Abstract B062: Kaiso influences immune signaling of breast cancer exosomes
Authors: Ahmed Shakir Uddin , Davis Brittany , Addai Benjamin Adu , Karanam Balasubramanyanam , Davis Mellisa , Grizzle William , Wang Honghe , Yates Clayton C 
Published: September 2020

Introduction: Exosomes are communication vesicles act as mediator of intracellular transfer of genetic information, act an important role in intercommunication between tumor cells and immune cells. However, the mechanism underlining this cell-cell communication is not well understanding, particularly in African American breast cancer patients. Recently, our lab has demonstrated that Kaiso, a novel bi-modal transcription factor is highly expressed in African American breast cancer and notably, high Kaiso expression correlates with breast cancer aggressiveness and the disparity in survival outcomes of breast cancer patients of African American compared to European American patients. However, the differential expression and biological consequences of Kaiso in immune signaling of breast cancer exosomes has not been studied yet. Herein we demonstrate the biological role of Kaiso in immune signaling in breast cancer exosomes. Methods: In this study we utilized Nanostring immune profiling technology along with multiple in vitro and in vivo assays were used to study the role of Kaiso in breast cancer immune escape. Results: Nanostring pan cancer immune profiling demonstrated that European American breast cancer exosomes exhibited higher expression of TILs markers, T cell activation markers and CD8+T Cells markers compared to African American, while we observed an increase in the expression of the anti-phagocytic molecule CD47 in breast cancer patient exosomes of African American compared to European American patients. In addition to that CD47 and SIRP-α (Signal Regulatory Protein) are highly expressed in Kaiso-scrambled MDA-MB-231 cells (sh-Scr) and exosomes, whereas THBS1, which is a regulator of CD47 expression and is regarded as angiogenesis inhibitor is significantly increased in sh-Kaiso MDA-231 cells and exosomes. Additionally, we observed that Kaiso directly binds methylated sequences in the promoter region of CD47 and THBS1 by ChIP assay. Furthermore, in vivo sh-Kaiso cells injected into athymic mice exhibited delayed tumor formation after four weeks with smaller tumor size as compared to sh-SCR cells, and we observed higher expression of THBS1 with lower expression of CD47 and SIRP-α molecules by IHC and exosomes isolated from invivo tumors, indicating that Kaiso is associated with macrophage mediated immune escape. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the important role of kaiso in immune signaling through exosomes which may be related with more aggressive cancer phenotype in breast cancer specially in African Americans.

Citation Format: Shakir U Ahmed, Brittany Davis, Benjamin Adu Addai, Balasubramanyanam Karanam, Melissa Davis, William Grizzle, Honghe Wang, Clayton C Yates. Kaiso influences immune signaling of breast cancer exosomes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B062.