Radiotherapy-exposed CD8+ and CD4+ neoantigens enhance tumor control

Neoantigens generated by somatic nonsynonymous mutations are keytargets of tumor-specific T cells, but only a small number of mutations predicted to be immunogenic are presented by MHC molecules on cancer cells. Vaccination studies in mice and patients have shown that the majority of neoepitopes that elicit T cell responses fail to induce significant antitumor activity, for incompletely understood reasons. We report that radiotherapy upregulates the expression of genes containing immunogenic mutations in a poorly immunogenic mouse model of triple-negative breast cancer. Vaccination with neoepitopes encoded by these genes elicited CD8(+) and CD4(+)T cells that, whereas ineffective in preventing tumor growth, improved the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy. Mechanistically, neoantigen-specific CD8(+)T cells preferentially killed irradiated tumor cells. Neoantigen-specific CD4(+)T cells were required for the therapeutic efficacy of vaccination and acted by producing Th1 cytokines, killing irradiated tumor cells, and promoting epitope spread. Such a cytotoxic activity relied on the ability of radiation to upregulate class II MHC molecules as well as the death receptors FAS/CD95 and DR5 on the surface of tumor cells. These results provide proof-of-principle evidence that radiotherapy works in concert with neoantigen vaccination to improve tumor control.

Automated summary

Radiotherapy upregulates the expression of genes containing immunogenic mutations, enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of neoantigen vaccination by promoting the killing of tumor cells through CD8 and CD4 T cells. CD4 T cells produce Th1 cytokines to promote epitope spread, while utilizing radiation to enhance the ability of MHC molecules and death receptors on tumor cells.