Abstract 3276: Tumor cell-intrinsic PGE2-EP4 signaling is a major immunosuppressive pathway in pancreatic cancer
Authors: Markosyan Nune , Arora Charu , Quinones Liz , Kim Il-Kyu , Joshi Nikhil , Cheng Noah , Tobias John , Stanger Ben , Vonderheide Robert 
Published: April 2023

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US partly because of its resistance to conventional chemotherapies. Immunotherapies that improve survival in many cancers, almost universally fail in PDA. The resistance to immune checkpoint blockade is at least partially explained by the lack of T cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) in PDA. We have previously demonstrated that tumor cell-derived prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is one of the tumor intrinsic factors that creates/supports immunosuppressive TME in PDA presumably through its paracrine effect on the stromal cells. In the current study, we investigate the role of autocrine PGE2 signaling through its cognate EP4 receptor in shaping the T cell low, myeloid cell rich PDA TME. The knockdown (EP4 KD) or knockout (EP4 KO) of the receptors on KrasG12D/p53R172H/YFP/PdxCre (KPCY) tumor cells was sufficient to suppress or abolish the growth of implanted tumors, respectively (control vs EP4 KD, p=0.01, and control vs EP4 KO, p&lt;0.0001). The rejection of the EP4 KO PDA cell lines was T cell dependent as it did not happen in hosts depleted of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Upon rechallenge, 80-90% of mice that rejected the primary EP4 KO tumors were able to reject the control, EP4-sufficient tumors in a T cell-dependent manner. While EP4 KO tumors were universally rejected by wild-type (WT) or EP4 global KO (KOgl) hosts, control cell lines formed tumors and grew in both hosts albeit with significantly slower growth in EP4 KOgl hosts (p&lt;0.0001). The TME analysis revealed changes in the T cell presence, subtypes, and functional state in EP4 KO tumors demonstrating more T cell inflamed TME with increased proportions of central memory CD4+ and CD8+ cells (p=0.02 both) along with downregulation of exhaustion markers PD-1 (p=0.02) and CD39 (p=0.009) on CD4+ and CD8+ cells, respectively. Deletion of EP4 on tumor cells changed the systemic anti-tumor immunity by inducing T cell proliferation in lymph nodes (EP4 KO vs control, Ki67+CD8+ p&lt;0.0001 and Ki67+CD4+ p=0.003) and depleting gMDSC population in the spleens of EP4 KO tumor bearing mice (p&lt;0.0001). RNAseq analysis of tumor cells (cultured and in vivo) as well as bulk tumors identified TNFa, IFNa, and IFNg pathways as top upregulated ones in EP4 KO tumors while TGFb and Myc pathways were among the significantly downregulated pathways. The study demonstrates a primary role of tumor cell PGE2-EP4 signaling in creating immunosuppressive TME in PDA suggesting EP4 blockade as a novel approach in treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Citation Format: Nune Markosyan, Charu Arora, Liz Quinones, Il-Kyu Kim, Nikhil Joshi, Noah Cheng, John Tobias, Ben Stanger, Robert Vonderheide. Tumor cell-intrinsic PGE2-EP4 signaling is a major immunosuppressive pathway in pancreatic cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3276.