The Journal of clinical investigation Vol. 134; no. 10
• Main Authors: Zhu, Yueming, Banerjee, Anupam, Xie, Ping, Ivanov, Andrey A, Uddin, Amad, Jiao, Qiao, Chi, Junlong Jack, Zeng, Lidan, Lee, Ji Young, Xue, Yifan, Lu, Xinghua, Cristofanilli, Massimo, Gradishar, William J, Henry, Curtis J, Gillespie, Theresa W, Bhave, Manali Ajay, Kalinsky, Kevin, Fu, Haian, Bahar, Ivet, Zhang, Bin, Wan, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Clinical Investigation 15.05.2024
• Subjects: 5'-Nucleotidase - antagonists & inhibitors; 5'-Nucleotidase - genetics; 5'-Nucleotidase - immunology; Amino acids; Analysis; Animals; B cells; Breast cancer; Cancer; Care and treatment; Cell Line, Tumor; Female; GPI-Linked Proteins - antagonists & inhibitors; GPI-Linked Proteins - genetics; GPI-Linked Proteins - immunology; GPI-Linked Proteins - metabolism; Health aspects; Humans; Immune response; Immunosuppression; Immunotherapy; Mice; Neoplasm Proteins - antagonists & inhibitors; Neoplasm Proteins - genetics; Neoplasm Proteins - immunology; Neoplasm Proteins - metabolism; Proteolysis; T cells; Transforming growth factors; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms - immunology; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Ubiquitin; Ubiquitination; United States; New York; Illinois; Oncology; Cancer immunotherapy; Therapeutics; Drug screens
• ISSN: 1558-8238; 0021-9738; 1558-8238
• DOI: 10.1172/JCI176390

Despite widespread utilization of immunotherapy, treating immune-cold tumors remains a challenge. Multiomic analyses and experimental validation identified the OTUD4/CD73 proteolytic axis as a promising target in treating immune-suppressive triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Mechanistically, deubiquitylation of CD73 by OTUD4 counteracted its ubiquitylation by TRIM21, resulting in CD73 stabilization inhibiting tumor immune responses. We further demonstrated the importance of TGF-β signaling for orchestrating the OTUD4/CD73 proteolytic axis within tumor cells. Spatial transcriptomics profiling discovered spatially resolved features of interacting malignant and immune cells pertaining to expression levels of OTUD4 and CD73. In addition, ST80, a newly developed inhibitor, specifically disrupted proteolytic interaction between CD73 and OTUD4, leading to reinvigoration of cytotoxic CD8+ T cell activities. In preclinical models of TNBC, ST80 treatment sensitized refractory tumors to anti-PD-L1 therapy. Collectively, our findings uncover what we believe to be a novel strategy for targeting the immunosuppressive OTUD4/CD73 proteolytic axis in treating immune-suppressive breast cancers with the inhibitor ST80.