Obesity alters the lung myeloid cell landscape to enhance breast cancer metastasis through IL5 and GM-CSF.

Obesity is associated with chronic, low-grade inflammation, which can disrupt homeostasis within tissue microenvironments. Given the correlation between obesity and relative risk of death from cancer, we investigated whether obesity-associated inflammation promotes metastatic progression. We demonstrate that obesity causes lung neutrophilia in otherwise normal mice, which is further exacerbated by the presence of a primary tumour. The increase in lung neutrophils translates to increased breast cancer metastasis to this site, in a GM-CSF- and IL5-dependent manner. Importantly, weight loss is sufficient to reverse this effect, and reduce serum levels of GM-CSF and IL5 in both mouse models and humans. Our data indicate that special consideration of the obese patient population is critical for effective management of cancer progression.

Commensal bacterial modulation of the host immune response to ameliorate pain in a murine model of chronic prostatitis.

The human commensal microflora plays an essential role in modulating the immune response to control homeostasis. Staphylococcus epidermidis, a commensal bacterium most commonly associated with the skin exerts such effects locally, modulating local immune responses during inflammation and preventing superinfection by pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. Although the prostate is considered by many to be sterile, multiple investigations have shown that small numbers of gram-positive bacterial species such as S. epidermidis can be isolated from the expressed prostatic secretions of both healthy and diseased men. Chronic pelvic pain syndrome is a complex syndrome with symptoms including pain and lower urinary tract dysfunction. It has an unknown etiology and limited effective treatments but is associated with modulation of prostate immune responses. Chronic pelvic pain syndrome can be modeled using murine experimental prostatitis (EAP), where CD4+ve IL17A+ve T cells have been shown to play a critical role in disease orchestration and development of pelvic tactile allodynia. Here, we report that intraurethral instillation of a specific S. epidermidis strain (designated NPI [non-pain inducing]), isolated from the expressed prostatic secretion of a healthy human male, into EAP-treated mice reduced the pelvic tactile allodynia responses and increased CD4+ve IL17A+ve T-cell numbers associated with EAP. Furthermore, a cell wall constituent of NPI, lipoteichoic acid, specifically recapitulates these effects and mediates increased expression of CTLA4-like ligands PDL1 and PDL2 on prostatic CD11b+ve antigen-presenting cells. These results identify a new potential therapeutic role for commensal S. epidermidis NPI lipoteichoic acid in the treatment of prostatitis-associated pain.

The tumor microenvironment underlies acquired resistance to CSF-1R inhibition in gliomas.

Macrophages accumulate with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) progression and can be targeted via inhibition of colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor (CSF-1R) to regress high-grade tumors in animal models of this cancer. However, whether and how resistance emerges in response to sustained CSF-1R blockade is unknown. We show that although overall survival is significantly prolonged, tumors recur in >50% of mice. Gliomas reestablish sensitivity to CSF-1R inhibition upon transplantation, indicating that resistance is tumor microenvironment-driven. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activity was elevated in recurrent GBM, driven by macrophage-derived insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and tumor cell IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R). Combining IGF-1R or PI3K blockade with CSF-1R inhibition in recurrent tumors significantly prolonged overall survival. Our findings thus reveal a potential therapeutic approach for treating resistance to CSF-1R inhibitors.

Combined deletion of cathepsin protease family members reveals compensatory mechanisms in cancer.

Proteases are important for regulating multiple tumorigenic processes, including angiogenesis, tumor growth, and invasion. Elevated protease expression is associated with poor patient prognosis across numerous tumor types. Several multigene protease families have been implicated in cancer, including cysteine cathepsins. However, whether individual family members have unique roles or are functionally redundant remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate stage-dependent effects of simultaneously deleting cathepsin B (CtsB) and CtsS in a murine pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor model. Early in tumorigenesis, the double knockout results in an additive reduction in angiogenic switching, whereas at late stages, several tumorigenic phenotypes are unexpectedly restored to wild-type levels. We identified CtsZ, which is predominantly supplied by tumor-associated macrophages, as the compensatory protease that regulates the acquired tumor-promoting functions of lesions deficient in both CtsB and CtsS. Thus, deletion of multiple cathepsins can lead to stage-dependent, compensatory mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment, which has potential implications for the clinical consideration of selective versus pan-family cathepsin inhibitors in cancer.

Sensing cytosolic RpsL by macrophages induces lysosomal cell death and termination of bacterial infection.

The intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila provokes strong host responses and has proven to be a valuable model for the discovery of novel immunosurveillance pathways. Our previous work revealed that an environmental isolate of L. pneumophila induces a noncanonical form of cell death, leading to restriction of bacterial replication in primary mouse macrophages. Here we show that such restriction also occurs in infections with wild type clinical isolates. Importantly, we found that a lysine to arginine mutation at residue 88 (K88R) in the ribosome protein RpsL that not only confers bacterial resistance to streptomycin, but more importantly, severely attenuated the induction of host cell death and enabled L. pneumophila to replicate in primary mouse macrophages. Although conferring similar resistance to streptomycin, a K43N mutation in RpsL does not allow productive intracellular bacterial replication. Further analysis indicated that RpsL is capable of effectively inducing macrophage death via a pathway involved in lysosomal membrane permeabilization; the K88R mutant elicits similar responses but is less potent. Moreover, cathepsin B, a lysosomal protease that causes cell death after being released into the cytosol upon the loss of membrane integrity, is required for efficient RpsL-induced macrophage death. Furthermore, despite the critical role of cathepsin B in delaying RpsL-induced cell death, macrophages lacking cathepsin B do not support productive intracellular replication of L. pneumophila harboring wild type RpsL. This suggests the involvement of other yet unidentified components in the restriction of bacterial replication. Our results identified RpsL as a regulator in the interactions between bacteria such as L. pneumophila and primary mouse macrophages by triggering unique cellular pathways that restrict intracellular bacterial replication.

