Regulation of myeloid function by LC3-associated phagocytosis promotes tumor immune tolerance

Targeting autophagy in cancer cells and in the tumor microenvironment are current goals of cancer therapy. However, components of canonical autophagy play roles in other biological processes, adding complexity to this goal. One such alternative function of autophagy proteins is LC3-associated phagocytosis (LAP), which functions in phagosome maturation and subsequent signaling events. Here we show that impairment of LAP in the myeloid compartment, rather than canonical autophagy, induces control of tumor growth by tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) upon phagocytosis of dying tumor cells. Single cell RNAseq analysis revealed that defects in LAP induce pro-inflammatory gene expression and trigger STING-mediated type I interferon responses in TAM. We found that the anti-tumor effects of LAP impairment require tumor-infiltrating T cells, dependent upon the STING and the type I interferon response. Therefore, autophagy proteins in the myeloid cells of the tumor microenvironment contribute to immune suppression of T lymphocytes by effecting LAP. Rubcn+/- and Rubcn-/- tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells were isolated from Lewis lung carcinoma subcutaneous grafts