School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Heilongjiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Harbin, China.
J Clin Invest. 2023 Jun 1;133(11):e162951. doi: 10.1172/JCI162951.
Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune checkpoint protein frequently expressed in human cancers that contributes to immune evasion through its binding to PD-1 on activated T cells. Unveiling the mechanisms underlying PD-L1 expression is essential for understanding the impact of the immunosuppressive microenvironment and is also crucial for the purpose of reboosting antitumor immunity. However, how PD-L1 is regulated, particularly at translational levels, remains largely unknown. Here, we discovered that a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), HIF-1α inhibitor at translation level (HITT), was transactivated by E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) under IFN-γ stimulation. It coordinated with regulator of G protein signaling 2 (RGS2) in binding to the 5' UTR of PD-L1, resulting in reduced PD-L1 translation. HITT expression enhanced T cell-mediated cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo in a PD-L1-dependent manner. The clinical correlation between HITT/PD-L1 and RGS2/PD-L1 expression was also detected in breast cancer tissues. Together, these findings demonstrate the role of HITT in antitumor T cell immunity, highlighting activation of HITT as a potential therapeutic strategy for enhancing cancer immunotherapy.
程序性细胞死亡配体 1(PD-L1)是一种在人类癌症中经常表达的免疫检查点蛋白,它通过与激活的 T 细胞上的 PD-1 结合来促进免疫逃逸。揭示 PD-L1 表达的机制对于理解免疫抑制微环境的影响至关重要,对于重新激活抗肿瘤免疫也至关重要。然而,PD-L1 是如何被调控的,特别是在翻译水平上,仍然知之甚少。在这里,我们发现一种长非编码 RNA(lncRNA),即翻译水平的 HIF-1α抑制剂(HITT),在 IFN-γ 刺激下被 E2F 转录因子 1(E2F1)反式激活。它与 G 蛋白信号调节因子 2(RGS2)协同作用,结合 PD-L1 的 5'UTR,从而减少 PD-L1 的翻译。HITT 表达以 PD-L1 依赖的方式增强了体外和体内 T 细胞介导的细胞毒性。在乳腺癌组织中还检测到 HITT/PD-L1 和 RGS2/PD-L1 表达之间的临床相关性。总之,这些发现表明 HITT 在抗肿瘤 T 细胞免疫中的作用,强调了激活 HITT 作为增强癌症免疫治疗的潜在治疗策略的重要性。