HDACi-dependent microenvironmental normalization overcomes tumor burden-induced T-cell exhaustion [RNA-seq]

Purpose: T-cell exhaustion limits immunotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors. While immune checkpoint blockade and adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) can mediate tumor regression, their potency is often determined by tumor burden. Here, we identified tumor burden-related pathway changes that are conducive to T-cell exhaustion. We then determined if microenvironmental reprogramming via epigenetic modulation could reverse T-cell exhaustion and improve immunotherapeutic responsiveness. Experimental Design: We developed a murine syngeneic tumor model wherein an increased burden ablated therapeutic responsiveness to ACT, which corresponded with systemic induction of T cell exhaustion. Transcriptome analysis of these large tumors allowed us to characterize changes to immunosuppressive pathway expression during class I histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) MS-275 treatment. We then measured the therapeutic impact of MS-275 during ACT and assessed T-cell exhaustion by transcriptome/phenotypic analysis. Results: ACT durably regressed small tumors but failed to control large tumors, which were associated with systemic T-cell exhaustion and ablation of T-cell responses. Large tumors were defined by an immunosuppressive pathway signature. MS-275 reversed this pathway signature and promoted durable regression of large tumors during ACT. Prototypical exhaustion marker Tim-3 was selectively up-regulated in transferred T cells despite displaying a reduced exhaustion signature. Instead, we observed enhanced activation-dependent signaling correlating with enrichment of the IL2-STAT5 signaling axis. Activated CD8+ T-cell responses were predominantly skewed towards terminal effector cell-like CD44+ Tim-3hi TCF1- CD127- KLRG1+ differentiation. Conclusion: Tumor burden-induced pathway changes can be reversed through epigenetic reprogramming, enabling the conversion from T-cell exhaustion to effector lineage differentiation. We sought to understand the local changes that predisposed large tumors to therapeutic resistance. We harvested RNA from 7- and 14-day old CMS-5 tumors and analyzed them using bulk-cell RNA-seq.