Salt-inducible kinase 3 protects tumor cells from cytotoxic T-cell attack by promoting TNF-induced NF-κB activation
Creators: name: Sorrentino, Antonio
name: Menevse, Ayse Nur
name: Michels, Tillmann
name: Volpin, Valentina
name: Durst, Franziska Christine
name: Sax, Julian
name: Xydia, Maria
name: Hussein, Abir
name: Stamova, Slava
name: Spoerl, Steffen
name: Heuschneider, Nicole
name: Muehlbauer, Jasmin
name: Jeltsch, Katharina Marlene
name: Rathinasamy, Anchana
name: Werner-Klein, Melanie
name: Breinig, Marco
name: Mikietyn, Damian
name: Kohler, Christian
name: Poschke, Isabel
name: Purr, Sabrina
name: Reidell, Olivia
name: Martins Freire, Catarina
name: Offringa, Rienk
name: Gebhard, Claudia
name: Spang, Rainer
name: Rehli, Michael
name: Boutros, Michael
name: Schmidl, Christian
name: Khandelwal, Nisit
name: Beckhove, Philipp
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: tumor escape, immunotherapy, cytokines, immunomodulation, CD8-positive T-lymphocytes
subject: 004 Informatik
subject: 610 Medizin
subject: Apoptosis
subject: Humans
subject: NF-kappa B/metabolism
subject: Phosphorylation
subject: T-Lymphocytes/metabolism
subject: Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism

description: Background Cancer immunotherapeutic strategies showed unprecedented results in the clinic. However, many patients do not respond to immuno-oncological treatments due to the occurrence of a plethora of immunological obstacles, including tumor intrinsic mechanisms of resistance to cytotoxic T-cell (TC) attack. Thus, a deeper understanding of these mechanisms is needed to develop successful immunotherapies. Methods To identify novel genes that protect tumor cells from effective TC-mediated cytotoxicity, we performed a genetic screening in pancreatic cancer cells challenged with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and antigen-specific TCs. Results The screening revealed 108 potential genes that protected tumor cells from TC attack. Among them, salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3) was one of the strongest hits identified in the screening. Both genetic and pharmacological inhibitions of SIK3 in tumor cells dramatically increased TC-mediated cytotoxicity in several in vitro coculture models, using different sources of tumor and TCs. Consistently, adoptive TC transfer of TILs led to tumor growth inhibition of SIK3-depleted cancer cells in vivo. Mechanistic analysis revealed that SIK3 rendered tumor cells susceptible to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) secreted by tumor-activated TCs. SIK3 promoted nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) nuclear translocation and inhibited caspase-8 and caspase-9 after TNF stimulation. Chromatin accessibility and transcriptome analyses showed that SIK3 knockdown profoundly impaired the expression of prosurvival genes under the TNF–NF-κB axis. TNF stimulation led to SIK3-dependent phosphorylation of the NF-κB upstream regulators inhibitory-κB kinase and NF-kappa-B inhibitor alpha on the one side, and to inhibition of histone deacetylase 4 on the other side, thus sustaining NF-κB activation and nuclear stabilization. A SIK3-dependent gene signature of TNF-mediated NF-κB activation was found in a majority of pancreatic cancers where it correlated with increased cytotoxic TC activity and poor prognosis. Conclusion Our data reveal an abundant molecular mechanism that protects tumor cells from cytotoxic TC attack and demonstrate that pharmacological inhibition of this pathway is feasible.