Distinct functions of macrophage-derived and cancer cell-derived cathepsin Z combine to promote tumor malignancy via interactions with the extracellular matrix.

During the process of tumor progression, cancer cells can produce the requisite growth- and invasion-promoting factors and can also rely on noncancerous cells in the tumor microenvironment as an alternative, cell-extrinsic source. However, whether the cellular source influences the function of such tumor-promoting factors remains an open question. Here, we examined the roles of the cathepsin Z (CtsZ) protease, which is provided by both cancer cells and macrophages in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in humans and mice. We found that tumor proliferation was exclusively regulated by cancer cell-intrinsic functions of CtsZ, whereas tumor invasion required contributions from both macrophages and cancer cells. Interestingly, several of the tumor-promoting functions of CtsZ were not dependent on its described catalytic activity but instead were mediated via the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif in the enzyme prodomain, which regulated interactions with integrins and the extracellular matrix. Together, these results underscore the complexity of interactions within the tumor microenvironment and indicate that cellular source can indeed impact molecular function.

CSF-1R inhibition alters macrophage polarization and blocks glioma progression.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) comprises several molecular subtypes, including proneural GBM. Most therapeutic approaches targeting glioma cells have failed. An alternative strategy is to target cells in the glioma microenvironment, such as tumor-associated macrophages and microglia (TAMs). Macrophages depend on colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) for differentiation and survival. We used an inhibitor of the CSF-1 receptor (CSF-1R) to target TAMs in a mouse proneural GBM model, which significantly increased survival and regressed established tumors. CSF-1R blockade additionally slowed intracranial growth of patient-derived glioma xenografts. Surprisingly, TAMs were not depleted in treated mice. Instead, glioma-secreted factors, including granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), facilitated TAM survival in the context of CSF-1R inhibition. Expression of alternatively activated M2 markers decreased in surviving TAMs, which is consistent with impaired tumor-promoting functions. These gene signatures were associated with enhanced survival in patients with proneural GBM. Our results identify TAMs as a promising therapeutic target for proneural gliomas and establish the translational potential of CSF-1R inhibition for GBM.

Identification and characterization of poorly differentiated invasive carcinomas in a mouse model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumorigenesis.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are a relatively rare but clinically challenging tumor type. In particular, high grade, poorly-differentiated PanNETs have the worst patient prognosis, and the underlying mechanisms of disease are poorly understood. In this study we have identified and characterized a previously undescribed class of poorly differentiated PanNETs in the RIP1-Tag2 mouse model. We found that while the majority of tumors in the RIP1-Tag2 model are well-differentiated insulinomas, a subset of tumors had lost multiple markers of beta-cell differentiation and were highly invasive, leading us to term them poorly differentiated invasive carcinomas (PDICs). In addition, we found that these tumors exhibited a high mitotic index, resembling poorly differentiated (PD)-PanNETs in human patients. Interestingly, we identified expression of Id1, an inhibitor of DNA binding gene, and a regulator of differentiation, specifically in PDIC tumor cells by histological analysis. The identification of PDICs in this mouse model provides a unique opportunity to study the pathology and molecular characteristics of PD-PanNETs.

CCL2 and CCL3 are essential mediators of pelvic pain in experimental autoimmune prostatitis.

Experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP) is a murine model of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) in men, a syndrome characterized by chronic pelvic pain. We have demonstrated that chemokine ligands CCL2 and CCL3 are biomarkers that correlate with pelvic pain symptoms. We postulated that CCL2 and CCL3 play a functional role in CPPS and therefore examined their expression in EAP. Upon examination of the prostate 5 days after induction of EAP, CCL2 mRNA was elevated 2- to 3-fold, CCL8 by 15-fold, CCL12 by 12- to 13-fold, and CXCL9 by 2- to 4-fold compared with control mice. At 10 days the major chemokines were CXCL13 and CXCL2; at 20 days CCL2 (1- to 2-fold), CCL3 (2- to 3-fold) and CCL11 (2- to 3-fold); and at 30 days, CCL12 (20- to 35-fold) and smaller increases in CCL2, CCL3, and XCL1. Chemokine elevations were accompanied by increases in mast cells and B cells at 5 days, monocytes and neutrophils at day 10, CD4+ T cells at day 20, and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells at day 30. Anti-CCL2 and anti-CCL3 neutralizing antibodies administered at EAP onset attenuated pelvic pain development, but only anti-CCL2 antibodies were effective therapeutically. CCL2- and its cognate receptor CCR2-deficient mice were completely protected from development of pain symptoms but assumed susceptibility after reconstitution with wild-type bone marrow. CCL3-deficient mice showed resistance to the maintenance of pelvic pain while CCR5-deficient mice did not show any lessening of pelvic pain severity. These results suggest that the CCL2-CCR2 axis and CCL3 are important mediators of chronic pelvic pain in EAP.