Inhibition of -GlcNAc transferase activates type I interferon-dependent antitumor immunity by bridging cGAS-STING pathway.

The -GlcNAc transferase (OGT) is an essential enzyme that mediates protein -GlcNAcylation, a unique form of posttranslational modification of many nuclear and cytosolic proteins. Recent studies observed increased OGT and -GlcNAcylation levels in a broad range of human cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues, indicating a universal effect of OGT in promoting tumorigenesis. Here, we show that OGT is essential for tumor growth in immunocompetent mice by repressing the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-dependent DNA sensing pathway. We found that deletion of OGT () caused a marked reduction in tumor growth in both syngeneic mice tumor models and a genetic mice colorectal cancer (CRC) model induced by mutation of the gene (). Pharmacological inhibition or genetic deletion of OGT induced a robust genomic instability (GIN), leading to cGAS-dependent production of the type I interferon (IFN-I) and IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). As a result, deletion of or from cancer cells restored tumor growth, and this correlated with impaired CD8 T-cell-mediated antitumor immunity. Mechanistically, we found that OGT-dependent cleavage of host cell factor C1 (HCF-1) is required for the avoidance of GIN and IFN-I production in tumors. In summary, our results identify OGT-mediated genomic stability and activate cGAS-STING pathway as an important tumor-cell-intrinsic mechanism to repress antitumor immunity.