HDAC3 inhibition promotes anti-tumor immunity by enhancing CXCL10 mediated chemotaxis and recruiting of immune cells.

It is generally believed that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, which represent a new class of anti-cancer agents, exert their anti-tumor activity by directly causing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of tumor cells. However, in this study, we demonstrated that class I HDAC inhibitors, such as Entinostat and Panobinostat, effectively suppressed tumor growth in immunocompetent but not immunodeficient mice. Further studies with Hdac1, 2, or 3 knockout tumor cells indicated that tumor-specific inactivation of HDAC3 suppressed tumor growth by activating anti-tumor immunity. Specifically, we found that HDAC3 could directly bind to promotor regions and inhibit the expression of CXCL9, 10, and 11 chemokines. Hdac3-deficient tumor cells expressed high levels of these chemokines, which suppressed tumor growth in immunocompetent mice by recruiting CXCR3+ T cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME). Furthermore, the inverse correlation between HDAC3 and CXCL10 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor tissues also suggested HDAC3 might be involved in anti-tumor immune regulation and patient survival. Thus, our studies have illustrated that HDAC3 inhibition suppresses tumor growth by enhancing immune cell infiltration into the TME. This anti-tumor mechanism may be helpful in guiding HDAC3 inhibitor-based treatment.