Adaptive plasticity of IL-10+ and IL-35+ Treg cells cooperatively promotes tumor T cell exhaustion

DV Sawant, H Yano, M Chikina, Q Zhang, M Liao… - Nature …, 2019 - nature.com
DV Sawant, H Yano, M Chikina, Q Zhang, M Liao, C Liu, DJ Callahan, Z Sun, T Sun, T Tabib…
Nature immunology, 2019nature.com
Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) maintain host self-tolerance but are a major barrier to effective
cancer immunotherapy. Treg cells subvert beneficial anti-tumor immunity by modulating
inhibitory receptor expression on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs); however, the
underlying mediators and mechanisms have remained elusive. Here, we found that the
cytokines IL-10 and IL-35 (Ebi3–IL-12α heterodimer) were divergently expressed by Treg
cell subpopulations in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and cooperatively promoted …
Abstract
Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) maintain host self-tolerance but are a major barrier to effective cancer immunotherapy. Treg cells subvert beneficial anti-tumor immunity by modulating inhibitory receptor expression on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs); however, the underlying mediators and mechanisms have remained elusive. Here, we found that the cytokines IL-10 and IL-35 (Ebi3–IL-12α heterodimer) were divergently expressed by Treg cell subpopulations in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and cooperatively promoted intratumoral T cell exhaustion by modulating several inhibitory receptor expression and exhaustion-associated transcriptomic signature of CD8+ TILs. While expression of BLIMP1 (encoded by Prdm1) was a common target, IL-10 and IL-35 differentially affected effector T cell versus memory T cell fates, respectively, highlighting their differential, partially overlapping but non-redundant regulation of anti-tumor immunity. Our results reveal previously unappreciated cooperative roles for Treg cell-derived IL-10 and IL-35 in promoting BLIMP1-dependent exhaustion of CD8+ TILs that limits effective anti-tumor immunity.
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