Abstract 2659: Therapeutic administration of an engineered sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase improves T cell trafficking to tumors and enhances antitumor response
Authors: Araujo Alessandra , Rodnick-Smith Max , Al-Khaledy Ranya , Georgiou George , Badeaux Mark , Stone Everett 
Published: March 2024

Introduction: Immunotherapy has revolutionized the landscape of cancer treatment; however, to date, only limited aspects of the tumor-immune interaction have been exploited successfully, e.g., relief of immune checkpoints, increase of tumor-associated antigen presentation. Although it is well-known that trafficking and entry of T cells from the circulation into tumors is often impaired, leading to an immune “cold”, checkpoint inhibitor-refractory state, there are no available therapies that address this important aspect of antitumor immunity.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a pleiotropic, bioactive lipid that has been shown to regulate lymphocyte egress from lymph nodes through its interaction with one of its several receptors, S1P1. Clinically, tumor expression levels of the sphingosine-1-phosphate-producing enzyme sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) strongly and negatively correlates with survival of melanoma patients after immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, and pre-clinically correlates with reduced tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). We therefore hypothesize that aberrant S1P signaling in tumors and in their draining lymph nodes (TDLN) causes immune exclusion by impeding lymphocyte egress from the TDLN, ultimately restricting immune cell infiltration of tumors.

Methods: We tested the therapeutic efficacy of an engineered S1P-degrading enzyme, S1P lyase (S1PL), on established (~100mm^3) syngeneic B16, CT26, and MC38 murine tumors. Using flow cytometry, we performed immune profiling of systemic, TDLN, and intratumoral T cell populations, assessing both activation status and expression of the S1P1 receptor.

Results: Treatment of tumor-bearing animals with S1PL depleted systemic S1P, and dramatically increased both trafficking of lymphocytes out of TDLNs and T cell infiltration of tumors relative to control-treated animals. Mice treated with S1PL evinced a higher proportion of S1P1+ circulating and intratumoral T cells relative to control-treated mice, suggesting that the increase in liberation of T cells from the TDLN was effected through the S1P/S1P1 axis. This increased lymphocyte trafficking correlated with strong inhibition of tumor growth when S1PL was administered as a single agent.

Conclusions: Therapeutic administration of S1PL may represent an attractive strategy for modulating lymphocyte trafficking to improve the efficacy of therapies that rely on the adaptive immune system to exert antitumor activity. This approach may be particularly potent in settings wherein tumor-mediated immune exclusion is a dominant method of immune escape.

Citation Format: Alessandra Araujo, Max Rodnick-Smith, Ranya Al-Khaledy, George Georgiou, Mark Badeaux, Everett Stone. Therapeutic administration of an engineered sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase improves T cell trafficking to tumors and enhances antitumor response [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2659.