Ajay Amrendra K, Gasser Martin, Hsiao Li-Li, Böldicke Thomas, Waaga-Gasser Ana Maria
Division of Renal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Antibodies (Basel). 2024 Feb 1;13(1):11. doi: 10.3390/antib13010011.
Pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDAC) remains a deadly cancer worldwide with a need for new therapeutic approaches. A dysregulation in the equilibrium between pro- and anti-inflammatory responses with a predominant immunosuppressive inflammatory reaction in advanced stage tumors seem to contribute to tumor growth and metastasis. The current therapies do not include strategies against pro-tumorigenic inflammation in cancer patients. We have shown that the upregulated cell surface expression of Toll-like Receptor (TLR) 2 and of TLR9 inside PDAC cells maintain chronic inflammatory responses, support chemotherapeutic resistance, and mediate tumor progression in human pancreatic cancer. We further demonstrated intracellular TLR2 and TLR9 targeting using specific intrabodies, which resulted in downregulated inflammatory signaling. In this study, we tested, for the first time, an intrabody-mediated TLR blockade in human TLR2- and TLR9-expressing pancreatic cancer cells for its effects on inflammatory signaling-mediated tumor growth. Newly designed anti-TLR2- and anti-TLR9-specific intrabodies inhibited PDAC growth. Co-expression analysis of the intrabodies and corresponding human TLRs showed efficient retention and accumulation of both intrabodies within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), while co-immunoprecipitation studies indicated both intrabodies interacting with their cognate TLR antigen within the pancreatic cancer cells. Cancer cells with attenuated proliferation expressing accumulated TLR2 and TRL9 intrabodies demonstrated reduced STAT3 phosphorylation signaling, while apoptotic markers Caspases 3 and 8 were upregulated. To conclude, our results demonstrate the TLR2 and TLR9-specific intrabody-mediated signaling pathway inhibition of autoregulatory inflammation inside cancer cells and their proliferation, resulting in the suppression of pancreatic tumor cell growth. These findings underscore the potential of specific intrabody-mediated TLR inhibition in the ER relevant for tumor growth inhibition and open up a new therapeutic intervention strategy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
胰腺癌(胰腺导管腺癌,PDAC)在全球范围内仍然是一种致命的癌症,需要新的治疗方法。在晚期肿瘤中,促炎和抗炎反应之间的平衡失调,以免疫抑制性炎症反应为主导,这似乎有助于肿瘤的生长和转移。目前的治疗方法并不包括针对癌症患者促肿瘤炎症的策略。我们已经表明,胰腺导管腺癌细胞内Toll样受体(TLR)2和TLR9的细胞表面表达上调维持了慢性炎症反应,支持化疗耐药性,并介导人类胰腺癌的肿瘤进展。我们进一步证明了使用特异性胞内抗体靶向细胞内的TLR2和TLR9,这导致炎症信号下调。在本研究中,我们首次测试了在表达人TLR2和TLR9的胰腺癌细胞中,胞内抗体介导的TLR阻断对炎症信号介导的肿瘤生长的影响。新设计的抗TLR2和抗TLR9特异性胞内抗体抑制了胰腺导管腺癌的生长。胞内抗体与相应人类TLR的共表达分析表明,两种胞内抗体都在内质网(ER)内有效滞留和积累,而免疫共沉淀研究表明两种胞内抗体在胰腺癌细胞内与其同源TLR抗原相互作用。增殖减弱且表达积累的TLR2和TRL9胞内抗体的癌细胞显示STAT3磷酸化信号减少,而凋亡标志物半胱天冬酶3和8上调。总之,我们的结果表明,TLR2和TLR9特异性胞内抗体介导的信号通路抑制癌细胞内的自调节炎症及其增殖,从而抑制胰腺肿瘤细胞的生长。这些发现强调了内质网中特异性胞内抗体介导的TLR抑制在抑制肿瘤生长方面的潜力,并为胰腺癌的治疗开辟了一种新的治疗干预策略。