Abstract 2903: Epigenetic modulation of NK cells to improve tumor trafficking and enhance therapeutic efficacy against osteosarcoma
Authors: Anjier Ariana Rupp , Gordon Nancy , Maegawa Shinji , Gopalakrishnan Vidya , Bournat Juan , Cheng Donghang , Yang Yanwen , Kingsley Charles , Kulp Adam 
Published: June 2023

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor. It metastasizes almost exclusively to the lung, and this constitutes the main cause of death in these patients. Immune therapy has shown limited benefit. We investigated whether epigenetic modulation of allogeneic NK cells by the HDAC inhibitor MS-275 will improve tumor trafficking and enhance therapeutic efficacy against osteosarcoma (OS) lung metastases. Human NK cells were purified and expanded from donor buffy coats using recombinant human IL-2 and genetically engineered K562 feeder cells and treated with MS-275 before injection into mice. RNA seq was performed in untreated and MS-275 pre-treated NK cells to determine differentially expressed genes. We also used ChiPseq to determine the histone post-translational modifications associated with the differentially expressed genes induced by the treatment. Culture media from untreated and treated NK cells was collected for cytokine analysis using the Isolight/Isoplexis system. We used our OS-17 human OS experimental lung metastases mouse model and injected untreated or pre-treated NK cells (0.5uM MS-275) IV labeled with near-infrared DiR dye twice a week. Tumor burden was assessed, and NK cells were tracked by Bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Mice were either euthanized 24 hours after the final NK cell treatment for histologic analysis of the lungs or, in a second experiment, analyzed for survival across treatment groups. Some mice from each group were selected for 3D imaging using the Xerra cryofluorescence tomography (CFT) imaging system, allowing for greater resolution of NK cell distribution as compared to the IVIS imaging system. We identified 547 differentially expressed genes between the untreated and MS-275 treated NK cells. Four immune related genes (L1CAM, IFNG, C3 and CD28) were upregulated in the MS-275 treated NK cells and histone H3 and H4 acetylation was found at the identified immunomodulatory genes. Culture media from MS-275 treated NK cells showed significantly increased MIP-1b, IL-6 and IFN-g. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in lung micro-metastases in the MS-275 pre-treated NK cell group as compared to the untreated control group (199 vs 97 p=0.05). Lastly, Xerra CFT imaging demonstrated greater DiR signal in the lungs of the mice that received MS-275 treated NK cells compared to those that received untreated NK cells, suggesting that MS-275 might lead to greater persistence of NK cells at tumor sites. We conclude that MS-275 has an immunomodulatory effect on NK cells (increase L1CAM, IFNG, C3 and CD28) and increases H3 and H4 acetylation which leads to transcriptional activation of the immune-related genes that contribute to NK cell increased cytolytic function. Pre-treatment of NK cells with MS-275 enhances NK cell therapeutic efficacy and localization and persistence in the lungs.

Citation Format: Ariana Rupp Anjier, Nancy Gordon, Shinji Maegawa, Vidya Gopalakrishnan, Juan Bournat, Donghang Cheng, Yanwen Yang, Charles Kingsley, Adam Kulp. Epigenetic modulation of NK cells to improve tumor trafficking and enhance therapeutic efficacy against osteosarcoma [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 2903.