Abstract 3276: The effects of extracellular ATP signaling on the anticancer activities of macrophages
Authors: Manouchehri Jasmine M. , Marcho Lynn M. , Cherian Mathew A. 
Published: March 2024

Among cancers in women worldwide, breast cancer has the highest incidence and the highest mortality. Patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) have a markedly worse outcome in comparison to patients diagnosed with hormone-dependent and human epidermal growth factor receptor-positive breast cancers due to the aggressive and rapidly progressive nature of the disease and the deficit in specifically targeted therapies available. Therefore, there is a need for new therapeutic approaches. Extracellular ATP has been shown to cause cell death in an autocrine and paracrine manner and is also a known danger signal that causes immune activation. Our published data reveals that at high micromolar concentrations extracellular ATP (eATP) can induce cell death through the eATP-gated ion channels, purinergic P2RX7 and P2RX4 receptors. We also showed that in the context of chemotherapy treatment, eATP modulates TNBC cell death at submicromolar concentrations. A feature of the tumor microenvironment is a pronounced increase in the concentrations of eATP (micromolar) to levels that are closer to the threshold for cytotoxicity than in normal tissues (nanomolar). In addition, we discovered that chemotherapy induces the release of eATP from TNBC cells, further augmenting its concentration. Despite this, eATP is rapidly degraded to adenosine by extracellular ATPases (eATPases). It should be noted that extracellular ATP release and activation of its receptor, P2XR7, are prerequisites for the activation of a complex of proteins known as the NLRP3 inflammasome that is critical for IL-1β and IL-18 secretion and the induction of a highly inflammatory form of programmed cell death known as pyroptosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate if augmenting eATP levels using extracellular ATPase inhibitors will increase the efficacy of chemotherapy against THP-1 and differentiated THP-1 cells to undergo an inflammatory form of cell death known as pyroptosis. We treated THP-1 and differentiated THP-1 cells with increasing concentrations of the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel in the presence of eATPase inhibitors POM-1 and PSB 069 with eATP content and cell viability being assessed. Additionally, we examined NLRP3 inflammasome activation by immunoblot analysis. We analyzed the oligomerization of NLRP3 and ASC, the cleavage of caspase 1 and gasdermin and the secretion of IL-1β and IL-18, all components of pyroptosis. These results reveal that eATP modulates the chemotherapeutic response in the monocytic THP-1 and differentiated THP-1 cells, which could be exploited to augment the anticancer effects of macrophages on TNBC cells. These preclinical experiments could be applied to develop effective therapies that increase the depth and length of responses to chemotherapy and immunotherapy in TNBCs by augmenting pyroptosis of tumor associate macrophages through enhanced eATP.

Citation Format: Jasmine M. Manouchehri, Lynn M. Marcho, Mathew A. Cherian. The effects of extracellular ATP signaling on the anticancer activities of macrophages [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 3276.