Back

IL-33 drives polyfunctionality and antitumor activity of a unique ST2+ NK cell population

Eberhardt, A.; Blanc, E.; Picant, V.; Alcazer, V.; Rocca, Y.; Ardin, M.; Voissiere, A.; Onodi, F.; Rodriguez, C.; Tonon, L.; Estavoyer, B.; Moudombi, L.; Charrier, E.; Wang, X.; Stojanovic, A.; Rau, T.; Tredan, O.; Treilleux, I.; Michallet, M.-C.; Valladeau-Guilemond, J.; Marcais, A.; Walzer, T.; Krebs, P.; Cerwenka, A.; Hubert, M.; Caux, C.; Bendriss-Vermare, N.

2023-02-15 cancer biology
10.1101/2023.02.14.528486 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Natural Killer (NK) cell subsets differ to ensure complementary and crucial roles in tumor immunosurveillance. Their biology is critically regulated by cytokines. Here, we show that IL-33 synergizes with IL-12 to strongly activate a subset of CD56dim NK cells acquiring ST2 expression. Transcriptomic and biological analysis of human ST2+ CD56dim NK cells revealed a distinct intermediate differentiation state between canonical CD56bright and CD56dim NK cells, combining high proliferative properties, cytokines/chemokines production, and cytotoxicity. NK cells expressing ST2 protein or exhibiting a ST2-linked transcriptional signature were identified in human and mouse tumors. Accordingly, IL-12 unleashes human breast tumor ST2+ NK cell potential to produce IFN-{gamma} in response to IL-33 and IL-33/IL-12 co-injection resulted in a NK-dependent IFN-{gamma} secretion and anti-tumor effects in murine mammary tumors. An IL33hi-NKhi score in solid tumors correlated with increased progression-free patient survival. Our findings thus identify polyfunctional ST2+ NK cells which effector functions can be harnessed by IL-33 to boost anti-tumor immunity. One sentence summaryThe IL-33/IL-33R(ST2)/NK cell axis is a key determinant of cancer immunity and immunotherapy.

Matching journals

The top 8 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.