Wnt1 silences CC/CXC motif chemokine genes in dendritic cells and induces adaptive immune resistance in lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD)-derived oncogenic Wnts increase cancer cell proliferative/stemness potential, but whether they also impact the immune microenvironment is unknown. Here we show that LUAD cells use paracrine Wnt1 signaling to induce immune resistance. Wnt1 correlated strongly with tolerogenic genes on the TCGA expression data. In another cohort, Wnt1 was inversely associated with T cell abundance. Altering Wnt1 expression profoundly affected growth of murine lung adenocarcinomas and this was strongly dependent on conventional dendritic cells and T cells. Mechanistically, Wnt1 lead to transcriptional silencing of CC/CXC chemokines in dendritic cells and T cell cross-tolerance. Wnt-target genes were up-regulated in human intratumoral dendritic cells and decreased upon silencing Wnt1, accompanied by enhanced T cell cytotoxicity. siWnt1-loaded nanoparticles as single therapy or part of combinatorial immunotherapies acted at both arms of the cancer-immune ecosystem to halt tumor growth. Collectively, our studies show that Wnt1 enhances adaptive immune rejection of lung adenocarcinomas and highlight its potential targeting as a novel therapeutic strategy  Overall design: RNAseq data of two DC subsets of 4 patients with lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs).

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Kerdidani D, Chouvardas P, Arjo AR, Giopanou I, Ntaliarda G, Guo YA, Tsikitis M, Kazamias G, Potaris K, Stathopoulos GT, Zakynthinos S, Kalomenidis I, Soumelis V, Kollias G, Tsoumakidou M