Immunoprofiling of mouse prostate cancer infiltrate

NK cells are effector cells that contribute to tumor immune surveillance. Due to their spontaneous ability to eliminate tumor cells, NK cell have been exploited for cancer treatment. However, most cancers impair NK cell infiltration and hinder their cytotoxic capability. As a consequence, the efficacy of NK cell-based immunotherapies is still limited. Here we applied high dimensional single-cell RNA-seq to profile the transcriptional landscape of tumor-infiltrating NK in murine prostate cancer. We identified two subsets of tumor infiltrating NK cells. Tumor samples resulted to be abundantly infiltrated by the immunomodulatory subset at the expense of the cytotoxic one. Importantly, the anayles of the interaction network existing between NK cells and tumor cells revealed a deregulation of the autophagic process. Finally, genetic and pharmacological activation of autophagy rescues NK cell effector functions and confers to NK cells a superior ability in controlling tumor growth in vivo. Overall design: A total of two samples; two mouse prostate samples (Tumor tissue, Normal tissue adjacent to tumor).