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A gastric microbial chromatin remodeler drives gastric cancer progression and immune evasion by reprogramming the host epigenome

Xie, X.; Wei, Y.; Zheng, Z.; Zheng, J.; Chen, X.; Wang, J.; Ma, N.; Huang, X.; Zhang, P.; Zhang, B.; Cai, H.; Ma, L.; Xiao, L.; Liu, Q.; Wang, W.; Nomura, S.; Chen, S.; Meng, X.; Lee, M.-H.

2025-12-27 cancer biology
10.64898/2025.12.26.696631 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Emerging evidence highlights the crucial role of microbial communities in modulating cancer development and progression. In gastric cancer (GC), we identify Streptococcus anginosus (SA) as a tumor-resident oncobacterium that drives both tumor progression and immune evasion. We define a novel mechanism in which SA secretes extracellular vesicles (saEVs) that translocate the bacterial chromatin remodeler saSNF2 into host cell. There, saSNF2 partners with host transcription factor TEAD1--through its ATPase activity and participation in BAF complex assembly--to coordinately activate oncogenic transcription. This transkingdom interaction upregulates the palmitoyltransferase ZDHHC11, which in turn stabilizes PD-L1 via palmitoylation to establish an immunosuppressive niche, while also amplifying other TEAD1 target genes to fuel tumor progression. Functionally, saEVs promote tumor growth and limit CD8+ T-cell infiltration in vivo. Strikingly, pharmacological inhibition of ZDHHC11 reverses immune evasion and synergizes with anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade. Our results establish SA as a multifaceted driver of GC and reveal the saSNF2-ZDHHC11 axis as a promising target to potentiate immunotherapy.

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