Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21099-2
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Hospital Sister Institution Fund
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [81972186, 31301160]
- Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin [20JCYBJC00360, 16JCYBJC24400]
- China Scholarship Council
- Cancer Prevention & Research Institutes of Texas [RP160710]
- Breast Cancer Research Foundation
- National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.
- Center for Biological Pathways
- Inha University Institution Fund
- Inha University Research Grant
- NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) [P30CA016672]
- The University of Texas MD Anderson-China Medical University
- Conrad Biotech PTE.LTD
- The Odyssey Fellowship from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study reveals that PD-1 contributes to exhausted T cell survival by binding to TIM-3 ligand Gal-9 and inhibiting Gal-9/TIM-3 induced cell death. Anti-Gal-9 therapy selectively expands intratumoral TIM-3(+) cytotoxic CD8 T cells and T-reg cells, while combination treatment with anti-Gal-9 and GITR agonist shows synergistic antitumor activity.
The two T cell inhibitory receptors PD-1 and TIM-3 are co-expressed during exhausted T cell differentiation, and recent evidence suggests that their crosstalk regulates T cell exhaustion and immunotherapy efficacy; however, the molecular mechanism is unclear. Here we show that PD-1 contributes to the persistence of PD-1(+)TIM-3(+) T cells by binding to the TIM-3 ligand galectin-9 (Gal-9) and attenuates Gal-9/TIM-3-induced cell death. Anti-Gal-9 therapy selectively expands intratumoral TIM-3(+) cytotoxic CD8 T cells and immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (T-reg cells). The combination of anti-Gal-9 and an agonistic antibody to the co-stimulatory receptor GITR (glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor-related protein) that depletes T-reg cells induces synergistic antitumor activity. Gal-9 expression and secretion are promoted by interferon beta and gamma, and high Gal-9 expression correlates with poor prognosis in multiple human cancers. Our work uncovers a function for PD-1 in exhausted T cell survival and suggests Gal-9 as a promising target for immunotherapy. Galectin-9 regulates several cellular processes including TIM-3-mediated T cell death. Here the authors show that co-expressed PD-1 protects TIM-3(+) T cells from galectin-9-induced cell death and that anti-galectin-9 in combination with GITR agonism promotes an anti-tumor immune response.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available