TNIK Inhibition Has Dual Synergistic Effects on Tumor and Associated Immune Cells.
Jaehee KimJuhyun OhHannah M PetersonJonathan C T CarlsonMikael J PittetRalph WeisslederPublished in: Advanced biology (2022)
Treatment with checkpoint inhibitors can be extraordinarily effective in a fraction of patients, particularly those whose tumors are pre-infiltrated by T cells. In others, efficacy is considerably lower, which has led to interest in developing strategies for sensitization to immunotherapy. Using various colorectal cancer mouse models, it is shown that the use of Traf2 and Nck-interacting protein kinase inhibitors (TNIKi) unexpectedly increases tumor infiltration by PD-1 + CD8 + T cells, thus contributing to tumor control. This appears to happen by two independent mechanisms, by inducing immunogenic cell death and separately by directly activating CD8. The use of TNIKi achieves complete tumor control in 50% of mice when combined with checkpoint inhibitor targeting PD-1. These findings reveal immunogenic properties of TNIKi and indicate that the proportion of colorectal cancers responding to checkpoint therapy can be increased by combining it with immunogenic kinase inhibitors.
Keyphrases
- cell death
- dna damage
- end stage renal disease
- cell cycle
- newly diagnosed
- chronic kidney disease
- mouse model
- stem cells
- signaling pathway
- cancer therapy
- gene expression
- small molecule
- cell proliferation
- skeletal muscle
- single cell
- prognostic factors
- peritoneal dialysis
- binding protein
- cell therapy
- protein kinase
- high fat diet induced