Adaptive resistance to therapeutic PD-1 blockade is associated with upregulation of alternative immune checkpoints.

Nat Commun
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Despite compelling antitumour activity of antibodies targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1): programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune checkpoint in lung cancer, resistance to these therapies has increasingly been observed. In this study, to elucidate mechanisms of adaptive resistance, we analyse the tumour immune microenvironment in the context of anti-PD-1 therapy in two fully immunocompetent mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma. In tumours progressing following response to anti-PD-1 therapy, we observe upregulation of alternative immune checkpoints, notably T-cell immunoglobulin mucin-3 (TIM-3), in PD-1 antibody bound T cells and demonstrate a survival advantage with addition of a TIM-3 blocking antibody following failure of PD-1 blockade. Two patients who developed adaptive resistance to anti-PD-1 treatment also show a similar TIM-3 upregulation in blocking antibody-bound T cells at treatment failure. These data suggest that upregulation of TIM-3 and other immune checkpoints may be targetable biomarkers associated with adaptive resistance to PD-1 blockade.

Year of Publication
2016
Journal
Nat Commun
Volume
7
Pages
10501
Date Published
2016 Feb 17
ISSN
2041-1723
URL
DOI
10.1038/ncomms10501
PubMed ID
26883990
PubMed Central ID
PMC4757784
Links
Grant list
P20 CA090578 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
5R01CA163896-04 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
CA090578 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA122794 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
P01 CA120964 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA163896 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA166480 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA195740 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01AI08995 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA140594 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
5R01CA140594-07 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
P50 CA090578 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
1R01CA195740-01 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
5R01CA166480-04 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA205150 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
5R01CA122794-10 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States