Triple Blockade of Ido-1, PD-L1 and MEK as a Potential Therapeutic Strategy in NSCLC

Authors

Carminia Maria Della Corte
Vincenza Ciaramella
Kavya Ramkumar
Giovanni Vicidomini
Alfonso Fiorelli
Valerio Nardone
Salvatore Cappabianca
Immacolata Cozzolino
Federica Zito Marino
Gaetano Di Guida
Qi Wang
Robert Cardnell
Carl Michael Gay
Davide Ciardiello
Erika Martinelli
Teresa Troiani
Giulia Martini
Stefania Napolitano
Jing Wang
Lauren Averett Byers
Fortunato Ciardiello
Floriana Morgillo

Publication Date

11-22-2022

Journal

Journal of Translational Medicine

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the recent progress in the treatment and outcome of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), immunotherapy has still significant limitations reporting a significant proportion of patients not benefiting from therapy, even in patients with high PD-L1 expression. We have previously demonstrated that the combined inhibition of MEK and PD-L1 in NSCLC patients derived three dimensional cultures exerted significant synergistic effect in terms of immune-dependent cancer cell death. However, subsequent experiments analyzing the expression of Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-1 (Ido-1) gene expression demonstrated that Ido-1 resulted unaffected by the MEK inhibition and even increased after the combined inhibition of MEK and PD-L1 thus representing a potential escape mechanism to this combination.

METHODS: We analyzed transcriptomic profile of NSCLC lung adenocarcinoma cohort of TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas), stratifying tumors based on EMT (Epithelial mesenchymal Transition) score; in parallel, we investigated the activation of Ido-1 pathway and modulation of immune cytokines productions both in NSCLC cells lines, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in ex-vivo NSCLC spheroids induced by triple inhibition with an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, the MEK inhibitor and the Ido-1 inhibitor.

RESULTS: In NSCLC lung adenocarcinoma patient cohort (from TCGA) Ido-1 gene expression was significantly higher in samples classified as mesenchymal according EMT score. Similarly, on a selected panel of NSCLC cell lines higher expression of MEK and Ido-1 related genes was detected in cells with mesenchymal phenotype according EMT score, thus suggesting a potential correlation of co-activation of these two pathways in the context of EMT, with cancer cells sustaining an immune-suppressive microenvironment. While exerting an antitumor activity, the dual blockade of MEK and PD-L1 enhances the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFNγ, TNFα, IL-12 and IL-6) and, consequently, the expression of new immune checkpoints such as Ido-1. The triple inhibition with an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, the MEK inhibitor and the Ido-1 inhibitor demonstrated significant antiproliferative and proapoptotic activity on ex-vivo NSCLC samples; at the same time the triple combination kept increased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines produced by both PBMCs and tumor spheroids in order to sustain the immune response and simultaneously decreased the expression of other checkpoint (such as CTLA-4, Ido-1 and TIM-3) thus promoting an immune-reactive and inflamed micro-environment.

CONCLUSIONS: We show that Ido-1 activation is a possible escape mechanism to immune-mediated cell death induced by combination of PD-L1 and MEK inhibitors: also, we show that triple combination of anti-PD-L1, anti-MEK and anti-Ido-1 drugs may overcome this negative feedback and restore anti-tumor immune response in NSCLC patients' derived three dimensional cultures.

Keywords

Humans, Adenocarcinoma, Adenocarcinoma of Lung, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Indoleamine-Pyrrole 2, 3, -Dioxygenase, Leukocytes, Mononuclear, Lung Neoplasms, Protein Kinase Inhibitors, Tumor Microenvironment, B7-H1 Antigen, MAP Kinase Kinase Kinases