Small-molecule toosendanin reverses macrophage-mediated immunosuppression to overcome glioblastoma resistance to immunotherapy

T cell-based immunotherapy holds promise for treating solid tumors, but its therapeutic efficacy is limited by intratumoral immune suppression. This immune suppressive tumor microenvironment is largely driven by tumor-associated myeloid cells, including macrophages. Here, we report that toosendanin (TSN), a small -mol-ecule compound, reprograms macrophages to enforce antitumor immunity in glioblastoma (GBM) in mouse models. Our functional screen of genetically probed macrophages with a chemical library identifies that TSN reverses macrophage-mediated tumor immunosuppression, leading to enhanced T cell infiltration, activation, and reduced exhaustion. Chemoproteomic and structural analyses revealed that TSN interacts with Hck and Lyn to abrogate suppressive macrophage immunity. In addition, a combination of immune checkpoint blockade and TSN therapy induced regression of syngeneic GBM tumors in mice. Furthermore, TSN treatment sensitized GBM to Egfrviii chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. These findings suggest that TSN may serve as a ther-apeutic compound that blocks tumor immunosuppression and circumvents tumor resistance to T cell-based immunotherapy in GBM and other solid tumors that warrants further investigation.

Automated summary

A compound called toosendanin (TSN) has been found to reprogram macrophages in order to enhance the immune response against glioblastoma (GBM) in mouse models. This compound reverses macrophage-mediated tumor immunosuppression, leading to increased T cell infiltration and activation, and reduced exhaustion.