LBPO.CL04 · 临床研究 · Late-Breaking
靶向EZH2以克服mCRPC的免疫治疗耐药性,揭示NSD2依赖性肿瘤脆弱性
Targeting EZH2 to overcome immunotherapy resistance in mCRPC unlocks NSD2-dependent tumor vulnerabilities
作者与单位 Authors & Affiliations
摘要 Abstract
中文摘要
尽管前列腺癌(PCa)的诊断与治疗取得了进展,但许多患者仍进展为转移性去势抵抗性前列腺癌(mCRPC),其治疗选择依然有限。免疫治疗已成为一种有前景的方法,然而mCRPC的临床试验成效有限,部分原因在于人们对PCa维持免疫逃逸并介导免疫抑制的机制理解不足。我们此前证明,表观遗传调控因子NSD2促进mCRPC进展,而抑制NSD2可提高PCa模型中的生存率。越来越多的证据确立了表观遗传失调在PCa进展和免疫逃逸中的核心作用,支持EZH2-NSD2轴作为肿瘤可塑性和免疫抑制关键调控因子的参与,并凸显了其作为治疗靶点的潜力。因此,EZH2抑制剂(EZH2i)的使用正成为组合免疫治疗策略的一条有前景的途径,它们正被应用于临床试验以克服mCRPC的免疫治疗耐药性。在本研究中,我们探讨NSD2作为EZH2抑制应答的预测标志物,并评估EZH2i能否整合入组合免疫治疗策略以克服mCRPC的免疫耐药。我们利用基因工程小鼠模型(GEMMs)聚焦于PCa的肿瘤免疫微环境(TIME),比较NPp53小鼠与过表达NSD2的NPp53NSD2小鼠,以评估其对谱系可塑性和TIME重塑的影响。我们证明,GEMMs的免疫格局因特定PCa驱动改变的不同而异。采用24抗体组合的高维流式细胞术显示,NPp53NSD2小鼠中NSD2过表达与疾病进展增强及高度免疫抑制性TIME相关。重要的是,这些小鼠中的EZH2抑制促进TIME向更具免疫原性的状态重塑,伴随树突状细胞增多以及CD8⁺/CD4⁺ T细胞浸润增加。相反,NPp53小鼠对EZH2i未表现出有利的免疫应答,反而呈现更具免疫抑制性的TIME,表现为树突状细胞减少和M2巨噬细胞增多。总之,这些发现将NSD2确定为EZH2靶向免疫应答的关键决定因素,并揭示了mCRPC中一种此前未被认识的表观遗传脆弱性。我们的工作支持分层的表观遗传-免疫治疗方法,并为利用EZH2-NSD2依赖机制克服晚期前列腺癌的免疫耐药提供了有力依据。
查看英文原文 English abstract
Despite advances in prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and treatment, many patients progress to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), for which therapeutic options remain limited. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising approach, yet clinical trials in mCRPC have shown limited success, partly due to a poor understanding of the mechanisms through which PCa maintains immune evasion and mediates immunosuppression. We previously demonstrated that the epigenetic regulator NSD2 promotes mCRPC progression and that its inhibition increases survival in PCa models. Emerging evidence has established a central role for epigenetic dysregulation in PCa progression and immune escape, supporting the involvement of the EZH2-NSD2 axis as a critical regulator of tumor plasticity and immune suppression and highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target. Thus, the use of EZH2 inhibitors (EZH2i) is becoming a promising avenue for combinatorial immunotherapies strategies and they are being implemented in clinical trials to overcome immunotherapy resistance in mCRPC. In this study, we investigate NSD2 as a predictive marker of response to EZH2 inhibition and assess whether an EZH2i can be integrated into combinatorial immunotherapy strategies to overcome immune resistance in mCRPC. We focused on the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in PCa using genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs), comparing NPp53 mice with NPp53NSD2 mice, which overexpress NSD2, to assess its impact on lineage plasticity and TIME remodeling. We demonstrate that the immune landscape of GEMMs differs according to specific PCa driver alterations. High-dimensional flow cytometry with a 24-antibody panel revealed that NSD2 overexpression in NPp53NSD2 mice correlates with enhanced disease progression and a profoundly immunosuppressive TIME. Importantly, EZH2 inhibition in these mice promoted TIME remodeling toward a more immunogenic state, with increased dendritic cells and CD8⁺/CD4⁺ T cell infiltration. Conversely, NPp53 mice did not exhibit a favorable immune response to EZH2i, displaying instead a more immunosuppressive TIME marked by reduced dendritic cells and increased M2 macrophages. Together, these findings identify NSD2 as a key determinant of the immune response to EZH2 targeting and reveal a previously unrecognized epigenetic vulnerability in mCRPC. Our work supports a stratified epigenetic-immunotherapy approach and provides a strong rationale for leveraging EZH2-NSD2-dependent mechanisms to overcome immune resistance in advanced prostate cancer.
利益披露 Disclosure
P. Salamanca Jiménez, None..
I. Gonzalez-Vazquez, None..
R. Espin, None..
N. Garcia, None..
L. Franco, None..
M. Pujana, None..
J. Piulats, None..
A. Aytes, None.